Authorship on Twitter

Does Authorship exist on Twitter?

An element authorship involves the publishing of ideas under a name.  If we take this ‘definition’ as such then authorship on twitter is far from dead.  On twitter, each user has a personal account and any comment made by an individual can be attributed back to their account name.  It is this name that we ultimately associate the comment or message with and who is thus the author of this idea. 

As well as this, the underlying purpose of tweeting is to publicise an individuals ideas whether it be privately to another person or made public for anyone to view.  The message in a “tweet” is connected to a profile who through publishing their ideas online receives recognition by others for their work and therefore becomes an author themselves. Thus it can be said that of the idea of authorship relies on the assumption that authorship entails capital.  Whether this capital is financial, scientific, personal or a form of social recognition the purpose of the individual (who becomes an author) is to document ideas in order to receive a reward. By publishing an idea online, which is in connection with a profile identity, attention is given to the author of the comment and an attribution is made by all those who read it to the author.  Hence the “tweeter” receives some sort of capital from publishing their ideas on twitter whether the tweeter be a prominent celebrity or a local neighbour.  Both are authors.

Furthermore, the act of re-tweeting although not an "original" idea as such still involves an interpretation of ideas and a reformulation of others ideas from the perspective of another preson.  Because the new tweeter publishes their ideas on line on order to receive some sort of capital they too become an another author.