After 10 years of documenting the world in 140 characters, Twitter now has more than 300 million active users. This might be far fewer than Facebook’s 1.5 billion, but Twitter arguably has a disproportionate influence on the world, partly because it attracts a significant number of politicians, journalists, and celebrities. Our expert panel explain how their field has been changed by the little blue bird.
Newsrooms have long been dominated by the wires. Many journalists sit behind monitors, their eyes flicking towards the latest flashes in the corners of their screens. Twitter changed that, at least a bit. The flow of information around the world is no longer just controlled by the Associated Press or Reuters – it’s being tweeted, too. Twitter’s more than 300m users and every time a story breaks someone is there to post it, where it’s shared almost instantly.