As with broadcast, all the big names can be found on Twitter in some shape or form. Apart from a noticeable lack of tabloid presence, we very much believe that this speedy delivery of news challenges the good old-fashioned print and trawling around on the web. However, it did come as quite a surprise to us that a large number of magazines aren’t using this social media tool (Marie Claire is an exception to the rule) and out of the broadsheets, only The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian and The Independent have a general or what some would call an official news page.
Again, it may be our slightly ‘old-school’ view to prefer one general Twitter news feed for each newspaper or publication but although the Times Money, Guardian Tech and The Daily Telegraph Fashion profiles provide an informative and more targeted alternative, the number of followers of these supplement profiles still do not match the staggering number their parent accounts have such as @TelegraphMG or @guardiannews.
On the other hand, with the ever-growing importance of technology in today’s society, it is a great comfort to have technology specific profiles such as @guardiantech to keep us up to date with the forever-changing technological world, however in or out of touch we really are.
The idea that Twitter reflects real life is certainly proved here as the prevalent anti-Daily Mail following that exists in the world of print media, has already struck on Twitter with the creation of the Daily Wail account. This shows a negative, tongue in cheek biography and profile hitting out against the @mailonline and its slant on the world.
Much to our surprise, The Sun does not support our previous view that this social network reflects life as we know it. As the UK’s former number one online newspaper http://www.thesun.co.uk, it is incredibly surprising that it does not have an official main profile on Twitter. The broadsheets’ domination of online media is strengthened once again; not least by the news from the @mediaguardian, that the Daily Telegraph has just been awarded the accolade of the UK’s most popular newspaper website, knocking The Sun of the top spot. Perhaps, lack of Twitter presence is due to the demographic of the readership and the not the fault of the paper. But, we asked ourselves, is this not the beauty of Twitter? Reaching out to and attracting an audience you wouldn’t or couldn’t normally?
However, from Friday’s article in The Sun online, we found that it’s probably more of a case of choosing not be a part of Twitter.
Local presence on the social media tool came up trumps, with hidden and informative gems of media such as the Birmingham Post, Sutton Guardian, Lancashire Evening Post, Liverpool Daily Post and of course Manchester’s fine business publications thebusinessdesk.com and Crain’s Manchester Business. This is a great opportunity for local media to get national coverage especially at a time when the future for local papers looks bleak and their profiles enable the whole of the UK to broaden their horizons in terms of geography and local knowledge.
As many journalists fight the friction of truth versus speed, Twitter appears to really have conquered all, enabling print media to also have its place online and interactively, whilst spreading news faster than anyone ever thought was possible. However, our only concern is that if the phenomenon continues along its amazingly successful path, Twitter could add to the scaremongering and have the potential to knock print media out for good – something we certainly wouldn’t want. Twitter you are good....but we would certainly much prefer to sit down with a cup of tea and the paper on a Sunday morning rather than in front of our laptop trying to think of something more exciting and informative to update with than “Sitting here with a cup of tea”.
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