Twitter and Journalism might not be two words you’d normally put in the same sentence – but today Jason Preston from Eat Sleep Publish (follow him at @jasonp107) asks if Twitter can be a real news platform? We’d love to hear your opinion in comments.
Image by Shaver
For centuries, “journalist,” “reporter,” and “newsman,” have been reasonably interchangeable. After all, a reporter often works for a newspaper or TV station, where they are employed to do journalism.
But recent trends in publishing and digital tools have required that we look at new definitions for these words. Being a journalist has started to mean being someone who ties stories together into a narrative, whatever the medium.
How do these differences apply to Twitter?
News
I see news as being different from journalism because news is just the facts (ma’am). Twitter is great for news, and there have been several cases where Twitter has established itself as the spot for breaking news.
Take the semi-recent explosion in virginia, or Amy Gahran’s experience tracking a tornado as examples.
Sure it’s fast. But is it always accurate? Is it Journalism?
Journalism
Journalism is different. Journalism requires that stories been constructed, facts be tied together, narratives presented, and context created.
In short, journalism is the big picture.
No one would argue that you can get the pig picture in 140 characters. But what about aggregate tweets? One person over a long time, or many people over a large subject?
Does election.twitter.com count as journalism? Watching it can certainly give you the 20,000 foot view.
The question
On Twitter more than any other new service the question arises: can you be a journalist? Is 140 characters enough to convey more than a headline would? Do multiple tweets make a narrative?
Is Twitter a viable, standalone medium for journalism? What do you think?
About the author: You can learn more about the future of publishing by following Jason’s thoughts on his blog, Eat Sleep Publish. Or you can just subscribe to his RSS feed. Follow Jason on Twitter at @jasonp107
@remarkablogger
News breaking & reporting, yes. Journalism? Not in 140 characters (I’m making a distinction between the words “news” and “journalism”). But I get more breaking news (and from major news sources) on Twitter than from any other source.
@cassandrajowett
As a journalism student, and a “novice” journalist, I definitely don’t think anything that appears on Twitter can be considered journalism. News, sure, but not journalism.
Journalism is a craft that people work really hard to become good at. It’s not just the convergence of a lot of information in one place. It’s the selection of the best information and the best voices arranged in a way that is as fair, accurate and balanced as possible.
I take issue with this definition because it oversimplifies the definition of journalist. A journalist can’t really take stories from anywhere, say, the web, and construct them into a narrative. Good journalism tries to get fresh voices, multiple sources of information, and new angles each time they tackle an assignment. They don’t just find stories and talk about them, they get at the heart of the story, ask “larger” questions, get information that isn’t immediately apparent.
I could probably write incoherently about this forever, so I really hope nobody thinks Twitter is journalism, and I really hope people aren’t so cynical about journalism that they accept Twitter as journalism.
@JennyCromie
This is a very interesting idea. After having spent a number of years in the news business, I now use Twitter much like I used to rely on the AP, UPI, Reuters, and other wire services when I was still working at a daily newspaper. I also follow a number of publications via Twitter, and have noticed that news seems to break on Twitter faster than anywhere else—even before stories are posted to a publication’s Web site. Experiencing the role that Twitter played in the election coverage this year was certainly an interesting development.
But from the writing standpoint, I don’t think that Twitter will ever replace traditional news stories. I see it as more of a tool for promoting content rather than replacing it.
Thanks for a thought-provoking post!
Jenny Cromie
http://www.thegoldenpencil.com
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@abhishek
it would be really difficult for a journalist to broadcast news in 140 characters each time, but twitter is much better for spreading news than those traditional moderated news websites.
@konterfai
I agree with Michael Martine -> I’m making a distinction between the words “news” and “journalism”
But Twitter is a platform to spread the words really fast …..
@palpitt
Hello, James Janega (journalist at Chicago tribune), has answered some of my questions on my blog : http://www.palpitt.fr/blog/index.php?post/2008/10/23/Twitter-to-supplement-reporting-%3A-interview-de-James-Janega-journaliste-au-Chicago-Tribune, maybe you can find some responses on this subject
ps: you can use the google trad widget to translate my comments
@bzijian
Journalism? Yes, probably. Journalism doesn’t really lie in what the medium the news source is transmitted in though. 140 character isn’t really the concern here as with a few program tweaks, that limit can be lifted code wise for selected twitter (or authorized) users.
Journalism lies in the professionalism (according to the new agency, be in terms of facts, figures of events). If Twitter provides to be a medium which can propagate such reporting, it can be a godsend, given how it’s current status and popularity.
@TracyOConnor
I think it could be a great tool for breaking stories and alerting people to what is going on – the whole Motrin Moms thing is a good example. On the other hand, I think that as it is so fast paced and there isn’t necessarily the sort of accountability of real journalism, there is much potential for inaccuracy.
It’s no substitute for real journalism, but I think it could be a very valuable tool.
@agahran
Hmmmm…. I do journalism, and I know a lot of journalists, and I’ve seen what Twitter can do. It seems to me that any medium — from Twitter to broadcast news to smoke signals — has potential journalistic uses.
Journalism is a process, not just a product. For many professional journalists and other people who commit acts of journalism, Twitter is already an important part of their journalistic process (i.e., connecting with communities and sources, and gathering information). And it can also be part of the product (i.e., live coverage of events or breaking news, or updates to ongoing stories or issues)
So yes, Twitter CAN be a real news platform. As well as lots of other things. Just like a newspaper can be the Washington Post, the National Enquirer, or a free shopper’s guide. It all depends on what you choose to make of it.
- Amy Gahran
@agahran
Also — These days, almost no news medium is “standalone.” Every news org has a web presence, and many have a presence in social media, and also in embeddable media.
- Amy Gahran
@trotzendorff
First thing would be to clarify, what “news” are. Most of the things on twitter is news to me, but is it important for me? No. The question, whether Twitter could produce real journalism, I would answer the same: Never. But – and journalists use it that way already – Twitter can be a possibility to touch subjects, for example to produce newsflashes or headlines and link to online-articles. And to let followers have a look on the daily grind in editorial offices.
@280_Main
When there was a possible gunman on the loose at the local university (everything turned out fine), I was fascinated by how Twitter played a role in how information was dispersed. People on lockdown, many in classrooms that cell phones didn’t work, were on Twitter sharing info. (and rumors). If I remember correctly, someone even got the picture of the “gunman” from the security camera and spread it via Twitter before any other source got it out there. Made me think of the journalistic qualities of Twitter–as well as the safety possibilities…
@Jasonp107
Michael and abhishek – I agree that Twitter is a great platform for breaking news, but I also see a stream of tweets as being interconnected. It’s one of the reasons I love Twitter: through 140 character snapshots, over a longer period of time, i really feel like it’s possible to establish a friendship and an understanding with another person.
So what’s to say that a story couldn’t be relayed in 140-character chunks and expanded over a longer period of time, connecting in one narrative?
Tracy – That’s a good point! There’s very little actual transparency, and someone on Twitter could just as easily be NOT who they say they are. That said, the same pitfalls tend to apply to blogging, and everyone seems to be coming around to the idea that a citizen journalist can be just as valuable as a news source as someone at an existing newspaper.
@hermida
Twitter can be journalism if we don’t think about the 140 characters in isolation. Instead, a number of tweets, taken together, can create journalism by providing both the breaking news, reaction and context. And these tweets are not necessarily all from the same person, but rather from a collective of people contributing to a news stream.
It means taking a more holistic approach to Twitter, rather than considering a 140 character message in isolation. Perhaps this is the greatest strength of a platform like Twitter – the ability to tap into a collective consciousness, which, taken as a whole, brings facts, context and analysis.
@chrissponias
I’m really impressed with all the possibilities we have with Twitter! It is fantastic because you have a personal contact with everyone and all messages have to be short and objective. This is great for people who live on a hurry. There is no space for formalities!
Of course it can be used for anything.
If you want to say something long, you simply give a link. You send people to your blogs, sites, affiliates’ sites, libraries, everywhere. Then you come back and explain something else…
@dailytwitter
it is interesting to see that these thoughts, concepts and discussions are finally being raised and questioned- the use of twitter as a journalistic tool, admittedly is limited – i do not think for one moment that the 2 million or so subscribers overnight will suddenly become journalists or be capable of providing time and commitment to create the type of quality journalism associated with the likes of CNN, Reuters, BBC or AP.
I think it is naive to suddenly consider that ‘tweeting’ or ‘blogging’ will make an individual in to a journalist, and i don’t think you are saying this – but i do think the generation of ‘news’ will be an easy activity for the users of twitter, whether reporting the local weather, traffic conditions, gigs, events, deals, opinion, gossip and unknown facts, figures and tips – hence by the process of creating this content we label them ‘citizen journalist’ and this is where i think twitter and blogging will provide a much richer collective of ‘local’ content than mainstream journalist’s would usually touch.
To support this CNN, Reuters and even News Corp are actively watching the ‘twitterverse’ for breaking stories, news, events and content from a communicative 2/3 million user base. Of course, there is a lot of dross in that, but gems will always surface.
as i read the other comments i see there are general agreement that professional journalism has a domain in which it functions and this is usually in the MSM space, albeit a few exception.
the project we are working on aims to aggregate the best twitters and tweets into newspapers, on a local and global level – not that i am trying to pimp up our site – but if you are interested and would like to help, support, comment or just see what we are up to visit http://www.dailytwitter.com
@publicspend
I’ve been fascinated by the way that Rick Sanchez at CNN has been using Twitter (1) as a tool to add value to his daily show but also (2) to bring an informal journalistic opinion to breaking news stories. I have been pretty impressed. You can follow him at @ricksanchezcnn
@dailytwitter
it is interesting to see that these thoughts, concepts and discussions are finally being raised and questioned- the use of twitter as a journalistic tool, admittedly is limited – i do not think for one moment that the 2 million or so subscribers overnight will suddenly become journalists or be capable of providing time and commitment to create the type of quality journalism associated with the likes of CNN, Reuters, BBC or AP.
I think it is naive to suddenly consider that ‘tweeting’ or ‘blogging’ will make an individual in to a journalist, and i don’t think you are saying this – but i do think the generation of ‘news’ will be an easy activity for the users of twitter, whether reporting the local weather, traffic conditions, gigs, events, deals, opinion, gossip and unknown facts, figures and tips – hence by the process of creating this content we label them ‘citizen journalist’ and this is where i think twitter and blogging will provide a much richer collective of ‘local’ content than mainstream journalist’s would usually touch.
To support this CNN, Reuters and even News Corp are actively watching the ‘twitterverse’ for breaking stories, news, events and content from a communicative 2/3 million user base. Of course, there is a lot of dross in that, but gems will always surface.
i do see from reading through the comments posted that there is general agreement that the domain of the professional journalist does not live inside twitter but within MSN – although i suspect there undoubtedly will be a few stars emerging from the likes of microblogging especially with apps such as twitpics…
the project we are working on aims to aggregate the best twitters and tweets into newspapers, on a local and global level – not that i am trying to pimp up our site – but if you are interested and would like to help, support, comment or just see what we are up to visit http://www.dailytwitter.com
@degenerasian
Just good for linking headlines of stories already posted.
Too difficult to write actual news.
@scottybutler
I recently signed up to twitter and the first thing I did was follow all the local news services. I was then bombarded with so many tweets from them with every news story that was published on their site, it became pointless. I have since unfollowed all the services that did this. Maybe these news services should think about only publishing the real important news stories on Twitter to make their service more valuable. I would imagine they would get a lot more followers too.
@JoanHorsforth
Well, if you gather only twitter friends who are journalists (by educations, and, or reputation) and stationed around the world, and who you trust, you have a global press agency. So the question should not be asked, but should come in as a statement.
@m_weber
I think Twitter can, in fact, be a real news platform. Using 140 characters is much like writing a headline for the newspaper. Your twitter followers and others can see the headline and click through to get more information.
It can also give the journalist a pulse of just how important a story is to the audience. As a journalist, I find myself fascinated with some stories that my viewers may not necessarily think are all that great. I can give them the chance to react to a 140 character headline before I put too many resources in it.
I think that the term journalism is changing right before our eyes. And Twitter could be an example of the future of journalism, combined with other tools and platforms.
@bradhart
I like the idea of twitter for journalism. It is too hard to sound self important with only a 140 characters…
@mrohde
I don’t think it counts as journalism but rather a summary of breaking news events. the 140 characters imposes a real limit to establishing a complete story. It can, however point journalist in the direction of the news.
I was micro-blogging updates during hurricane Dolly this year but there it is difficult to be objective when you are part of the story.
@jjwright85
Like Marc mentioned, it is a great way to keep up with breaking news. But the 140 limit is a little tough to write or do anything related to journalism.
@gabediaz
As a stand alone medium for journalism, no. As a breaking news ticker, yes.
Unless you have your local news site open throughout the day or have the radio on(which I personally don’t) it’s great to get some headlines throughout the day on my phone via twitter.
@glwallace
I don’t thing twitter could stand against large news agencies. However, it does provide a platform for editorials & opinions for the news.
@Medhy
I’m sure Twitter can be great tool for citizenship journalism in the future, in its new way. It just takes time.
@trotzendorff
“All messages have to be short and objective”, Christina wrote. I think, that’s it. In german, that’s called “Küchenzuruf”, what literally could be translated with “kitchen-call”. It’ s the core of an article, that for example a husband or wife calls out to his partner at the breakfast-table (If the article is well written, it’s the headline).
@dailytwitter
it is interesting to see that these thoughts, concepts and discussions are finally being raised and questioned- the use of twitter as a journalistic tool, admittedly is limited – i do not think for one moment that the 2 million or so subscribers overnight will suddenly become journalists or be capable of providing time and commitment to create the type of quality journalism associated with the likes of CNN, Reuters, BBC or AP.
I think it is naive to suddenly consider that ‘tweeting’ or ‘blogging’ will make an individual in to a journalist, and i don’t think you are saying this – but i do think the generation of ‘news’ will be an easy activity for the users of twitter, whether reporting the local weather, traffic conditions, gigs, events, deals, opinion, gossip and unknown facts, figures and tips – hence by the process of creating this content we label them ‘citizen journalist’ and this is where i think twitter and blogging will provide a much richer collective of ‘local’ content than mainstream journalist’s would usually touch.
To support this CNN, Reuters and even News Corp are actively watching the ‘twitterverse’ for breaking stories, news, events and content from a communicative 2/3 million user base. Of course, there is a lot of dross in that, but gems will always surface.
the project we are working on aims to aggregate the best twitters and tweets into newspapers, on a local and global level – not that i am trying to pimp up our site – but if you are interested and would like to help, support, comment or just see what we are up to visit http://www.dailytwitter.com
@ngmatthews
I think twitter could act as a 21st century new service / wire service like Reuters or AP.
People write the breaking news on a blog, push it onto the wire (twitter) for syndication and the news is broadcast to a wider audience.
@DerekHalpern
Based on these new definitions, I think Twitter can be great for breaking news. However, each tweet is a little disconnected, so I don’t think it would be great for journalism.
Now, my question is… Do you think 140 characters is enough to portray a biased opinion on news and journalism?
@dcilea
I see Twitter as a medium for breaking news — not only by the traditional media using it as a “channel” to disseminate their coverage, but for virtually anyone who is on the front line witnessing newsworthy events in real-time. The capabilities built-in to mobile phones (text/photo/audio/video) combined with the tools of Twitter makes this possible.
Technology has changed how we report on and get our news. The Internet has compressed the editorial cycle, and as a result new tools and techniques have emerged. I suspect as Twitter evolves, it will change the craft of journalism and provide new opportunities to connect narratives in bite-sized, 140-character increments.
@hectorhenry17
In Colombia for instance the news papers have twitters account and i don’t know but to my imprison they do a good work whit it.
so what matter its that they do a good job, and sow the right teme to call other user atention.
@DiamonDie
As a journalist my opinion is that a single tweet cannot really be considered journalism, but someone’s Twitter stream as a whole could be – say, someone travels to a jungle, lives with the indigenous people and reports from there via Twitter (I don’t know if you can have mobile coverage in such a place, but hypothetically speaking).
@nishachittal
I think Twitter has become a great medium for breaking news, and there are often times news is reported faster on Twitter than by the mainstream media outlets. It’s great because not only do you get the breaking news updates, but you immediately get to see the conversation about it too– watching my twitter stream during the election season was always interesting, because you could see what people were talking about and thinking as it happened. Today, also, I heard about the terrorist attacks in Mumbai on Twitter first, and right away everyone in my twitter stream was talking about it, and I got to see various perspectives in one giant conversation as the story continued to unfold.
I read somewhere that twitter is like “taking a pulse of the internet” — when something major happens in the news, there’s almost always a conversation about it on twitter, which I think is part of the value of Twitter for news. Journalism? Not really. But it’s great for news.
@gauravonomics
Twitter has played a really important role in covering the Mumbai terrorist attacks today. Mahalo has a separate page for the Twitter coverage of the terrorist attacks and CNN has also mentioned Twitter as a source. Here’s a roundup I am doing on the role of social media, including Twitter, in the coverage of the Mumbai terrorist attacks.
@rishabhkaul
Last night there Mumbai was taken over by terrorists. I found out about the incident through twitter. And the I found the updates far better than the ones I was watching on TV about the same time.
Twitter can certainly help in making journalism a faster process, however twitter does have its shortcomings. Its tough to do an analysis on twitter. Twitter is a tool which will be very effective in journalism but can’t really survive on its own. At the end of the day you will be posting links to other people’s blogs and news items.
But as far as updates are given, its fast merely because of the less amount of effort it takes to tweet a headline rather than carefully weave a news item.
Twitter for citizen journalism yes. For mainstream journalism, I’d say it’ll be a valuable asset, but not the real deal.
@AnnaTarkov
I, as a citizen journalist, use Twitter as a tool, not a substitute for journalism. I use it to keep people interested and engaged in the topic I cover and get them thinking about it more if they aren’t already. I still want them to read what I write, not just interact on Twitter.
@koka_sexton
As far as mainstream news leveraging Twitter to send information, they are doing a good job. There are hundred of news agencies using Twitter publishing breaking news. I collected a list of them for my site and that is really only a fraction of all the mainstream news agencies on Twitter.
@bloggingmom67
I really disagree with your definition of journalism. It’s more than breaking news or creating a narrative, and I think twitter is a great tool for journalists. (I have 20 years in newspaper business.)
I don’t think twitter would replace a news story, but I think it’s a good way to tweet breaking news: “Barack Obama won Ohio,” for example. Of course, you need to follow up with a story. But there is value in letting people know really big news really quickly.
Plus twitter is very useful to me as a way to let readers know about good stories we’ve done. I don’t tweet every blog post or every news story; I tweet many of them with a link to a story or a blog post.
I also find twitter as a very useful way to network, find sources for stories, find out what’s topics are buzzing with people in a particular niche. For me, twitter is sort of like having a coffee with sources; it builds a relationship and trust.
It also helps me find out about what other papers and bloggers are writing, so I can link to them or write my own take on the issue they are writing about.
@geehall1
It’s like anything. Put your imagination to good use, and 140 characters can still do a lot. During Australia’s recent bushfires, Twitter was put to good use to provide advisories, information from our fire authorities and weather bureau and other sources to give people a heck of a lot to work out the situation with. If it’s not journalism, it’s at least history, giving an idea of what goes through people’s minds during such crises. Thanks to TwitPic, we also had some pretty quick, on the scene photographs of some fires.
And it was still the source that broke the news of two recent minor earth tremors here in the Australian state of Victoria.
@_justin_kelly
I’m a firm believer in the Twitter as a News Source
I’ve just launched TwitterGrep.com to prove this. TwitterGrep.com takes the latest and greatest from twitter and presents it in a simple NY Times style – making the best Twitter content available to non-twitter users
Cheers
Justin