I love how this story about journalism became a massive, widespread example of bad journalism. There is no "Twitter class." Students in a journalism class are required to send Twitter updates about their progress, and these updates are judged as part of their evaluation.
You make an excellent point re: this story being an example of bad journalism (and PR!) See my comment here & on Twitter (@julie_posetti)
elshbesh
· 1 month ago
I go to Griffith and as far as I know, it's not an entire class. I'm in my first year and I'm doing a journalism course this semester and we use Twitter just as a tiny part of our assessment. We have to write a series of articles and for each of them we post 6 tweets reflecting on our progress, the challenges we are facing and so on. We don't actually spend entire lectures and tutorials learning about Twitter, that would be kind of pointless.
Jacqui Ewart
· 1 month ago
I'm heartened to see one of my students getting it right. Those who erred in the re-reporting of this story should take a leaf out of elshbesh's post and get it right.
Rahsaan
· 1 month ago
I can understand a class on social media, but not on just one platform. Social media can come or go and change in an instant. Craziness is ensuing.
NetAntwerp
· 1 month ago
Quite frankly, if they aren't capable of writing elegantly short pieces of writing, they shouldn't major in Journalism.
Twitter symbolizes Viral Marketing, NOT high-quality Journalism.
Pam
· 1 month ago
Twitter symbolizes so much more than that if you really know anything about it. You can say the same thing about television and magazines & newspapers... all are used in a variety of ways for a variety of messages, none of which are solely inherent for that media alone. There's a boatload of low-quality journalism out there in all the "traditional" media markets that you are by inference touting. Twitter is neither all good nor all bad like any media outlet. It's up to readers to pick and choose where they get info. People used to say that television was a stupid fad that would never last... you see how that turned out.
NetAntwerp
· 1 month ago
> Twitter symbolizes so much more than that if you really know anything about it
So, "Pam", in your *opinion*, what does Twitter symbolize? Journalistic Dynamite? A place to spam annoying news headlines?
> There's a boatload of low-quality journalism out there in all the "traditional" media markets that you are by inference touting.
"low-quality journalism", e.g personal blogs, often carries more useful information than the dry, boring type of journalism.
Journalists can't kill off bloggers, and visa versa. So-called "pro" journalists have to live with it, like everybody else.
Besides, "pro" journalists AND bloggers have their uses in today's society.
julieposetti
· 1 month ago
Yes, it's great to see Twitter entering University classrooms and it's becoming an essential component of journalists' kit-bags.
But some perspective: this was neither the first time Twitter has been used in University journalism courses/incorporated into assessment (as some of the media coverage & the lecturer suggested) in Australia or abroad. I incorporated Twitter into a radio journalism class in September 2008 @ the University of Canberra, getting the students to live-report an election using the platform. That assessment was indeed a first (a media release was issued @ the time to share news of the experiment but the mainstream wasn't interested back then when Twitter was considered 'just a passing fad') And I wrote about it at Mediashift (and elsewhere) http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2009/02/how-journ...
Neither is this a whole course on Twitter - as has been suggested in some reports. It's an incorporation of Twitter into an existing course as a platform for the publication of reflections on reporting. Also good, but not unique, nor a 'first'.
And, next month in Sydney, I'm running a Media140 conference designed to connect professional journalists with Twitter & explore the way it's entered the media mainstream http://media140.com/sydney/
I'm hoping Mashable's journalism is lacking and the university is actually teaching a course more generally on "Journalism and Social Media" - because the idea that in four years, Twitter will occupy a similar mindshare as it does right now is a pretty big gamble. This is the internet. Four years ago, Twitter didn't even exist. In another four, we may have nearly forgotten about it.
jeffhammond001
· 1 month ago
Educating j students on communication vehicles is ok...for a survey class covering emerging media. Universities would be wiser to ensure that their journalism students can effectively analyze and report on statistics and mathematical concepts.
lakew00d
· 1 month ago
I agree with Monica Watson - a well-rounded social media class would be more helpful than an entire class on Twitter. And it should be required for Journalism, Communications and Media majors/minors. Better yet, integrate it into a class on media literacy and make that a required class for all freshmen.
Dr. Thomas Ho
· 1 month ago
I think that's what Griffith has in mind. I can envision a non-tech version of an experimental course http://cit499.info which I tried last spring for IT majors in which I used social media for instructional delivery. Furthermore, I encouraged my students to "build their personal brand" which I think would also be helpful for budding journalists.
Gina Cuclis
· 1 month ago
I think a class in social media is appropriate. But a class in just Twitter is a bit much. Besides, in a few years or less, there will be some other next big social media toy that we will all be talking about, and Twitter will be a thing of the past.
Francisco Saavedra
· 1 month ago
I laugh a little everytime i read something like this.
for some reason, people feel that Twitter has to be "relevant"... it seems that in all the hype surrounding it, we've forgotten the basic premise behind Twitter: the question "what are you doing?"
Thses days it seems more and more like the so called "social Media experts" are trying to turn Twitter into just another one way thing... the ones who are not trying to turn Twitter into an RSS replacement see it as nothing more than a tool for self promotion. It seems that in the rush to social media, we're forgetting the "Conversation"... we're all trying to put our message out there, but it seems that fewer and fewer people engage others.
I have always believed that you build the relevance of you timeline by choosing the people who are relevant to you.
Stephanie
· 1 month ago
I'm not sure Twitter deserves an entire class, but writing for Twitter isn't that far off from writing lead sentences and headlines where you need to get your point across succinctly. I often think of my days as a copy editor when trying to get my Tweets under the allotted number of characters.
advocatus
· 1 month ago
The question I have is how do they come up with an entire term's worth of material? Assuming the term's 3 months (which seems to be roughly normal - I think), that's a hell of a lot of time. Even if there is one 1 hour class a week, that's half a day of Twitter.
jessicabrogley
· 1 month ago
I would think it's just a one credit class. There's no way it could be fluffed into a 3 credit full blown course all by itself.
Alfred Hermida
· 1 month ago
Good point Stephanie. At the UBC journalism school this past week, we asked students to file their story leads via Twitter. The character limit means students have to be concise and succinct, and receive feedback from fellow students via Twitter, as well as faculty.
Monica Watson
· 1 month ago
I'm currently a journalism student at Ithaca College. I have to agree that this seems like a waste of time class. Yes, it's important to learn about social media/new media, but to have a whole class revolving around ONE website? That's a little much. Instead the institution should create a class that goes over many different aspects of social media.
Anne Stegen
· 1 month ago
Journalism is changing and this university should be commended for recognizing it.
As a J-student myself, I am glad that they want us to use Twitter as a tool, with two-way communication rather than just telling everyone what I'm having for lunch.
Name
· 1 month ago
Two-way is essential for any of these media to add value. There are a few tools out there, like www.tweetiator.com for twitter (which let's you see who is sharing your links) but nothing for facebook yet.
ceanf
· 1 month ago
twitter is not journalism. it is a internet gimic, not a journalistic tool. i think the university could use the time this twitter class takes up with something much more educational and constructive. plus the students are probably paying thousands of dollars per credit so that this university can 'teach' them how to write 140 character text messages that are posted to what amounts to a personal online message board. so those complaining that it is a waste of time have a completely valid point.
Kimberly
· 1 month ago
College students, namely journalism majors, need to be ready to roll with the punches. Things have changed since I got my journalism degree, but if writers want to get their message in an effective way, Twitter sure is one avenue they can't ignore. I think it's great... makes me wanna go back!
Mandy Corvo
· 1 month ago
Twitter is a pretty nice tool. Expect more university to use it in their journalism class.
marciamarcia
· 1 month ago
Pro: Real-world practice writing on point, fast. Con: Missed opportunity for a provocative online format.
@marciamarcia
OrangeBird77
· 1 month ago
Paying full tuition for a class on Twitter?? I'd have a problem with that!
Haumea
· 1 month ago
Here's a clue for you, kids: higher education is a scam.
Squeezing a whole class out of Twitter in this age of belt-tightening shows that some institutions need to be brought back to earth.
Matt
· 1 month ago
There is not an entire Twitter class. Students in a journalism class are being evaluated, in part, on their use of Twitter.
Sarge
· 1 month ago
Wow that is awesome! I studied Multimedia at Griffith University - Nathan Campus to be exact. How I would have loved to have studied a subject like twitter.
I think twitter is going to be around and powerful for a long long time. Especially now that major search engines are implementing it. It's quite funny to think I didn't even know what SEO was 2 years ago.
I'm loving online evolution. What's next? Bring it on!
Justin C. Houk
· 1 month ago
To be totally honest this seems a bit more like a publicity effort built on twitter as a hot brand. Hey look, our journalism program is cutting edge! We use Twitter!
Twitter is an excellent tool for journalists, however, it's one of many. I have to agree with others that one tool doesn't make for a whole curriculum. Online connection building, monitoring, and branding is multi-faceted. A class devoted to twitter does make for a good headline.
Justin Plants
· 1 month ago
I agree with stephanie, that writing for Twitter would help with headlines, etc. If someone is brilliant with Twitter updates, they'll go far in the journalism (or advertising for that matter) fields. If I were the University, maybe I wouldn't call it "Twitter" because what if there's a new more popular social media device 1 year from now? (remember how quickly FaceBook became the new MySpace?)
Craig Roth
· 1 month ago
I think it is a good idea. Use of Twitter as a broadcast tool, along with the quick feedback one receives from the community, would be invaluable to journalists who employ it.
...And if a student feels that strongly against taking the course, there ARE other universities in Australia, aren't there?
James
· 1 month ago
Come on. You can't get in detail with only 140 characters. This class won't make it past one semester. So stupid. What has this world come to? Geez...
Pam
· 1 month ago
You forget that of that 140 characters you can place links to longer articles. So you can get more bang for you buck, so to speak. It can be a very effective tool to spread news quickly. It may sound far fetched, but Twitter is a main news source for me, I follow many of the mainstream news outlets on Twitter and find out much quicker about breaking news that way when I'm at my computer and NOT near a tv or newspaper or magazine. Some news, like earthquakes and storms I find out about from people I follow around the world even before the news is able to report it. You can get an awful lot out of 140 characters... Geez
NetAntwerp
· 1 month ago
It's all about spamming the twitterverse with news headlines, James. I hardly follow people who spam links all the time - excess baggage.
Learn2fly3
· 1 month ago
I'm a senior undergrad in Advertising at the University of Tennessee and we've had social media uses and tools injected into every step of our curriculum. I absolutely think it's a crucial thing to add to communications programs. (Though I don't know if an entire class devoted to writing Tweets isn't something that could be included in a general social media class)
ashleydavidson
· 1 month ago
I don't think writing for Twitter should necessarily be a class. However, how to use Twitter in the journalism world is definitely worth learning.
davidonformosa
· 1 month ago
Kudos to the university for recognising the power and influence of Twitter. Being able to write a concise and meaningful 140 character tweet is just as much a skill as writing a 800 word article. However, I don't know if there is really a need for a course solely focused on Twitter. Writing for Twitter could be incorporated into a course about social media and blogging.
Anees Younis
· 1 month ago
Journalism is evolving in the digital age and the social media revolution means that is time for the field to acknowledge this transitional phase from simply printing newspapers to delivering your stories to a truly global audience.
Twitter and Facebook are no longer avenues that tomorrow's journalists can ignore. The immediacy and the potential target audience from such social networking platforms are two requisite factors that aspiring journalists simply cannot turn a blind eye to.
Seamus Condron
· 1 month ago
You could develop multiple classes on Twitter. Everything from philosophies, methodologies, case studies, etc. The platform's simplicity is what has made it so diverse in its uses. It should be studied in as many ways as possible. A "social media" class is like saying I took "media 101," therefore I am now equipped to be a "media expert." Things ARE changing constantly, so courses should be developed as quickly as things happen, especially in journalism. Based on what many of the commenters here are saying, we shouldn't study anything because it won't be relevant at some point. Pretty ignorant.
cd sieker
· 1 month ago
Twitter is a source for universities to use as an educational tool. The students get news as soon as it becomes available. The team they can build is among the best educators from around the world. Social media is a useful means of communication and way of gaining knowledge in diversified fields.
WomenCan
· 1 month ago
I think that if you are intelligent you will recognise that Twitter can be a very valuable resource for sourcing information, connections, etc. Learning how to navigate social media is like giving a journalist a digital recorder. It's equipment that will make their job easier. They will understand the benefit once they start to use the facility.
paramendra
· 1 month ago
I am surprised it took them so long.
Ellen
· 1 month ago
This is great to hear. I graduated with a journalism degree this May and already most of the stuff I learned is obsolete. Kudos to this school for keeping up!
nice post journalism major is promising But can Twitter make for a whole curriculum?
mytweetmark
· 1 month ago
Checkout http://mytweetmark.com :) The coolest way to share categorized bookmarks on twitter.
Joe Peach
· 1 month ago
We do something similar in my postgrad class. It's an MA in the Creative Economy and everyone in the class has twitter accounts and we all use it to communicate with each other away from uni and tweet during class. We are all starting creative businesses and using twitter during the running of them. We use the hashtag #mace09. It's proving a really interesting experiment.
Robin Croft
· 1 month ago
UK marketing and business students are being shown Twitter for same reasons
jangeronimo
· 1 month ago
I wish we had classes like this back in college. I don't see why not. Teach them early. It's like a course in brevity or succinctness.
Valeri
· 1 month ago
How about this for a follow up on that news.. the Queensland Government where the Griffith Uni is located has now banned all teachers from contacting students on social networks.. http://www.typeboard.com/2009/10/teachers-banne...
Maya Meyouhas
· 1 month ago
I'm not sure an entire course should be devoted to Twitter, but I do believe that journalists MUST adapt and learn to properly use all the communication tools available to them. I'm glad more and more Universities are including social media in their curriculum.
Mark Lipowicz
· 1 month ago
Twitter is a great thing to teach because the format (140 char) and timing (instant) are both just given to you, you have to learn to write for the medium, nothing to debate. That's a transferable skill for other media too in my opinion.
cd sieker
· 1 month ago
Mark you are correct. To be able to format writing in 140 char. and to give a argument is a skill worth pursuing. Also the info. you gain from the writers and their blogs is up to date and gives opinions that open up other avenues to pursue
Michael Moore-Jones
· 1 month ago
I recently saw stats of Twitter's user retention rate, and it said that only 30% of Twitter users actively use their accounts after the first month. It is my opinion that Twitter will not be a long-term phenomenon, and will die rather soon.
If that is the case, having a Twitter class will be a complete waste of people's time. Sure, other similar services may pop up. But unless they are innovative and come up with a way to retain a very high percentage of users, like Facebook does, they will die quickly also.
Karoline Felicia
· 1 month ago
Having studied Strategic Marketing myself, even I was confronted with Social Media PR strategies during last job interview. I think if you want to be really up to date you should definitely learn about communicating in the new social media world. Having a class on Twitter only of course does not cover the whole image, so the subject should be broadened to social media PR in general. Anyway, you'll be confronted with it in your future job sometime, so why not be prepared for it in a more scientific way (such as when and why to use twitter to reach certain goals).
ocoudert
· 1 month ago
It is certainly good that a student in journalism knows about what is Twitter, but do they need a whole class?! What's next, how to trade information on eBay?
Twitter is a tool that is still in its infancy. I doubt that people that create it anticipated so much hype, or even the current usage of it --basically a "news" reader w/o RSS, a blatantly self-promotion tool, a way of venting personal points, or possibly a tool that makes people believe there's somebody out there listening. Let me demonstrate the first two points by pointing you to the post "How Twitter is changing (my) access to information", which shares my experience with Twitter: http://bit.ly/49i8DR
What I hope is that Twitter will evolve (quickly) to integrate more search features --e.g., which people you are likely to enjoy following--, more filtering --depending on your mood or the time you have--, without always relying on the ever increasing small companies building up (some good, many questionable) apps around twitter. More relevant to the post, we'll see how the recent agreements with MSFT and GOOG will affect real-time search, which is certainly a hot topic for journalism (maybe they'll recognize the balloon-boy shame as a hoax next time).
nick
· 1 month ago
your joking? how in depth can you be in 140 characters? this really has become the new elevator pitch, if you cant sell yourself in 1 tweet, your out! harsh!
John Carcutt
· 1 month ago
Most of the class is online, the total in class time amounts to 140 minutes.
appfreak
· 1 month ago
Twitter at uni. That sound great. Back at journalism schools most of the students where up to pace with new technologies. You don't need a degree to tweed I reckon. What students need to understand is how to use tweets as new source. Twitter appears so much in the media right now that I'm not sure current journos know who wrote that tweet. Appart from that the art of writing in 140 and to the point.
Chelle
· 1 month ago
I have a B.A. in Journalism-Public Relations. When I majored in Journalism in college, my class requirements included learning Internet applications and creating a website. The professors taught the students to always keep on top of things - know how to use the latest Internet application and so on. So, it is no surprise to me that Journalism students will be required to take a twitter class now.
ericazucco
· 1 month ago
Social media tools are changing rapidly. Journalists need to be able to grab onto the new ones and learn how to use them effectively themselves, without someone telling them about Twitter or Facebook or Ning etiquette. Be perceptive and resourceful. Get these students ready to use or better, CREATE the next big thing, instead. Twitter could be a class lesson- but not a while course.
CLevine
· 1 month ago
I teach a social networking class at a university in North Carolina and I am incorporating facebook and twitter into all my writing courses. I still teach the old school basics, but journalists today need to be able to use all forms of mass communication at their disposal.
BlitzWing00
· 1 month ago
It's like that recent episode of Simpsons where the substitute teacher assigns 2 hours of twitter as homework! =)
But really, Twitter not going anywhere....and it does play a role in Journalism. No doubt it will continue to evolve to a more powerful tool too. So I think it makes sense to teach about it in school.
Jacqui Ewart
· 1 month ago
Tks Blitzwing, love the Simpsons but it's nothing like that for me - being misreported and mis-blogged around the world. It is like a nightmare where someone decides you are guilty without checking the facts -wish journalists and bloggers would do so before ranting! 'Victims' of poor reporting rarely get redress, as per this exercise.
Jacqui Ewart
· 1 month ago
Thank you for your post on the story about the introduction of Twitter into an existing journalism course at Griffith University. As the senior journalism lecturer who introduced the Twitter component into an existing course I feel I must correct a small but significant error in your post. The students did not feel the class was a waste of time, in my original interviews about the story with journalists, I said some students did not like the inclusion of Twitter as one of several assessment tools in the course. They were, as they have the right to be, critical of its inclusion in the course. And they will have the opportunity next week to assess the inclusion of Twitter as one of several assessment tools in the course which teachs basic news gathering and writing skills. Please point me to the original source of the erroneous claim so that I can contact the claimant and correct it.
Jacqui Ewart
· 1 month ago
Further corrections to claims in some posts on this site from the lecturer involved in this story. The course is not solely about Twitter and I have never claimed that. Somewhere along the line in the course of the re-reporting of this story, somebody got it very very wrong! An excellent example (although one that has created me additional work in corecting other people's errors) of how journalists and bloggers get it wrong and one that I will use in future courses. I introduced Twitter as one of several assessment tools in an existing journalism course which focuses on reporting news and politics. It was introduced because media employers are increasingly requiring their staff to use tools such as Twitter, it helps build headline writing skills, it helps students hone their writing skills and to Keep it Short and Simple, and it is being used as a tool for self-reflection. One of the criticisms of journalism is that journalists rarely have time to reflect on their own practices. Our use of Twitter in this course is one way of getting students into the practice of thinking about and reflecting on their practices.
Angelica
· 1 month ago
Um... technically speaking, there's hardly any way to get more "in-depth" without using more than 140 characters. So frankly, these people are wasting their money and time trying. As a Communication student myself, I think social networking sites are a vital part of the field. But this is kind of pushing it.
Integrity in journalism
· 1 month ago
Gosh I do hope you are not a journalism student -check the responses and the original story before commenting!
Dr. Manuel Flores
· 1 month ago
Twitter, while not making inroads with coming generation of teenagers, it making an impact with the current college crowd. Knowing how to use it is important for the coming generation of leaders in our country.
Dr. Manuel Flores
· 1 month ago
At Texas A&M Kingsville in deep South Texas twitter is used a "communications/information" tool by students in "Publications Lab" who work on the university student print and online newspaper. It has become very effective, allowing us to inform students about occurences on campus and alert them to our website for more info. During a recent campus lockdown with an escaped prisoner near campus, our tweets were picked up by regular media to keep ther "viewers" and "readers" up to date.
bueller
· 1 month ago
Everything you need to know about writing for Twitter was covered in your first day of learning about ledes.
Jens P. Berget
· 1 month ago
It's interesting that writing for Twitter is an entire class, and it's a required class as well. It's obvious that Twitter is important, especially for journalists.
But I'm not so sure that they need to know that much about how to write for Twitter, more that they need to know how to use Twitter in order to get stories and communicate with people.
And, since there are no real "this is how you should use Twitter", what are they trying to teach? Should all journalists use Twitter the same way?
It would be interesting to see the course outline.
- Jens -
Jacqui Ewart
· 1 month ago
Jens you may have overlooked by response about this issue - Twitter is not an entire class and never was - the story was a victim of re-reporting errors.
Greg Watts
· 1 month ago
I have to admit that I'm still struggling to understand this fascination with Twitter among journalists. I can't help but feel it's simply that latest novelty. At the same time, I think journalism students need to be aware of the role it seems to be playing in media, but I think they need to be told to keep it in perspective.
I watched an interview recently on Fora TV with the CEO of Twitter. While I was still left baffled by its popularity with some journalists (and it is only some), I could see Twitter's potential in business. For example, restaurants and theatres sending out Twitters on quiet nights and offering discounts to those who turn up. To me, this is a practical application of Twitter. Most of the stuff journalists Twitter about seems trivial.
amandarmoore
· 1 month ago
It's also a component of our capstone journalism class, Converged Journalism, at the University of Central Florida. Account signup was mandatory since we had to tweet live from an event for a grade.
I am one of Dr Ewart's journalist students at Griffith University. I am bitterly dissapointed by the distortion of facts outlined in the story and the attacks on Dr Ewart's character on some sites. I expect better from professionals!
Firstly, the class in not on Twitter - I have no idea how you came to this idea? Maybe if you did some research this would have been apparent. Also, I was one of the very few students who was unfamiliar with Twitter but NONE of us said we did not know what Twitter was. I also raised concerns about using it as 'a self reflection tool' in the manner proposed in class suggesting this was a waste of time. I am a social worker with a psychology degree. It was my opinion that most students would learn more from a self reflective essay than tweets.
One more comment....your article does not seem to contain many facts. Why not do some research and think before you write. I may not have known about Twitter but, thanks to you, I certainly have a great example of bad journalism to learn from. Maybe Twitter was not a waste of time after all?
All I can write (with imputation) is MEDIA LAW, DEFAMATION and AJA CODE OF ETHICS. Shame on you! s# 1745016
cd sieker
· 1 month ago
James - Dr. Ewart's student. As a journalist, I would respect that you have a right to your own opinion. The topic Twitter and the classroom environment, instructional material and the social media useage in the professional workforce. Social Media Networking has become an acceptable and marketable way to communicate with the global marketplace as well as a personal way to get your message delivered in a secure website, blog or app environment. Instead of being negative, learn to use the tools on how to use this network in a positive, profitable manner. You'll be surprised. It is an excellent source and it cost you nothing. I look at educational material and classes as an opportunity. This is the 21st Century and I am fascinated everyday on the new technology available to US. Good Luck,
Moose
· 1 month ago
what a load...
wikiworld
· 1 month ago
totally awesome find by a totally awesome person
Flid2
· 2 weeks ago
Journalists should be able to keep up and be fluent with any technology or tool that will help them get their job done. There are a lot more journalists out there these days and there is a lot of competition. If they don't like twitter, let them cut out half of their sources and leads.
All Comments
You know what they do teach in journalism school? Taking five seconds to Google: http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,2373...
Twitter symbolizes Viral Marketing, NOT high-quality Journalism.
So, "Pam", in your *opinion*, what does Twitter symbolize? Journalistic Dynamite? A place to spam annoying news headlines?
> There's a boatload of low-quality journalism out there in all the "traditional" media markets that you are by inference touting.
"low-quality journalism", e.g personal blogs, often carries more useful information than the dry, boring type of journalism.
Journalists can't kill off bloggers, and visa versa. So-called "pro" journalists have to live with it, like everybody else.
Besides, "pro" journalists AND bloggers have their uses in today's society.
But some perspective: this was neither the first time Twitter has been used in University journalism courses/incorporated into assessment (as some of the media coverage & the lecturer suggested) in Australia or abroad. I incorporated Twitter into a radio journalism class in September 2008 @ the University of Canberra, getting the students to live-report an election using the platform. That assessment was indeed a first (a media release was issued @ the time to share news of the experiment but the mainstream wasn't interested back then when Twitter was considered 'just a passing fad') And I wrote about it at Mediashift (and elsewhere) http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2009/02/how-journ...
Neither is this a whole course on Twitter - as has been suggested in some reports. It's an incorporation of Twitter into an existing course as a platform for the publication of reflections on reporting. Also good, but not unique, nor a 'first'.
In answer to your question: should journalists be Twitter-literate? Absolutely! I've been researching professional journalists' use of the platform & published a initial series of reports on the outcomes here: http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/julie-posetti/ and here http://www.walkleys.com/features/478/
And, next month in Sydney, I'm running a Media140 conference designed to connect professional journalists with Twitter & explore the way it's entered the media mainstream http://media140.com/sydney/
Cheers!
Julie Posetti - Lecturer, Journalism University of Canberra, Australia (http://www.twitter.com/julie_posetti)
for some reason, people feel that Twitter has to be "relevant"... it seems that in all the hype surrounding it, we've forgotten the basic premise behind Twitter: the question "what are you doing?"
Thses days it seems more and more like the so called "social Media experts" are trying to turn Twitter into just another one way thing... the ones who are not trying to turn Twitter into an RSS replacement see it as nothing more than a tool for self promotion. It seems that in the rush to social media, we're forgetting the "Conversation"... we're all trying to put our message out there, but it seems that fewer and fewer people engage others.
I have always believed that you build the relevance of you timeline by choosing the people who are relevant to you.
As a J-student myself, I am glad that they want us to use Twitter as a tool, with two-way communication rather than just telling everyone what I'm having for lunch.
Con: Missed opportunity for a provocative online format.
@marciamarcia
Squeezing a whole class out of Twitter in this age of belt-tightening shows that some institutions need to be brought back to earth.
I think twitter is going to be around and powerful for a long long time. Especially now that major search engines are implementing it. It's quite funny to think I didn't even know what SEO was 2 years ago.
I'm loving online evolution. What's next? Bring it on!
Twitter is an excellent tool for journalists, however, it's one of many. I have to agree with others that one tool doesn't make for a whole curriculum. Online connection building, monitoring, and branding is multi-faceted. A class devoted to twitter does make for a good headline.
...And if a student feels that strongly against taking the course, there ARE other universities in Australia, aren't there?
Twitter and Facebook are no longer avenues that tomorrow's journalists can ignore. The immediacy and the potential target audience from such social networking platforms are two requisite factors that aspiring journalists simply cannot turn a blind eye to.
http://www.replicawatchesindia.info
http://newsroom.depaul.edu/newsreleases/showNew...
journalism major is promising
But can Twitter make for a whole curriculum?
If that is the case, having a Twitter class will be a complete waste of people's time. Sure, other similar services may pop up. But unless they are innovative and come up with a way to retain a very high percentage of users, like Facebook does, they will die quickly also.
Twitter is a tool that is still in its infancy. I doubt that people that create it anticipated so much hype, or even the current usage of it --basically a "news" reader w/o RSS, a blatantly self-promotion tool, a way of venting personal points, or possibly a tool that makes people believe there's somebody out there listening. Let me demonstrate the first two points by pointing you to the post "How Twitter is changing (my) access to information", which shares my experience with Twitter: http://bit.ly/49i8DR
What I hope is that Twitter will evolve (quickly) to integrate more search features --e.g., which people you are likely to enjoy following--, more filtering --depending on your mood or the time you have--, without always relying on the ever increasing small companies building up (some good, many questionable) apps around twitter. More relevant to the post, we'll see how the recent agreements with MSFT and GOOG will affect real-time search, which is certainly a hot topic for journalism (maybe they'll recognize the balloon-boy shame as a hoax next time).
Appart from that the art of writing in 140 and to the point.
But really, Twitter not going anywhere....and it does play a role in Journalism. No doubt it will continue to evolve to a more powerful tool too. So I think it makes sense to teach about it in school.
But I'm not so sure that they need to know that much about how to write for Twitter, more that they need to know how to use Twitter in order to get stories and communicate with people.
And, since there are no real "this is how you should use Twitter", what are they trying to teach? Should all journalists use Twitter the same way?
It would be interesting to see the course outline.
- Jens -
I watched an interview recently on Fora TV with the CEO of Twitter. While I was still left baffled by its popularity with some journalists (and it is only some), I could see Twitter's potential in business. For example, restaurants and theatres sending out Twitters on quiet nights and offering discounts to those who turn up. To me, this is a practical application of Twitter. Most of the stuff journalists Twitter about seems trivial.
Study Shows Increased Usage of Online and Social Media Resources by Journalists
Firstly, the class in not on Twitter - I have no idea how you came to this idea? Maybe if you did some research this would have been apparent. Also, I was one of the very few students who was unfamiliar with Twitter but NONE of us said we did not know what Twitter was. I also raised concerns about using it as 'a self reflection tool' in the manner proposed in class suggesting this was a waste of time. I am a social worker with a psychology degree. It was my opinion that most students would learn more from a self reflective essay than tweets.
One more comment....your article does not seem to contain many facts. Why not do some research and think before you write. I may not have known about Twitter but, thanks to you, I certainly have a great example of bad journalism to learn from. Maybe Twitter was not a waste of time after all?
All I can write (with imputation) is MEDIA LAW, DEFAMATION and AJA CODE OF ETHICS. Shame on you!
s# 1745016
Social Media Networking has become an acceptable and marketable way to communicate with the global marketplace as well as a personal way to get your message delivered in a secure website, blog or app environment.
Instead of being negative, learn to use the tools on how to use this network in a positive, profitable manner. You'll be surprised. It is an excellent source and it cost you nothing.
I look at educational material and classes as an opportunity. This is the 21st Century and I am fascinated everyday on the new technology available to US. Good Luck,