It's a question that I had never considered asking, but it's true that every new format has required a citation guide from the MLA, even media that would normally be deemed disposable. The format is fairly simple; the methods of citing Internet pages seemed to change at random so hopefully they can keep tweets straight this time around.
The article made me think about what kind of academic papers would require tweets. What immediately came to mind were papers on social justice and activism, citing live-tweet sessions of controversial events to map out the progression of an issue at hand. Tweets can also strip away the neutrality that most papers enforce by revealing the writer's true emotions. One angry tweet from a Senator could do more damage in a review of a policy than three dull reports full of data.
I don't expect Twitter to replace e-mail, Facebook or blogs as a primary source of scholarly quotes online, but I like that they're planning ahead just in case. It might also force users to consider what handle they're using lest "BeerBonger29" end up being quoted in their dissertation.
APA has covered this territory, too. Folks like me are actually citing this stuff in our work. :)
ReplyDeleteI recommend the APA blog: http://blog.apastyle.org/
They cover all of these topics and more, like should links be live in a citation: http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2015/04/should-links-be-live-in-apa-style.html
Very interesting article, thank you for sharing, Doug! I rarely use MLA compared to APA. Thanks Dr. V for sharing the APA blog. However, it is very interesting to discuss on how to cite tweet in your academic paper. As a communication student, there are a number of previous studies that use content analysis to analyze tweets and other social media content. I agree that MLA, APA, and other referencing systems should come up with simple format to keep up with the changes. From your article, I like the MLA format for tweet, though. It is very simple, although similar with the article, I was also surprised that they don't require a URL at the end. Comparing your article and the link Dr. V gave, I guess both MLA and APA are doing their best to include social media for academic citation.
ReplyDeleteThis post reminds me when I was completing my Bachelor's in Education and we were discussing acceptable resources that can be cited in papers. All of my professors warned us against citing from Wikipedia. They felt, at the time, it was not comparable to other resources and could not be cited in our papers as such. Now that there have been some studies comparing Wikipedia to encyclopedias, there is a shift in what is now acceptable.
ReplyDeleteI do not know if tweets are authentic resources that can be cited in papers. I understand that people are citing tweets but I am not sure if I am on board with this yet. Does anyone else feel hesitant?
Re: citing tweets, it's all about context! I wouldn't cite them as an authoritative academic source. They're not in the realm of a peer-reviewed journal article (not in quality, not in scope, etc.). However, they may be cited as evidence or data points. As such, they are authentic resources. If you want to discuss a tweet in your paper, would you rather cite the tweet itself? Or would you want to rely on another academic paper in which the tweet is mentioned?
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing you weren't thinking in those terms -- you kind of have to be an academic whose research incorporates tweets as a data source/evidence to have headed into this territory. Only a small percentage of academic writers will ever need to be able to cite tweets.