26. Trends and fads

• Provide definitions of the words “trend” and “fad”

• How do trends appear?

• Who are ‘connectors’, ‘mavens’, and ‘salesmen’ according to M. Gladwell?

How do mass media contribute to the development of new trends? Provide examples.

1. Trend – is a fashion , current style, vogue. It can be general change in social behavior, an idea. Fad - an intense and widely shared enthusiasm for something, especially one that is short-lived; a craze.

2. Malcolm Gladwell in his book “the tipping point” explores the movement when something becomes common and how products, ideas, messages and forms of behavior spread. He looks at the reasons why trends are similar in the way the develop to outbreaks of desaese, or medical epidemics. Epidemics, like trends, start in a very small way, may be from a single person with a virus, then spread very quickly until it takes over the population and appear to be everywhere. Eventually, they will slow down gradually or die out suddenly.

3. Connectors are people in a community who have wide social circles. They know a lot of people and like to introduce people to each other. The people they know also tend to come from a variety of social, cultural, professional and economic circles.

Mavens are people with a lot of knowledge to others. Mavens collect and gather onformation so are the first to pick up on new trends.

Salesmen are people wit charisma and powerful nefotioation skills. They have a “soft” influence over people rather than actual power. This means they are influential because people wanr to imitate them.

Mass media have a big role in contribution new trends, because they always need in advert. Everybody knows, that trend are sold very well. And wellsold things need in additional advert. If there are trends, there will be adver in mass media.

For example: such glossy magazines, as Vogue, ELLE, Tatler. They always contributed new trends, because they have a profit from it.

27. Twitter

* What is Twitter?

Twitter is social networking service and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 symbols, known as "tweets". Unregistered users can read the tweets, while registered users can post tweets through the website interface, SMS, or a range of apps for mobile devices.

It was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey. The service rapidly gained worldwide popularity.

• How does it differ from other social networks?

Twitter differs from other social networks because its posts could be just under 140 symbols. Twitter is worldwide social network. A lot of celebrities, politics, and journalists around the world use twitter. Twitter doesn’t have analog, as I know. Twitter is unique in sui generis. It’s like a microblog or something like that. This social service is very convenient to people who prefer brevity and efficiency.

• How is twitter used by journalists?

Journalists prefer efficiency and twitter is a good way to post news and check it. Twitter applications are available for android and apple devises. It means that twi is mobile and journalists and other people can use it everywhere. Also by instrumentality of twitter journalists and ordinary people can post photos and videos which make a message contains information about some event more interesting, more bright and colorful. I think twitter fits to every journalist who wants to be in centre of important and interesting.

Twitter is great for PR, advertising and propaganda. If we talk about journalists, they can PR themselves and issue or TV programme or radio wave which they work for and etc. Examples of Russian journalists in twitter: Tina Kandelaki, Ksenia Sobchak, Vladimir Soloviev.