Twitter articles

Nowadays, Twitter has became one of the main sources for people to get news. Among those articles, what interested me most is how the media manage their twitter accounts.

As all we know, twitter is a great tool to deliver breaking news. The timeliness is a big advantage compared to traditional medium to report news. However, in my mind, the news on twitter will be quickly swamped after posting since lots of tweets pop up every second. So It's very interesting to read that New York Times will tweet some most interesting journalism more than once to better serve their broader audience.

Also,  how journalists use their personal twitters is always debated by scholars and medium managers. The article of New York Times mentioned that they would let their trusted reporters posted some  news in a timely manner without sacrificing commitment to accuracy. I know some media companies have strict rules to manage their staff's twitter accounts. So I'm very curious about what level of journalists can posted news immediately in their personal account without permissions from their companies. What kind of news they can post before the official account delivered news. 

Besides, as the article stated, twitter is public. When people post things on Facebook or Twitter, journalists can use them directly without getting permission. However, journalists should be very thoughtful when they use these words from twitter.

Twitter Article Response

I read the article about life at the New York Times social media desk as a sort of list of tips for how to use Twitter successfully. Though I have a personal Twitter account and knew that in order to use Twitter to my advantage professionally I would need to do things differently, I never spent much time thinking about how exactly that would work.

This article pairs well with the article about the ten ways journalists can use Twitter. Tenore's tips appear more relevant for individual journalists. The one that jumped out at me the most was the one on starting a conversation and engaging with Twitter followers, sources and other journalists. I follow several novelists who regularly reply to fans, followers and other authors, and to me it makes them more relatable.

The Slate article was thought-provoking as well. I found myself identifying with and understanding both sides in the debate. Had I been the one to write a story using someone's full name, photo, and tweets, I would have asked permission, not because it's definitively journalistically necessary, but because I think that's what should be done. There is still somewhat of a gray area in regards to how social media postings can or should be used in reporting. If the field as a whole is going to make a statement on responsible use in terms of standards or ethics, the conversation needs to happen sooner rather than later.

Twitter Articles

It is interesting that 30% of Americans get news from Facebook, in comparison to the 8% of users that receive news from Twitter. I was taken aback that the article said that Twitter users were also more educated and implied that they were more engaged. Despite my surprise, it does make sense that people who get news from Twitter are a little bit more engaged that those who receive news from other forms of social media. Personally, the social media platform that I most avidly use is Twitter and I feel more informed than I ever have in my life. I think Twitter is really good about giving real-time updates on the happening stories, and I enjoy links to interesting articles and think-pieces on current events.

We've talked about media fragmentation and how that has been a landmine in the journalism industry, but with Twitter I enjoy being able to get news from so many different sources—and thus, different perspectives—with the scroll of a thumb. What makes Twitter so unique as a news source is the way it disseminates information. Breaking news is never hard to find—even if you don't intentionally follow news sources, your timeline will likely be talking and retweeting about it—and updates are readily available, even after stories go off the major airwaves. Just today, I have been in tune with the outpouring of anger of Ray Rice's domestic violence video, and read a story about GoFundMe taking down an abortion fundraiser after a anti-choice protest while allowing dual-fundraisers for Ferguson police officer, Darren Wilson.

Twitter articles

When reading the articles about Twitter as an emerging news source, a couple of things stood out to me. I thought the statistics in the Twitter news consumers article were interesting. The fact that those who use Twitter as a news source tend to be younger was not surprising, but the fact that the Twitter users are more educated. “Four-in-ten (40%) Twitter news consumers have at least a bachelor’s degree, compared with 29% of the total population and 30% of Facebook news consumers.” (Mitchell and Guskin) When I think more about this it makes sense, but I never thought about it before. I only recently started getting my news from Twitter. Now that there is so much news out there it can become overwhelming so I finally gave in to using it for news.

I also thought the statistics about how people’s opinions changed regarding major issues after they’d been on Twitter were interesting. I think this is one of the reasons Twitter is an important tool for journalists. Twitter lends itself to the evolving nature of news stories, which allows journalists to get the story out as it develops.

Twitter response

One of the more surprising things I discovered when reading the articles on Twitter was how few adults really use it as a source of discovering news. Twitter has become an integral part in how I learn about news stories, and it's one of the best ways to get information quickly, especially on the go.

The importance of headlines was very interesting in the New York Times, and that even though everyone wants to create the headline that is catchiest or most tantalizing, the headlines that were more often clicked on and retweeted were the ones that simply stated the facts and delivered the most information.

In the Poynter piece, Tenore delivered excellent ways on how Twitter can be a useful tool for a journalist, a most of them focusing on the immediacy of Twitter and its sense of community. I like the idea that Twitter is a conversation, and it's one that happens virtually in real time.

Twitter Article Responses

             The New York Times Media Desk article was interesting because it talked about integrating reader engagement, so people who work there have the job of seeing what tweets work and which ones don’t work. Since I’m a new user of twitter, it was exciting to read and realize how important twitter really is to news. People (mostly the younger crowds) don’t sit around their TVs waiting for new information on breaking stories. Twitter gives them those same stories much quicker and more efficiently because you can filter out what you don’t want to know about.

            In the Twitter News Consumers article, it was surprising to read about the number of people that get news from Facebook. As a user of both Facebook and Twitter, I feel like the more accurate news comes from Twitter. You are getting more from professionals through Twitter, and you don’t have to sift through useless information as much, like you do on Facebook. This article, however, also talks about the shift from news reports to public opinion, and how both are very accepted on Twitter. People may want to know the facts to the stories, but they also want to know what celebrities or their friends on Twitter think about it also, which I thought was a good balance of information to keep people interested.

            Is All of Twitter Fair Game had a pretty compelling argument. I agree with Nolan in the article because I believe that people that are posting things to Twitter know that it’s all going to the public and it can be accessed by pretty much anyone. So it’s really possible for people to use you as a source anytime if you’re the one who posted something about your opinion and let the public see it. Also, I feel like this new era of technology and new ways of reporting calls for a new set of guidelines. Everyone is going to have their own opinion as to whether it’s right to use Twitter as a source or not, but we cant keep sticking to the old ways of arguing this because it doesn’t pertain to all these extra and new aspects or reporting.

            In the article, 10 Ways Journalist’s Use Twitter article, very helpful advice was given about the good side or benefits of using Twitter as a journalist or aspiring journalist. I haven’t tweeted anything myself, but this article advises taking advantage of being able to tweet anytime. Reporting stories through Twitter can be a good way for a journalist to practice his/her storytelling. It’s also a way of selling yourself (or your stories) to the right audience. If someone who hasn’t seen a breaking story yet, and they come across yours, then your story is going to be important and memorable to that person. Also, I agree with the article, and I think it’s important to think of Twitter as a way to build your credibility as a journalist. The Twitter world has so many misreported stories, so it’d be good for you to be one reporter that Twitter users see as reliable and trustworthy.