Twitter: The Death of the Mainstream Media?

Twitter, once again, made its way into the news last week with the crash of a US Airways plane in New York City. A Twitter user, by the name of Janis Krums, took one of the first amateur pictures of the plane in the water, and sent it out via TwitPic. This picture was seen on web news outlets such as the Drudge Report. The Daily News (New York) wrote an article about this, claiming that afterwards Twitter and the blog community were humming that this is further proof of the death of the mainstream media. The Daily News reporter was, of course, critical of this idea. You can read the article and see the famous picture here.

While I do not believe that micro-blogging outlets such as Twitter are bringing on the death of the mainstream media, I do believe that it has forced them to re-think how they do business. Gone are the days of the six o’clock news. We live in a world where information is delivered to us within seconds, via outlets such as Twitter. Proof of this is news outlets such as Fox News & CNN actively embracing Twitter and Facebook not just as “cool tools” but as serious outlets to reach out to viewers and to get information on serious news stories.

What do you think? Is the media as we know it dying or are they just being forced to restructure how they do business? I want to hear from you.

Tags: facebook, media, twitter

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Comment by Brady Smith on January 19, 2009 at 2:06pm: Death is a pretty strong word, death means something ceases to exit, unless the entity is possibly religious. I think instead of death we will see modifications, adjustments, and enhancements with the time. Look at the video stores in the past decades. I bet if I told you your favorite local video store (local not Blockbuster/Hollywood Videos) would not exist in a few years back in the 80’s you would not have believed me. Also in the 80’s when VHS was out you would have never believed if you were told one day you will be able to rent movies online and have them shipped to your house. Things like this will happen to news and media. Single news sources will hopefully loose power to spread out trusted sources and hopefully you will be able to weed out what you don’t care about easily. On a side note, isn’t it funny you have heard less about Iraq since the recent election.

Comment by Persian Paladin on January 19, 2009 at 1:26pm: http://twitter.com/PersianPaladin

Comment by tommy on January 19, 2009 at 1:22pm: I meant we can recieve news a lot faster by internet than TV.Was a typo on other post.We geeks here 24/7 sharing news and views.And we dont mind sharing what we know.

Comment by tommy on January 19, 2009 at 1:20pm: This is just the age of technology.Smart phones etc.It has been no secret,that for years we cant recieve breaking news a lot faster by internet than by TV.It just is what it is.The Good thing is that most will send pictures and videos to the media.It's just a fact that reporters not on the scene when things happens.How can they be.Most times the ones sending pictures is envolved in the event.But Mainstream media will never die.We still need it.So i say reporters and etc..,dont sweat it.This the internet and you're media and we geeks.This a way of life.We just in the know a little bit quicker.

Comment by Internet Marketing Tools and Tips on January 19, 2009 at 11:49am: Mainstream media will never die. They will simply use new tools and technologies, like Twitter, Digg, Facebook, etc. They would be stupid not to since they will be killing their business. Plus, the government needs an outlet for their voice too and they seem to have some power over traditional media outlets.

Comment by Susan Kirkpatrick on January 19, 2009 at 9:10am: I don't think mainstream media is dying. I don't think they're being forced to restructure. But instead of being limited to the "staff photographers and authors" that they have, they are now gaining users with cell phones, and people who write reports on sites like iReport.com , making the news for them without having to be paid. Does that make sense?

Comment by Julian Tait on January 19, 2009 at 2:56am: I asked one of the controllers of BBC Radio the question whether Twitter and some of the more immediate social media applications where going to be the death of 'Breaking News' for broadcasters. To which I got a sharp reply and a look of scorn from the room - which was full of journalists. Are News Broadcasters in denial and do they think they have a model that wont be touched by this?
The broadcasters cant compete with the speed of the Social Media networks when footage (Qik, Bambuser et al) is streamed live and photographs and comment are uploaded to Twitpic and Twitter when the story happens. This is partly down to capacity, large news organisations have very few on the ground reporters compared to the millions of potential citizen reporters out there, and editorial process, how many times do you see a trending story on Twitter and waited half an hour, if the story is deemed relevant enough, to appear on the News.
The editorial process is a culmination of agenda, certain news broadcasters only want to broadcast certain types of news and voracity of story - broadcasters have to make sure the facts are correct before broadcast, else they could look stupid and get sued. This doesn't happen on Twitter where anything and everything goes.
The probable future for broadcasters is that they will aggregate what Twitter and the rest put out, confirm and then run with it allowing them to concentrate on providing insight, back story and investigation.
@julianlstar

Comment by Chris Pirillo on January 19, 2009 at 1:10am: You should post your twitter ID here... :)

Comment by Bobbi Jo Woods on January 19, 2009 at 1:03am: I agree that while the Internet can give us all instant gratification when seeking news, the word on the street getting out still depends on other forms of media to get that word out.

And yes, although stories in newspapers can seem like "old news" by the time it hits our doorsteps, we still cannot fully enjoy the local community writeup stories about what's going on in our neighborhoods, obituaries, etc., without newspapers.

My mom reads the paper every morning without fail, before doing much else. Many other Americans do, too.

Comment by Persian Paladin on January 18, 2009 at 10:25pm: People should use as many news sources as possible; because I feel certain mainstream media outlets can be misleading and often ridden with propaganda.