Exploring the Media's Twitter Obsession

Why are journalists falling all over themselves trying to figure out Twitter? Because the social network is growing at epic pace, from alerting the world to breaking news to providing sources and a media audience.

In a MediaShift story, journalist Alana Taylor, a student at New York University, reports on a recent panel discussion, "Journalists and Social Media: Sources, Skills, and the Writer." MediaBistro organized the event. She writes:

"Journalists are obsessed with Twitter. Obsessed. They use it, talk about it, analyze it, deconstruct it, reconstruct it, love it, hate it, capitalize on it, become experts on it, monetize it, argue about it, and become micro-famous on it. They are mesmerized with what it is and they are as giddy as Tom Cruise on Oprah just thinking about what it could be."

She goes on to share what panelists had to say about Twitter as a reporting tool and its place in the evolving media.

Attached to her story is this MediaBistro video featuring the panelists discussing social networking and the future of journalism.

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Newspapers 2.0: Reinventing the Media

Newspapers, it would seem, are rapidly coming to the end of their press run. It's shocking to many just how fast the bottom has fallen out of the industry. (Penny stocks, anyone?)

As they struggle to continue their print editions, newspapers are joining in the scramble for the elusive online business model that will keep them the premier information providers in many markets.

In today's edition of MediaShift, Mark Glaser surveys the alternative business models that newspapers are trying in order to survive into the next decade.

Obviously, newspapers spent way too much time counting their profits and not protecting their information franchises over the past decade. Now faced with reality, most still don't get it. It's not just about making the transition from print to online, but evolving to become the go-to source of information and related services in their markets.

Which brings me back to Charlie Beckett's notion of "supermedia," where journalists and consumers collaborate through a variety of evolving media, including Facebook, e-mail, Twitter, and whatever comes next in the social networking revolution. I don't think it's enough for newspapers to evolve into and create local "portals," which just look like another place to hit readers with ads.

Media entities -- for-profit and non-profit alike -- have to find new ways to add value for some next-generation audience of media consumers. A daunting challenge, indeed.

Other industries have had to reinvent themselves, and not everybody has survived. Why should newspapers be any different?

Note: This just in ... study shows just how cautious newspapers are toward new media. See Reportr.net.

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(Photo credit: "The Newspaper on the Press" by Vin Crosbie, courtesy of Flickr.com)