The T-D editorial page is being stupid about Twitter again, acting like all it is is a celebrity conduit, an instant message version of a supermarket tabloid, and not only that, but the celebrity tweeters are fakes.
This is probably coming from Todd Culbertson, who was writing editorials (yes, editorials) about opera and ballet when I was in scooter skirts, and he's still there, so he can partially be forgiven for being out of touch or just feeling superior to mainstream culture. (On my Twitter feed last night, I noticed the people I follow, prominent people in the local alternative media, were live-tweeting the MTV Music Awards. Todd may not have heard of MTV yet. Or cable.)
But this is a terrible way to describe Twitter for the oldsters still reading T-D editorials. The celebrity feeds are a very small element of the Twitter experience, not to mention an optional element. Twitter is anything you want it to be. It all depends on who you follow.
I think Todd would actually envy my Twitter feed. I have major national media, both conservative and liberal, and all the local TV stations and some of the Twittering TV reporters. I have all the mainstream alternative print publications (including Times-Dispatch tweets). I have both the Richmond and Henrico police, the Virginia National Guard, and VDEM. If anything is happening, locally or nationally, it crosses my Twitter feed often before it's broadcast to the public. It's like sitting next to an AP teletype or a police scanner. I like to hear things first. Don't you?
I have all the local major bloggers, who are continually spinning their takes on what's going on in the news, as well as the neighborhoods, the farmers' markets, the shops and restaurants, and the civic organizations. I have all the major advertising and public relations agencies, so I know about upcoming conferences, classes, trends. These folks provide helpful daily links to websites and columnists providing the latest information about the rapidly changing fields of journalism, public relations, tech, communications, and social media. And it's all free information.
I keep in touch with a few personal friends, former co-workers, and local celebrities I wish I knew, as well. I connect to some businesses and brand name products I support. When I wanted to know where to find the new wheat beer sampler, Michelob tweeted me back with local dealers who had it in stock. When I was royally pissed off about my Bank of America credit card, I fired off an angry Tweet and a Bank of America guy in charge of monitoring Twitter got in touch with me and we exchanged emails about my issue. You need service better than that?
When I'm watching TV alone and wish I had someone to share a program with, I can tap into Twitter trends, find other people watching that same program and see what they're saying. You can do this for any popular topic that is "trending" on Twitter.
It's all in one Twitter feed which rolls on continually day and night, accessible at my convenience. And yes, I have a few celebrities I check in on from time to time. Usually I drop them after awhile because they either tweet too much or not at all, but I recently followed Jane Fonda on her trip to the Galapagos Islands. She included photo links in her tweets of what she was seeing and doing, so I almost felt like I went on the trip with her.
It's been a wonderful experience being part of this huge community, carefully selected by me, and it's very sad that the T-D's ignorant dismissal of it might prevent other people from taking part.
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2 comments:
The R T-D is in the dark about a LOT of things lately. I have been a newspaper subscriber all my life. Being fed up with paying a lot more for a lot less, currently receiving a rag full of AP news feed because local reporting staff was drastically reduced--hell, they even got rid of Brookins, a nationally syndicated and well-known political cartoonist for some cheap AP alternative-- I decided to end my daily relationship with the R T-D by canceling my subscription. I could write an adventure book about this experience but will sum it up this way:
20 minutes, three transfers, plus one supervisor and getting routed to the Philippines to cancel a LOCAL newspaper subscription does NOT add up to good customer service. Hey Richmond Times-Dispatch, if you think a retention specialist can change my mind and keep me as a subscriber after that ordeal, you are completely fooling yourself and are totally out of touch with your customers! FAIL.
The reporters and staff recently let go should consider creating their own LOCAL paper. I would totally support that. I'll just bet a lot of folks would, too.
the T-D is also in the dark on how to appropriately use RSS feeds. All they do now is provide a link to their site, which contains either an AP story or a story on another local news site. Very little original content is published on their RSS feed.
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