> and media are convinced Twitter is very important > Nothing is worse than getting criticized by the peanut gallery. Twitter can end careers, cancel televisio

> and media are convinced Twitter is very important > Nothing is worse than getting criticized by the peanut gallery. Twitter can end careers, cancel television shows, bring down elected officials. Twitter is in a way like a street protest that gets covered on the nightly news. As an example you can have 1000 people (or even less) protesting in NYC (a region with what 20 million people?) and the media will entirely blow the significance out of that protest proportion. Not that there are 19,999,000 people who aren't protesting but that there are 1000 that are. > Ask your aunt or brother-in-law about what's trending on Twitter and you'll get a blank stare Exactly true as a general rule. But better ask anyone what they think is important (and this is the sad part) and they will probably mention something they received from a traditional media source who got what they did from twitter or social media (if not placed by a PR firm etc.)