The main reason – because you have to get people to follow you in Twitter.

Sure, if you’ve got 10,000 people following you, then you can post something – and it’ll get out quicker than the mainstream media – but if you’re one guy – and there’s hardly anybody following you – then the chances of anything you post getting “out there” is limited.

Personally, I think twitter is like hitting “reply to all” on your emails – or everytime you send an email – you send it to everybody in your address book.

I can see how Twitter *could* be useful – but everytime I check out somebodies Twitter feed – all I see are responses to other people – and none of the context to know what they’re talking about – and tons of random stuff that I’m not interested in. Or tinyurl links – that I have no idea whether or not I’d be interested in what the link is to.

Personally, I think it’s a fad, and people will get tired of it.

I’m only interested in a few activities, like Live Shows with my favorite online people.

I really don’t care if someone had roast beef for lunch, what time they went to bed, etc.

And I don’t even look at any of the News Stories on Twitter.

That’s one reason I drastically cut down on the people I follow.

I tweeted from the Detroit Auto Show’s press preview days last week, pushing photos up to stream as I walked the aisles. While my primary focus was to capture video, Twitter provided immediate coverage for my audience. (I was informed that show rules did not allow video streaming from the show floor.)

In the midst of a lightning round of snapping and tweeting on Tuesday, Senator Corker arrived on the floor, instantly creating a media swarm. I snapped and tweeted the madness as it happened, but didn’t have the chance to write up a post until I got back to the ranch …

http://www.mpgomatic.com/2009/01/14/senator-corker-goes-to-detroit/

1) Oh that story, saw that on twitter!
2) Oh, yeah that one on RSS…
3) Oh hey, that’s when…saw that on Twitter…

At this point, anybody that’s near an event can get the word out all over the world within the time it takes for that person’s polling to refresh. I found out about cranes falling down in Manhattan via Social Media. I found out about the plane in the Hudson via Social Media.

“The News” is too prepared, produced and calculated to be fast / immediately relevant. The only advantage they have left is helicopters. Services like Qik are about to make those obsolete as well when the average joe standing next to an event gets his phone out and broadcasts it live all over the planet.

There are so many tools available to the public now that it will be difficult for the MSM to maintain the traditional formats and methods for delivering the news.

For instance, I don’t see how most magazines can survive much longer. I follow the automotive industry (among others) and read stories on automotive web sites and blogs two or three months before they appear in magazines. It’s just the nature of the medium; it takes a good deal of time to edit, layout, print, and distribute a printed magazine. With a web site/blog, the layout is probably a bit easier if not 100% easier, there is not printing to be done and distribution takes one click. Editing is the only thing that is equivalent, although on some sites I don’t think ANY editing/proofing is done.

I was getting information about the plane landing in the Hudson faster than my co-workers could get it on the MSM sites. I was following Twitter feeds…

As long as both social media sites like Twitter and Mainstream media coexist then all those who read the news etc. should be happy.

I think that Twitter certainly does a better job at getting news spread quickly, especially in the case of earthquakes etc. however I would say that, even in todays technology based world, not everyone has access to something like Twitter; making the news on TV a neccesity for these people to follow current-affairs.

Nice blog post, Chris. :).

I like to receive updates on news instantly on Twitter, within an hour or two a few blogs will have picked up some details, and the next day I’ll see a detailed report on a mainstream site.

All of these steps are important to me, but if I had to pick one as most important, I think it would be blogs, not Twitter.