I read an interesting PoynterOnline blog post today about Tom Brokaw, former anchor of “NBC Nightly News.” Apparently, Brokaw doesn’t get Twitter and isn’t interested in trying it out.
“As for Twitter? He doesn’t believe it’s taken form yet journalistically. ‘I don’t get Twitter,’ Brokaw said. ‘I know that it’s very popular and that it’s a quick way of getting a text blast out, so to speak, but an awful lot of it seems to be … just stuff that fills air.'”
Ironically, today I also read that Nancy Pelosi used Twitter to tell the world she is running for House Minority Leader. As I’ve written about before, politicians and institutions, such as the Pentagon, are increasingly achieving global media coverage without press releases, news conferences, or even a single interview with a reporter. Not only does news sources’ use of Twitter make it relevant, it makes Twitter a major competition to the mainstream media as a real-time delivery method for news.
At the end of the PoytnerOnline post, Brokaw gave advice to today’s journalists, such as never turning down an assignment.
“If I went, I always found something happened,” Brokaw said. “There’s always a reason to turn over a rock and find out what’s under it.”
Ironically again, Brokaw’s rock analogy is perfect advice for today’s journalists (and business people) on why they should be using Twitter.
Do you agree? Or do you think Twitter is just “stuff that fills the air too.” Please share your opinion in the comments section below.
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