@robpatrob: btw, sometime commented to me that my some of my Super Tuesday tweets came out faster than the election calls made on air...
Wow, Kristine at pbwiki saw my little tweet earlier and sent me an email about it! that's cool.
calanan: @robpatrob the MR news actually popped up first on the BPP RSS feed (almost half an hour ago)!
News Services like AP were born from necessity. How were local newspapers going to get national and global coverage when they could never afford to have reporters all over the world.
How could NPR and the Public radio system have much better national and global news and have it for free?
Over the last 2 weeks, Twitter has been popping up as an answer.
Andy Carvin now has 1,000 followers. I have only 100 (Yup just a reject) but even I am hearing breaking news first on Twitter. Bryant Park scooped the world on Mitt Romney today using Twitter. Yes a morning show in New York - hours after it was off the air scooped the world.
Andy has set up an aggregator for BPP. So here is the idea.
Have an Andy in every Public radio newsroom set up their own Twitter account and have them dig deep into their own broadcast area - link all of these into a Supra NPR Twitter Network. Now you have the US covered. Not a mouse could sneeze without a Twitter Stringer. Tornado coming to your town - real time Twittering. Plane crash in your state - witness Twitters. Big fire as a few weks ago in Vegas - a witness Twitters.
But this is not just the US - NPR on behalf of the system could invite people in from all over the world to become an NPR Twitter Stringer - there could be supporting social software - mashups - prizes like a week in DC with the gang - dinner with NPR hosts.
Even in its embryonic state - us early adopters are getting the news first on Twitter. We also get color commentary - Andy has been great on the primaries as other have been on other events. There is something special about the immediacy - imagine this:
"My god - a tornado is coming down the street diving for the basement"
"I am down here - the noise is terrifying - Am I going to die"
"God the house is coming apart"
"It's moving on - I am ok I think"
"I'm alive!"
"Going up the steps there is no house above me" and so on
Would this not be electrifying? How about this?
"What a rally it has been - crowds crushing Benazir's car"
"She is standing up in the moon roof - the crowd is going mad"
"O My God!"
"O no!"
"Min"
"OMG she's been shot and a bomb.."
"I think I am Ok"
"I can't see her - she has fallen into the car".......
This is a new kind of news - much like the memorable coverage of the landing of the Hindenberg "Oh the humanity!"
So what do you think? Wouldn't this be cool? Takes the idea of Citizen Journalism up a notch or two. Uses the value of the brand of NPR and Public Radio to attract the stringer. Binds the group into the future of the system. Costs practically nothing.
