Can Twitter Be Considered Journalism?
Is Twitter Journalism?
By: Don Foshay
Due to the takeover of Internet and digital journalism, the actual meaning of journalism is changing. Now instead of going to a local coffee shop or convenience store to pick up a daily newspaper, people are just typing their favorite news source into their address bars. What is even more upsetting is that now people are merely logging into their Twitter or Facebook to read the latest headlines. One can now follow their favorite newspaper or news channel on Twitter and read the headlines right on his or her tweet timeline.
The questions that emerge from this new social media culture are whether Twitter is a place for journalism and how will the news being on Twitter affect the money aspect of journalism? Robert Quigley of The Statesman is a fan of social media. He says, “The dramatic technological changes that played a part in the news industry's well-documented problems have also opened opportunities for journalists to connect with the public on an unprecedented level.” So social media does have its benefits in journalism. People can now interact with the reporters via Twitter rather than having to write them an email or call them. Also, people are becoming more informed due to the brevity and the “short, sweet and to the point” nature of the tweets. Overall, Twitter has become quite an effective way of reporting the news thus helping accelerate the field of journalism.
