An Explosion Prompts Rethinking of Twitter and Facebook

I like the spin Courtney Lowery put on Twitter in this article. She described twitter as opening new possibilities for journalism.

Lowery explained how a building exploded in Montana and the only “reporters” on seen were Twitter users. They tweeted pictures and information about the explosion. There were no other media or news sources covering the event.

            Since that day in Montana, Twitter’s ability—and agility—as a tool to gather and distribute breaking news has been exhibited throughout the world, in Iran and China most notably.

            Lowery’s main point was that Twitter is much more than a simple media tool for pushing stories. Twitter has demonstrated much more potential through events like the one in Montana. 

Don't Fear Twitter

Don't Fear Twitter Article
           Although I am a user of Twitter, I’ve never taken it too seriously. I don’t rely on it as my main source of information. That’s why I found this article so interesting, pointing out that some think twitter users do use it as their main source of information.

            John Dickerson explained how a number of people fear Twitter. They fear that it is changing the world of journalism, turning it into short 140 character stories. He discussed how journalism is already getting smaller. Newspapers, for instance, are shrinking. People want short bits of news. However, that doesn’t mean Twitter threatens traditional journalism, Dickerson stated.

            Tweets usually consist of “moment to moment” observations. Dickerson explained his tweets as,  “snippets that are too off-topic or too inconsequential to work into a story. Sometimes they are the little notions or sideways thoughts that become the lead of a piece or the kicker.”

            When people tweet correctly, their entries should lead readers to finding longer articles that expand on these “moment to moment” observations.

            Overall Dickerson’s main point is that, “no one should try to make Twitter do more than it can and no reader should expect too much from a 140-character entry.”