All a-Twitter
By Rick Devereux
Old versus new.
Paper versus monitor.
Reporter versus blogger.
We have all heard the grumblings for years, newspapers are dying and journalism as we have known it for more than 200 years in North America will have to change or fail.
The tornado that was the Michael Jackson overexposure that blew across everyone’s life the past weeks has apparently supported those in favor of the death of the classic journalist. Because people found out electronically, print is dead. Or so goes that line of thinking.
Michael Jackson’s death was not first reported in a newspaper or on a breaking news flash on CNN or even a local Los Angeles station. As a matter of fact, it wasn’t even broken on a web site, per se.
Paparazzi gossip site TMZ reported Jackson had a cardiac arrested, but that was first a story on the web site and linked to on TMZ’s Twitter account. About an hour later, that Twitter account reported Jackson died.
“We regret to inform that Michael Jackson has Died - Posted Jun 25th 2009 5:20PM by TMZ Staff”
It was not a citizen journalist, not a blogger, not even a full story. Just a scant 92 characters.
“We regret to inform that Michael Jackson has Died - Posted Jun 25th 2009 5:20PM by TMZ Staff”
That sent off a firestorm of electronic activity the Internet has never seen before. Ever.
The spike in web traffic slowed virtually every website everywhere. Here’s a snippet from a story that ran on KOIN Local 6:
The Internet slowed drastically as rumors spread about MJ’s health.
People flooded news sites like CNN and LA Times and TMZ to find out what was going on, but the real spike in readers came at MySpace, Twitter and Facebook.
Social Media guide Mashable has a story with graphs that illustrate the increased views.
Tech Crunch, which analyzes the Internet, also has graphs showing the number of Google searches for Michael Jackson by the hour.
Silicon Alley Insider is reporting TMZ.com traffic reached a new high Thursday, breaking the old record by 33 percent. Also, Silicon Alley Insider has a graph showing the spike in YouTube videos related to the King of Pop.
Breaking News Online is reporting AT&T set a record yesterday for the amount of text messages sent, breaking the previous number of texts sent on Sept. 11, 2001.
But the spike of web users also spiked the amount of rumors.
Last week, I learned through a Tweet that Steve McNair had died. When I told other people about his death and where I heard about it, a co-worker responded with, “So he’s as dead as Jeff Goldblum?”
Facebook and Twitter accounts had stories about Jeff Goldblum (or Harrison Ford) falling to his death while filming a movie in New Zealand. Goldblum’s agent had to issue a release stating the actor was fine.
The authenticity is understandably questioned. An old mantra in journalism is, “If your mom says she loves you, verify.”
So does this mean newspapers are dead and the web will dominate us all? Or does this mean the Internet is nothing but lies and rumors and hearsay?
I do not know.
Does it mean things are changing?
Yes, but what else is new? “Things” are constantly changing. That’s the nature of “things.”
Big jumps in technology have always had rocky beginnings.
The first newspapers in the United States had the publishers acting as the writers and the editors and the layout design and, well, everything. It was what small television stations today call “one man band,” where one person has to do all of the work.
Journalists in the 1700s regularly wrote under multiple pseudonyms, sometimes responding to their own articles and posing as concerned citizens.
When photographs were introduced, newspapers deemed it fine for bloody images of the Civil War to be printed on front pages.
Radio was first invented not for news transmission, but originally designed as an emergency beacon for ships at sea.
When television first appeared, the news anchors just read stories. It was like a lecture and, therefore, not very successful.
But, “things” change.
Newspaper journalists realized arguing with oneself was not just silly, but dishonest. Photographers and editors realized showing dead people on a battlefield was not appropriate. Radio personnel figured out the broader applications of wireless transmission. And TV broadcasters learned showing images on top of the story was more compelling.
So why should we think the Internet—a place designed for speedy change—will be static? Why should we think the Internet and those using the Internet are fixed on how to do “things.”
Twitter, in its short lifespan so far, has evolved into something much more than just 140 characters of what someone is eating or watching on TV or buying at the store.
Now, businesses can promote products, celebrities can announce appearances and co-workers can share ideas quickly.
Could it be done through email? Sometimes, but that would mean the sender would need a whole lot of email addresses.
As a journalist, I use Twitter differently than other people might. I am signed up for breaking news alerts from all of the major networks, newspapers, magazines and ‘important’ people (I consider Chewbacca, the Pope and Barack Obama as important, thank you very much) so I know what’s going on.
I used to wake up in the morning (OK, fine, afternoon) and read the newspaper. Then it switched to logging onto the Internet and grabbing my news updates either through my email or at a web site.
Now, I get more than 300 texts to my phone everyday, with about 75 percent (maybe more) news related, and most of those are from Twitter.
I just found out, or at least received notifications, that former boxing champ Arturo “Thunder” Gatti died in Brazil. I knew before anyone else in the newsroom.
The way we use Twitter here at the TV station is still being defined, but it has so far been used in one of three ways: to promote, to inform and to solicit.
We often link to a story already written and posted. The hope is the headline grabs someone’s attention and they click on the link. Hopefully, after reading the linked story, they read other stories on KOINLocal6.com. At least that’s the plan.
The news (@KOIN_Local_6), traffic (@KOIN6Traffic) and weather (@forecastupdates) departments doll out information on a regular basis. The hope is it is information people find interesting or useful (Hedu Turkoglu changes his mind about signing with the Trail Blazers; a crash has slowed I-5, so take another route; it will be colder today than yesterday, so bring a coat).
And we also use Twitter to get feed back from our audience. What are your thoughts about 39ths Ave. becoming Cesar Chavez Blvd.? What do you think about the Recall Sam Adams effort? What are your thoughts about Michael Jackson? It makes the viewer feel like his or her voice is being heard, plus we really do like to hear from our audience.
But the bottom line on Twitter, Facebook and the new age of journalism is this: it, like every other line of work, is only as good as the people in it.
Luckily, KOIN Local 6 has great people here who really are dedicated to providing the best possible news coverage as possible.
