ARIN2610 - The status of an author on Twitter

On Twitter, the status of the author is contributed to by numerous elements. These include the username which provides ownership of the 'tweets' (text). There is also the 'About Me' that Twitter users can enable on their homepages, for browsers and followers to read and understand who the author is. Other Twitter users follow a 'persona' that the author has created, i.e. their favourite celebrity or a fictitious character from a book/movie. However, fictitious characters enacted by someone creates a problem. Who claims ownership of the ideas? The fictitious character or the anonymous author pretending to be that fictitous character? It allows the 'author' to pretend to be another person, this further creates the problem of a 'fake identity' which a user can use to post mean (or suggestive/bullying etc) tweets and not really have to take responsibility for their actions because they have done so behind a 'mask'. Twitter has become an online medium for authors (an online author, an author of a book, a celebrity, a 'famous' blogger, friends and even a common person etc) to connect with their readers/fans/friends/relatives/students (etc), freely, with easy access and on a personal level. This is similar to Chesher's idea of "interpersonal communication...a public alternative to email" (pg7). Although it is hard to pinpoint someone's identity (Twitter is often the subject of fake celebrity accounts/anonymous users/pseudonyms/fake characters) the content/tweets are still being authored and re-tweeted - the status of the author on twitter is similar to a blogger's authorship, and somewhere down the line similar to someone who authors a book. However, on Twitter, the author has taken on an 'identity' - real/anonymous/fictitious/celeb.