Is Twitter Journalism effective?

Today society has several ways to find out breaking news. Breaking news is offered through cable networks, local channels, the internet, applications on a smartphone, and social media. One of the most important aspects that is changing the way society reads news is through social media. Social media consists of Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter. Recently there has been numerous articles related to the effectiveness of Twitter Journalism. Society wants to know if in fact these sources are factual and not a rumor.

If the sources are verified, I believe Twitter has a great potential for many different uses and applications. Twitter can not only cover live events but allow more than one user to have access to the account into to send live updates throughout the event. Twitter is most effective when it is used for its live updates. Not every journalist can make it to a popular function. Through twitter, the journalist can read updates about the event and report the news once it is verified. One example would be from a concert. A journalist could easily find tweets regarding this concert and use these direct quotes in their article concerning the event.

Twitter's only setback is the fact that there are some verification issues. Journalists must learn how to verify a tweet in order to make the information they provide factual. Additionally, it is important for the tweet to not be a rumor. These issues can be solved easily. The journalist should contact the account user and ask simple questions regarding the tweet.

Because of twitter journalism's simplicity, I believe it will continue to rise in popularity.