Twitter, to Save Itself, Must Scale Back World-Swallowing Ambitions

Re:Twitter, to Save Itself, Must Scale Back World-Swallowing... by omonra on Friday February 12, 2016 @09:17AM (#11087265)

I might be wrong but it appears that Twitter is mostly useful for reporters who want to write a story on something and find it easy to get quotes.

Whereas before this required traveling to the random place where the story takes place (with potential danger and hassle of travel), now they merely have to open twitter and find some random twat with an opinion on the subject. And presto - a quote is ready.

The problem, of course, is that the importance of the quote is greatly diminished and just 'someone with a twitter account thinks X'. If before the reporter actually had to go out and ask people for their opinions which presented an accurate view 'on the ground', now he's getting a view of the 'twitter-sphere' - which might have little bearing on views of affected population at large.

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Re:Twitter, to Save Itself, Must Scale Back World-Swallowing... by JBReefer on Friday February 12, 2016 @12:36PM (#11088859)

I think that's the crux of the hysterical coverage around this - the media really, really needs Twitter, and no one else cares anymore.

Snapchat is a better way to interact with your friends _and_ with celebrites/strangers/comedians, but it doesn't make for nice neat embedable quotes.

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Re:Twitter, to Save Itself, Must Scale Back World-Swallowing... by malsun on Friday February 12, 2016 @10:52AM (#11088037)

Before Twitter there was a phase where journalists would monitor discussion forums (think vBulletin). I know this because I would take part in speculative discussions and the next day it turned into front page news stories. No sources but obviously came from the discussion. It spooked me and made me realise that modern journalism was already becoming lazy.

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Re:Twitter, to Save Itself, Must Scale Back World-Swallowing... by jackcosgrove on Friday February 12, 2016 @12:11PM (#11088671)

So it turns out the "zeitgeist" is just reporters cribbing from gossip.

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Re:Twitter, to Save Itself, Must Scale Back World-Swallowing... by majewsky on Saturday February 13, 2016 @10:58AM (#11094405)

I don't think it's zeitgeist only. Or at least, not on such a short scale. The pre-internet equivalent of that is interviewing random people on the street about current events, to fill the 2:30 of your news report with something vaguely related to the subject.

Like in Charlie Brooker's "How to report the news": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHun58mz3vI

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Re:Twitter, to Save Itself, Must Scale Back World-Swallowing... by tootie on Friday February 12, 2016 @08:10PM (#11091889)

Near as I can tell it's primary purpose for the masses is following celebrities. Their growth model should be around helping celebs tweet more.

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Re:Twitter, to Save Itself, Must Scale Back World-Swallowing... by JustSomeNobody on Friday February 12, 2016 @01:33PM (#11089313)

Yes. Twitter's 140 characters make for perfect little soundbites for lazy journalists.

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