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The whys and hows of Twitter and journalism

Author: Suzanne Yada Date Posted: August 10th, 2008 (10:54 pm)

Volumes have already been said about Twitter in journalism. Poynter, Harvard and PBS chimed in, and Ryan Sholin gives journalists concrete ideas here.

My two cents:

  • Twitter is only as useful as the people you follow and the people who follow you. If you don’t have the right people on either side of the equation, forget it. (Want a list of great journalistic Twitter users? Go here.)
  • I found out about John Edwards’ affair, both Bernie Mac’s and Issac Hayes’ deaths and the Russia/Georgia conflict first on Twitter. But that’s not Twitter specifically — I find headlines on Yahoo, from people’s Myspace bulletins and Facebook status updates, in a local news email newsletter, AND in the dead-tree newspaper I read at the breakfast table. It just so happens that I’m addicted to Twitter and I check it more often than others. It’s just one more source of news to add to your arsenal.
  • Unless it’s an earthquake and a million people are twittering the same thing at the same time, how is a news event going to be immediately dispersed to an audience as large as it needs? Twitter still has a comparatively small number of users. And unless the news itself has viral qualities, it will be broadcast to someone’s Twitter network and stop there.
  • Only news stories that require just headlines and no context will be able to scoop the Associated Press (like the afore-mentioned OMGWTFBBQ EARTHQUAKE!!).
  • We are taught in journalism school to answer who, what, where, when, why and how. Twitter forces us to distill all that information into 140 characters, which is a good thing, but also contributes to the ADD-like consumption of news, which is bad.
  • Having said that, people do not use Twitter one tweet at a time. Many journalists see Twitter as nothing more than a headline-pusher. MISTAKE. It’s more than OK to have consecutive tweets that build off of one another, rather than having each news story self-contained.
  • Ironically, instead of limiting reporters to 140 characters, Twitter frees reporters up to post little blips of color and context that would normally be edited out of the dead-tree edition. This excellent reporting experiment by Ron Sylvester shows how he used Twitter to update the public on a capital punishment trial. He published micro-bits of color and context as the trial went along. He says, “I cut and pasted all my ‘tweet’ updates into a traditional story file. It measured 80 inches.“
  • The real power of my Twitter list is when people post a headline and follow it with a tinyurl to an interesting news story, blog or discussion. It’s like sending links to your friends without spamming or being intrusive — you can always unsubscribe.
  • People, please don’t use Twitter as simply a way to rewire an RSS feed. RSS feeds often lead to too many tweets. And if you tweet too much, I de-friend you. Simple as that. Have an actual person be behind it — one of the reasons people will subscribe to your Twitter feed is because it seems so much more personal and one-on-one with the people behind the news media.
  • Don’t ever, EVER call me a Twitterling, a Tweetster or Tweeple. I am a Twitter user, not a member of the Mickey Mouse Club.
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3 Responses to “The whys and hows of Twitter and journalism”

  1. Jeremy Rue Says:
    August 10th, 2008 at 11:06 pm

    I would second the part about not turning your Twitter account into an RSS feed. I personally feel too many newspapers are simply automating their Twitter feeds. That’s fine for some people, but I think the beauty of Twitter is hearing from real people.

    CNN Breaking news @cnnbrk is one that seems to do a good job. They tweet only once in a while and it’s a human that does it. He even leaves personal notes once in a while.

    There are a few others out there, but not too many.

    Reply

  2. Suzanne Yada Says:
    August 10th, 2008 at 11:19 pm

    Thanks Jeremy for pointing to @cnnbrk – just what I was looking for!

    Reply

  3. Joe Ruiz Says:
    August 10th, 2008 at 11:43 pm

    To add to your next-to-last point as well as Jeremy’s, I’ve talked before about loving the way the Austin American-
    Statesman (@statesman) uses their Twitter.

    They use different editors and reporters to fill in the time and converse with their readers. Granted, they’re located in a much more tech-friendly town, but they’re pushing 1400 followers and work the Twitter about 10 hours/day.

    That’s the way media outlets need to use a Twitter.

    Reply

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