Assigment #1 - Indentifying 3 Tweets

     Hello all, and welcome to my blog! Seeing as this is my first post, I would like to briefly introduce myself. My name is Grant Cole, and I am a junior at the University of Texas at Dallas. This is my first semester at the university, and I have compiled this blog for my Writing and Research for Emerging Media class.

     For our first assignment, we were asked to create a twitter handle and follow at least 5 verified accounts. We were then asked to identify three tweets from our twitter feeds that we found the most interesting/engaging, etc. I have an extremely strong passion for music of all sorts & sports (mainly basketball). Therefore,  I mostly followed accounts pertaining to those fields of subject matter, along with a few others accounts I also found interesting.

     The first tweet (in this example, I am using a string of tweets) comes from the iconic progressive house producer, Deadmau5. This is a prime example of Deadmau5's contentious personality type. He is not afraid to openly speak his mind on any given topic. Aside from the music he makes, this is part of the reason why I along with millions of others enjoy his tweets so much. You can see the tweets below:

landed home to some interesting news: looks like Disney officially just filed in opposition of my trademark... lawyer up mickey.
— deadmau5 (@deadmau5) September 3, 2014

Disney thinks you might confuse an established electronic musician / performer with a cartoon mouse. That's how stupid they think you are.
— deadmau5 (@deadmau5) September 3, 2014

     Granted, this is not nearly as offensive as some of the tweets Deadmau5 will post on seperate occasions, but it is a very recent example. Deadmau5 is publicly calling out the Disney brand, who is only just now attempting to sue his trademark mouse head logo for copyright infringement that Deadmau5 has been using for years. Tweets like these two that Deadmau5 posted rile up controversy from his millions of followers, and it can be said that any press is good press. I retweed these two tweets to my followers because I found them entertaining and controversial. Thousands of others have already done the same. Tweets like these bring in even more followers, because these new followers are interested in seeing what may happen next. They can also rightfully assume that Deadmau5 will post more controversial and interesting tweets in the future. The tweets also informed the press about the lawsuit, causing hundreds of other accounts to tweet their own opinions regarding the same topic.


     The second tweet I decided to talk about was a tweet from the newly drafted NBA rookie, Joel Embiid. Joel is by no means one of my favorite players, but his tweets are entetaining to me. The tweet can be seen below:

First thing when I get 2k, I put the whole SIXERS squad on 99
— Joel-Hans Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) August 27, 2014

      This tweet displays Joel Embiid's sense of humor, as he is referring to the video game NBA 2k15, and his NBA team, the Philadelphia 76ers.  The 76ers were the second worst team in the NBA last season, and aren't expected to improve very much this year. A rating of "99" is the highest possible rating an NBA player can have in the game. Joel is making a joke about going in and editing his entire team in the game once it comes out, and changing each players rating to a 99 overall. He later goes on to tweet afterwards how he plans to lower all the Cavs players ratings (The Cavaliers are projected to be one of the top teams in the NBA after acquiring LeBron James this summer) and also tweets about creating the celebrity Rihanna in the game, a celbrity he has recently been trying to reach out to over twitter to ask out on a date.

     The reason I chose to talk about this tweet is because it shows how humor can attract attention and thousands of new followers on twitter. Joel Embiid is only a rookie and has yet to play an NBA game, yet he has gained thousands of followers over the summer because of his twitter antics. He already has more followers than many established NBA players. It goes to show that sometimes it matters more what you have to say on twitter as opposed to who is saying it. Obviously Joel is not being serious with these tweets, but twitter is often used as a means of entertainment more than anything else. His tweets have already gained him more new fans than he likely would have gained without tweeting over the off season. Anyone can gain tons of new followers like this quickly if their tweets are humorous enough to garner new attention, retweets & favorites (obviously not as much as a pro athlete, but you get the idea). This is because most people see twitter as a means of entertainment when they're bored more than anything else.

     Lastly, the final tweet I chose to identify was a tweet from the Ultra Music Festival official twitter page. Ultra Music Festival is an annual electronic music festival in Miami, Florida that I have attended in the past. It was one of the coolest experiences of my life and I hope to attend again someday. In years past, Ultra Music Festival has been open to people of all ages who are willing to pay the admission fee. However, Ultra Music Festival recently made the announcement over twitter that it will only be open to guests over the age of 18. Below is the first official announcement made via twitter:

     

Beginning with its 2015 edition, Ultra Music Festival will be an 18+ event. http://t.co/M11OIM7Zwj pic.twitter.com/xGiHNXXTZX
— Ultra Music Festival (@ultra) September 2, 2014

     This tweet shows how often times, news is brought to the public over twitter before anywhere else. This is why I enjoy having a twitter and enjoy following so many famous musicians and such. They will announce news via twitter before they do elsewhere, and before other second hand sources can announce them in their own words.  Of coarse, this tweet also brought a lot of controversy, mostly from followers (and non followers who saw the tweet from a second hand source) under the age of 18. However, like said before, any press is good press (usually) and this move also brought a ton of praise towards Ultra. There have been numerous deaths, accidents, and mishaps in years past at Ultra Music Festival, so this move (and tweet) should be seen to most people as a positive preventative measure for next year. The tweet was brief and to the point, yet it drew a ton of attention. Sometimes, all anyone needs when posting a tweet is a brief sentence. There is a link included in the tweet that tells Ultra's full reasoning behind the move, for anyone curious to know more details. Including the link is a great move when tweeting something as controversial as that, seeing as there are going to be a ton of unanswered questions that Ultra's twitter account simply cannot respond to.

   In conclusion, every tweet posted to twitter has some sort of significance, seeing as anyone and everyone can read it (unless you make your twitter account private, then only you can approve who reads your tweets). Twitter is an awesome way to spread information quickly, get your message heard, and get your name out to the general public.