Social Media

The daily Twitter referendum or lottery

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Twitter is truly an odd, albeit interesting, beast when it comes to “following” and “followers” for those of us anyway whose numbers aren’t up in the gazillions on either side of the equation and we have at least a general sense of  plus or minus changes.
Unlike Facebook or LinkedIn, where one’s number of “friends” and “connections” seem more stable (sure you lose the odd one but generally gain them at least incrementally), Twitter is more akin, at least in my experience, to a daily (if not hourly) referendum or maybe lottery. I’m really not sure which.

While I like social media analytics and trying to figure out how algorithms are applied to determine the feed of tweets in my stream, and find engagement metrics as truly fascinating as the next guy who went through high school years ago loathing mathematics and majoring in history in university, I really find it hard to see direct correlations in terms of the numbers sometimes. Does losing a “follower” on Twitter mean you’ve offended someone? Or even worse bored them? Or maybe they just wanted to round-off their numbers or make room to follow someone else?

Anyway. Below are some of the folks we follow on Twitter. For today anyway. My very unscientific analysis of how I wound up following these folks, based on something like a cursory glance at the list, goes like this. Some are personal friends or former colleagues I’ve known for years. Some are related to places where I have previously worked and lived. A disproportionate number are Catholic, but a good number are simply religion writers in general or journalists.  Add in some union activists. Chris Rutkowski, research co-ordinator for UFOlogy Research of Manitoba (URM) by night, communications officer in media relations with the communications marketing office of the University of Manitoba by day, is my go-to UFO guy, while Mark Boslough, an Albuquerque, New Mexico physicist, is a member of the technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories and an adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico. He also a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and member of the group New Mexicans for Science and Reason. Asteroid 73520 Boslough (2003 MB1) is named after him.

Follow me, tweet me and retweet me. Go ahead. Make me viral. Make my day.
You can also follow me on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/jwbarker22

Following

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Catholic,writer,reader,traveler. Blog: New book: ADVENTURES IN ASSISI:

Author of (award-winning) SHELF MONKEY [], (award-nominated) HUSK [], and an assortment of quality sweets.

Monitoring the press, tracking the evolving media business & encouraging excellence in journalism since 1961.

News, research and commentary about Canadian journalism. Tweets by .

Rome bureau chief for Catholic News Service

The Tablet is a weekly Catholic journal which has been reporting on events of significance for more than 170 years.

Mathematician. IT company vice-president. Bible-Science blogger. Sportsman, Orienteer, Camper. Husband, father of 7.

Catholic clergy, TV host, author, journalist, retreat preacher, African content producer for EWTN and President, Gracia Vobis Ministries,…

@JorgeBarrera follows you

Journalist/Periodista, dabbler, occasional absinthe sipper, follower of threads. 6132942011 Email: jbarrera (at) aptn.ca; fax: 6135671834

@RevFICO follows you

Catholic Priest, Gospel Artist and Follower of Jesus Christ, Son of God, Co-Heir of God’s Kingdom and son of our Blessed Mother Mary.

@herbalizer306 follows you

Admin for the private FB group Thompson Confidential. Original admin of Thompson Talk. What a shitty list of accolades

@greta202 follows you

Someday maybe I will write the story of my life. Maybe.

Reporter with The Canadian Press. President of the Manitoba legislature press gallery. Music geek. Distance runner. Hacks-and-Flacks street…

Physicist and skeptic. Tweets about science, asteroids, and climate change. Annoys deniers.

@ninaburleigh follows you

Journalist , bestselling author. Anywhere on the Med. And Washington, D.C.

@JohnBaert follows you

MGEU Special Projects Officer. Views expressed are mine. Jets, Bears, Blue Jays, 76ers, Chelsea.

@anishinaboy follows you

Ojibway factotum. Associate Producer at . contributor. Tweets about bannock. Often.

Prince Edward County’s Independent News Source

Loving life one day at a time. Contrib Ed & student . Reviewer .

National Retail Writer for The Associated Press. Foodie & theater lover. Having fun with standup comedy. Manhattan. Email me story pitches…

UFO guy, media guy, writer

national religion writer since 2001. b. Salem, Mass. rzoll@ap.org

National religion reporter at The New York Times. Living in New York; missing New England.

Religion News Service reporters, columnists and bloggers cover news & views where faith, spirituality and nonbelief meet society, culture, politi…

@spulliam follows you

On vacation! Soon: religion reporter. Amateur violist, cook, board gamer. spulliam@gmail.com

Religion Newswriters Association provides networking, tools and training for reporters covering religion. We envision fair and informed religion…

GetReligion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business…

Since 1999, we’ve been connecting audiences with Christian movies and filmmakers. Now over 4000 titles that will impact lives via DVD, Rental, VOD…

@andkilde follows you

photographer, malcontent, new dad, old soul

Editor of the Catholic Herald

Associate editor at The Spectator specialising in religion and classical music. Once described as ‘A blood-crazed ferret’ by the Church Times

Bob Jones U, then Oxford and an Anglican priest, now Catholic priest, blogger, broadcaster, Author of Romance of Religion and fifteen…

Catholic Priest, Blogger, Columnist –

Anchor, The World Over Live on EWTN Thurs.8PM ET., EWTNews Director, New York Times Best Selling author, journalist, producer, husband, dad.…

USA edition of L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, now printed by Our Sunday Visitor. Follow for latest Vatican…

I am a Catholic priest, author, and creator and host of the award-winning documentary series CATHOLICISM

Sharing our Catholic Faith online & in print …. Looking at news & trends of today through Catholic eyes.

Vatican media: CTV, Osservatore Romano, Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Vatican Radio, Press Office, Vatican website, V.I.S.

Catholic News Service is a leader in religious news. Our mission is to report fully, fairly and freely on the involvement of the church in the world today.

Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation is a charitable organization devoted to spreading the light of Christ through media.

New York Times National Religion Correspondent. Covering the reverent and irreverent since 1993.

Covering all things Catholic, from Church doctrine to personal faith. Featuring expert Vatican coverage by and edited by …

Vatican expert, journalist, author and pug lover. Associate editor at Boston Globe and also at Crux, covering all things Catholic.

@PaulAndersen6 follows you

Producer for Shaw TV in Thompson, Flin Flon & The Pas. I only have two talents in Life: Mini Putt and Bubble Hockey. Views are my own.

Shaw TV Thompson brings your local community content to you. We represent your local community programming in Northern Manitoba

Videographer & anchor for CTV Kitchener.

News, digital tools and tips for journalists and publishers from . Contact or . Tel: +44 (0)1273 384290

50 years and counting as Thompson’s source for local news.

Government and news at Twitter Canada.

Com. Dir., Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto. Follow for official feed. I’m that church media guy, smiling most of the time. Tweets are my own.

@dancewithsun7 follows you

Mediator, conciliator, cedar, bamboo and silver flute player. Peacemaker and camera maven.

@flanaganryan follows you

News dude. Sports fan. Pop culture noun. I’m a web writer at .

@tsedmonds follows you

Vice-president, Canada, The Newspaper Guild-CWA, Writer, multi-media journalist, Formerly with The Canadian Press

And (did I happen to mention?) you can also follow me on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/jwbarker22
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