TweetNewz's Blog

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“Bearing in mind the relevance Twitter is gaining when it comes to news and the way they are communicated, such a tool is more suitable than words could say.”

Well, we couldn’t have said it better ourselves!  Yesterday, we were reviewed by the highly popular Killerstartups.com

News aggregator with Twitter integration

Thank you to the Killerstartups team for the killer review.  To all our fans and users, please go to their website and vote us into the top 10!

Tony La Russa Lawsuit

Last month Mr. La Russa filed a lawsuit against Twitter because someone was using a false account, and pretending to be him.  You would think his initial reaction would be to sue the alleged impersonator, but that was not the case.  Instead, he looked to Twitter for damages, but in reality they did just about all they could do,  shutting down the account immediately after the person was identified as a fake.  He even claimed a few days later that Twitter had settled with him by giving money to his favorite charity, which turned out to be false.  He should be careful before Twitter sues him for slander!

Kanye West Rant

Kanye found himself in the same boat, learning that someone had created an account and was pretending to be him.  In fact, this person had even amassed close to an amazing 1,000,000 followers.  However, instead of suing Twitter, he decided to vent via his personal blog.  He explained it in a caps lock filled 10 sentence rant scorning Twitter, alleging the head executives knew he didn’t have an account and did nothing.

As for the future of Twitter privacy, this was a major victory.  If La Russa had won, it would have opended the floodgates for other celebrities, such as Kayne, to sue as well.  But most importantly, the La Russa lawsuit scare spawned verified accounts to protect users and celebrities in the future. Twitter must continue to work on improving authenticity, while celebrities need to either start an account or learn to relax, because this type of behavior is common on social networking websites, and will likely happen again.  If executed properly, celebrities can use Twitter to reach droves of fans in a more effective, personal manner.  Just ask Ashton Kutcher, who has the largest following on the network.

Yesterday marked the passing of Michael Jackson, the King of Pop.  It is a sad moment in history, and a time for reflection upon his many musical and personal accomplishments.

However, his death has also brought to the forefront some of the most heated topics and debates surrounding the clash between new and old media.

1. Credibility within new media

This issue can be harshly demonstrated by Perez Hilton’s lack of information and insensitivity to the magnitude of the situation yesterday.  He posted on his Twitter blog that Michael was faking his medical condition to get out of a future performance across seas.  Clearly this wasn’t the case, and these types of self-promoting bloggers are ruining credibility for those users and blogs who work hard to provide insightful and valuable content.  Although this is just one person, he has a very large following on Twitter, and can influence many more people than a typical individual blogger.

Please click the picture below for more information about the post on Mashable.

2. Timeliness when reporting news

TMZ was credited as the first to publish the news that he was dead while large news outlets and old media were behind by a few hours.  After TMZ broke the news, Twitter was skyrocketing with Michael Jackson commentary, approximately 40 minutes before the L.A. Times confirmed the report.  Supporters of new media feel this is just another example of how new media is becoming a more powerful medium for posting and sharing news.  On the other hand, old media believe TMZ just guessed and got lucky.  They feel that sites like TMZ lack credibility in the long haul within the consumer’s mind.

For a more thorough look at this debate check out the following article on Techcrunch.

Whichever side you support, it is easy to see how these two issues stir up such a wide array of controversy.  While new media can provide the speed of information, they often lack the credibility, i.e. Perez Hilton.  As for old media, they must continue to establish a strong bond of trust with their consumer, but most importantly, they can’t continue to ignore the power of new media.  Instead they should look for a way to incorporate it and add value to their reporting.

We found some great videos today covering  journalism and new social media outlets:

Journalism and Social Media: Video Interview

Insight on the merging of traditional journalism and independents, the credibility of current media outlets, and the future of the newspaper industry.

The News Gets Social: Video Interview with an NBC Journalist and a Blogger

A discussion about how bloggers and journalists function together in reporting the news.

A special thanks to Jolie O’Dell and her team for providing the video.