Q: Oh yeah, what site? CNN? Fox News? CBS? BBC?

Me: Nah, twitter…

Q: Twitter!?

Me: Yeah, I get most of my news from Twitter…

Okay, the irony here is; I was alerted by the attacks on twitter, however it happened to be by the “cnnbrk” twitter account. I never visit “cnn.com”, in fact the last time I was on that site was probably a year ago, however they do reach me on Twitter.

I just don’t have the time these days to go looking for news, it usually has to smack me upside the head. Sites like twitter, FaceBook and the like usually deliver, although I don’t use them for that purpose it’s just easier to keep up with family, friends, and technology through these sites. Of course, your next question might be, doesn’t that take up a lot of your time, checking in with those sites? The answer, of course, is no. I use a plugin for Pidgin called microblog-purple. Anyway, I digress…

More and more traditional media outlets/MSM struggle to cover current events, where social media and non-traditional coverage (a.k.a. blogs) flourish. This has to be taken with a grain of salt, however, as traditional media outlets typically have trained staff who check and verify facts as well as being upheld to a “standard”, whereas your social media and blog sites are not encumbered with such restrictions. Of course, even the most “respected” MSM outlets still publish fictitious, unverified, or poorly verified stories. Just look at the incidents with Jayson Blair and the New York Times or The CBS / Dan Rather George Bush Killian Documents Controversy.

It’s apparent that the MSM has caught on to the popularity of these sites, and you’ll see many of them now with Twitter as well as other social networking/microblog accounts. Some of them do a good job, others just don’t get it.

The risks of false/misleading information, either intentional or unintentional, are higher with these nontraditional sources, however if you’re one of those who really want instant gratification there’s no better source. Of course, you have to make sure you filter your input appropriately and just remember you can’t believe everything you read.

Links to various social reportings of the Mumbai attacks:
Vinukumar Ranganathan’s Bombay Blast Photoset
YouTube Mumbai Related Videos
Google Maps Plot of Attacks
Twitter #mumbai topic search

That being said, I’m a strong supporter of these non-traditional outlets and I believe they are the future.

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It’s so annoying to feel forced into it! She’s standing up and wearing a weird white jacket buttoned conspicuously at the waist as if to argue with those who said she’d been photoshopped into semi-svelteness. Now, she’s sitting down, but in kind of a half standing position in front of a low desk, to give us more of a view of her torso. She’s got a special white microphone to blend in with that white lapel. The first few stories are military, as if they need to drive it home that a woman can cover the manly topics.

Yes, “they” can cover those manly topics, haha. But my favorite part has to be:

Now, Katie tells us coyly that she just can’t figure out what her sign-off line should be. She shows clips of various real and fictional newsguys signing off and then tries to enlist us in the fun of suggesting sign-off lines. “Log on to our website,” she says. Log on. When you go to a website, are you “logging on”? See, I’m ready to be irked by anything! Well, let’s go over there — log on over there — and see whether people are suggesting insulting sign-offs, which is what I would expect, which is one reason it’s such a bad idea.

I love the “logging on” bit, It’s 2006, I think it’s time these “experts” reporting the “news” at least get the terminology right. Ugh, in any case I’m glad I don’t get my news from these clowns. Nice work Ann.

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