Twitter

Undoubtedly, the nature of news is changing with the advent and immense popularity of social media. Media is painfully aware it needs to be involved with the new social order to keep audiences engaged. Social media channels like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, provide people with additional channels to not only get news about the world, but to involve their community and immediate sphere of influence. So social media enhances mainstream news by taking it to additional channels, but also fills ...

Do you have a bone to pick with those in power? Are you funny and tech-savvy with too much time on your hands? If so, then you’re in the prime demographic to do some Twitterjacking, a passive form of identity theft on Twitter. All you need to do is pick a politician or a person in power, then sign up for a Twitter account in their name and begin to tweet away in a defamatory, but hilarious, way. It’s happening ...

It seems some people are not aware that Twitter flicked the switch yesterday and moved over fully to OAuth. “Tweetdeck isn't working!”, “Hootsuite #FAIL!”, “My UberTwitter is down. OMG how will I survive?” are the cries rippling through the Twitterverse. Fear not, fellow twaddicts, because help is at hand. Twitter recently announced the changeover in their blog. What is Oauth? Twitter explains: “In order for Twitter applications to access your account, developers have been able to choose one of two authentication ...

These days Twitter is littered with fake accounts. Many of these accounts are simply mundane but some are really witty, with thousands of devoted followers. Here's a selection of 12 of our favourites: @Jesus_M_Christ Bio: You know who I am. If not, google me bitches. @FakeSarahPalin Bio: Snowmobilin' right to the Naval Observatory @DarthVader Bio: Evil Orphan Annie™ @BPGlobalPr Bio: This page exists to get BP's message and mission statement out into the twitterers! @DrunkHulk Bio: DRUNK HULK DRINK SO YOU NO HAS TO! WRITE ...

Nic Dawes is the editor of the Mail & Guardian, one of South Africa's most respected newspapers. Memeburn sat down with him to discuss whether tweets are on-the-record, the effect that Twitter is having on the reporting of news, and whether or not he thinks it's a good thing. MB: Can the news be reported in 140 Characters? ND: Yes. Of course. It has been since the days of the telegraph. But ultimately the short bursts need to be supplemented with ...

Geeks have truly inherited the internet. Okay, let's face it, they invented the internet -- which means they're worth following on Twitter. While many of the people on this list weren't born into geekdom, others have been geek legend for generations. This isn't a Top 10, it's more like a Random 10, suggesting some cool people to follow that might not be on your twitter radar. Neil Patrick Harris @actuallynph He plays Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother, successfully ...

Twitter is an acquired taste. If Facebook is checkers, then Twitter is chess. It's the VIP room to MySpace's open house party, the platform with almost direct access to celebrity's biggest and brightest entertainers, to politicians, brands and thought leaders, it's undoubtedly the juggernaut driving today's social media. And I do mean, literally, "today's". There's probably another platform on the rise in some kids dorm room as I type this --TwitMySquareFace -- or something of the ilk. But, right now, ...

I'm a big fan of Bernardo Huberman, director of HP Labs' Social Computing Lab, and the work of his team. HP has been applying rigorous scientific practices to the study of social media and it has a gold mine of research open to the public. It is worth emphasising that HP's studies are designed to the highest scientific standards; they are not isolated case studies or the musings of a "social media expert". They typically involve the study of very large ...

In an age of juggernaut smartphones such as Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android-powered devices, Research In Motion’s (RIM) relatively fledgling foray into the mainstream consumer market sees them still battling for consumer mindshare as a general purpose smartphone maker. With that said, RIM's long-time darling smartphone of the business world, the Blackberry, has come a long way since its conservative suit-and-tie beginnings. With consumer-oriented advertising, user interface improvements, touch screen - and budget devices, RIM are clearly making a push for the ...

South African sports personalities have made their mark all over the world, but one of the downsides of being a global sports star is that you are away from your family and fans for long periods of time. What better way than staying in touch with them than embracing Twitter, the micro-blogging platform which has taken the world by storm. Here is a list of some of the most popular South African sports stars on Twitter at the time of writing ...