Would you like it if you had a trusted friend who read the paper for you every morning and watched the evening news and gave you the important headlines? Maybe clipped the most important stories so you could read them yourself?
For many readers, that would not be enough to satisfy their news itch. But for some busy folks — especially busy younger folks — that is the exact value that the social media service Twitter provides.
Many news organizations — The Atlanta Journal-Constitution included — have found Twitter to be a valuable way to reach busy news consumers and draw them into the news. Journalists broadcast, or “tweet,” headlines and links to articles via Twitter on the Internet. Readers follow various news organizations, news personalities and, of course, friends and colleagues who not only recommend and spread the news (re-tweeting); they also post their own activities and thoughts.
Tori Pierce gets most of her news via Twitter and she takes it a step or two further. “As soon as I see something interesting, I have re-tweeted, emailed, Facebooked and verbally let everyone know about it in less than five minutes.” Pierce said in an email interview. “Sometimes it is scary how fast news can travel.”
As a marketing intern at a local Web company, Pierce keeps her Twitter feed open and is quick to share anything hot. “This is where I act like the ‘news anchor’ at work and with my friends,” she said. “I am usually the first to find out and let everyone know.”
Sometimes, the news on Twitter is especially relevant. Pierce recently learned about a midtown shooting via one of ajc.com’s Twitter feeds, @ajc. She and colleagues at work had planned lunch near the shooting, so they quickly chose a new location. A few hours later, she learned that one of the people injured in the shooting (now recovering) was a sorority sister at Georgia State.
Bryan Tyson, a self-described news junkie, grew up reading a print newspaper and says Twitter has changed his news habits. “My TweetDeck stays open at my desk and I check my iPhone Twitter app frequently.”
The Atlanta attorney said in an email interview that his dad recently asked which websites he follows for news. “It occurred to me for the first time that I don’t go to websites for news anymore. I get my news from Twitter, primarily from following news organizations like the AJC and also from following individual reporters.”
Tyson used to rely on email updates from news organizations for breaking news. Often now, by the time a news alert arrives, “I’ve known about whatever the news was for at least 15 minutes because I heard it through Twitter first.”
Like thousands of others, Tyson first learned of the killing of Osama bin Laden via Twitter.
AJC breaking news manager Scott Peacocke says such breaking news updates are a staple of Twitter, including crime, weather and especially traffic. Many people check Twitter before their commutes.
On serious news like crime, the updates are straightforward. But should you become one of AJC’s quarter-of-a-million Twitter followers tracking breaking news or individual journalists, you will quickly learn that many of the newsroom’s tweets take a humorous tone. The newspaper has become so known for its lively and engaging Twitter attitude that it was named a finalist for a national award known as the Shorty, a play on the fact that Twitter updates are limited to 140 characters.
I asked Peacocke why AJC journalists take such pains to work humor into their tweets.
Peacocke thinks it is important to let our followers know the account is not manned by robots but by real people who are responsive to questions and interested in receiving news tips. “By delivering news in an offbeat, humorous and entertaining way, we’ve made quite a few people appreciate the value of knowing what’s going on,” Peacocke said. “We’ve actually had a few folks tweet that they’ve started taking the paper because we made them feel better about keeping up with what’s going on in the world.”
I obtained reader interviews for this column using Twitter. I’ll write about the use of Twitter for reporting in a future column.
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