Evaluation of Social Media Sources

In my last two posts, I evaluated both general internet sources and scholarly sources on the current Uber controversy. In this post I will consider this debate from a social media standpoint. Both of my sources are from Twitter, which I found by using Storify.

My first source is a tweet made by R. Shawn McBride, in which he refers to an article by The R. Shawn McBride Law Office.

Cortez, Thomas, "Screenshot R. Shawn McBride's tweet" 9/5/2015 via Twitter.

• Credibility: This tweeter definitely seems like a reliable source, especially because R. Shawn includes a link to his own law office.
• Location: R. Shawn McBride's law offices are located in New York and Dallas, but his tweet is referring to the Uber controversy in Connecticut. Although he doesn't live in Connecticut, R. Shawn's thoughts on the matter can still be taken seriously because the Uber debate is similar in most cities.
• Network: McBrides network seems pretty official. His followers and the people that he follows include lawyer, business men, various companies, and just regular (untitled) individuals, which definitely gives his account credibility.
• Content: Yes, the content in his tweet and the link provided can be corroborated by other sources, since many people are posting and publishing writings about the Uber debates.
• Contextual Updates: According to my findings, this user has only tweeted about Uber one other time, pertaining to a ruling made in California about Uber drivers being considered employees, rather than independent contractors, which is another nation-wide debate surrounding Uber drivers.
• Age: This user's account is fairly new, having been made this past October.
• Reliability: Although his account was made fairly recently, and has a very minuscule amount of followers, in comparison to the number users it follows, I still trust McBride, and think that his account is a reliable source of info.

My second source is a a tweet written by Elise Stolte, which can be seen below.

Cortez, Thomas, "Screenshot of Elise Stolte's tweet" 9/5/2015 via Twitter.

• Credibility: I can definitely corroborate with Elis Stolte's identity. She is an urban affairs reporter for the Edmonton Journal, located in Canada.
• Location: Since Elise's job relates to urban affairs, most of her tweets relate to the town in which she resides, Edmonton. Since the Uber debates that are occurring range from a variety of cities and nations, Elise's thoughts are relevant to the Uber controversies. 
• Network: Elise has a surplus of followers, in comparison to the amount of people she follows, which is  good sign of credibility. Some of her followers include individuals who live in Edmonton, in addition to politicians, radio channel producers, and various organizations.
• Content: Yes, the content of this tweet can be proven to be true by other sources, because wherever Uber controversies are taking place, which is in a lot of locations, many people are sharing the up-to-date details about the events that are occurring.
• Contextual Updates: Elise has tweeted several times about Uber, and the many decisions being made in Edmonton regarding the controversial company. This just further proves that the Uber debates are wide-spread and are not being taken lightly.
• Age: Elise's account was created in January 2009, which is a good "age" to have in the realm of Twitter.
• Reliability: Based on all of the analysis of Elise in the post above, I feel that her reliability is essentially indisputable.