Comments on: Bin Laden is dead: Twitter buzzes

By: newsreporter2

newsreporter2 — Tue, 10 May 2011 03:18:20 +0000

Excellent insights. I definitely think Twitter is changing the way we break and consume news. I know it’s true for me at least. I stayed up until 3 a.m. the night of the announcement, glued to Twitter and Facebook – not a television set.

By: EricDrew

EricDrew — Wed, 04 May 2011 05:54:54 +0000

I liked your Reuter’s article re the reporting of the death of Bin Laden via Tweet’s

Thought you might like the ‘linked’ newspaper ‘extra’ from The Healdsburg Tribune, my home town, Healdsburg California.
On 11.09.1918, two days before Armistice 11.11.1918, the local press was able to get’breaking international news’ to small town newspapers within hours of events in Europe. And distribute it to the local population.
The Healdsburg Tribune was proud to announce at 2:18 pm on Saturday November 9, 1918 that ‘The Kaiser has abdicated the German Throne’
Healdsburg, CA is a small town of 11,000 people today. In 1918, it was a town of about a 3,500 people and had two newspapers.
As evidenced by the this ‘extra’ from the Healdsburg Tribune, it looks like Twitter has taken 92 years to cut the news cycle from hours to minutes.
see
https://picasaweb.google.com/ericdrew/He aldsburgTribune11091918KaiserAbdicates#

So Twitter is not about speed, but about breadth and changes in editing. Reporting is now from everywhere/anyone to anyone/everywhere, with limited editorial input. Editing has shifted and is now based more on the consumer’s personal choices, to relationships with ‘the journalists I follow’
The consumer of news now needs to decide where to spend their time and who to read.

By: LaurieMeisel

LaurieMeisel — Tue, 03 May 2011 06:03:08 +0000

“Is Twitter changing the way we break and consume news?”

No, Twitter has CHANGED the way we break and consume news. Like it or not, the transformation has already happened.

For myself, I found out about bin Laden via a phone call from a friend, who discovered it from her teenage daughter on Facebook. I turned to Twitter for confirmation and to see how the world was reacting.

The journalists I follow on Twitter, such as Lauren Young, were finding and sharing the same updates I had. Details were unfolding in real time and before network TV news could show images of people in Times Square and at Ground Zero, I had already seen and felt the passion of the people who were *there* and uploading images and tweets.

Twitter is a part of the new model, until the next major networking tool comes along…

@LaurieMeisel

By: plubold

plubold — Tue, 03 May 2011 01:22:29 +0000

Twitter became the virtual newsroom. I first learned something was up when I saw the WH tweet that president would speak – and they only gave the press an hour’s notice. People were asking questions and checking sources in a rapid fire pace. I was glued to my iphone. Twitter was breaking everything.

By: claibornem

claibornem — Mon, 02 May 2011 21:02:02 +0000

Very true and timely. I find myself increasingly turning to twitter for news, especially during breaking events like last night’s. Raw and messy it is, but dynamic and exciting, too – and sometimes first with big stories. I’ll read the news analyses later – sometimes finding the best ones via links on twitter.

By: rachorch

rachorch — Mon, 02 May 2011 19:20:36 +0000

Thanks for your post, I use twitter all the time and it really got me thinking allot about the different things twitter is used for. oh and I am following you after you’r post

By: heymarci

heymarci — Mon, 02 May 2011 19:16:58 +0000

I’m in the Jarvis camp. Twitter seems to have many defining moments. But I think it feels like “the” defining one when the thing people are tweeting about is something you’re paying attention to or living through. Thanks for this post, Lauren. Really got me thinking!

By: Adam9309

Adam9309 — Mon, 02 May 2011 19:12:08 +0000

I live in the UK, and have been watching the coverage on international news stations all night, and throughout the day today. It’s been a very bizarre day, filled with so much joy for the US, but at the same time, giving us a scary outlook on what is only the beginning of the end of the War on Terror.

There aren’t many days that define a historical event so long after it happened. However, the use of social media actually breaking the story of Bin Laden’s death has helped show what the world will be like when the mass media conglomerates that control the news we view are defunct, and social media, controlled by me, you and millions of others, help show what truly happens in the world.

By: lyoungny

lyoungny — Mon, 02 May 2011 16:44:48 +0000

I got this email from a friend based in Afghanistan: The tweets in this part of the world were equally interesting…

I don’t believe that Rummy’s spokesperson got the scoop though… in the middle of the night here a Pakistani civilian in Abbotabad tweeted about some helicopters, a helicopter crash, etc. Waiting for the news
stories on that.

By: lyoungny

lyoungny — Mon, 02 May 2011 14:29:06 +0000

After I wrote this late last night, I learned that Pakistani civilian was live Tweeting the raid on bin Laden’s hideout, although he didn’t know what was going on. We’ve got coverage here on Reuters.com http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/0 2/us-binladen-twitter-idUSTRE7412MW20110 502