An insightful chat, I think, with Mark Pesce on Twitter
Mark Pesce, Inventor, Writer, Educator, & Futurist
I’m not sure if I have a better understanding of how Twitter is impacting the media and journalism landscape or if I just have more questions! My chat with Mark Pesce earlier this week, was not only fun and insightful but thought provoking. There are a lot of topics we could cover in our 2 hour luncheon session on Mark’s ideas, opinions and thoughts, but since he only has 8 – 10 minutes to give us a high level view of the impact of Twitter, it will be interesting to see what our audience discussion brings about based on his presentation.
During our discussion, Mark outlined a number of different view points in which Twitter is “challenging” media and journalism. He, like many of us, doesn’t believe Twitter is the death of journalism, but he does believe that it is the death of the wire services, which then begs the question, what replaces it? Will there be such a thing as a Twitter News Service? Or will journalism move towards “hyper-locality” in which the information news wires used to provide is no longer nearly as important as what’s happening in our own neighborhood? And then who’s role will it be to provide and offer national news? Perhaps our own communities will naturally build that in to their communication.
With my brain frazzled of all the ideas of what’s to come from the news wires, the newspapers, and the shift in content consumption, I decided to move our conversation to other forms of media. What about television and radio, how is Twitter going to impact these mediums?
If you’re not aware, Mark is on a panel of judges for the show, The New Inventors on the ABC, so when I asked him this question, he knew exactly what I was getting at and explained how the show was the first ever (we believe in Australia) to have him Tweeting during a broadcast; responding and interacting with the viewers. He then explained how radio is embracing Twitter by broadcasting and reporting “emergencies” – such as the Victorian Bush Fires – during a live radio show. Both of these examples show that Twitter is not just another media outlet or tool for journalists, but it is now, becoming a way for consumers to interact with the mediums, creating a live experience with something that used to be static. It’s truly giving a voice to the people and the media industry should embrace this.
Whether you agree with Mark or not, is not the question, but you must come and hear his thoughts on where Twitter is heading as he believes “Twitter isn’t done yet. We’re all just beginning to understand how to use it and eventually we’ll see how it will impact our consumption of media in general.”
I look forward to hearing your thoughts, ideas, and insights on Twitters Impact on Media & Journalism, at our luncheon event on 23 June 2009.
