The fact that Twitter was virally spreading the death of Osama Bin Laden before some major news sources and the President’s announcement showcased the evolution of journalism from the newspaper to the Internet. The advent of the Internet as a global system of interconnected networks has redefined how people consume the media and news. The Internet enabled accelerated forms of communication through instant messaging, forums and social networking.
When analyzing the Twitter phenomenon, one wonders the usefulness of communication that is limited to 140 characters. But the events following the Bin Laden’s death proved that Twitter is a part of journalism, the fourth estate of government. One of the defining characteristics of Twitter is its ease to use. Posts are remarkably easy to post to and people often post things they discover on Twitter before posting it to a blog. Twitter is engaging enough for people to find value in its services, especially journalists. For instance, the first official announcement that speculated something big had taken place was made by White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer who tweeted on 9:47 that “POTUS to address the nation tonight at 10:30 Eastern time.” Journalists and news agencies who caught whiff of this began to speculate Bin Laden’s death and were ready to be on the scene of the announcement. With credible sources, Twitter provides accurate information with the advantage of instantaneous or “real time” breaking news coverage. This was seen in the first tweeter Keith Urbahn, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s chief of staff who leaked credible news on Bin Laden’s death at 10:25 on Sunday May 1st.
Indeed, twitter, reddit, digg, and other Internet sources have made it possible for ideas, news, and events to diffuse throughout society much quicker than the traditional oral and physically written communication. The Internet and other advanced technologies such as mobile phones and radio have given people an opportunity to express themselves in ways that can only be done with such technology. Although mass-media techniques can fall prey to advertising, propaganda, and misinformation, this development has enabled common citizens to participate in the collection, report, analysis, and dissemination of news and information. For instance, facebook users can use their home feed to find an article that another friend has posted and gain news through a relevant, legitimate source.
These new media technologies and practice have impacted the approach to citizen journalism where people report news from their own communities in both the developed and developing world. Using simple media technologies such as hand cameras, mobile phones and internet blogs, people can upload photos, voice recording, and videos at their own convenience. Citizens without any substantial professional media training are now able to participate in reporting events and practicing a form of journalism. With the news media and involvement of citizens using various tools like Twitter to report their own news in their own way, one can argue that news has become global everywhere and has become a check on what big corporations, government, and public figures can do.
As the forms of media change to become more efficient and timely, there is a strong call to improve the quality and content so that professional writers and journalists can stay in demand. Rather than fighting the dispersion of blogging, journalists should embrace this technology to their advantage to ensure greater transparency in information gathering and other alternative methods of publicizing news. Journalists are now more accountable for their audiences who now have the opportunity to respond to articles posted on the Internet. This exercises the people’s freedom of expression as well as the right to participate in journalism and news.
I definitely agree with your points that journalism, through the internet, is becoming more efficient and timely. It is interesting to see the role Twitter has played in publicizing such important events, like Bin Laden’s death and its role in general politics and economics communication. I also agree that journalists should use these new resources to their advantage – I like the way you put it – to ensure “greater transparency.” However, you bring up that journalists are going to be held more accountable for their audiences. Do you feel like journalists will take their jobs more seriously? I already feel like there is a lack of accountability and decreasing responsibility for a significant amount of journalists, and I’m afraid that with the easy accessibility of journalism now through the internet, writers have more leniency of what they publish.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Twitter can be a positive force in rapid news dissemination, I think that we often neglect to see the less glamourous aspects of the instantaneousness of tweets. I frequently help to update the Twitter account of the non-profit that I work for, often posting links to news articles. When doing so this past week, I noticed a bunch of tweets about a murder that had apparently taken place in Mexico, related to drug cartels. This "breaking news" spread rapidly for about 15 minutes, the number of people tweeting, and re-tweeting other people's tweets proliferated until about 15 minutes later, it was announced that in reality the instance in Mexico was NOT in fact a murder, and the victim was not seriously wounded.
ReplyDeleteI think Twitter can be a dangerous tool to use in news dissemination, as it is impossible in many cases to know the source of the information that one is posting...I definitely agree with your assertion that journalists need to promote transparency, and I feel that Facebook and Twitter do to a certain extent undermine the work of journalists...admittedly, journalists are not always unbiased, correct sources, but often times they must edit and re-edit their work, and all those who wish to post a Facebook status or Tweet must do is press "enter."