Can Twitter and other forms of modern online journalism help get important messages out there, or do they cloud the picture?

As previous technology proved to be too slow to process the spread of the virus around the world, many citizens as well as medical professionals have turned to a HealthMap swine flu tracking service which was recently modified to include Twitter updates to catch up with the latest on the life-threatening disease.

Launched less than a week ago, the amount of users of the services has surged as health risks increase.

The popularity of swine flu on Twitter is both a help and hindrance to officials attempting to keep track of the virus. On the plus side, the more people who use the site, the sooner an outbreak can be reported and the sooner public health officials can work to contain it.

However, the article states that:

“The downside is that so much information can lead to false positives and install public fear. HealthMap uses blogs and Twitter messages sparingly, relying more on official news reports to update the latest, high-quality information on disease outbreaks.”

Once again, the great dilemma of online journalism is put before – is citizen journalism truthful? Can it really benefit society? In this case, with the obvious plusses of speedy spreading of information come the inevitable minuses of uncertainty over credibility.

Finally he asked did we use Twitter. About half the class hadn’t even heard of it. I had only heard about it on a radio show several weeks prior, where a young man spoke to a baffled radio host about updating his page, otherwise known as adding “tweets”, about 30 or 40 times a day.

Now, however, users updating their site so often is commonplace. Hell, even celebrities are doing it – Jonathan Ross, Lily Allen and Russell Brand being 3 of the most popular.

An online journalism phenomenon for the 21st century

However Twitter users do not only get mindless updates from friends and relatives. The site, whereby users post updates on what they’re doing or whatever else comes to mind, is now considered one of the most exciting forms of media outlet for breaking news.

Examples of breaking news on Twitter include the recent Hudson plane crash and the Mumbai attacks. Citizen journalists with mobile phones are often now the people breaking news and subsequently being interviewed by mainstream news channels for eye-witness accounts of situations.

The face of news is changing, so my advice is to keep up or else be left lagging behind – Twitter looks set to stay around for a while yet.

Check out this Nightline report (26-2-09) where a journalist interviews the founders of Twitter and sees what all the fuss is about.

The site, which attracted almost 28 million unique users during March, added more than 1.5 million unique users from the short month of February to March this year, equivalent to a 63% increase over the same month last year.

telegraph.co.uk - most popular British newspaper site for March, according to figures, leaving guardian.co.uk lagging behind

According to figures published on The Guardian’s website, last month’s number one UK newspaper website, Sun Online, recorded a dramatic drop-off of 6 million unique users, placing it in 5th place of British newspaper sites. The site had experienced a huge increase during February to become number one for the first time as a result of stories about Jade Goody and Alfie Patten.

User figures are calculated by the Audit Bureau of Circulations Electronic, a not-for-profit organisation that analyses data such as how many users a site has and how busy a site is at a particular time as well offering information about ad impressions and how users react to ads on sites.

Right across the board, despite several small dips in popularity, figures from the ABCE show that more and more people are increasingly turning online for their news.

So what makes the Huffington Post so powerful? The main difference between the HP and other blogs is that Huffington markets itself as “The Internet Newspaper”. It is run exactly like a newspaper, covering all aspects of society that a regular paper would cover – news, politics, media, business, entertainment, fashion, etc – it does not focus solely on one aspect, like so many blogs do.

The Huffington Post - the most powerful blog in the world, says the Guardian

In order to achieve their dream of being an online newspaper a team was needed. The HP was revolutionary in this sense as it recruited professional columnists and celebrity bloggers and has become a real operating employer.

By September 2008, the blog had received over four and a half million unique hits, leading to a increase in advertising charges. In November 2008, The Huffington Post gained $15 million in investment. Who says that blogging doesn’t pay?

Site owners plan to invest this money into the development of investigative journalism on the blog as well as the inclusion of local news across the United States.

The websites influence is apparent. For example, the story White House Swine Flu: Aide Has Suspected Case was only published just over an hour ago and has already gained 538 comments. I feel that the Guardian was correct in giving the title of most powerful blog in the world to HP as its influence matches no other blog at present.

While the most recent issue is easily accessible, the site’s greatest strength is the inclusion of previous issues in the archives section, which allow users to view articles from a year ago, when the site was created initially. PDFs of issues from several years ago can easily be accessed. A clear hyperlinked list of editorial team members on the homepage means it is easy for anyone to get in contact with the paper.

The site’s homepage also includes a list of useful links, including those to Flashback (DCU’s semester review magazine) as well as newspaper websites from other colleges.

The site is also a useful resource for those who contribute to the paper, with the paper’s style guide included on the site.

A lot more could be done with the website however. Multimedia is non-existent and much progress could be made in uploading podcasts, interviews, etc. As the paper, at this point, comes out every 3 to 4 weeks, a blog could draw people to the site in the interim period.

As rumours are rife amongst students that the paper is set to increase its frequency to fortnightly, we’ll have to wait and see what changes this move will bring to its site.

He makes the point about the versatility and flexibility of phone:

“Mobile phone users can be there – on the ground or in the thick of the action – giving eyewitness accounts of actual events. Telecommunication updates have introduced the camera to the device , meaning users can also take pictures and produce short films.”

He goes on to say that:

“Mobile phones are challenging official sources of information, and the internet is their platform to the public sphere to influence news gatekeepers.”

In my opinion, this is a craze that looks set to stay with us and develop into the future as mobile phone manufacturers are constantly making their phones more sophisticated.

The trend of mobile phone footage from citizens breaking stories looks set to continue

In another post, Steven uses the example of the footage of Ian Tomlinson’s assault at the G20 summit protests as an example of how the mobile phone can bring stories to light.

The footage, shown on the the Guardian website, was taken on a camera phone by a New York man who happened to be in London at the time on business. It shows Tomlinson, who was not part of the demonstration, being assaulted from behind and pushed to the ground by baton-wielding police. Shortly after this footage was taken, Tomilson collapsed and died.

It is fair to say that this incident may not have received such widespread attention had it not been for the footage, and this is citizen journalism’s greatest strength – its ability to bring grassroots stories to light which may have otherwise gone unnoticed.

Kaycee Nicole was presented as a high school student suffering from frequent and severe health problems, and had an online blog with a large following. It was “reported” that she had died leukemia, which caused an outpouring of condolences and grief from her readers, some of whom questioned whether she was a real person. An investigation revealed that she did not exist, and that the whole blog had been an elaborate role-playing exercise by her adult “mother.”

Photos of Kaycee Nicole were in fact images of a neighbour who didn't know anything about the hoax

According to Sean:

The plight of this girl, a plight eventually exposed as pure fiction, captured the minds and hearts of many a sympathetic blogger online. This character even exchanged correspondence with several bloggers… letting them think they had befriended a person in need. A good dissection of the event and it’s aftermath is available here.

For an interesting examining of the reasons behind why peeople use online personas, check out one psychiatrist’s view.

He states:

“Because virtually everyone who goes online creates personas which reflect — but are not accurate portrayals of — their real selves, virtually everyone online knows someone who is engaging in a level of deceit or pretend.”

If this is so, significant problems are created in the blogging world. Much of our class reading makes the case that unless bloggers clearly state their biases and motives, how can a sense of transparency be created between consumers and bloggers? How can we know if a blogger’s online identity is their real one, or is just simply made up?  This remains a challenge which continues to undermine the blogosphere.

The paper was praised for its strong audiovisual coverage of the Bejing Olympics and the US election campaign.

The site, one which I use regularly, is extremely well laid out and easy to use. Its greatest strength is probably that it gives plenty of background information on a story and this often makes it unnecessary to search other sites for back-up information.

A prime example of this it’s detailed coverage of the current swine flu epidemic. As well as providing the latest updates in terms of articles around the globe, the site has a blog solely dedicated to updates on the epidemic. This is updated extremely regularly. As I type, at 17.15, the last update was at 17.05, with: 

The CDC has confirmed the locations of the 91 US cases.

According to judges of the British Press Awards, the cutting-edge, up-to-the-minute aspect of the Guardian website ensures that it remains:

“.. the big daddy of newspaper websites. Others are getting better but it remains the best.”

Dave Hill, pictured right, won digital journalist of the year for his blog about London politics, which the judges  said “employed the methods on an old-fashioned hack in a digital age”.  See his blog here.

For full report of the awards from no other than the horse’s mouth, check out the Guardian report here.

Of the three Irish language publication sites I have looked at, Nos is without doubt the most attractive. Well laid out, simple and modern, it clearly divides its website into various section by means of a bar along the top with links to the music section, film section, travel section, etc.

The site incorporates audiovisual aspects effectively, with a video box on the homepage flashing different stories in an enticing manner. There is a blog which could be developed further – at the moment it is only updated every 2-4 weeks. The interactivity here is good, with users allowed to leave comments.

An online shop allows users to purchase a hard copy of previous editions at €3.90 an issue. Users can also subscribe to the magazine for a year at the click of a mouse, or for free receive a regular newsletter about the magazine.

The thing which struck me most about this website is that the design of the print format of Nos is extremely similar to the website version – there is continuity between the two. While the magazine is in its early stages, and as it is based in Newry it is more difficult to get a copy of it in the Republic, the online version of Nos is undoubtedly making strides in gaining a following for the magazine.

Beo straight off is far more interactive than Foinse.ie. The top line of the homepage tells the user how many people are viewing the site which from the get-go creates an air of interactivity between site and user. A discussion forum, events diary and plenty of visable links to other Irish language media also adds to the feeling of interactivity.

While interaction blossoms on beo.ie, news quality and journalism is forgotten

The treatment of translation/language difficulties is dealt with extremely well on beo.ie. A glossary of difficult words and phrases appears at the end of each article in Beo. A translation of those words and phrases can also be accessed in the body of the article (they are unlined). The user moves their mouse until the pointer is lying on any part of the word or phrase and a translation will appear in English beside it. This is excellent and encourage those with not-so-perfect Irish (let’s face it, most of us) to improve our Gaeilge.

The website is quite packed and fun, a little overcrowded perhaps. From a journalism point of view it is somewhat disappointing as it is really a learning resource more so than a journalistic publication. The inclusion of section of helpful lessons for teachers compounds this. Articles can be topical, but often they involve a subject in which the author is interested in themselves. Newsworthiness and relevance can suffer as a result.