Technology has played a major role in society’s ability to access information. Some knowledge was kept secret by organizations, and sometimes, it was just plain difficult to get answers. For today’s generations, answers to most questions are just a Google search away. Old news? Seems like an oxymoron to say, but in the Twitter age, is there really a place for the nightly news in the household?
Twitter is Leaving Nightly News In their Dust
For the most part, I would answer the question with a “Yes”, we will still need to sit down and watch the nightly news. Having visuals like video and photography while watching news stories will always be intriguing to most. Baby Boomers, who are now and will soon be retiring had parents that listened to the radio for their news until televisions were invented. Then it became a familiy activity to sit and watch the news. So for some people, the nightly news is a must watch. Now, in my opinion, the nightly news is too slow and way behind technology.
Social Networking Sites Don’t Dilute Stories With “Gloom and Doom”
An interesting thing happened while I was watching the coverage of Hurricane Irene as it made landfall on the east coast. I realized that most of the news was completely shock value, and it didn’t matter if it was CNN or Fox, they were both running the same stories. Most of the reports were loaded down with doomsday music and lots of rookie type reporters standing outside saying, “Yes, Bob, it has started to rain. Back to you.”
Take away all of the gloom and doom, and sum it up in forty characters or less. Oh, and by the way, deliver it hours earlier than the nightly news. Social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook provide way better summaries of the news and deliver the stories hours before some stories hit the nightly news stations. Why wait until 10:00 p.m. to hear a story on Michael Vick signing a $100 million dollar contract, when I can follow him on Twitter and hear the news from him directly.
With Twitter and Facebook, I Can Choose My News
Watching the nightly news can be a beating because I am forced to watch whatever the editor at the television station deems is “news.” It doesn’t matter if it is a new cookie recipe, or the neighbor down the street has a dog that had puppies, you don’t get a choice. With Twitter, I can choose what news organization to follow. Most likely, a good tactic for these news companies will be to employ thousands of people to tweet news updates as they happen. Just today, I got a tweet from Dirk Nowitzky that he is starting practice today in Germany. This is something that is relevant to my life, and that I want to know about. Thank goodness I don’t have to get teased and then watch eight minutes of commercials before getting to the real story.