Sampling Culture http://samplingculture.posterous.com Most recent posts at Sampling Culture posterous.com Sun, 08 Mar 2009 20:23:24 -0700 Twitter for everyone http://samplingculture.posterous.com/2009/03/08/twitter-for-everyone http://samplingculture.posterous.com/2009/03/08/twitter-for-everyone Since I wrote this post on January 23 2009, I've been on Twitter. Now with over 100 people that I'm following and 72 followers, I think I actually understand how Twitter works. Daily, I get updates from Richard Florida, George Strombo, Jay Rosen (NYU professor), Atrak, and an eclectic dose of friends and social media experts. I get updates from some of my favourite media groups too! The Agenda with Steve Paikin, The Walrus Magazine, and classmates... I enjoy getting links. Add me if you want: www.twitter.com/Amanda_C_U. I've been posting links of who I am interviewing lately: Rebecca from the Paradigm Shift Project, Mathew Ingram from the Globe and Mail, Brett Gaylor the director of Rip: A Remix Manifesto, Lesley from Globalaware.net, and others. So... come join the party! -

Twitter for Journalists

I’m Twittering Now

I’m embarrassed to say it, but I’ve been wondering for a year now what the deal is with Twitter. I first heard about it when Kat Angus, an editor at DOSE.CA, started posting Twitter status updates on her Facebook. Around the same time, Phil Barrett, a mobile and interactive marketing professional, also started referring to Twitter.

I thought I was savvy with online journalism - having blogged about music and created a podcast - but Twitter seemed more mystifying.

With the desire to immerse myself in online journalism, I signed up for a Twitter account. The process of joining was made easy by reading Twitter’s helpful FAQ.

Twittering for the masses

In a nutshell, Twitter is being used by people to send quick, frequent messages - tweets - from a computer or cell phone, that are then distributed to everyone following that person on various sites.

According to Sharon Gaudin, social networking sites are changing the way North Americans experience historic events.

Media_httpfarm4static_dgxaz

How journalists are using Twitter

Mike Miner, a writer for Toronto Life and a producer at TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin, spoke with me on facebook chat about Twitter.

Amanda: How did you first start using Twitter?

Mike: I took it upon myself to get every producer on The Agenda signed up. To be honest, I wasn’t really sure how to use it at first. But it was clearly an emerging site that was drawing a lot of traffic, so I figured we should be using it and learning with everybody else.

One producer, Dan Kitts, does a pretty good job of using it regularly, but all he does is post when he’s done something, like: About to produce a show on Iran, Just finished producing a show on Iran. It will air tonight at 8….

Not exactly scintillating. But it was good for me to watch this.

Amanda: How are you using it more effectively now?

Mike: On Twitter you’re being followed by lots of people, and you’re following lots of people.

Karl Rove added me… and a journalist I know and respect sent me a personal message based on one of my posts. So what you have here is a very casual, almost ambient, connection with an interesting pool of people.

People don’t read everything that you put up…it doesn’t make sense to make it a mechanical, scheduled part of your job.

Mike Miner also revealed that Twitter is great for journalists to do the following:

  • Float questions
  • Send a direct question to someone who has said something interesting
  • Add people who you saw at a conference or a news event.

At the end of the informative conversation with Mike Miner, he revealed that in fact he found two sources through Facebook yesterday. He said, these forms of social netoworking “show how the search for people is changing.” Indeed, these tools can be very useful if used wisely!

Permalink

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1547055/somethingnice.jpg http://posterous.com/users/he6h5y5Q4XfM6 Samplingculture.com amandatoronto Samplingculture.com