Talk It Up!

Bin Laden's takedown: message over medium

Twitter won't change the world. But one citizen Tweeter providing news about the Bin Laden takedown did grow the biggest story of the year

Twitter is a unique tool in that it is one part word of mouth, one part citizen journalism, one part opinion column and one part breaking news. It's not news that Twitter is used to break news. It is still news when Twitter users act as primary sources for events that are far beyond the reach of journalists.

Mashable reported that last night's Bin Laden announcement had the highest sustained Tweet rate ever, an average of 3,440 Tweets per second over the span of last night's events. At the event's peak, there were over 5,000 Tweets flying per second, more than even during the SuperBowl.

Last night, Twitter user Sohaib Athar (@reallyvirtual) unwittingly became a primary source for the Bin Laden takedown event when he reported helicopters in the area of Abbottabad:

This situation is unique because of the dearth of firsthand accounts of the event by news agencies. Athar reports on the lack of power in the area, indicating that there is only power available for communication six hours out of 24. Before journalists knew, before most citizens knew what was going on, Athar was innocently reporting live from the scene.

And without reporters on the ground, news agencies apparently bombarded the citizen Twitter user with requests for interviews and information into the wee hours of the night:

Currently, Athar has over 56,000 followers.

I have written that while Twitter is a powerful tool, it does not cause social change. People and the actions they take are the source of social change. However, in a world in which communication is scarcely powered and primary sources are rare, Twitter is a powerful tool for citizen journalists who may not have access to any other medium; in fact, Athar reports that he doesn't even have a television. In an isolated location with few news sources on site, one lone Tweeter can indeed make and break a powerful news story.

That being said, while this Twitter user proved to be an invaluable source for American news agencies hungry for information, it wasn't the only medium for spreading the news. For example, do you know how I heard the news? I was in the midst of a two-hour aqua workout, no iPhone around. And yet, as I stretched in the hot tub afterwards, a fellow gym-mate asked if I'd heard the news.

Yes, that's right. The biggest Twitter event of 2011, and I heard it from a live person. Good, old-fashioned word of mouth. The story carried because it had power; Twitter was merely an extremely useful tool for relaying the real-time story. The message is more powerful than the medium.

Links over coffee: the future of journalism

Journalism is changing every day, and so are the pundits' predictions about what will become of the institution of journalism, the journalists in school today, and newspapers themselves. Have trouble tracking the chatter? My streamlined picks for the most insightful articles on the future of news this week:

• Living Stories: NYT and Google produce jaw-dropping online journalism form
  Breaking with good list form and putting the best first: this really blew my socks off, and this is from a gal who reads a dozen articles a day about the future of news. But this IS "jaw-dropping," as the article headline states. In the midst of all the conferences about the future of newspapers, the future of journalism, and government bailouts for newspapers, finally someone has actually taken a look at how users consume news and created a form based on how we seek and process information--and that "someone" is Google. Plus the New York Times. Plus the Washington Post. Rock on. Get on with your own bad self.
• Next year's news about the news: what we'll be fighting about in 2010
  Another insightful post from Neiman Lab delineating the old battles (bloggers vs. journalists, for one) and what we'll be arguing about next year. Great focus on the new media ecosystem and pointed questions about how we will produce, digest, relate to and converse about news, journalism and journalists.
• Journalism's hottest job
  Not at all surprising, as newspapers scramble to find and create new business models and adapt to an information-hungry but pay-reluctant public.
• 8 Must-have traits of tomorrow's journalist
  Vadim Lavrusik's newest article on the future of journalists. He's dead on with his first requirement--absolutely journalists will fail without a sense of entrepreneurial spirit.
• VIDEO: Clay Shirky on journalism: "things will get weirder before they get saner"
  Clay Shirky's prognostication for the future of journalism: our concern should not be how to build a big, new institution but how to cull together the patchwork that journalism is today

Democratization of Information

Video of the Democratization of Information panel from #140conf in LA, answering questions such as:

• What is the value of community in news and information?
• How does real-time information contribute to democracy?

Panelists included Arianna Huffington, Jon Klein of CNN, Peter Hirshberg, and Caprice Young.

140Conf in Los Angeles, Day One

My favorite panels from #140conf in Los Angeles, Day One:

Public Policy & Law

Most useful and thought-provoking panel so far (yes, even more than Google Wave!). Panelists included @bretttrout, @glennm @adriandayton. A few things they pointed out:

• Tweets live forever, and everyone can see them. This implies abandoning your claim to your content.
• For that reason, it will be difficult to claim copyright in a single Tweet.
• Who owns what you post online? You, the site, your followers? A little bit of "yes" to each.
• Technically, reTweeting isn't "fair use" (because you're lifting 100%) and is illegal. Zounds!
• Employers should let employees use social media due to legal risk (underground complaining) & business risk (victories go unnoticed)

The Democratization of Information

• "This is the golden age to merge Silicon Valley values with editorial values" @hirshberg
• "Our job is to curate the audience" @hirshberg
• One difference today is that news organizations actually listen. @jonkleincnn
• "We can't be everywhere, but you can"--@jonkleincnn on crowdsourced media
• The phrase "golden age" is being thrown around a lot at this panel, indicating a rather optimistic view of the future of news, I believe.
• "The idea that there *was* a golden age when we always got it [journalism] right is a myth" @ariannahuff
• "The truth is not always to be found by splitting the diffrnce. Sometms, the truth is solidly on 1 side or the other" @ariannahuff

Also really enjoyed hearing David Saranga giving his case study on using Twitter to hold a press conference for the Israeli Consulate. I snapped this pic when he said, "People think that working at the Israeli consulate is boring" while showing how he used Twitter to get a Maxim shoot:

Also, Jeffrey Hayzlett's presentation on how they used Twitter to crowdsource a new product name. And hey, finally got to hook up with Bryan Person, talk Social Media Breakfast and grab lunch (had to stop by the Chinese Theater on the way, of course!

 

Also love that there is a sponsored cupcake station:

 
On to more sessions. Thanks to Jeff Pulver for organizing such an amazing day!

If you're a journalism major, you have a choice

Placeblogger's Lisa Williams just created a slideshow calling for recent journalism grads to join news startups (hers in particular--they're seeking two interns) instead of sitting and waiting for work. It seems the perfect cap to this morning's entry admonishing the twin journalism grads to get off their butts and actually write:

If You're A Journalism Major, You Have a Choice

View more documents from lisawilliams.

See? You won't even be considered without a blog, Facebook and a desire to immerse oneself in news.

Advice for new journalists: just write

In the search for interesting perspectives on the future of news for Knight Pulse's Twitter conversations, last week turned up this article in the New York Times. It's about the sad plight of two twins from Ohio with journalism degrees who have been on a fruitless quest to find work in journalism for over a year.

Presumably, the author wished to use the twins' situation to highlight the desperation of a new generation of journalists and the crisis of journalism today.

However, if you read the article, you'll probably notice what I did. There is something that these twins never thought to do. In all the details of the resumes submitted, cover letters composed and candy treats made, there is an obvious hole in their efforts, one that is most likely preventing them from getting work. 

Did you notice that they never thought to actually just write?

I'm reminded of the first and best advice given in every writer's group I've ever attended: just write. Write every day. Write a journal; write a short story; write a poem; write a blog. Just write.

As journalists, did they really expect to get jobs without practicing and promoting their writing every day?

Maybe they should read David Bear's 10 Hopeful Thoughts on the Future of Journalism, in which he advocates being your own papergirl, loving the topic you're covering and embracing technology. As Mark Glaser has pointed out, these days, journalists need to have a spirit of an entrepreneur. Gone are the days when a journalism degree will garner new grads a steady job at a mainstream news outlet. Instead, journalists are being creative and creating their own news outlets to fill local and online needs.

They aren't sitting around waiting for someone to give them a beat and pay them to write; they are finding a beat they love and creating the means to write about it. Look at Susan Mernit and Amy Gahran, who together have launched the local online press Oakland Local. Or the journalists formerly of the Rocky Mountain News teaming up to launch the online news magazine, Rocky Mountain Independent. And let's not forget Tina Brown's decision to leave the mainstream press to grow The Daily Beast.

So, a bit of advice for these young journalists:

• Stop looking for a job and go make one for yourselves.
• Find a topic or beat you love and make it your niche.
• Start a blog and write every day.
• Join a network of blogs or offer to guest author a post on your favorite blog.
• Start a Twitter account and post links to your favorite topic.
• Start conversations on Facebook about your favorite topic.
• Join a Facebook group on your topic and join in conversations there.
• Go to real-life events relating to your topic and meet others activists, writers and businesspeople in that field.
• Read Mashable's How to: launch your indie journalism site

Malcolm Gladwell told Time today that "the role of the generalist is diminishing;" the future of news is specialization. I'm not sure that's 100% true, but having a beat that one is passionate about is as essential to journalism as it is in life. My opinion? These twins should go find that passion and make it work for them.

Hashtags help Atlanta

This week, Atlanta has been awash with flooding, with water reaching waist-high in some areas as residents try to save their families and a few belongings.

It's not the news media that is reporting up-to-the-minute information to aid the citizens of Atlanta, however; it's hashtags, as Andria Krewson has noted.

One hashtag in particular: #atlflood. That tag has provided a stream of content for residents to stay informed of new areas of flooding, road closures and even information on when and how to boil safe drinking water. As the flood waters rose, the information stream helped victims and concerned citizens connect, update and educate one another with the latest news.

A lot of questions have risen lately on whether Twitter and other social media platforms are "real" journalism and whether they will replace traditional mainstream media reporting. In a Twitter discussion in the Knight Pulse community, which is designed to discuss the future of news and information needs in a democracy (full disclosure: I'm Community Manager there and handle the Twittter stream), the question arose again today. This time, one member had an insightful comment:

Indeed; why not both? Twitter has its strengths. A TwitPic of flood waters was posted immediately and garnered tens of thousands of views by followers hungry for information:

And the LA Times' coverage was just as newspaper reporting should be: thorough, fact-checked, well-structured, and posted a few hours after the barrage of Tweets and TwitPics that represented bits of citizen information reported via the #atlflood tag. This type of reporting has value. As consumers of news, we have come to expect a level of professionalism and reliability from news outlets such as the LA Times. While we might not be inclined to disbelieve , we also might have some skepticism about some of the news and observations posted to the Twitter steam.

In short, media consumers need both. There is value to the type of information that is available through tools such as a Twitter hashtag: breaking news on where flooding is getting worse, citizen photos, tips, check-ins for safety, advice on evacuation. That is, the type of news that is of immediate help to those in the midst of the situation. There is also a value to the reporting the LA Times provides, the type of aggregation of facts and analysis of the overall situation that is valuable to those not immediately affected by it but interested in the eventual outcome.

Both media can live happily side by side, I'm convinced. I would not want to see a world without responsible, fact-checked, analytical journalism any more than I'd want to see a world in which citizens couldn't communicate immediate news and needs via Twitter.

We need both. We have both. Let's use both.