WebProNews

When will we get tired of pointing out what a great tool Twitter is for breaking news? This is essentially the question asked in this CNET article.

The author basically talks about how cliché it has become to report about how Twitter is breaking stories, and making the case for citizen journalism.  Of course the most recent example of this is the Hudson River plane incident from yesterday.

"But how long before we can move past this 'wonder of Twitter' moment? An earthquake in China, the Mumbai massacre, war in Gaza--Twitter's proved itself as a tool to report and comment on breaking news. If you haven't been paying attention, Twitter might seem wondrous. For the rest of us, it's old hat by now," the author writes.

The truth of the matter is that my first reaction to seeing the tweets about the incident inspired a similar way of thinking. I asked myself if it was even worth reporting about how Twitterers were first on the scene. Yes, we've seen this done time and time again.

But then I started recalling conversations I've had with others questioning the legitimacy of citizen journalism, and social media as a credible source of info, etc. And the fact is that many people still don't get it. Yes, many of us who pay attention to this kind of thing every day get it by now. Writers for WebProNews and CNET, and "the Techmeme crowd" get it. But not everyone does, and others just flat out disagree.

That said, I totally understand where the author of this article is coming from. But that's just the nature of the news media. Look at ESPN. They're still finding ways to talk about Pacman Jones every day.