Tweeting M.O.A.

I joined Twitter today. Late to the game, I know, but I couldn't resist Twitter any longer.

I'm hoping my page will bring more readers to the blog (which is why my Twitter name is my blog name), and I wanted to see for myself what the site was all about.

I'm sure I'm going to love Twitter and tweet frequently, but I have had conflicted feelings about it over the past year. We frequently discussed Twitter in J-School and its influence on the industry. Many of the jobs postings I'm looking at now are interested in candidates that are well-versed in social media sites and virtually all publications are now using Twitter.

In our school discussions, many of us were uneasy with how Twitter has changed journalism. To quote a celebrity/actor/public figure using a tweet from his or her page seemed like the easy way out. No dogged pursuit for a quote or numerous phone calls to a PR person like the journalists in the "old days"-- reporters can now just search Twitter to get a thought or statement from the source. And I'm not quite sure how I feel about that. I think I would only use someone's tweet in a story if I confirmed that it was coming directly from him/her.

Twitter also allows anyone to act as a citizen journalist or an opinionated columnist. Does this threaten journalism? Does it threaten journalism any more than blogs, online forums and Facebook already does?

Despite my hesitations, I can't deny that Twitter is an amazing tool. It allows us to connect with others and gain unprecedented access to figures we otherwise couldn't approach. I just don't want it to take the place of traditional reporting--nor do I think that it should.

It will be interesting to see how Twitter grows and changes in the next year. As far as my own Twitter use...here goes nothing.