Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Twitter and journalism: can't we all just get along?

Can we really receive all the information we need to know in 140 character lots?

Approximately 55 million tweets grace the pages of Twitter every day and around 16% of them are about news articles, politics, sport, events or blogs (for more statistics click here). Yet when we hear the term 'social media', rarely do we associate sites like Twitter and Facebook with learning the news. The idea that social media is only used for 'social' purposes is outdated and twitter is taking on a much greater role as a disseminator of information.

But, if we're getting all of this information from Twitter, where does that leave traditional journalists?

Should journalists learn to embrace Twitter as a friend not foe?

Is Twitter really a reliable option as our primary source of news?

These are all questions I am exploring in my final project. I am curious about how people use Twitter for news content and where this leaves journalists.

Please feel free to leave comments on any of these issues or follow me on twitter (www.twitter.com/kyla_banks)! I'd love to hear what you think about this topic.