Tweet Tweet: 140 Characters Is Worth A Thousand Words
Another article written by yours truly hoping to get published! WAS ALSO PUBLISHED ON 3/1/2010!
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Journalism has always had restrictions. There is always the constant struggle to find the newsworthy over the unremarkable, the ethical over the unethical, and the truth over falsified information. Lately, journalism has added another restriction to the list: 140 characters.
Micro-journalism, in the last 3 years, has become something of a mainstream addition to news and broadcast journalism. Twitter, a micro-blogging social network that allows users to communicate with other friends, known as followers, has been on a shocking rise since it’s inception 3 years ago. With it’s ease of use and it’s ability to connect people instantly on the computer and on the phone, it is no surprise that Twitter has seeped into the lives of hundreds of millions of people across the globe.
News and journalism have always had a knack for clinging on to instant communication. The faster the information can be provided to viewers, the more journalists admire it. It is no wonder that Twitter has affected the broadcast journalism world heavily.
Los Angeles journalist Erin Kotecki Vest is very familiar with the infusion of Twitter and Journalism.
“Twitter was a game changer for me. While blogging was an effective form of communication, twitter took that power and multiplied it times 50. Now I wasn’t just blogging politics, I was tweeting back and forth with politicians.”
And the buck did not stop there. Politicians were just part of the new wave of public officials using Twitter. Celebrities, athletes, corporations, local businesses, journalists, and most importantly, the public, were pouring in. Comscore Inc., the renowned internet marketing research firm, confirms a 1,271% increase in unique visitors between October 2008 and October 2009. This soar in users can be blamed upon various media events in the past year, but none more than the 2008 Presidential Elections and the Iran Elections.
When asked about the possibilities of Twitter as a news reporting service, Ohio State University social media guru Forrest Kobayashi said, “Twitter has had a profound impact on journalism and the news media. Its slowly become a medium for citizen journalists to spread their message in real-time. The possibilities are incredible and will continue to grow. As more and more people sign up for the service, there will be a dramatic shift towards citizen journalism as a big way in how we receive our news.”
In the past two years @BreakingNewsON, a radical news breaking service that trends to report breaking news from around the globe before any other media organization, has become the go to spot for “news junkies” and twitter users. Working around the clock, the hundreds of journalists across the globe are able to “tweet” in Breaking News as it happens, keeping tabs on any new developments.
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