Because, I don't talk about Twitter enough...
What is twitter, watch this video.
Since I found out that WCCO had a twitter, I have been following them. Yes, all 'tweets' give a link to the website, but it alerts you to stories that have just or recently been published allowing one to keep up on all the latest WCCO stories. Along with that, Jason DeRusha has a twitter account http://twitter.com/DeRushaJ and he often asks question about stories he is doing. Here are a couple of his 'tweets' from this week:
Anyone know how much yard signs actually cost campaigns? I'm doing a Good Question on political yard signs tonight. I'm on a CBS conference call about our blogs. Anyone have any features they'd like added? I want video comments a la seesmic Today's Good Question: Why do people text instead of call? E-mail me a video, or DM me if you want to answer on camera.
While his stories are not about the hard news pieces, he is reaching out to his followers for help or advice. In my opinion it helps work as another form of tip line since people can instantly say something and it can be picked up on by a news professional. The article.
http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2008/01/18/why-journalists-should-use-twitter/, discusses how citizen journalist can use twitter too. Users were polling voters after the Iowa caucuses to see who they voted for and then twittered out the results, or had others twitter directly to one source who aggregated all the results. For citizen journalists, twitter can also act as another source to inform others that they have a blog and can quickly send out links of their stories drawing traffic back to their site and eventually gaining a following.
2 comments:
Twitter is an interesting phenomena that I have not yet delved into very deeply. I appears that it is a very effective tool for communicating up to the minute info on everything from the mundane to the critical. Although, at this point, it still seems to be getting used for the mundane.
I see as similar to radio, as a medium. It offers live broadcasts of information, and is unfiltered. One can 'broadcast' anything at anytime, it opens a door for the citizen journalist.
I have found Twitter to be a great tool for following the latest news from a wide assortment of media outlets. I can scroll through the headlines from the 10 or 12 sources that I follow and quickly catch up on major events of the day. I suppose I am using it like an RSS feed, but I have found that most news outlets are less formal in their tweets than they are in more traditional delivery methods.
While I have not yet tweeted, and therefore it would be a stretch to say that I am "participating" per some other blog posts, I have also found Twitter a source of geeky entertainment this political season. It was a blast to watch the "Live Blogging" tweets during the presidential and VP debates.
And, the Election 2008 page provides a constant stream of election-related tweets from around the world. As Twitter describes it:
We’re filtering hundreds of Twitter updates per minute to create a new source for gathering public opinion about the election and a new way for you to share your thoughts.
After you get over the sense that you are eavesdropping on strangers, it becomes rather mesmerizing. Watch for even a minute or two and you can clearly see that people are using Twitter to express opinions and disseminate information about the election 140 characters at time.
Finally, here is a clip from Monday's edition of The Rachel Maddow Show where she discusses a draft Army Intelligence Report that warns of the possibility that Twitter could become a "terrorist tool."
Post a Comment