Tweet! Tweet! What has the Media all a'Twitter?

At the beginning of 2009 Time Magazine’s James Poniewozik predicted that the social networking site (or micro-blogging site as it is also called) Twitter would not harm old media but help to enhance it. He asserted that it was inevitable that traditional media take a cue from new media and realize that the means for obtaining information has dramatically changed in our culture. He said, “the audience is no longer passive—it wants and expects to participate, even as it wants to make sense of the info deluge” (Time, p. 21, Jan. 12, 2009).

From what I’ve witnessed watching CNN in the last 12 months this certainly seems to be true. Twitter has had a major impact on how stories are delivered on the Cable News Network these days. The best example of this phenomenon was earlier this year during the protests in Iran following their major election, which was widely thought to be fraudulent. Because of the oppressive, largely government-controlled media in that country most of what we heard about the protests, and the violent backlash that followed, came from Twitter “tweets” typed frantically on Iranian’s cell phones while hiding from the police. Most of the images of the protests were also from cell phones of participants, and not necessarily from traditional journalists. Who could forget the emotionally gripping video of the young female music student who was shot in one of the riots? The images of her tragic death were also brought to the world via amateur cell phone video. It would seem then that Twitter is a hopeful new conduit of information for journalists and the media. As Poniewozik suggested, Twitter has, no doubt, led the media to some stories, and offered the public’s insights on major issues and events in our culture. The possibilities seem endless.
But not everything on Twitter is so profound. In fact, its content can tend toward the banal, for example, “I just went to the fridge to get some milk to go with my peanut butter sandwich,” and the like. Twitter is a social networking site and with all of its possibility come its flaws, but I think as a potential source for global news, particularly in countries where traditional media is stymied by government control, Twitter is not only a conduit of information, but perhaps a conduit of human rights. Tweet! Tweet!

For more information on James Poniewozik go to: www.time.com/tunedin