Social media is a major source of news for journalists, and, Twitter tops the list. Yet, in an attempt to consolidate its position Twitter, on Monday, unveiled ‘Twitter for Newsrooms’ – a portal for journalists. The media section of the site has been split into four new categories: Report, Engage, Publish and Extra. A newshound can check out the recommendations Twitter gives to those who want to use the site as a source.
About the new site Twitter said, “We want to make our tools easier to use so you can focus on your job: finding sources, verifying facts, publishing stories, promoting your work and yourself and doing all of it faster and faster all the time.”
Techradar says, “Twitter is already a handy tool for journalists, given the amount of breaking stories that appear on the site first and the rise of citizen journalism. However, there is no denying that unverified and untrue stories do frequently appear on the micro-blogging site so it is good to see Twitter developing a more formal approach to its media offering.”
Commenting on ‘Twitter for Newsrooms’, The guide, said, “It is a little bit obvious for anyone who uses Twitter on a daily basis. There’s no new info here, just tips on how to report, engage with other users and followers and how to use tweets in the process of reporting. But the fact that Twitter has launched an official guide for journalists is indicative of the impact of social media on the news.”
A Techcrunch post details how the ‘Twitter for Newsroom’ functions. “For those curious, Twitter’s (and obviously self-perpetuating) suggestions for using it to report include taking advantage of the new non-rate limited search and its advanced search tool that allows for sentiment analysis and other search drill downs,” it says.
Twitter is also promoting the recently acquired TweetDeck as a search managing client and Twitter for Mac as a tool to manage multiple accounts and lists. Reporters @katiecouric, @melissabell, @miltonvalencia, @brianstelter and @anncurry are singled out as examples of impeccable journalistic Twitter usage.
However, for many journalists ‘Twitter for Newsroom’ is not a valuable addition. Megan McCarthy Founder Editor of Mediagazer says, “ Twitter for Newsrooms is a bit redundant for me because Twitter is my newsoom.
Alexia Tsotsis Of Techcrunch agrees with this,“ Indeed, I’ve heard many journalists compare watching the news cycle on Twitter to being in a physical newsroom when breaking news would come in on the wire. Except now, instead of the modest hustle and bustle of a newsroom filled with tens of people, the “newsroom” experience of incoming and outgoing information has the potential to reach millions, with 200 million pieces of content produced a day.
Tsotsis proves this point by saying, “ I found out about Twitter for Newsrooms on Twitter this morning, initially through one online journalist’s tweet about Twitter launching a new “Advanced Search.”
Bill Jensen Head of Digital, Village Voice Media Says, “Twitter is a newsroom of sorts, though there is no editor. So it all depends on the credibility of the person who tweets the news. If Jeff Jarvis tweets something, I tend to believe it, factually. If someone random tweets it, even 100 random people I do not know, I am going to have to look at other sources to check it out and see if it is real.”
Social Media Network Facebook recently launched a Page for journalists, which is meant to be a source for journalists who want to incorporate social media into their reporting and networking.