Monday, December 8, 2008
Mumbai Retweets Help inform Opinion
I watched the developing events of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai with horror. I switched channels to find new information and every so often a new video or interview would shed more light on the situation. The general feel I got as I read the tweets on the attacks, was that many of the tweets were simply repeats of headlines from news agencies. As far as the twitter culture pushing the idea of journalism forward is concerned, the tweets on Mumbai didn't do much to convince me. I did appreciate the mumbaifeed and sky news and a few others, but in general the tweets were not insightful. It isn't bad that people were spreading repeated information, but from the perspective of bringing new information to the surface, twitter in general didn't cut it. There are several reasons that may contribute to this. The prevalence of twitter in the region, news correspondents that use twitter, and priority of placing new info on twitter while trying to put together a wrap for TV. I think twitters real value was its ability to give a forum for analysis and clarification. Tweeters can fact check, analyze statements, and flesh out ideas on what the event means for the world. Twitter may not give new ideas but it may become its own version of public debate. News agencies that currently incorporate twitter with the newscasts may also find it as a useful point from which to gauge public opinion. There are limitations to this usage as well, but nothing is perfect. I think twitter will be a good way to tell us why news important rather than what is news.
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