Breaking Twitter News, Citizen Journalism and NPR
Yesterday I popped into Twitter to see what my Twitteritas were up to, and GraceD had a link to her post on the earthquake in Mexico City. What is interesting about this - is that people broke the story with entries into Twitter. As GraceD calls it "Citizen Journalism 2.0":
"That this is Citizen Journalism 2.0, a mix of new web social networks and tools - Twitter, flickr - hooked in with blogs, webcast, chatrooms, video feeds, and mobile devices. "
All of the social networking and web 2.0 tools are giving ordinary citizens the access to post breaking stories, without delay, spin or editing. I find this type of information the most interesting to read. Some may say that citizen journalism is flawed because it does not go through an editorial process. I say that everyone should get the full story: mainstream news coverage along with the raw information available from citizen journalists community sites (Twitter, YouTube, Digg, Huffington Post, BlogHer) to see what people are really feeling. Or accessing mainstream media that have citizen journalism projects like MSNBC, New York Times and CNN. Along with Wall Street Journal building community with blogs and the interactive reporting of the Washington Post .
This is also a great opportunity to give children a different view of world events. But be careful, some of the information may be too graphic for young kids so it is important to pick and choose what citizen journalism or even mainstream journalism that you share with them. I do not know what the right age is to let them see the "whole" story. Maybe that should just be something that organically happens when they start asking. My friends with kids in high school said their sons learned many lessons on world events by listening to NPR while commuting to school. Not such a bad idea.....
Links if this leaves you wanting more:
Dec. 2006 providing a history of Citizen Journalism
June 2006 post on The People Formerly Known as the Audience.
Orginally Posted at Techmamas.com.
