Column: Journalists work to make Twitter relevant
Published Feb. 2, 2010
Here's the first sentence of a recent CNN article about Twitter: "It was the upstart rock star of the Internet in early 2009, roaring out of relative obscurity to become one of the most exposed — some would say overexposed — services on the Web."
With 22 mentions of the word "Twitter" in headlines and tags of 148 technology stories this week on CNN, there's no question as to who's providing all this overexposure. Twitter has been the stupidest social networking phenomenon to actually catch on, and it's been successful in part because the media are so excited to figure out how the hell to make it useful.
If there's anything I've learned from observing the major cable news networks and the journalism department at MU, it's that journalists are the first people to jump on the bandwagon for any and every technological "advancement" imaginable.
Last May, the School of Journalism announced every incoming journalism student would be required to have an iPod touch or iPhone.
Four months later, The Maneater published an article entitled "J School works to incorporate iPods, iPhones," which explains the devices had only been implemented in one class and only for use with an application that allows students to view their syllabus, schedule and announcements on their iPods or iPhones.
As the title of the article aptly points out, the J School had to work to implement the technologies it has already made mandatory. The result of that work was a half-assed application less functional than the Blackboard Web site, something iPhones can already access.
The J School's ham-fisted implementation of Twitter hasn't been as laughable as the iPod/iPhone debacle, but it's equally as fruitless. Senior J School student Noelle Buhidar told me she was required to make a Twitter for her online journalism class. To get credit she had to "create a profile, include information in the bio, have a profile picture and send the teacher a message." Thanks to this innovative integration of Twitter in the classroom, more journalists now have unused Twitter accounts, which other journalists can use to write stories about how many unused Twitter accounts there are.
But of course, the J School will have to step up its unapologetic fervor for worthless technologies if it wants to compete in the big leagues. CNN frequently checks its Twitter live on-air, giving a public forum to any moronic slob with thoughts so devoid of meaningful content they can be phrased in 140 characters or fewer.
And CNN reporters have done their fair share of hard-hitting reports about Twitter. They recently covered an innovative product called Puppy Tweets, a tag that is fixed to a dog's collar and relays Tweets to a USB receiver. If a dog wearing Puppy Tweets causes a commotion, the tag posts to the dog's Twitter account. Here's an actual example: "YAHOOOOOOO! Somedays you just gotta get your bark on."
Don't be surprised when the J School makes this technology mandatory for all student-owned canines.
But obviously it's unfair to say Twitter has no practical journalistic application. It has proved helpful for up to the minute information on the earthquake in Haiti and last year's election fiasco in Iran. But in times of non-crisis, journalists revert to trivial fare such as the ever-important, much-awaited first Tweet sent from space.
I expect Twitter coverage will drop off with the unveiling of the next unnecessary innovation in technology, but it's always possible that some Lassie-esque Labrador will use Twitter to save a kid who fell down a well, and I'll have to eat my words as 10,000 journalists praise the ingenuity of Puppy Tweets.