[LINK] COuld Twitter have prevented the Iraq War?!

[grove at zeta.org.au]

http://news.slashdot.org/story/13/03/20/1854249/could-twitter-have-stopped-the-medias-rush-to-war-in-iraq-ten-years-ago

My belief, after being on Twitter since 2010 now (since my first iPad) is Yes!

Twitter has made it possible to communicate to people very rapidly, those 
news items and media people (journalists, experts etc) who get little 
coverage in the Mainstream Media cycle a rapid upswing of interest.  It keeps 
news articles alive, that might otherwise get buried deep in the 24 hour cycle,
and maintains interest at the same time spreading the message a little bit
further each time.  When significant hashtags are created, they get a 
consistent following and often even a handful of tweets from a respected
identity can often have net.effects far greater than anticipated.

Twitter also keeps the postings focused, in such a way that noise levels 
in 140 characters are actually quite low and effective retweeting or 
the subsequent passing on of information eventually makes it to sources
who can be authoritive on various matters.

One recent example of this is the knowledge of the case related to Tony Abbott
by Barbara Ramjan, who took out a suit after some comments 
by Andrew Bolt, Michael Kroger and his familiars. 
The case did make the news, quietly 
but has since bubbled down into the dank depths of non-interest.  But it has 
always been in the Public Interest to know that this case was going ahead
as Abbott has always denied the event ever took place.  But that is another 
story.  The point is, Twitter has been useful to maintain some kind of 
presence in the news cycle that seems to help keep some stories afloat
long enough to ensure they eventually get a proper airing.

So, back to the War - had Twitter been a part of the dialogue, I am certain
that certain commentators, military or other experts in the field would 
have so roundly condemned prior the 2003 invasion that in all likelyhood it 
would never have gone ahead.  In fact I think that had we had access to
Twitter during that time in the Howard government, the way twitter works
outside the conventions of Mainstream Media would mean eventually they 
would have had to pay attention.   There were so many blog postings 
and general information against the strategy at the time, but drowned out 
by the ideological right and their media minders, it would 
have ultimately come undone under its own reporting.

I may be naive, not knowing much about Tor the other day when I looked 
at that silkroad URL, but I have become quite interested in Twitter and 
having spent a considerable amount of time doing my own trivial campaigning 
and so on, can see the net.effect growing and watch with great interest
breaking stories that emerge on there days or even weeks before their time.
I guess as someone who generally dislikes social media, I have adopted twitter
as it seems to be a great democratic leveller of information.....


rachel

-- 
Rachel Polanskis                 Kingswood, Greater Western Sydney, Australia
grove at zeta.org.au                http://www.zeta.org.au/~grove/grove.html
 	The more an answer costs, the more respect it carries.