If you’re on Twitter, you know that it’s not only a wonderful way to meet and network with other PR/MarComm professionals, but it’s a great source of news stories – especially breaking news.
You’re also probably aware that hundreds of news stories broke first on Twitter; for example, the US Airways plane going down in the Hudson River, the earthquake in China, Iran’s post-election protests, Michael Jackson’s death, and just the other day the bombing in Jakarta.
My BurrellesLuce colleagues and I have read a number of blog posts and stories about what this means for mainstream (traditional) news outlets. Per one 
recent story, “The buttresses of old media institutions, from print to television, are under stress from the advertising downturn, but social media is thriving as the world flocks to the likes of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.”
There’s been some scuttlebutt lately about whether this is a good thing or not. One post went as far as to say “Goodbye CNN-crawl, hello Twitter.”
I’m not sure I’m ready to write-off CNN or other traditional news outlets just yet – after all, as soon as the news broke on Twitter, the first thing I did was tune in to CNN (or TMZ in the case of Michael Jackson) to see if there was journalistic confirmation of these reports.
Perhaps I’m not as forward-thinking as some, but the St. Louis Social Media Report seems to agree with me – there is room for both Twitter and traditional news outlets as they both bring forth a distinctive and practical point of view.
Do you think Twitter or other social media will replace traditional media? I look forward to the conversation.
