And considering the SPJ is sponsoring a session Jan. 24 on using Facebook and other Web 2.0 as is Region 2 in March, this offers another look at reactions to the new technologies in news gathering.
Let's Twitter a reaction to the overreaction to...Twitter
By Charles Cooper
Each time our little world suffers a disaster, man-made or otherwise, count on the usual suspects to rush to their keyboards and pound out yet more bloviation about the existential importance of Twitter to our 24 x 7 ecosystem.
Before some of you jump ugly on me, let me hasten to mention that I've long found Twitter to be extremely useful. But how long before we can move past this "wonder of Twitter" moment? An earthquake in China, the Mumbai massacre, war in Gaza--Twitter's proved itself as a tool to report and comment on breaking news. If you haven't been paying attention, Twitter might seem wondrous. For the rest of us, it's old hat by now.
Yet so many of the usual suspects insist on remaining awestruck. So it was that today's U.S. Air crash triggered the predictable run of worshipful commentary. Silicon Alley Insider's headline: "U.S. Airways Crash Rescue Picture: Citizen Journalism, Twitter At Work," was representative of the chatter among the TechMeme crowd.
Maybe it was a slow day for some, but I cringed at the invidious comparisons drawn between the "mainstream media" and Twitter. By now, that's simply a cliche observation. Any news-gathering organization with any hope of surviving is reorganizing its operations around the best technology possible--and Twitter naturally figures into a successful plan.
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