Here’s a quick story from my recent trip to Malta that shows why Twitter is powerful and what Journalism may start looking like.
We had to catch an early flight, so I got up at 7.15pm EST (1.15am in Malta) and checked email, etc.
Curious how the day’s NFL games had unfolded, I went to ESPN and saw the finals of most games, but noticed that the it was 36-30 in favor of the Packers over the Steelers with 1:58 to go.
ESPN offers a paid subscription to live game feeds, which I don’t buy.
I went to Google and typed in Steelers-Packers, knowing that “real-time” search was now an option.
I clicked on Latest Results and opened up a separate window.
For the last few minutes, the page refreshed every few seconds, as I saw the Twitter comments from people who were “covering” the game by putting in the the hashtag (#) Steelers.
By watching those come across the screen, I tracked the final drive and discovered that a last second pass from Roethlisberger to Wallace, as time ran out, won the game for Pittsburgh.
Football fans, Twitter, and Google had displaced traditional journalists.
Just fascinating. Not sure I fully understand how this leads to the new model, but I do know that the old model is broken.
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