Evaluation of Social Media Sources

Evaluation of Social Media Sources 

The ongoing controversy surrounding the construction of a telescope atop Hawaii's Mauna Kea has not only sparked articles in scholarly sources but also on many social media sites as well. The following are social media posts regarding the extreme debate between native Hawaiians and many astronomers regarding the building of the next largest telescope, TMT.

Kent, Carrie Belle. "Screenshot Twitter Post" 9/5/15 via Twitter

• The person who posted the above Twitter picture is named Rucha Chitnis, a writer and nonprofit consultant. She previously worked at Women's Earth Alliance, an organization focused on helping women realize and reach their full potential. Because of her job description and past work experience she comes across as a reliable and credible source 
• Based on this specific post and the other posts she made around the same time as the one above, it is hard to tell what her proximity to Hawaii was at the time. Her twitter biography mentions India and Mother Earth but further than that there is no indication of where she was when she posted the above picture. 
• Many of the people who Rucha Chitnis follows and are other women activists as well as environmentalist reporters. Although her follower constituent isn't comprised of quite as big networking names I still think that she is someone who is passionate about making the world a better place but perhaps she hasn't gained quite enough of a networking opportunity yet. 
• The content of the tweet shows a number of young children holding signs with writing that goes against the idea of building the largest telescope atop Mauna Kea. I scrolled through some other social media accounts and saw a number of other pictures similar to this so I believe it is fairly corroborated by others on various social media sites throughout the world. 
• Other than this picture, Rucha Chitnis hasn't posted anything else about the Mauna Kea controversy although she has posted tweets regarding other controversial topics in this day in age such as the legalization of gay marriage and advancements for colored youth. 
• Rucha Chitnis joined twitter in 2009 and has been posting ever since. Because of this she must have quite a bit of knowledge in the Twitter field and has become more knowledgeable about how to get her point across. 
• I believe that because of the context of the majority of her tweets being about controversial issues she is a credible source. Although she didn't take the picture she posted herself I think she understands what is going on in the Mauna Kea debate and felt it appropriate to post this picture in support of the native Hawaiian's. 

Kent, Carrie Belle. "Screenshot Storify Post" 9/5/15 via Storify

• This post was originally made my the Honolulu Civil Beat, an investigative news site focused on making Hawaii an all around better place. 
• This company is based out of Honolulu, Hawaii and so it probably has the most up to date information regarding the telescope controversy because it, and all of its reporters, are in the midst of all the chaos. Because this is the main investigative news site in Hawaii it must be a credible source because it is promoted by the people of Hawaii. 
• Although I found this post on Storify I went to twitter to locate the main following group that The Honolulu Civil Beat has. The majority of the21,600 followers of the account are people who live in Hawaii or are interested in what's going on in Hawaii which indicates that it is a truthful and credible source of information. 
• While this specific post is concise but to the point about the controversy between astronomers and the native Hawaiians it pertains specifically to the subject and is informative of the same main points as other articles I have found are so the content is good. 
• The account doesn't always specifically post regarding the telescope debate in Hawaii but they do post about the controversial and interesting issues going on in Hawaii which indicates the passion behind the reporting. There have been a few other posts regarding the debate including pictures of protesters and other short comments regarding the logistics of the two sides of the debate. 
• The Civil Beat's Twitter account has been around since 2010 and the company's Storify has been available for five years. 
• Due to the fact that the account has so many followers as well as has been acclaimed for the truthful information regarding the latest news in Hawaii it seems incredibly reliable. The account's reporting has been very informative and makes it seem even more credible and reliable.