Twitter....is it worth it?

Since its launch in July 2006 the "social networking" website Twitter has become one of the biggest topics in journalism. While many people in the field of journalism are on and using Twitter one does have to stop and ask, what is so spectacular about it?



Lets break it down with what Twitter is and what it accomplishes. The site was founded by the American team of software architects and business men Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone (who also helped to create Blogger and the website Xanga) and Evan Williams. While Twitter is considered to be a "social networking and micro blog site" like the websites Myspace and Facebook, some journalists use the site as a tool to find news events while they are happening.

So what does Twitter accomplish?

Well for those who use Twitter, especially journalists, news events or stories can be accessed quicker and with more results than in the past. By reading "tweets" or what a Twitter user posts on the site, journalists can get a heads up on events or actions taking place as soon as they happen without going to sources like the police or officials first to find what stories are happening or have happened. Twitter can also help to ease the woes of journalist seeking stories by more than one "tweet" on the subject being posted.

Sounds pretty cool, right?

While the aspect of Twitter seems like a good idea with good intentions let us not forget that wise saying of "the road to Hell is paved with good intentions".

Twitter is new, Twitter is hot, Twitter is the in thing, but does this make Twitter reliable or efficient in the work of news gathering and with journalism as a whole? No. Just like the previous sites of Myspace and Facebook, Twitter is a self proclaimed "social networking site" which offers things like updates being sent to your mobile phone and email (just like Facebook and now Myspace) but in the end it is just what it says it is, a social networking site.

On the other hand Twitter is a great tool if you know how to work it. I don't mean how to post things or to "tweet" as they say, I mean to find the truly newsworthy information that exists in the mass of ideas, emotions, and just general human products that flood the site.

The one thing that journalist really need to learn is that Twitter is a tool, not the greatest tool, just a tool and that it should not be relied on heavily to fulfill the duties that journalist once performed without the aid of computers and the Internet.