The Modern Language Association has debated and published “How to Cite a Tweet.” The moment I read their example, the first thought I had was “in 50 years will someone have a clue what ‘Tweet’ means?” I giggled a bit at the citation example:
Athar, Sohaib (ReallyVirtual). “Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event).” 1 May 2011, 3:58 p.m. Tweet.
I read about this in the American Historical Associations blog which gave me the link to the Modern Language Association’s site. Read the AHA post to see that many questions have arisen about the correctness of this citation. Good questions are being asked and references are given to other articles. The main questions relate to the provenance of the actual news in this example.
© 2012 – 2014, Paula Stuart-Warren. All rights reserved.
You might also be interested in the same debate by the editors of the Chicago Manual of Style. See Carol Fisher Saller, “Citing a Tweet (It’s Not Just for Twits),” The Subversive Copy Editor blog, posted 23 March 2012 (http://www.subversivecopyeditor.com/blog/2012/03/citing-a-tweet-its-not-just-for-twits.html : accessed 24 March 2012).