Students at Columbia University recently used Twitter- where messages
no longer than 140 characters are sent to other members and in this
case, posted online- to cover a presidential forum at the school.
John
McCain and Barack Obama spoke about national service at Columbia on
September 11. New media students covered the event and chose Twitter as
the fastest way to send out new information even before accessing a
computer.
The “tweets” were then posted online to a main blog about
the forum, which also included traditional blog posts, video and audio
slideshows.
“With Twitter, you can capture a moment that the TV
cameras were not focused on, or that wasn’t part of the bigger story.
It is just color that somebody following live might be interested in.
It broadens the scope of what the story is,” says student Chikodi Chima
in the article.
It was the first time students used Twitter to cover
an event, and although it was a successful endeavour, student Collin
Crowell concedes that the basics of good reporting need to be in place-
even at 140 words and under.
“The next time,” Crowell said, “contributors will need a Twitter style guide.”
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