Newspaper journo assesses Twitter

The news, from Tweet Street

GORDON FARRER - The Age - November 17, 2009
IF YOU'RE reading this column because someone tweeted you a link to it: Hi, thanks for dropping by. You're welcome to read on, but as an active tweeter you probably won't learn a lot from what follows.
If you're reading this in the Technology section of one of Fairfax Media's news sites: It's a pleasure to encounter a user of our online product. Please support the advertisers on this page - they need encouragement to keep giving us money so we can run the website. And, if you don't already do so, please also consider buying the occasional newspaper. Our hungry children will thank you.
If you stumbled across this page while flicking through the business section of The Age and after three paragraphs are still trying to work out what tweeting a link means, then stick around - this column is for you (and thanks for buying the paper).
There are countless paths to information in the digital age, many more than the three outlined above. But it's Twitter, the online social media platform that allows users to send 140-character messages to their pool of followers, that is revolutionising traditional media - possibly killing it.
It's a big call to pit the apparently flimsy, shallow Twitter against the might and history of traditional media such as newspapers. And, yes, giving away its product online undercut the newspaper business long before Twitter started nibbling at its foundations. But Twitter's ability to be immediate, local and finely tuned to a user's specific needs makes it a serious challenger to a range of media.
If you use Twitter wisely, it can be an efficient, invaluable filter for the mass of information that washes around the internet. Forget celebrities who tweet their slightest thoughts, the inanities of the posts delivered on Twitter's public timeline and the day-to-day musings of friends and family.They're fun and diverting and there's nothing wrong with that. We're talking here about Twitter as a work tool and disseminator of news in its own right.
By setting up a pool of tweeters to follow, you can create your own niche information service. The diversity and reach of the web means that there will be people with similar interests already tracking down and sharing sources of specialist information, whether you're into sport, politics, literature, business, technology or Calathumpian needlework. And it's a two-way street: you share what you find and your community of common interest is enriched. You might not be able to say a lot in 140 characters but you can send links to countless blogs and online articles and discussion forums that do.
That's the new model for how we will source and share information, including news. Newspapers are no longer the first port of call for many of those with access to the internet. More significantly - for newspapers, at least - newspaper editors are no longer the main controllers and disseminators of information.
Digital natives, those who have grown up with the internet in their mother's milk, tend to trust information shared by their peers and by people trusted by their peers.
They've replaced the newspaper editorial board with the community-of-common-interest board.
The challenge and opportunity for all newspapers is to reconnect with the twitterati by proving their value as useful, trustworthy filters of information, to engage with the digital generation on a more personal level, through not only Twitter but all avenues of social media. The alternative is a rapid decline into irrelevance.
If you think that's a point worth making, feel free to tweet it.
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