Briggs Chapter 4

Chapter 4 of Mark Briggs’ “Journalism Next” textbook focused on microblogging, which is a way of writing very short blog posts to a wide audience.

According to Briggs, Twitter started the trend of microblogging with a post limit of 140 characters or less.  However, he said that microblogging can be traced back to instant message programs and text messaging.  Facebook status updates are also a form of microblogging.

Twitter has also become important in situations where immediate information is required for the general public.  Briggs said that the 2007 SXSW conference, as well as the 2007 San Diego wildfires, were two events that Twitter helped immensely in regard to getting information out to the world in ways that traditional websites and news media could not.

Twitter also is a great source for breaking news.  Briggs argued that while journalists verify the facts of the breaking news story through Twitter, regular people could report on what they seen on the website.

Interestingly enough, the chapter says that even though the 140-character limit of Twitter can be limiting, it is also a good thing because it limits the amount of rambling in Twitter posts, which are called tweets.  The lack of the ability to ramble on in tweets, unlike in regular blog posts, allows the reader to get right to the meat of the information as fast as possible.