Why Twitter isn’t everything to journalists – but it is amazing.

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This post comes out of a tweet by David Higgerson, the head of multimedia for the Trinity Mirror regionals.

I made the short response on Twitter. The long response is here:

Let’s not think of Twitter as one magnificent fix-all tool. We’ve never, ever, had that. A mechanic has never got a wrench and said “this is the best wrench in the world. It’s the latest and fits all things. It’ll solve all problems.” It just doesn’t happen.

Similarly, an airline pilot has never thought that flying a Boeing 747-400, fully laden, from Newcastle to London would work – It wouldn’t. The plane is too heavy, it costs too much in fuel. You would be better off with a small jet, like a Fokker or a BAE 146.

Why? Because different tools are good for different jobs.

Twitter is good, nay fantastic, at crowd sourcing opinion. That is essentially a buzzword, but it basically, it means Twitter is good at finding opinion. Have you ever sat and watched a TV show in the new form of two screen viewing – that is Twitter open on a smartphone or laptop, and the TV on the programme. Many, many people offer their opinions on the programme, to a ready and waiting audience, using hashtags. Other people respond, or just take it in. It’s not the best way in the world if you want to enjoy a good drama, but this piece by Lucy Mangen in the Guardian says it has saved event TV. She says:

“Watercooler moments”, whereby people gathered the next day at work to talk about a particular attention-snagging programme or plot twist, were deemed to have vanished. Now they are back. The only difference is you don’t have to wait until the next day to share your amazement, vent your spleen or bemoan the death/betrayal/surprisingly good profiteroles of your favourite character, singer or #gbbo contestant.

So, if you are a local journalist, working on a newspaper that may well be short of staff, or you may be required to file a zillion stories as well having 6 meetings before lunch, Twitter is going to be your way in. That’s the key. Way in. You can search for what’s happening, and see who’s affected by an issue. Then you can get a phone number or arrange to meet, and get an interview.

The other way of doing it on a local level is for major traffic problems, or snow, or something that affects many people over a large area. You can use Twitter then to publish opinions, written in the heat of the moment, to get a persons instant reaction, rather than considered opinion.*

You will be able to get pictures and opinions instantly, which you can use (with proper credit and permission)

The next benefit is a heads up on a story. Obviously, in an emergency situation like a fire, you call 999 first. When the fire brigade arrives though, someones is likely to tweet “Oh, there’s been a fire in such and such a road.” They may tweet a picture. That’s where your photographers and reporters swing into action. The best local news photographers have a knack of being able to be at places very quickly, as well as reporters. So, the reporter can speak to people at the scene, using good old shorthand or a voice recorder. The photographer gets the pictures that make the next days splash. The fire service give their account, and you get a more human story than regurgitating a press release or voicebank message later.

I am in no way saying that before the advent of Twitter we were better off. I am saying that, beforehand, there was a good source of the community who would ring a newspaper desk or reporter direct and say “fire at such a road” or “police are smashing a door in” and the reporter would be there quickly. That still happens, but now we have a greater source of stories from people who offer it up without asking.

Local news can also benefit from asking people. Twitter is great for that. Twitter helps get comments on stories when they’re published, but also comments on developing or skeletons of stories. A tweet may just direct you to a council meeting or a comment that you may have missed. A tweet may say “yes this proposal is great, but the traffic on my road is already bad” and that means you have a different angle on a story.

One of the more popular hashtags around news is late in the evening, and done by BBC man Nick Sutton. #tomorrowspaperstoday is when he tweets first editions of tomorrows front and back pages, minutes after being signed off and sent to print. It’s that sense of being first which I think people love about it.

As an end point – because so much has been written and I can’t add anything substantive at the moment to it – the other thing social media, rather than Twitter alone, was responsible for was the Arab Spring and uprisings. It helped, and worked alongside traditional methods of communication. It doesn’t mean to say it’s the sole way of doing the business, and the best. It’s not. It works in some situations (as detailed above), but not others.

I’m not going to go in too much detail, but would an investigative reporter tweet his or her daily life and what they’re doing? Not necessarily. It’s counter productive for obvious reasons.

It does mean you have to follow and know who’s who on Twitter in the area. Some great resources for using it are found on David Higgersons blog with his social media advent calendar, and Paul Bradshaw’s Online Journalism Blog, with his many post on the subject of Twitter.

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- I am @andrewstuart on Twitter if you wish to tell me why you agree or disagree.

*(I should point out that it’s illegal to use a handheld mobile phone whilst in control of a car, so always tell a passenger to do it for you when tweeting or taking pictures. Never do it until the car has come to a full and safe stop.)

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