Twitter has easily become one of the most prevalent social media sites in recent memory thanks to its vast amount of uses whether that be for news regarding politics, sports, news, etc. Twitter was officially founded back in March of 2006 by, Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, Noah Glass, and Evan Williams in an effort to essentially combat Apple at that time. Originally Twitter was not the option they were going for, it was actually a now failed startup known as Odeo. Odeo unfortunately did not work out due to Dorsey, Stone, Glass, and Williams feeling that it was not strong enough to combat iTunes due to the new addition of podcasts to the service back in 2005. Dorsey believed that the next best step would be to create a new type of platform or service in which people could share status updates with their friends and families. According to britannica, "Glass proposed the name Twttr. Dorsey sent the first tweet (“just setting up my twttr”) on March 21, 2006, and the completed version of Twitter debuted in July 2006. Seeing a future for the product, in October 2006 Williams, Stone, and Dorsey bought out Odeo and started Obvious Corp. to further develop it. Interest in the platform sharply increased after it was presented at the South by Southwest music and technology conference in Austin, Texas, in March 2007. The following month Twitter, Inc., was created as a corporate entity, thanks to an infusion of venture capital, and Dorsey became Twitter’s first chief executive officer (CEO). In 2008 Williams ousted Dorsey as CEO, and two years later Williams was replaced as CEO by chief operating officer Dick Costolo."
Twitter has had to evolve over time as most social media platforms have due to the ever changing world we currently live in. Many different celebrities, socialites, even political figures have a strong presence/following on the platform. Twitter has changed the way a lot of everyday people consume news along with what is deemed important enough to make the news. Not only has it changed the way that everyday people view news, but it also changed the way that journalists along with people in media are breaking news. Account manager Corey Smock stated that, "the 24 hours news cycle may provide a unique value to journalists. Crowd-sourcing has become a technique many are using to compile details on a story. Twitter provides real time information, reactions, and public opinion during breaking stories. Some studies suggest that today, journalists use Twitter for up to 80% of their news-gathering techniques." This just goes to show how we have to continuously adapt in the world to stay in the loop and are able to compete with the competition. This also brings up the danger of anyone being able to "break news" due to how open the platform is which allows misinformation to spread like a wildfire.
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