News Stories And Twitter Users

[bednobs]

I generally go to the BBC website for my news, but i am getting increasingly annoyed with the fact that they seem to illustrate stories with the reaction they have gotten on twitter, usually printing the reactions (and then putting them in the text as well).
What is the recent (?) obsession with what twitter users think about events?
or is it just a follow on from what you used to get in the past "an eyewitness said about the explosion "i saw an explosion""

[chelle7272]

I feel exactly the same. It isn't just BBC either, lazy journalism everywhere it seems. Some media sites create whole stories about what Twitter users are saying about something. It's not news, it is just someone's opinion!

[-Talbot-]

It's not news, it is just someone's opinion


That's your opinion

[jno]

depends - sometimes they are witness reports (news stories often say "If you were affected by this, call us"), sometimes they're just babble from someone with no obvious connection to the story at all.

[237SJ]

I agree - especially when they put famous peoples' reaction to things. Why should I care what they think?

[Kromovaracun]

It's being done because it's an easy way to add more content without actually doing anything. They're closer in spirit to those droning "vox pop" interviews they often do on news shows (in particular the BBC's love of putting a yes/no box in a high street and asking passers-by to express their opinions by dropping in plastic balls). But even less effort involved.

I agree, this habit of "crowd-sourcing" news is awful. Journalists should not be obsessing about what the average person on the street (or internet) thinks - the average person does not typically think anything worth saying.

[bednobs]

so you are saying that twitter is a news outlet?

[scooping]

Yes, it is lazy journalism. Much prefer Sky News these days.

[New Judge]

The BBC TV News usually consists of about four or five main articles (in 30 minutes). Much of it is:

"Tell 'em what your going to tell 'em"
"Then tell 'em"
"Then tell 'em what you've just told 'em"

So you get the same four or five stories three times. What I don't understand is that in the backdrop behind the newscasters there are dozens, if not hundreds of people slogging away at their desks, presumably compiling the four or five items. Why?

[Bazile]

NJ

//So you get the same four or five stories three times. What I don't understand is that in the backdrop behind the newscasters there are dozens, if not hundreds of people slogging away at their desks, presumably compiling the four or five items. Why?//

No they're not - they are busy posting comments on twitter

[Zacs-Master]

Nice one Baz. ;-)

[New Judge]

Ah! Now I get it :-)

[Kromovaracun]

//Twitter is the hub of all news. It's live streamed from the scenes usually so then news outlets get their information from here. That, or they have twitter teams on the ground. //

That's supposed to be what wire services are for. Of course, the habit of "journalists" to simply copy-paste whatever they get/buy from wire services without checking it is well-documented and entirely a product of the "24-7" news cycle we currently live in. People demand coverage - any coverage - so quickly that it is impossible to properly verify, or often to properly investigate. News organisations frequently have to choose between doing investigative reporting (still happens sometimes, though usually seems to be when stuff is brought to them) or ill-verified 24-7 news coverage. Alas, they usually choose the latter.

With some exceptions (e.g. the current President's tendency to contradict his own government on twitter, or the early days of the Arab Spring), Twitter is very very rarely "the story." It's just there to make up space and pad out an article.

[-Talbot-]

Whether you like it or not most of today's breaking news breaks on Twitter.