A landscape defines as an area where all visible features of an area of countryside,urban or land are often considered for their aesthetic appeal (Google). Our idea of a landscape has evolved it has become aesthetically visual on many levels. Not only from visual imagery but a landscape of visual storytelling, an extension of our physical reality that extends virtually and is visualized and distributed tenfold. Twitter has demonstrated this. According to Leetaru, Wang, Cao, Padmanabhan & Shook the Mapping of the global Twitter heartbeat, Twitter, has grown to count nearly 3 % of the entire global population among its active users who have sent more than 170 billion 140 character messages ( Leetaru, Wang,Cao,Padmanabhan,Shook). Amazing statistics that confirm how our Communication Culture has evolved into visual storytelling: brief words with images that spread at the velocity of our current World’s heartbeat.
The textual geography of Twitter, its growth and impact has been significant it will be interesting to track which regions have the most influence on our global landscape overtime. Twitter’s basis of communication is around the broadcast communicative model which means users publish a public message to be read by all users of this service. These posts then can be publically communicated and referenced directly to other usernames and can be retweeted by other users. This connective extension between users and information is a fascinating model that demonstrates how little yet how interconnected we are. How our World’s communication is like a Visual Art Museum where we find trends of Culture, Politics, Data,Society et al that contributes to our World’s heartbeat.
Mapping the global heartbeat:The geography of Twitter by Kalev H.Leetaru,Shaowen Wang, Guofeng Cao, Anand Padmanabhan,Eric Shook.
First Monday, Volume 18, Number 5 – 6 May 2013