Many of us use social media for our professional public relations efforts, but how is social media affecting your personal media consumption? I just read a story by Verne Kopytoff on SF Gate about the news shift, where more people get news from social media, and then go to mainstream media for more coverage. In full disclosure, I do still read my paper edition of the Washington Post each morning, check-out stories on BurrellesLuce 2.0, and watch TV news, but I am finding out about most breaking news from Twitter.  

At the June IABC/Washington meeting, David Henderson commented on using Twitter as an aggregator of news, and I concur. I rarely open my reader, anymore. I follow my favorite bloggers and news outlets on Twitter and Facebook. They tell me when there’s a new post to check out.

Last week, I learned – before I left my office, and before it hit CNN – that the “disruption” on Washington Metro’s Red Line, was actually an accident and there was at least one confirmed tragedy. My husband and I were able to make alternative plans to get home (as we usually take the Red Line), and let our families know we were OK. I received fewer frantic phone calls, because of my posts to Facebook and Twitter.

Like many of you, I also learned last week of the deaths of Ed McMahon, Farah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson via social networks. In fact, the Internet had some issues keeping up with the traffic.

How is social media, like Twitter, affecting your personal media consumption? I’d like to hear your stories.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 at 8:39 am and is filed under Public Relations, Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.