FROM PRSA
Many journalists are continuing to use the mini-blogging service Twitter to both gather and broadcast news. Julio Ojeda Zapata, a technology columnist for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, is among the more prolific of this new breed of Twitter reporter.
“I’ve become fascinated by the haiku-like artistry that goes into composing a 140-character-or-less Tweet,” he said on NPR Aug. 22. “But you’d be surprised at the substance, the heft of many of the conversations that are taking place in the Twitter-verse.”
Zapata, who’s been using the service for about a year, said he sends out some 3,000 Twitter messages a day to a list of about 715 people. He uses it to find sources for his short dispatches, and to send them out. One such story was about people who continue working while on vacation. “Twitter users tend to be kind of workaholic, techie, social media, Internet-addict types,” Zapata told NPR. He said he had sent a Tweet requesting sources for the story, and within minutes was receiving responses from people working on their laptops during their vacations.
Asked whether using Twitter to find sources didn’t narrow his range as a reporter, Zapata said, “I have to be very conscious of the fact that this is a silo. … I can’t overly rely on these people.” But he expects other journalists covering beats unrelated to technology will begin using Twitter in their own reporting. Said Zapata of his experience with the micro-blogging service, “I can’t overstate how wonderful this has been for me.” — Compiled by Greg Beaubien for Tactics and The Strategist Online
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