The New Age of Twitter Journalism

Holy crap, how old are you bro?

 

Kinda busy being a reporter these days ...

Watch practice. ... Tweet, tweet. ... Take photos. ... Shoot video ... Tweet, tweet. ... Talk to coach. ... Talk to star player. Talk to another star player. Talk to assclown star player. ... Tweet, tweet. ... Write story. ... Write sidebar. ... Tweet, tweet. ... RT, RT, RT, RT. ... Go home. ... Write blog. ... Drink heavily.

 

Just about every employment ad says they are looking for someone who understands the demands of a 365/24/7 business.

Can't blame them for that, I guess. But I'm getting paid for 250/8/5, and that's exactly what you're gonna get from me.

 

Just remember if you're in Reno, you also have to talk to the last player on the bench.

 

BTExpress, you honestly stop reporting news when you hit 40 hours for the week? "Check back with me on Monday morning," that kind of thing?

 

This is the generally accepted company line on this matter from a number of reporters I know, and I think it's bullshit. I can cover an event and tweet alongside it without losing anything. It's not a burden if you know what you're doing. That includes being smart about the news you break and how it's delivered.

I think it's a resource. I just don't see a tangible downside when it's used smartly.

 

I agree with this. Twitter never really had an effect on my process. However, taking photos? Yeah, it's tough to do that if you also want to keep accurate stats or take in more color from the game. Some people can balance it really well, but I always found that if I had a camera in my hands I was far more focused on taking photos or video as opposed to accurately documenting with my notepad.

 

I'm with sgreenwell. It's much more intrusive on my normal reporting to have to take video during an interview than it is to tweet updates during or after reporting of news.

 

I'm a desker. Will sometimes work the 9- or 10-hour day, but those hours always go on the timecard. Schedule makers know that "only use BTExpress for a 6-day week as a last resort." Have only been asked to do that once this year.

I have long crossed the bridge into the land of time > money.

 

Thanks BT. A little easier to take that stand on desk than on a beat ...

 

I remember working on a metro sports desk in the mid-1990s. Beat reporter covering the local pro team was often sending funny little messages about the goings-on at the yard back to the newsroom on our SII Coyote system. Limited to 140 characters. Today, those messages are called Tweets, and it's one more way to connect with readers. It doesn't interfere with the reporting process at all, unless you're tweeting wrong or stupid stuff.

 

If, say, 10 percent of your online traffic comes from Twitter ... why would you not continue to expand or at least maintain your Twitter presence?

It's hard to quantify the value of a single tweet in terms of ROI, but Twitter shouldn't be looked at from a micro perspective, IMO. It's a macro thing. If it's bringing you a good percentage of your traffic, given the nature of social media itself and the virality curve associated with something like Twitter (the more followers you have, the faster they grow), why would you not continue to try to be active and expand your presence?