War is hell—there’s no way around that. And the growth of alternative media, social media, citizen journalism and the like now gives the public many ways to access content that would otherwise have been lost in archives. People now have the choice whether or not they want to bear witness, and I try to help them make an informed choice.
Anyone who still thinks Twitter is synonymous with trivia and celebrity vacuity should go read this interview with NPR’s one-man Twitter Newsroom, Andy Carvin, on the Impatient Optimists blog.
The reason I prefer to call Twitter a newsroom rather than a newswire is because its fundamental strength is around real-time conversation. Yes, there are lots of news organizations, including my own, that send out tweets when there’s news to share, but I like to take it another step further and tap into the collective skill sets of everyone following me on Twitter. They help me sort out fact from fiction and sort out rumors from the truth—just as you would in a newsroom. The big difference, of course, is a TV or radio news anchor would be surrounded by newsroom staff helping them create breaking news coverage, while I rely on my tweeps to play those roles.