Twitter has rise an issue where celebrity Imposters. It is a normal case for celebrities to own their twitter account, however, how many of the account is real and manage by the celebrities themselves?
According to Chiaramonte et. al (cited in Dwyer, Hiltz & Passerni 2007) there are millions of people have joined social networking sites, adding profiles that reveal personal information, however the reputations of social networking sites has been diminished by a number of incidents publicized by the news media. This issues also affected the journalist where reporting the information and celebrities account though news, nevertheless, when this comes across false information it cause journalist a big trouble, it is no longer trust worthy. Hence this is not just a journalist problem instead; social networking and the users are responsible on this issue. (Owens 2009)
Source: Google
Author or journalist must always keep the ethic of publish in mind. Authors are ethically obligated to present a true and accurate account of their research process and findings. (Game & West n.d) Nevertheless, it does not mean that journalist are failed to do so, but in the twitter world, even journalist could not identify whether or not the information given or the celebrities account are trustable. Thus this had caused them a big problem in reporting accurate news. The Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development release a report by stated that Twitter, social networks and the Internet in general can also have the detrimental effect of potentially speeding up the spread of rumours or wrong information. (English 2010) Hence, there is a broad discussion among journalists to ensure that professional standards and ethics codes are as applicable to online journalism and social media as have long been in traditional media. (English 2010)
Twitter which is suspended on its credibility, celebrities’ names and profile details had been used to create account and act as the real person in their postings. Users on Twitter evaluate the credibility of a source based solely on information coming directly from that source. (Mims 2010) On the other hand, usually users in Twitter will expect or assume that the celebrities on Twitter are real. (Sciretta 2009) I myself did follow some of the celebrities in Twitter, which is being identified it is their real account after a while of investigation.
Source: Nerw Public
Twitter had come across law suit which caused by the celeb imposters issues. The management team did verify account system. According to Twitter blog (2009), they will suspend, delete, or transfer control of accounts known to be impersonation; moreover they did recommend users to check on the celebrities’ official website in order to ensure the account.
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Reference:
Dwyer, C, Hiltz, SR & Passerini, K 2007, Trust and privacy concern within social networking sites: A comparison of Facebook and MySpace, viewed 1st November 2010,
English, K 2010, English: Is Twitter a threat to journalistic credibility?, Inside The Star, viewed 6th November 2010,
Game, A & West, MA n.d, Ethical Publishing Principles: A Guideline for Authors, Organisation Studies, Aston Business School, viewed 6th November 2010,
Mims, C 2010, Twitter’s Credibility Problem: Research shows that users have little trusts in the information they get from Twitter, Technology Review, viewed 6th November 2010,
Owen, S 2009, How Celebrity Imposters Hurt Twitter’s Credibility, Media Shift,
Sciretta, P 2009, The Growing Problem of Celebrity Imposters On Twitter, Slashfilm, viewed 6th November 2010,
Twitter Blog 2009, Not Playing Ball, viewed 6th November 2010,
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