Twitter’s Impacting Everything! My chat with Renai LeMay.
Renai Lemay, News Editor ZDNet Australia, CBS Interactive
Renai LeMay, News Editor of ZDNet Australia, (@renailemay), spoke with me last week on his insights of how Twitter is impacting the media and journalism landscape and I have to say, it’s going to stir up some great conversation at our event on 23 June 2009.
When I asked him to give me his point of view, we had to take a step back and look at the role of journalism and how it’s changed to fully understand Twitters impact. “A journalist”, according to Renai, “is any broadcaster of content”, so Twitter, which is a broadcast tool, is a platform that journo’s can’t exclude or ignore. Immediately I thought, you bet, Twitter IS the death of the journalist since everyone now has the power to broadcast, but then we dug deeper to understand how the PLATFORM of Twitter is changing the methods and mechanics of journalism and how it’s not only helping the media industry but how it’s enhancing the industry all together. Renai will discuss this in more detail at the event.
Like Mark Pesce, Renai used the term hyper-local journalism as the next phase of content delivery and emphasises that unique content is more valuable to individuals. Because of Twitter, journalists can focus on local content, target specific and niche readerships, and interact with readers on issues that they consider important. Ultimately isn’t that what social media is all about? Building that relationship?
As I finished my conversation with Renai, I realised that his position on Twitter is that “Twitter IS the next big thing” and that all media and journalism executives need to embrace the platform to continue to evolve the overall industry. Join us on 23 June for the luncheon session, Twitters Impact on Media & Journalism, and hear Renai explain why he considers Twitter a “playground of pleasure”!
