Into the twittersphere!

Every time I even dare to utter those words I have to hear the same thing. "Well, uh, you just don't get it!" No, I do get it. I really do. My least favorite thing about facebook is the constant status updates from many of my friends and really that is all twitter is. Do you know why you wouldn't e-mail someone that you "just ate a peanut butter sandwich and it was really good."? It is because they don't care. Everyone is so involved in keeping people constantly and instantly updated on every aspect of their lives that they begin to lose track of what people actually want or care to hear about. Every moment becomes a twitter worthy post. Now, I am not innocent here. I am guilty of updating my status every now and then, but never constantly. So maybe that is why I can't get behind twitter for personal use. If my point is not coming across clear enough, please watch this video because it sums up the point I am trying to make perfectly. 

From a professional stand point I can see the appeal of twitter. Instant information is very popular and it would be very stupid for a journalist to ignore this. Twitter gives journalists the opportunity to gain the ever so coveted "broke the story first" title. Recently I stumbled across a list of 9 ways a journalist can use twitter and it would be hard to ignore the benefits of each. Here are some of the highlights:

Journalists can take full advantage of the popularity of sites like twitter and facebook if they wanted to. Although twitter posts are limited to 140 characters, if someone reads a tweet and wants to read more they will go directly to your news web site for more information. 

Now, the question remains can the statusphere save journalism? As sad as it is, I do believe newspapers are a dying breed. Everything I just described really only helps the newspaper's website. I mean, if you read about a breaking news story from a tweet by the new york times are you going to run to find the newspaper? No, you are going to go to their web site and read the details because that is where the details are going to be. Information is received too quickly for newspapers to keep up. That doesn't mean journalism is losing the good journalists, it just means the majority are moving towards a different outlet. 

Remember, newspapers don't own journalism. Good journalists and good story tellers own journalism and sites like twitter and facebook can only help in trying to get as many people as you can to visit your website and read your story.