How Twitter lets politicians route around the media

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The rise of social media has had a number of disruptive effects on the traditional media industry, but one of the most powerful aspects of this “democratization of distribution” is how it allows the sources of news — everyone from celebrities to eye-witnesses at important events — to publish their thoughts and reach a large audience directly, without any help from the mainstream media. Twitter provides politicians with ways of routing around the traditional media channels and getting their message out directly — just as it allowed dissidents in Egypt and elsewhere in the Arab world to express themselves and be heard far and wide. The directness of the medium is transformative.


How Twitter lets politicians route around the media