Part 1 – Problem
Social media has been broadly defined to refer to the many relatively inexpensive and widely accessible electronic tools that enable anyone to publish and access information. In his book, Twitter: Social Communication in the Twitter Age, sociologist Dhiraj Murthy opines: “Twitter is a conduit for a global stream of consciousness. “.
Twitter was officially launched on 15 July 2006. It is similar in many respects to other social media services as it centers on users posting information and viewing information posted by other users. What distinguishes Twitter from competitors like Facebook is that any Twitter user can view the posts of any other user.
Twitter was originally coined as a “microblogging” service, intended for users to post quickly-consumed content. Hashtags can be created by any Twitter user simply by adding a ‘#’ symbol in front of a word or phrase with no spaces between words. The hashtag allows Twitter users to easily Tweet about and support an event or cause.
The Islamic State has used many of the features of Twitter to recruit fighters and spread its narrative. Twitter has been used as a recruiting tool for the Islamic State. The U.S. Army has a verified Twitter account. The majority of users use Twitter to receive posts from people whom they are interested in as well as Tweet to their friends and engage with other users. Twitter can be accessed using a traditional desktop or laptop computer as well on a variety of mobile devices using Twitter’s proprietary application. Some electronics companies have integrated the Twitter application (as well as other social media services) into their “smart” or internet connected television sets.
Nielson observed a surge in Twitter activity during a TV program’s commercial breaks, but the activity lulls during the show. Television networks and advertisers have attempted to capitalize on these insights, and have begun to integrate social media hashtags into their content. The Islamic State has adopted several of these methods and used them to great effect in their operations.
This is a summary of page 20 – 28, and it still needs work.
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https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/1020053.pdf