Journalism in the Age of Twitter

[Calvin]

A friend send me this Ellen Goodman column from the 6/26 Boston Globe. Interesting perspective on the new world of reporting. Thought some of you might be interested in reading it:

FROM TIME to time, a message pops into my e-mail announcing that someone is “Following You On Twitter.’’ In fact, I don’t go anywhere on Twitter, having signed up just to get squatter’s rights to my own name. I have enough trouble limiting my thoughts to 750 words, let alone 140 characters. Twittering is just frittering.

Or so I thought before Iran.


for the full column:

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/06/26/journalism_in_the_era_of_twitter/

[Roy Hobbs]

Good stuff, Calvin.

Apprecate you & Ellen Goodman pointing out some important aspects and making me not only glad I saved my own name on Twitter but actually visualizng the future of our business.

Thanks!

ps. Poop

pps Hitler

Okay that takes care of the regular MediaLine crowd

[The Mockingbird]

It absolutely amazes me how hidebound some journalists are.

Twitter has been around for three years. It's not even remotely new, and every time I see a "Golly gee whiz, this new-fangled Twitter sure is something, huh?" article, the writer loses credibility.

[TAFKA wacowx]

It absolutely amazes me how hidebound some journalists are.

Twitter has been around for three years. It's not even remotely new, and every time I see a "Golly gee whiz, this new-fangled Twitter sure is something, huh?" article, the writer loses credibility.

But the way it is being used by so many and so successfully as a platform for distributing information IS new. If no one knows about something and it's brand new...so what? If it suddenly becomes popular and people are starting to hear about it, it's new to them.

[Consider This]

© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.

This is not the Age of Twitter.

It's the Age of Plagiarism. At least as long as there are still original sources for people to steal content from.

And as long as people mistakenly think that the copyright notice means, "Hey, go ahead and cut-and-paste our entire article and post it on your site! No, no! We didn't want the traffic to our site anyway! We're not trying to make any money off our content or anything. Just be sure to include the copyright notice!"

The copyright notice is supposed to tell you that someone owns the content and that it's ILLEGAL to copy-and-paste it without permission, which I'm sure you did not get.

[Roy Hobbs]

I hear Calvin has guys over to his house to watch taped baseball without the express written consent of Major League Baseball and its local affiliates.

[Consider This]

It's when he uploads them to YouTube that he causes the copyright problem.

[Calvin]

Consider, you have a point. Here is the link. I copied for readers' convenience and will edit the original post.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/06/26/journalism_in_the_era_of_twitter/

[The Mockingbird]

But the way it is being used by so many and so successfully as a platform for distributing information IS new. If no one knows about something and it's brand new...so what? If it suddenly becomes popular and people are starting to hear about it, it's new to them.

Actually, it's been used for quite a while now for organizing flash mobs and protests, to let people know about arrests, tear gas, or just to get together. Protesters were using it for political causes as early as 2007. The Israeli consulate in New York gave a press conference using Twitter to answer questions about the Gaza Situation last year.

http://www.israelpolitik.org/2008/12/31/answers-to-questions-from-press-conference/

So, yeah, talking about the application of this technology to organize crowds as new in 2009 makes journalists look like Super Sally. The media's number one problem is that it alienates educated and informed viewers.

What was significant about the Iranian protests was the role of the Internet's impact on Iranian culture and politics, not that Twitter was a new phenomenon. The Internet is having the same cultural impact on the world that Rock n' Roll and Hollywood movies did decades earlier.

Unfortunately, journalists left and right missed the forest for the trees.

But hey, how about that Twitter?

[Diggin' Bear]

Actually, it's been used for quite a while now for organizing flash mobs and protests, to let people know about arrests, tear gas, or just to get together. Protesters were using it for political causes as early as 2007. The Israeli consulate in New York gave a press conference using Twitter to answer questions about the Gaza Situation last year.

http://www.israelpolitik.org/2008/12/31/answers-to-questions-from-press-conference/

So, yeah, talking about the application of this technology to organize crowds as new in 2009 makes journalists look like Super Sally. The media's number one problem is that it alienates educated and informed viewers.

What was significant about the Iranian protests was the role of the Internet's impact on Iranian culture and politics, not that Twitter was a new phenomenon. The Internet is having the same cultural impact on the world that Rock n' Roll and Hollywood movies did decades earlier.

Unfortunately, journalists left and right missed the forest for the trees.

But hey, how about that Twitter?

Could you shorten this down to 140 characters, please? It's too much to read.

[The Mockingbird]

People have been using twitter to organize protests since 2007, and the Israeli Consulate did a news conference with it in December of 2008!

[News Is Broken]

This is not the Age of Twitter.

It's the Age of Plagiarism. At least as long as there are still original sources for people to steal content from.


Oh wonk, wonk, wonk.

Like every news agency in the whole freaking world doesn't outright steal stories from each other every single day. Did your local news agency focus on their community the day MJ died or did they just cut to the network or CNN feed of the chopper shot of UCLA medical center while they hastily slopped together music video montages and "Mourning Michael" graphics to fill the newshole that day? Here in Phoenix the stations not only dropped everything to take you live to each and every syllable of whatever Michael Jackson spokesperson's soundbites as they came in live, they even sent their own people to cover it! :rolleyes:

It's a stupid story if you ask me. Mockingbird's right, she acts like Twitter just came out yesterday. It's been around for YEARS - where's this person been living? In an Afghan cave?

Next thing you know she'll write another worthless column about this new fangled social networking site called facebook and this new craze that's taking the internet by storm that is known as "googling something".

If she (and her employer) want to earn their keep then maybe they should tackle something a little deeper and a bit more timely. Like maybe a story about when Twitter plans to actually make money instead of relying on a steady stream of seven figure VC injections to keep afloat. And rather than just spend 5 minutes in front of a keyboard, hell pick up a camera and go on location and shoot some VIDEO - last time I checked, you can't cut and paste a video into a forum post.

Just something to consider, Mr. This.

[Bandit]

I've been on Twitter for two years now and it's a bit funny to see all the media types embracing it now (as if it didn't exist before they discovered it). A few journalists "get" how it works and how it can be useful.

But most - for now - seem to think it's a newfangled message channel for the sh!t no-one wants to watch/read/hear about now.

[adam & doctor drew]

This is not the Age of Twitter.

It's the Age of Plagiarism. At least as long as there are still original sources for people to steal content from.


yep.
it's why TV stations should fear the closing of newspapers.
where will they steal stories from?

[Chartsengrafs]

I love Aaron Brown's take on it.

"It still seems more self-indulgent than relevant, but oddly, that's what a lot of journalism is these days."

[tater]

Twit-ter???

[Roy Hobbs]

People have been using twitter to organize protests since 2007, and the Israeli Consulate did a news conference with it in December of 2008!

And people were using the Internet's predecessor decades before but that doesn't make it any less revolutionary or remarkable when it reaches the mainstream.

I recall in February of last year we were debating the future and usefulness of Twitter at my fairly progressive and with-it tech PR agency, with a track record of being first adopters of technology for communication.

As usual the march to the mainstream, whether it be days, months or decades, is marked by one constant truth...once it reaches the cover of Time Magazine it's long over.
http://spyhunter007.com/Images/time_magazine_jan_18_1982.jpg

[News Is Broken]

Gronk?

[Roy Hobbs]

Csonk?
http://static.nfl.com/static/site/img/superbowl/history/mvp/8-csonska.jpg
http://storage.people.com/jpgs/19740722/19740722-750-0.jpg

[Clever Login Name]

I'm left wondering if the Washington astrologer correctly picked the winner of the '76 election.

[The Mockingbird]

Crap, me too.

I checked the internets, People's online archive doesn't start until 2002.