Week 6: Journalism and its negotiation of online, the blogosphere and social media

This weeks seminar, presented by Ellie McDonald, Lauren McDermott and Matt Bryant, focused on whether or not the journalism industry needs to embrace Twitter and other social networking sites in order to move forward. Statistics which were shown to the class highlighted that there is still a divide between those who believe Twitter is an important tool and those who consider it to be an unnecessary distraction. It was pointed out during the presentation that a survey, conducted on 371 journalists last year, exposed that only half of the respondents were actively using Twitter. It has been portrayed by certain media commentators, such as Alana Taylor, as the saviour of the industry. Taylor said that it "is the hope for the future. It is promise of change. Twitter is journalism's Obama."

Personally, I agree with one of the presenters, Lauren McDermott, who stated that whilst Twitter shouldn't be seen as a saviour, it could offer an interesting alternative if used correctly. However, as shown in the presentation, some journalists will not, and already have not, been able to resist the temptation of Twitter. In a skit for The Daily Show, technical correspondent Samantha Bee demonstrated the distracting nature of Twitter in 'tweeting' what the host, Jon Stewart, was saying to her.

A further example provided by the skit was through images of politicians twittering whilst in meetings, to which Stewart questioned, "Why weren't you paying attention?" This brings me to another interesting point which was mentioned in the presentation. John Bergin, a digital director for Sky News Australia, expressed concern that politicians will "use the likes of Twitter in an effort to bypass journalists and commentators and communicate directly with the public."

I'd just like to point out that if I was a current journalist, I would not have a Twitter account because of the conundrum over what should be considered personal and professional. This was evident recently with opposition leader Barry O'Farrell labelling Prime Minister Julia Gillard a "ranga" in what he thought was a private comment on Twitter. Such a mistake can cost individual careers and, in this case, damage the reputation of the Coalition, whom O'Farrell was representing.

Therefore, though digital technology may be the future for the journalism industry, Twitter should not be fully embraced until it has been established as an influential element of news reporting. As News Limited's editorial boss Campbell Reid stated, "we don't want to spend a lot of time on developing policies...and in three month's time everyone's realised it's another way of having fairly boring conversations."