I woke up with one of those inquisitive moods and decided to put on my researcher’s cap …for a brief five minutes. The question at hand: The content of CNN’s breaking news tweets over the past three days (10 Feb, 10.39am to 13 Feb, 10.39am). Pardon my excessive preciseness with the up-to-the-minute timings...but that's in essence what Twitter is about: up-to-the-minute, real-time updates!
The answer: Of the 40 tweets, the most frequent topics were:
- President Clinton’s heart procedure (8 Tweets)
- Olympics Opening Ceremony and Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili who died from an Olympics practice crash (8 Tweets)
- Weather related major airport closings and flight delays (6 Tweets)
The point of this simple experiment? A new era of reporting has arrived - Twitter journalism. Within a decade, the news industry has witnesses a radical transition from traditional journalism (newspapers, radio and television broadcasts), to web journalism (online newspapers and web newscasts) to Twitter journalism. Twitter, a popular microblogging service has caught on as a hip, efficient and inexpensive avenue for news organizations to disseminate news and connect with a new generation of net-savvy audiences. Waters (2010) defined microblogging as multi-media blogging that allows users to send brief text updates or micromedia (single pictures, short audio/video clips) to be viewed by a restricted group or anyone.
From national media organizations like CNN to local news entities like North Carolina’s Wilmington Star-News - everyone’s using Twitter. Why? Twitter's speed and brevity make it an ideal medium for disseminating breaking news. For instance, news of the recent Haiti earthquake was splashed all over Twitter within minutes of the disaster. Indeed, Twitter allows news organizations to provide up-to-the-minute, real-time updates on political, economic, social and human happenings around the globe.
While this interactive medium gives busy readers instant access to constantly changing news, several news organizations have not yet been able to effectively engage audiences as an active participant (not just a spectator) in the ongoing conversation. Twitter presents certain challenges, especially with its 140 character restriction and several news organizations are persistent on practicing a one-way public information model, a one-way press agentry model or a two-way asymmetrical model. What can organizations do to effectively utilize Twitter to engage audiences in a two-way conversation? Join me in this conversation. Thoughts anyone?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Twitter journalism, what a good point! They may give you credit once this term gets in the journalism textbooks. :-)
ReplyDeleteCheck out my posts regarding twitter and Guy Kawasaki, a twitter big figure. Thanks!
Yes, Neha twitter journalism is a rage with media across the globe. Most Indian news media are also engaging their audience via twitter.
ReplyDeleteI am all for traditional media's interactive exchanges with audience on twitter. But some, such as CNN really over does twitter which actually lowers their credibility. After all we still value professional/trained journalism for a reason.
Thanks Jing...actually I didn't coin the term 'Twitter Journalism' but came across it reading some articles. I'm certain the term will catch on really quickly. : )
ReplyDeleteThat's a good point Paromita. I do agree that some people, especially the mature group are wary of this new social media application (Twitter) and prefer to obtain their news through traditional media channels. That's probably one reason why the hard copy newspaper is still going strong. : )
ReplyDelete