I was very interested to learn today that the NBC television program “The Today Show” is not only on Twitter, but also is following me. I’m not going to get a big head over this and think that Al Roker is going to be calling me anytime soon for an interview, but I do think this is interesting on several levels. The show’s Twitter administrator is, after all, currently following 2,017 people. I’m not sure how many people TOTAL are on Twitter, but I’m sure there are a LOT more than that. Why did the Today Show choose to follow me on Twitter? I can’t be sure, but this blog seems to be the most likely explanation.
While some bloggers think it’s funny to see a mainstream media program embrace a social media tool like Twitter, I think it is thought provoking. It is even exciting in the context of citizen journalism. Certainly the Today Show producers want to have more eyeballs, and if they can enter the information radar screen of more people and even get them to visit their website as a result that’s obviously a win in their book. That aspect of the Today Show’s use of twitter is not really earth shattering. What I find most intriguing are the options under ACTIONS on the Today Show’s twitter page: “message” or “nudge.”
I feel relatively confident Al Roker himself is not monitoring the Today Show’s twitter channel, that’s most likely someone else’s responsibility on the web or marketing team developing online content for them. It’s somewhat arresting, however, to realize that those two little links under “actions” DO mean anyone with a twitter account can send a direct message to someone at NBC directly associated or affiliated with the show. I’m sure thousands of people contact the show’s support team via snailmail and email, but this is instant messaging. Somehow that feels qualitatively different to me.
That thought should naturally encourage a media literacy related question, of course– and it does in my case: Is this the real twitter page for the real Today Show? Well, the posts do all go back to the actual website of the show, so that seems promising. Unlike the situation recently when I wanted to verify the Flickr account of the Barack Obama campaign, however, the official website of The Today Show doesn’t have a link to their Twitter account or any apparent reference to it.
They should.
When people want to verify “the truth” of something they find online, especially if it is a website purporting to be run or representing and individual or organization, one of the first things to do is check the “official” website for corroborating evidence. In the case of this Today Show twitter account, as of this writing that evidence does not appear to be present on their official website. Conclusion? We can’t be absolutely sure this Twitter account is, indeed, administered by people officially connected to The Today Show.
I’ve started to read Andrew Keen’s book ““The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet is Killing Our Culture.” (Thanks to Will Richardson for suggesting this at NECC in June.) I’m anticipating quite a few posts in the weeks ahead addressing many of the claims which Andrew makes in this text, but for now I’ll just observe that where he seems to be calling for despair, I see an important need for media literacy. That need is abiding, it’s not something new with web 2.0. On page 16 Andrew wrote:
For the real consequence of the Web 2.0 revolution is less culture, less reliable news, and a chaos of useless information. One chilling reality in this brave new digital epoch is the blurring, obfuscation, and even disappearance of truth.
I don’t think it’s fair to blame postmodernism on web 2.0. Nor do I think it is time to wring our hands, despair, and try to turn back the clock to 1958. I’m just 30 pages into the book, so I will limit my responses now… but I can summarize my general impressions of what I’ve read so far with the following Skitch snap:
Since Andrew is an apparently avid blogger himself I’m guessing the conversations around these topics and his book specifically may get interesting.
Although the title of Dr. Larry Lessig’s May 31st post about Andrew’s book suggests a positive review (“Keen’s “The Cult of the Amateur”: BRILLIANT!”) at least some of his responses to Keen’s ideas mirror mine. Lessig wrote:
But what is puzzling about this book is that it purports to be a book attacking the sloppiness, error and ignorance of the Internet, yet it itself is shot through with sloppiness, error and ignorance. It tells us that without institutions, and standards, to signal what we can trust (like the institution (Doubleday) that decided to print his book), we won’t know what’s true and what’s false. But the book itself is riddled with falsity — from simple errors of fact, to gross misreadings of arguments, to the most basic errors of economics.
I’m going to withhold final judgement (as anyone should) on the value of Keen’s ideas until I finish the book, but at this point I can NOT recommend it.
The following Skitch snap is fairly representative of the quantity of “interaction with the text” I’ve been doing as I read this book:
For anyone honestly concerned if the Internet and our emerging read/write culture is going to “kill our culture,” I’d refer you to Dr. Lessig’s wonderful keynote at Wizards of OS 4 in September 2007 titled “The Read/Write Society.” Free audio and video downloadable versions of that address are available, look under the archive listings for Friday.
So The Today Show is on Twitter. I think that’s pretty cool. Next time I have something relatively important to blog about, perhaps I’ll “nudge” them via Twitter! Who knows? Maybe someday I’ll even get to meet with Al in person and talk about the value of citizen journalism?! 
Technorati Tags:
twitter, todayshow, nbc, roker, alroker, keen, andrewkeen, cultoftheamateur, lessig, culture, citizenjournalism
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