Twitter, "a pointless, overrated or simply stupid site?" As far as I'm concerned I do not agree with any of these descriptions Jordan Harris, a software engineer at The New York Times points out. However I do agree that Twitter is a site that helps news organizations interact and do whatever they want with the news. From my point of view there is more to this site Harris might not know about.
Being able to micro-blog not only news but any kind of information out there in such quick moments, it's definately a huge advantage for newsrooms, it is something I feel they oughta put in practice not only to reach more and more users around the world but also to alert the world from current events happening where we might not be able to hear about.
If organizations such as The New York Times and many more are putting this medium into practice, I wouldn't call it pointless nor stupid. I agree, there risks at hand, like journalists accidentally leaking internal information, but the potential this medium has of spreading news instantly, whenever and wherever doesn't compare to the risks, which I think are small, intervene with the use of Twitter.
An example Mallary Tenore points out in this article about The Orlando Sentinel using Twitter is a great example why this medium is indispensable in newsrooms. The Sentinel's coverage of the Atlantis and Endeavour space shuttle through Twitter reach out to many people. Sending out tweets updating the shuttle's launch, how much time left, fuelin is done, even the countdown for the launch. People in cars or in places where they had no access to live TV coverage were able to follow the launch and how everything turned out through Twitter. After this event happened The Sentinel now has close to 80 followers.
This example points out how effective is Twitter at reaching out to new users, but not only this, I beleive that organizations using Twitter having or not having followers, they are still able to do their job of broadcasting news in an instant message to the world.
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