Why Twitter surpasses Facebook in hot news

People imagine that Twitter and Facebook are very similar, but the reactions to the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson suggest that not

If you checked your Facebook wall last week and a half," he writes, "you almost certainly saw a friend participate in the challenge of the ice bucket, positive viral sensation designed to increase awareness and raise dollars for research ALS. 

Meanwhile, if you spent more time on Twitter, had a higher probability of receiving updates on Ferguson, Missouri, where the police (and now the National Guard) attempt to bring order to a city that seeks justice for Michael Brown, the boy 18 shot dead by police on August 9. "

One of the most important functions of social media such as Facebook and Twitter is the way it "relates" (ie forwards) friends or followers to articles published elsewhere. 

McDermott cites numbers SimpleReach - analysis firm social media that works with hundreds of publishers, including Forbes, Gawker, New York Times and Vice - showing that "stories about Ferguson and / or Michael Brown published since August 7 references generated less on Facebook on average (256) than subjects on the challenge of the ice bucket (2106) ". 

This is interesting in many ways. First, it undermines the general assumption commentators, particularly since the start of the Arab Spring, that whole "social media" can be crammed into a single category. The reality is that Twitter and Facebook are radically different networks. 

More importantly, the discrepancies between how the two services have led Brown's death illustrate the ways in which social networks can emphasize or minimize reports or events. 

The idea that these technologies provide a tabula rasa on which events are addressed is nonsense. 

And there's no smoking gun here, just a smoldering algorithm.

 What you see on Twitter is determined by who you follow.

 In comparison, what you see on your Facebook wall is "cured" by the algorithms of the company, trying to guess what will interest you (and perhaps induce you to buy something).

 Having a frank discussion about racism that distorts the USA might not fit in this program.

 That's why Facebook is for memes ice bucket and Twitter is for what is really happening.