ReporTwitter could be a cool tool for reporters not worried about giving their story ideas away. If you aren’t familiar with Twitter, it’s about time to get on board!
What’s Twitter, you ask?
Twitter is a mini-blogging tool that answers the proverbial question “What are you doing right now?” Think of it as a facebook status update that can be syndicated just about anywhere, repost blog feeds and much, much more (or maybe it’s just the ultimate instant messaging client away message). You can update your status using SMS, instant messaging or on the Twitter site. You can also follow your friends and get a feed of what everyone on your friends list is twittering about.
ReporTwitter seems like a hub where journalists’ Twitter accounts can come together and work to write a story.
For traditional journalists, this probably won’t strike a chord. But bloggers and community reporters might find that using ReporTwitter gives them a little big more credibility with editors as it shows they have their hands on crucial information, according to the ReporTwitter’s sales pitch.
What could be even more interesting is if this tool could be used by community journalists on the scene of breaking stories to relay details, quotes and events to working accredited journalists who can get the stories out to a wide audience. Posting the finished story alongside ReporTwitter notes would be a really cool idea for readers to allow them to see how a story progresses and is constructed.
Sounds like a neat idea. I haven’t signed up for the service yet, but you can catch me on my twitter blog regularly.
I first saw info about ReporTwitter on Mark Schaver’s Depth Reporting blog who didn’t seem too excited about “brain-dumping” story ideas by using the tool, but kudos to him for mentioning the tool.
Do you think this could be a useful idea for writing content or sharing story ideas?