I like the Donga Ilbo

But seriously, Tweeter? (My bolding)

When Tweeter’s role caught on, Mark Pfeifle, former national security adviser to President George W. Bush, said that without Tweeter, the Iranian people would not have been able to join hands to fight for freedom and democracy. He added that Tweeter should receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Can social media sites such as Tweeter and Facebook genuinely spearhead social revolution? Amid the widespread introduction of smartphones, the number of users on social networking services has surged, with that of Tweeter topping 150 million and that of Facebook exceeding 500 million. Considering the sheer number of subscribers, such services could change the world. There are skeptics, however. Malcolm Gladwell, a Canadian-born journalist and bestselling author, has provoked debate by saying social media is merely “a disorderly crowd lacking both central authority, leaders and a sense of consolidation” in the latest issue of the magazine The New Yorker.

That Gladwell article is here and I may touch on it, with regard to Dong-a’s article.  I am on Twitter, mostly to follow friends and haven’t really sent any ‘tweets’ myself.  I do know that individual messages are called ‘tweets’ though and that the network is called ‘Twitter’.

The Dong-a usually seems to have more of a weekly format, where articles are less about sex and more about facts and discussions.  I like it.  This article just caught my attention.  Oh, and the “Next year is the year of Darwin’ article they kept a link for on the main page for two years or more disappeared a month ago.

Alright, the article itself is a little interesting:

Tweeter allows contact among people who have little chance to meet each other in the real world and to exchange thoughts and feelings real time. Via Facebook, a member can have hundreds of “friends” with whom he or she has never met. Gladwell, however, says it is very difficult for people to share critical minds over pending issues that hold weight and values big enough to prompt them to bet their money, time, career and life and show a sense of consolidation to tackle them given weak relations in cyberspace.

Korea’s situation seems to be different, however. Yonsei University journalism and mass communication professor Yoon Young-chul said, “Koreans who have a similar propensity tend to gather together.” Unlike people in other countries, likeminded Koreans form communities from the very beginning and share information, he said. When sensitive issues such as a dispute over a person’s educational background flares up, Koreans tend to band together and consolidate through social networking services. A case in point is the netizens’ group “Tablo, We Demand the Truth,” which questioned whether the singer Tablo studied at Stanford University in the U.S. as he claimed. Gladwell might have overlooked Koreans when making his criticism of social media.

This seems a error in scale.  The Iranian revolution – failed- affected directly millions of people. Tablo’s (entirely correct) claims that he studied at stanford… not quite so important.  The Tablo networks feel more like those old Urban Legends, like  ’Clean the internet day‘ or ‘post office charges for email‘.

It was a group of people who – seeing as their claims were false- seemed to be malicious in their attacks claiming that Tablo’s degree was forged.  I might support a group asking Tablo to get a less annoying name, by the way.

Oh, the Korea Herald article (linked above as ‘entirely correct’) spells Twitter correctly.