The three different journalists, Barry Bateman , Aki Anastasiou and Karyn Maughan used twitter as a journalism tool to inform the general public of the events that took place at the Marikana mines. They all used different methods and not to mention creative methods of tweeting. What I noticed about Barry Bateman’s tweets was that he was a bit subjective in his tweets and he voiced out his opinions and thoughts about the strike of which some people of the public could relate to and he’s tweets kept people talking and had people debating and replying to his tweets. People kept on retweeting his tweets and that resulted in more people being aware of the Marikana strike and shooting.
I loved what Aki Anastasiou did through his tweets he kept the public informed and talking not only through his tweets but through Redi Thlabi’s show and John Robbie on 702 of which people called in others replied to his tweets and to Redi’s Thlabi’s tweets on twitter. Ministers like Nathi Mthethwa also called in on 702 to comment and respond to the listener’s questions and their outcry. He also retweeted John Robbie’s tweets on declaring war against violence in South Africa. This made South African’s more aware of what was happening and more people became alert of Marikana shootings of which people did not know much of. There was later a public outcry on the situation saying that such violence and police brutality should not be tolerated.
I really loved Poloko Tau’s tweets he kept people well informed at all times and had attached articles and attached links to his tweets that he wrote about. He also tweeted about fellow journalist being chased and ducking and diving bullets and he also tweeted about something that really moved me , of which was his source getting shot , for me that was painful but I like the fact that he brought the Lonmin shootings so close to home. The way in which he tweeted made me feel like I was at Marikana already. I like the fact that he tweeted constantly and I was informed of the situation even if I was not close to a TV screen or radio.
These Journalists all had one thing in common they kept the public well informed about the Lonmin shooting , where more than 40 people were killed of which two were police officers. Although the more than 100 Lonmin mine workers were released from prison and the charges were dropped , Lonmin mine workers and mine unions are still having talks behind closed doors about wage increases.
These journalists really took advantage of ICT’s and new technology by using twitter as a tool to tweet and keep the public informed about the issues that happen in and out of South Africa of which more and more journalists should do .Although at times I thought some were biased and subjective but they made us feel as if we were at Marikana.
