Daily Archive

I found that Mandy Jenkin‘s post,’There’s a whole Internet outside of Twitter, so don’t forget it,’ was a good post after reading the fourth chapter of Mark Briggs‘ “Journalism Next.”

In ‘Microblogging: Write Small, Think Big,’ Briggs really emphasizes the benefits of microblogging. It assists in building interactive communities that allow members to quickly share and disperse news and/or information.

While the emergence of microblogging has allowed journalists and readers to respond and react to one another right away, it is important to note that not everyone is part of the microblogging sphere.

In Jenkins said that according to a Pew study, only eight percent of Americans on the web use Twitter, and of the eight percent, only two percent use Twitter on a typical day.

Jenkins wants us to remember that:

• Twitter represents a very small group of people.
• Re-tweets, replies and Twitters referrals do not adequately represent the interest or importance of your work as a journalist.
• Most people that use Twitter don’t use it to get news.

It is important for all of us, especially journalists, to keep in mind that only a small population uses Twitter to obtain news. Therefore, we cannot primarily depend on microblogging to get readers’ attention.

Jenkins suggests other avenues for reaching audiences, such as:

• Networking with other Web sites and blogs
• Buying advertising online
• Meeting people

Briggs taught me that microblogging is a very useful tool to reach out in order to be “in the loop” of everything that is happening around me. His chapter has inspired me to turn more attention to Twitter and microblogging sites, but Jenkin’s blog reminded me that not everyone uses Twitter.

While Twitter is an important news-gathering and news-dispersing tool, it is not the only one out there — and it is definitely not the only tool that readers use!