Tweet , Tweet , Retweet : Conversational Aspects of Retweeting

Twitter—a microblogging service that enables users to post messages (“tweets”) of up to 140 characters—supports a variety of communicative practices; participants use Twitter to converse with individuals, groups, and the public at large, so when conversations emerge, they are often experienced by broader audiences than just the interlocutors. This paper examines the practice of retweeting as a way by which participants can be “in a conversation.” While retweeting has become a convention inside Twitter, participants embrace it for diverse reasons and using varying styles. Our data and analysis reveal the messiness of retweeting by highlighting how issues of authorship, attribution, and communicative fidelity are negotiated in diverse ways. Using a series of case studies and empirical data, this paper maps out different conversational aspects of retweeting.