Scooping Where You Sleep
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Twitter is the ultimate instant news source.
Reporters have the ability to tweet from anywhere with cell reception or Internet access, and most put this on-the-go capability to use every day.
An article from Poynter. reported that because journalists were tweeting and updating statuses about being arrested at Occupy Wall Street. While this use of social media is effective, some critics argue that the arrested journalists actually scooped their own newsrooms.
Although an official statement was released by the journalists' newsroom denying that the employees' tweets scooped employers, there is an idea that other news sources could become obsolete.
The biggest (actually, shortest) obstacle for Twitter's takeover of breaking news is 140 characters long. Limited to 140 characters, Twitter is heavy with headlines but short on content.
For a quick news fix, Twitter should be the go-to; however, other media, such as print and online newspapers, television, and radio, are better equipped for whole articles and in-depth pieces.
Photo by Creative Commons
