Readings in Review

I had done my independent study reading from a couple weeks ago, but didn't have a chance to comment in a blog post until this weekend. While I was not required to discuss last week's readings, a few things stuck out and I wanted to make sure I noted those things in a more visible and permanent setting.

One of readings looked at Ron Sylvester, who is a court reporter for the Wichita Eagle, and how he effectively harnessed Twitter. He would tweet live from the trial with updates from the jury selection to the proceedings.

“We started this in jury selection because jury selection is one of the most boring parts of a trial,” he said about starting conservatively. “We actually started getting some response.” ...

“By the end of the trial we were getting a lot of reaction from readers,” he said. “People said they were sitting at work, refreshing the page over and over again to keep up with the trial.”

What made his tweeting so effective was not that people just followed him on Twitter, but that the paper promoted his tweeting on their website and embedded them into their website so people did not have to leave their current page to see his comments. His Twitter feed is also embedded in his blog, What the Judge Ate for Breakfast. In addition, Ron's tweets can be added to any RSS reader allowing feed users to follow his work without having a Twitter account of their own.

Many journalists are still in a trial and error mode when it comes to their usage of Twitter. How much should a reporter or paper tweet? Do they just promote their articles? Do they interact with followers? Orlando Sentinel's senior editor/online news John Cutter uses Twitter for important breaking news.

"If we think, wow, this is something I'd want to know right now -- the death of someone famous, a major road closure, charges in a significant ongoing case, something big from a major local company like Disney -- then we would Twitter it, as well as send other alerts," Cutter said.

A Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter Mónica Guzmán wrote a blog post in which she included tips from many fellow journalists and other social media users on topics ranging from case studies, resources, other journalists to follow, and suggested guidelines. All of the tips were collected via tweets.