On today’s field trip to USA Today, Mr. Horwich said that he does not prefer to use Twitter because of its lack of context. But, on the flipside, Mr. Horwich also said that Twitter is an appropriate way to receive news alerts. For our generation, I feel that Twitter can potentially be a stepping stone to force our friends to be aware of the news—even if it just pops up in their newsfeed. I know that many of my friends could care less about world news, but making a Twitter account could give our peers an easy way to stay in-tune with the world around them. It’s as easy as subscribing to ABC News or my personal Twitter friend, Ann Curry.
I will never forget the first major piece of news that I learned via Twitter.
Ironically, hours before Michael Jackson’s death, I made a Twitter account to keep up with the news and follow my favorite celebrities. Hours later, while I was getting the hang of the website, I saw on my newsfeed that Jackson had died. Just like everyone remembers exactly where they were at 8:45 a.m. on September 11, 2001, it seems like everyone clearly remembers how they learned of Michael Jackson’s death.
I believe that Twitter is a highly accessible source for quick news updates. At least in my hometown, not many teens have Twitter accounts. As budding journalists, we can help make our generation more aware of the news by creating Twitters and talking about it to our friends. Do you use Twitter? Do your friends?
If you have not signed up for a Twitter account, go to twitter.com and start tweeting!
Thursday, July 23, 2009
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I actually do not use Twitter. The reason being that I just got my Facebook account this year and am new to the world of internet social media.
ReplyDeleteI can see that it is beneficial for talking with friends and learning of quick breaking news updates, and agree with Margo that it can help to ease people (teens especially) who are not aware of news to become exposed to it through Twitter. Yet I agree with Mr. Horwich that it does not allow for a more in-depth description of the news and you need a blog or a web site article to clarify due to Twitter's 140 character limit.
Also, Michael Jackson was a single celebrity and icon who sadly passed away, while the attacks on September 11th were an attack on American democracy that killed millions of innocent people. Even though we seem to remember where we were during both these catastrophes, and surprisingly more and more of us are using online media to receive news of such events, I do not think that these two events are comparable.
Thanks for bringing this up, because I too was interested in why Mr. Horwich had such a strong opinion about this topic.
I agree with Mr. Horwich in that twitter doesnt provide context. So much of the text space is limited to quick and simple alerts. But in order to know the truth, then those alerts need to be full and complete stories or else important details get blurred, or left out in the translation.
ReplyDeleteNow with something like Michael Jackson dying, Twitter was good for alerting the people of the tragedy, but it left millions of questions burning in our mind. Like, how did he die? at what time? What are they doing about the death?
I’m sorry if my reference was misleading. I was just referring to how we all remember exactly where we were during Michael Jackson’s death and how we found out about the news. I wasn’t comparing the two events based on impact at all, although I guess it seemed like I was. I was not comparing the two events; I was just comparing as to how the news traveled.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your input!
I am in fact writing my Op-Ed on the issue of Twitter in journalism, and I wholeheartedly agree with Margo. In Mary Hartney's words, in using Twitter, a news organization is "extending the reach of what [they] write". Many people, youth and adults alike, are too busy or are disinterested in keeping up with current events. Twitter gets the gist of the news across to people who otherwise would not read newspapers/watch news programs.
ReplyDeleteAlso, according to PoynterOnline, "Third-party technology like Twitter tends to make revenue-minded folks a little uncomfortable -- especially if you're sending people away from your site. However, Twitter addresses those fears through its embedding tool, its application programming interface (API), and through applications developed by the Twitter user community." So if people like what they see on Twitter, they can decide to view the story in entirety!
Michelle-- not to demean your point, but I just want to point out that about 3,000 people died from the September 11th attacks, not "millions."
ReplyDeleteBut I too agree that Twitter is a good way to "get the word out" and link to other sites.