Yes, Virginia, the medium is the message

This week, after a J-Source tweet-based post
earned a swift
rebuttal
from editor in chief John Stackhouse, we were reminded that 140
characters misses some important nuances and that real-time reporting can be perilous.  

To tweet or not to tweet? The Canadian Association of
Journalists has issued draft guidelines
for responsible tweeting. Verification and accuracy
have become one of the top issues in the journalistic use of social media,
according to this backgrounder
to social media. The CAJ also led a lively discussion about the do’s and don’ts of social media.

What would Marshall
McLuhan
say about Twitter? In his absence, a group of Korean
number-crunchers have completed a study
replete with impressive graphs and an intriguing question: is Twitter a social
network or a news medium? In a separate February experiment, five journalists locked themselves
up in a farmhouse
with only social media to inform them about the outside
world. Their conclusion: “You
are who you follow
.”

If that’s the case, why not follow J-Source? Today our tweets are a
little older and wiser.