The significance of trust to Twitter and its effect on the
public/personal opinion divide: a case study
The significance of trust to Twitter and its effect on the
public/personal opinion divide: a case study
It has been documented that Twitter can be used as an
essential method of communication between individuals
and authorities during natural disasters such as floods,
fire and earthquakes. However, this paper studied a
real life incident that started in Twitter environment as
user’s personal opinion, which was disseminated in the
form of a tweet by user. In less than 48 hours, this
unpopular personal opinion provoked criticism from the
majority of Twitter users involved in this case study,
which made it a very concerning public issue. The
purpose of this study is to find out to what extent
people trusted Twitter, in this case why the re-tweet
rate increased so rapidly and why one tweet provoked
wide criticism by involved users. Ultimately, the impact
of a high number of followers on the distinction
between private opinion and public offense leads to the
conclusion that trust plays a tremendous role in social
interactions in Twitter.
Aljohani, Naif R.
5d325186-da36-45b7-8514-438f5b3f4079
Basheri, Mohammed
f1669277-9609-4901-8ff9-f0381f390e18
Alfakeeh, Ahmed S.
547c12df-9eb8-47b8-894c-ea97cfcaad14
22 June 2012
Aljohani, Naif R.
5d325186-da36-45b7-8514-438f5b3f4079
Basheri, Mohammed
f1669277-9609-4901-8ff9-f0381f390e18
Alfakeeh, Ahmed S.
547c12df-9eb8-47b8-894c-ea97cfcaad14
Aljohani, Naif R., Basheri, Mohammed and Alfakeeh, Ahmed S.
(2012)
The significance of trust to Twitter and its effect on the
public/personal opinion divide: a case study.
ACM Web Science-WebSci12, Evanston, United States.
21 - 23 Jun 2012.
Record type:
Conference or Workshop Item
(Paper)
Abstract
It has been documented that Twitter can be used as an
essential method of communication between individuals
and authorities during natural disasters such as floods,
fire and earthquakes. However, this paper studied a
real life incident that started in Twitter environment as
user’s personal opinion, which was disseminated in the
form of a tweet by user. In less than 48 hours, this
unpopular personal opinion provoked criticism from the
majority of Twitter users involved in this case study,
which made it a very concerning public issue. The
purpose of this study is to find out to what extent
people trusted Twitter, in this case why the re-tweet
rate increased so rapidly and why one tweet provoked
wide criticism by involved users. Ultimately, the impact
of a high number of followers on the distinction
between private opinion and public offense leads to the
conclusion that trust plays a tremendous role in social
interactions in Twitter.
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More information
Published date: 22 June 2012
Venue - Dates:
ACM Web Science-WebSci12, Evanston, United States, 2012-06-21 - 2012-06-23
Organisations:
Web & Internet Science
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 343193
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/343193
PURE UUID: 7f12562f-d5da-414a-ad6d-546565f66542
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 02 Oct 2012 10:14
Last modified: 11 Dec 2021 00:56
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Contributors
Author:
Naif R. Aljohani
Author:
Mohammed Basheri
Author:
Ahmed S. Alfakeeh
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