Joe Ruiz

Deservedly so, Twitter received major kudos for its relaying of information and pictures from the ditching of U.S. Airways Flight 1549 in New York City’s Hudson River earlier this week, but with praise come pans, and the one that stuck out to me was the criticism of Twitter’s self-praise by Matt Marrone of the New York Daily News.

For the most part, the Internet buzzed for hours and hours as Twitterers patted themselves on the back. Self-congratulatory - and often self-indulgent - posts, complete with links to blog entries about the slow death of the mainstream media and plenty of re-linking to that same photo - viewed almost 40,000 times on TwitPic.com within the first four hours. And later, finally - tweets about being tweeted out.

I think the Twitterverse can withstand some self-indulgent praise, especially considering those who still don’t understand its best qualities. I’m known in my newsroom for saying two things.

1. Everybody will have their moment (or news story) when they notice the tools of newsgathering are changing, and they’ll decide it’s time to learn what works for them.
2. Some tools work well for some people, some don’t. You have to be willing to try them all out to find out, though.

People will be intrigued by social media/social networking at different times, and I know I read many retweets from people hearing positive thoughts about Twitter during a breaking news story. Is it all perfect? Hell, is it even completely correct? Nope. That’s when being able to separate the wheat from the chaff pays off. Journalists still have to be able to find out what’s correct and what’s hearsay, but spreading what’s correct and necessary via Twitter should be celebrated when it works. How many in the media (and for this argument, we’ll ask mainstream) figured Twitter (or at the very least, social media) might just be useful and decide to learn?

Charles Cooper of CNET.com asks:

Before some of you jump ugly on me, let me hasten to mention that I’ve long found Twitter to be extremely useful. 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.

That’s just it, Charles. There are still many people out there who haven’t been paying attention. The “wonder of Twitter” posts will subside eventually, but since there are still people who don’t understand the new tools, the wonder posts will still follow. I don’t begrudge Twitter for celebrating itself occasionally, but only when it’s deserved.

Newspapers used Barack Obama’s election and the Nov. 5 front pages to give themselves a pat-on-the-back, a quick money grab and remind America one of the reasons they were still important, even if for a day. Twitter can get some love, too.

Tags: Journalism, New Media, twitter, us airways 1549

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