u n b i d d e n

The other day I was reading a discussion on a popular forum for photographers about Twitter, the micro blogging tool that’s becoming ever more popular. The basic consensus from these photographers was “I don’t get it.”

I use Twitter, however it’s pretty easy to say that not every one gets it. And those that do understand what it’s about have thousands of reasons why they use it. I myself have more than one reason to use Twitter besides the obvious reason; that I’m a geek.

One of the reasons I use it is for crowd-sourcing things that correspond with my job. Here’s an example.

We had an incident a while back where I had to quickly choose an image for the paper. Then I spent a little time putting the rest of the pictures together for a slide show.

After everything was published I had someone question why I chose one photo over another. I sent this person a detailed email stating my thought process and that was the end of it. But later it occurred to me that it would be interesting to find out what a variety of other people thought.

So I posted the question to my twitter feed. It was quite interesting to see the responses I got back. Not only did other photographers and photo editors chime in with their thoughts. I received compelling answers back from local readers too.

Click though the slide show below to see my question, the pictures and some of the answers.

This little exercise really brought home the potential benefits being involved in social networking such as this. It allows me to connect with people in my profession and with local readers. It allows them to feel in touch with me, and what I do.

Don’t take my word for it though.

Why journalists should use Twitter

Don’t Fear Twitter

Why journalists (and others) should use Twitter

I watched this video of Malcolm Gladwell twice this morning. I found it very interesting to take what he was saying and applying it to newspaper journalism.

Lots of things stood out for me. Like, people don’t know what they want and even if they did know they wouldn’t be able to explain it. And it’s useless trying to please everyone one way, universally, but more affective to please clusters of people.

I always thought that it would be a good thing to allow every person to customize their news. But I also thought that would be bad because people would miss out on important issues. After watching this I think that clustering content and serving it to readers might be a better way.

His final statement also hits home.

That is the final, and I think most beautiful lesson, of Howard Moskowitz. That in embracing the diversity of human beings, we will find a surer way to true happiness.

So instead of the newspaper industry looking for the perfect way to get people the news I wonder if they should look at how to cluster groups of readers together and finding they best way to serve their wants and needs in the best way. In some ways I think newspapers do this, but they don’t do a great job at it.