Individual Blog Post #2

Word Count: 257

Recently in the news, the swine flu outbreak has been on every single news channel. The flu is spawning debate about how people get information during health emergencies. During a time, where news sources are becoming less centralized, people are turning to Twitter to find out information. However, the micro-blogging site has created unnecessary hype and misinformation about the swine flu. Twitter is propagating fear amongst people as opposed to seeking actual solutions or key information.

I believe that people who are using Twitter to find out news is in the wrong place. Twitter is not CNN or MSNBC, it is a blogging community. People who are seeking health information should go to official sources. The swine flu epidemic is very serious and by reading false information with unreliable sources causes hysteria in people. The best advice I would have is to not use Twitter. President Obama stepped in to try and calm America down, he simply stated that the outbreak is "cause for concern and requires a heightened state of alert" but is not a cause of alarm at this moment. The swine flu is defiantly something to take seriously and be aware of.

Twitter has been gaining a lot of media attention. It's popularity has risen to the top in recent months. However, it also has gotten criticized and put down in the media. The swine flu epidemic could have Twitter headed in the wrong direction. It will be interesting to see if Twitter tries to change their image to appeal more to media standards.