Open Journalism & the Open Web

Also, a friend of mine, an old-school journalism guy (also an author and TV producer) my about age (mid-50s) posted this in his blog:

http://networkedblogs.com/8x87J

September 30th, 2010
Twitter is my new morning newspaper…

twitterWhen I talk to some — not all — of my friends about Twitter, they immediately start making fun of it.

I don’t want to read about you having a cup of coffee.

I don’t need to know what you’re eating for dinner.

I don’t care when you take a crap.

On and on they go, not realizing that they are just proving they have no conception of what Twitter is and how ingenious it is. In fact, I find it so engrossing that many mornings I am pulled away from the newspapers (I still subscribe to two of them but only because my wife likes to read them the old fashioned way) and pulled toward Twitter.

It took my a while but I finally learned how to use Twitter and now it has become sort of a news wire of everything I’m interested in. For those who don’t know how Twitter works, it’s all about who you follow and you can follow pretty much anybody or any topic you choose.

For instance, I follow bloggers who are experts in the publishing world, yoga, fitness, photography, journalism, Brooklyn, New York City. I also follow news outlets and certain museums and bookstores so I’m aware of their events and speakers. I’m not immune to celebrity and like to follow people I find funny, like Louie C.K., Jerry Seinfeld, and Sarah Silverman. Quirky types like the writers Susan Orlean and Steven Elliott. I even follow Yoko Ono.

Mostly, I just read what they have to say and post my own quirky observations and blog posts but, if I choose to, I can communicate directly to any of those I follow and they often tweet back. It’s all pretty cool.

And it comes in handy for work too. The other day, I learned about a development in a story that no one in my office knew anything about. I read it first on Twitter! Today, I found myself watching a lecture I was interested in. Neither item was in either of the newspapers I read, at least not at that moment. Maybe the next day.

I remember reading long ago that newspapers someday — in the distant future — would be able to create and customize electronic versions specifically for a particular reader. Well, guess what? They’re too late. Twitter has already done that and done it so well that I cannot see any newspaper — except maybe the NY Times which remains an excellent read — catching up. (The Times, by the way, totally understands Twitter and its section editors and reporters tweet quite often.)

That’s why, these days, in the mornings, I find myself putting the newspaper down and firing up my netbook to log onto Twitter. I prefer to have my news and interests customized and that printed newspaper feels as stale as yesterday’s coffee.

Dunno if this is old hat, but I just found it: http://www.demotix.com
Is this a good or bad thing? Or rather, what's good or bad about it? It would seem that more journalists and lower barrier to being a journalist = better. But for me it also invokes the specter of outsourcing, the race to the bottom, and all that entails.

Obviously freelance journalism is nothing new - but is formalizing and streamlining the market like this helping journalists and news consumers, or just helping media corps cut costs? I'm divided.