Tuesday, February 15, 2011

News in 140 Characters or Less

This New York Times article discusses the way Andy Carvin of NPR used his Twitter to transmit real-time updates on the situation in Egypt.

Forget online newspapers-forget actual articles- the future of news lies in 400, one sentence Tweets.

4 comments:

  1. I think that this new generation of Twitter is fascinating. I don't necessarily think it is a productive and successful way of really communicating- but with this situation in Egypt I am impressed with this outlet.
    I read in other places as well that people used Twitter as their means of communicating.
    However, I do feel that this new generation of technology and the dependance on it, especially Twitter has cons.
    These one sentence "Tweets" happen so sporadically and without thinking because it is sos quick that things aren't thought through and formulated. News should be presented with more class.

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  2. In general, I think the role of Twitter is overrated. A Tweet is nothing more than a glorified text message. Sure, a quick text message can be great when you need to send a short, immediate message, especially if you are a reported giving a real-time update on a developing situation. But those little bits of information are the stuff that news is made out of, not the news itself. And really, how is a Tweet all that different from a telegram?

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  3. In the world of social media, there's no such thing as wrong - there's just "different." Different outlets serve different purposes. Twitter is intended to be quick, not thorough.

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  4. Rather than a matter of right or wrong, this most probably simply expresses the new challenge of the medias. It is trying to adapt to the new society, and although thorough political analysis might be hard over twitter, a few nice facts or well-asked questions are already a very good start. Besides, given the role that twitter has played in the Egyptian revolution for instance, I would say that the social medias certainly have a role to play on the political scene that will only get more and more significant.

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