Comments on: Revolutionary Twits

By: Daniel Bennett

Daniel Bennett — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 01:01:58 +0000

Thanks to Paul Currion for saying what I would have said before me. If you read the rest of my blog – see Bangalore post as one of many examples – you’ll see that I’m all in favour of journalists using Twitter. In fact, I’ve trained some of them how to use it!

My point in this instance is that nobody has come forward with much evidence that Twitter was the main organisational tool either before or at the protests. (Ironically, I’ve at least pulled some tweets together that might suggest an organisational role, which not many other people have done who make the claims for a Twitter revolution). Twitter was used, but was one of many tools. And I think there is a strong case to suggest that blogs, forums, text messages, emails and word of mouth were as important as Twitter if not more so.

There was some highly misleading reporting on this. It seems pretty obvious to me that ‘thousands’ of young people were not all Twittering in Moldova at the protests for the reasons I outlined in my post. And yet this was claimed by several articles.

By: Revolutionary Twits Redux at humanitarian.info

Revolutionary Twits Redux at humanitarian.info — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 19:33:32 +0000

[...] another thing to throw into the mix. Part of my thoughts (parts of my thought?) was generated by a post by Ethan Zuckerman entitled [...]

By: Paul Currion

Paul Currion — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 19:24:12 +0000

Well, that mash-up is great but it isn’t “international journalism” – if it is, then my desktop RSS aggregator (Liferea, if anybody’s interested) is also international journalism. Which it clearly isn’t. I’m still not convinced that Twitter is journalism, any more than a telephone call to my dad to tell him what’s happening is journalism – while all journalism is a broadcast, not all broadcasts are journalism?

By: Jon Thompson

Jon Thompson — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 19:13:38 +0000

Paul-

Interesting Moldovian mash-up via Trackernews.net: http://pman.cloudapp.net/

Twitter is international journalism.

Cheers,

Jon

By: Paul Currion

Paul Currion — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:56:26 +0000

Reporting – yes definitely, although I think it’s easy to mistake the stream itself for the water in the stream, if you see what I mean. Documenting – if we mean “documenting” as in recording an event in a reasonably permanent form, then absolutely not.

I get the sense that the international exposure here is at least partly because of the novelty value of Twitter. In any case, that novelty value will be gone within a couple of years at most, and then it will be business as usual. International journalism is over, I think, but Twitter can’t replace it.

By: Mikel

Mikel — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:45:16 +0000

Certainly early on the hype cycle when it comes to _organizing_ via social media, Twitter is particular. But on the _reporting and documenting_ side, we might be seeing something genuinely worth the hype. Certainly it raises awareness internationally. More, it gives unprecedented look at the detailed, individual actions and events that are usually lost, misrepresented, and glossed over as the “story” of an event unfolds. Even if it’s only a couple dozen twits, that’s sufficient. What we may see is the minute by minute social structure of a revolution.

By: Paul Currion

Paul Currion — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:04:43 +0000

I like the idea that he’s “my” naysayer… maybe I can complete the set? I don’t think Bennett’s take is that Twitter is useless for journalists – who are clearly now pulling it as a resource – but that claims about how it was being used to organise the protests are largely without substance?

By: Jon Thompson

Jon Thompson — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:56:35 +0000

FYI – Inside Moldova’s Twitter Revolution (http://tinyurl.com/dmvwrc)

By: Jon Thompson

Jon Thompson — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:51:26 +0000

Interesting that your nay sayer, Daniel Bennett, sits at the BBC. The other night when the earthquake hit here in Rome I immediately jumped on Twitter and started posting. It led to me doing a live interview with the BBC. As my name scrolled across the screen I watched the presenter’s lips moved and I heard the questions through my mobile. Here’s my Tweet:

aidworkerdaily: Just did live interview with BBC.

It’s a shame my 5 minutes of fame came on such a tragic night and at 4am. Perhaps Daniel should should ask BBC’s @nathan_williams what he thinks of Twitter.