as a tool for journalismFebruary 2009

John Einar Sandvandwww.twitter.com/JohnEi

How a news story came aboutA Norwegian Twitter user sent out a photo of an airplane accident at the airport in Oslo. It was picked up by a reporter, who immediately wrote a story for Aftenposten.no

Gullreporter What is all this Twitter stuff?

- ???????

Aftenposten The idea behind Twitter is very simple: You write small status messages of maximum 140 characters. That’s really all you can do.

- what you do in 140 characters

Gullreporter But why so much fuzz about Twitter if all you can do is to write short status messages?

- ???????

Aftenposten Because this simple functionality opens for unlimited ways of using it. But a lot of it happens outside Twitter.

1. Registrer 2. Adjust your profile page 3. Start following someone.

You are twittering!

- getting started in three steps

Some basic functions

Main page: Messages from all you follow – open for everyone to see

Direct messages: From a person to another – visible only for the two of them

Who is following whom: Visible for everyone who wants to check

Gullreporter Help! Twitter is just chaos! I am overloaded by messages and get very stressed. Most of it is only noise or noisence anyway.

The biggest challenge

Aftenposten Twitter will be useful only when you creater order in the chaos. Know what you will use it for and get tools to help you

- create order!

Gullreporter OK – so tell me: What different ways can Twitter be used by journalists?

- ???

Aftenposten There are essentially four ways Twitter can be used by journalists:

- 4 ways of using Twitter

Aftenposten More than anything else, Twitter is a tool for communication. You can communicate with sources, eye witnesses, experts or others.

- method 1: Communication

Aftenposten By tracking the correct key words you may pick up dramatic events and important news stories very quickly

- method 2: Source for news stories/articles

Flight landing on Hudson River

Aftenposten Twitter can be an excellent tool for live blogging – with several reporters and/or readers sending messages to the same feed

- method 3: Production tool

Obama inauguration: VG.no (Norway) used Twitter

The Twitter feeds from reporters was transferred live from their mobile phones to the live blog

Aftenposten You can easily include pre-defined Twitter searches or Twitter feeds in an article : http://www.aftenposten.no/reise/article2900689.ece

- Import Twitter searches in an article

The example is made by a widget from http://www.tweetgrid.com

Aftenposten Twitter is yet another channel to distribute news – both as authomatic feeds or individual messages

- method 4: Publishing channel

Andreas Lunde, ABCnyheter.no: Live blogging from Gaza

Eye witness

Receives practical help from readers

Answers questions

Offers extra photos on Flickr

Tells about new articles

Aftenposten Four methods to use Twitter for journalism: 1. Communication 2. Source 3. Production tool 4. Publishing channel

- Summary

Gullreporter Wow! This is very useful! But how do I do it? Are there tools to help me stay on top?

- Staying on top

Aftenposten There are hundreds of tools. In fact these applications are as exciting as Twitter itself. Her are 5 tools you can use:

- The tools

Aftenposten The first tool is Tweetgrid. With this application you can get live updates on the search words of your choice

- Tool 1

Aftenposten Next tool will do some of the same, but in a different way: twitscoop.com It also visualizes trends in global Twitter usage

- Tool 2

Aftenposten Many choose to download dedicated applications to their PC which make it easier to use Twitter. Two alternatives: Twhirl and Tweetdeck

- Tool 3

Aftenposten Sometimes you need to find a specific person. One tool to help you with this is Twellow

- Tool 4

Aftenposten Many media companies establish Twitter accounts which autumatically push all new articles to its followers. Often Twitterfeed is used.

- Tool 5

Aftenposten And then a bonus service to those struggling to find interesting people to follow on Twitter. Follow: http://www.twitter.com/MrTweet

- No friends?

Aftenposten Here are two articles (in Swedish): http://tinyurl.com/aa89wv and http://tinyurl.com/al6ckv

- Twitter-ABC for journalists

Gullreporter This is great! I am in! Follow me at http://www.twitter.com/Gullreporter

- Follow me, follow me!