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Why Twitter is a better news tool than Digg

Posted in journalism, news, Digg, Twitter on January 23, 2009 at 10:52 am

Hitwise has posted data that Twitter has overtaken Digg when it comes to marketshare for the first time, and from a news and journalism point of view this is very interesting to see.

When Digg first came on to the scene it was the hot new thing, with its ability to allow people from anywhere on the internet to submit links and stories. Its popularity was part of the reason why story submissions and voting system are so important in the web.

The trouble now with Digg is that it doesn’t seem so interactive anymore. There are a few big criticisms from my point of view. The first is that the site’s form of user moderation has made it very difficult for an outsider to feel like they have any impact when it comes to story submissions.

This means that the site is at very high risk of companies paying for stories to be submitted to the site, and I believe that there are people on the site being paid to have their ‘friends’ digg stories simply because they have already built a network of followers who will digg every story that they have.

This is corrupt - and it also means the average user has little or no impact on what most users will see as a news story on the front page. It defeats the aims of inclusion and social networking which is the very point of the site.

Twitter has been around for less time, and it is only now that internet news organisations and bloggers are beginning to see the benefits of having followers and people interested in reading stories looking at the tweeting of news.

The BBC, Guardian as well as other nationals have their own news feeds which users can follow of their own choice, without having to be forced by the pack like Digg to read a particular type of story.

This means that it is the quality of the news coverage that usually matters when adding followers and increasing traffic, rather than a user’s particular popularity on the site or the amount of friends they have.

However Twitter’s ability to post news is not the only reason why it has grown in popularity in the year. It’s a lot easier than Digg for the the news source and the reader to communicate thanks to the speed in which messages can be passed.

Traditional newspaper journalism usually worked on the basis that the person who was first to break the story got the reward. Thanks to Google News this has now become a matter of luck and algorithms on what news we will see, while Digg has made a user’s popularity the main factor.

Twitter is different because it is a great way of finding news as it happens - better than RSS feeds which are often delayed from the time a journalist posts a story. It opens the possibility of tweeting ‘at the scene’, which news organisations are only just now discovering the uses of.

The fact that third party applications are available for Twitter is absolutely crucial when it comes to its use as a news tool. When I first used Twitter I thought having more than a few followers would soon make it confusing as posts often appeared every minute of the day.

It was only when I discovered Tweetdeck when I realised that you had the ability to filter tweets depending on which twitterers you wanted to take notice of. For instance now I have a tech news filter on which allows me only to see the IT tech news that is relevant to me and my job. If you wanted to filter tweets for just your friends you can do that too.

I had my doubts about Twitter when it first came out, but now I am discovering why so many people are starting to use it and why it can be such a useful tool - whether you want to market something or break the first news story. Digg? For news there’s absoultely no reason I would want to use it anymore.

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Don’t hate the PR - they are only doing their jobs

By Asavin Wattanajantra in Editorial

Posted in tech, journalism, PR on August 21, 2008 at 1:49 pm

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One thing I’ve noticed here in my time in IT PRO is the attitude of old school tech journalists (actually not just tech - this is in other areas) to PR. There is definitely a lack of respect there, and in some cases pure hatred!

I find this quite strange, especially in tech. It seems to me that in tech, maybe more so than in any other areas, PR is vital. In fact sometimes they overlap. I’ve known this ever since I’ve started writing, and I am always as nice as I can be to them, even if they are flogging me a dead press release - but maybe that’s just in my personality - I’m nice to people.

But I’ve heard some journalists treat PR’s like a plague, curse them for stupidity, yell at them down the phone - I feel bad when this happens. Simply, these guys are only doing their job. Tech companies are not known for their news sense yet they’ll feed PR people horrid press releases journalists are not going to be interested in to pitch.

I know this - but I’m usually as friendly as can be (though there have been examples where I haven’t - though this is usually when its the end of the day or I’m hungover and a someone’s trying to really do a pressure pitch on me).

I don’t get the attitude because in the end - PR is part of the journalist lifeblood. These are the guys who will help you out when you want that interview, when you need something quickly done. These are the guys who’ll help you out with the free jollies (press trips), free drinks, free devices to play with - doesn’t really pay to be nasty or annoying - word spreads around.

I was thinking - maybe it is because most PR’s I’ve talked to are usually attractive, outgoing young ladies while tech journalists are often … not. Maybe there’s a fear of them or something.

BTW this is not pitch for me to get a PR job or something. I’m very happy being a journalist in the role I’m in and can’t really imagine doing a lot of the jobs PR’s do, especially at the beginning of their careers.