Twitter is a very relevant topic for the BBC. Peter Horrocks, the Director of Global News, recently informed BBC journalists that Twitter and other social media are essential to journalists’ work. In the words of Dave Lee, a BBC technology reporter, Horrocks “said Twitter wasn’t optional – or words to that effect – and it sent a few shockwaves through the BBC World Service.”
Twitter has the potential to be the steam engine bringing “traditional” journalism down the tracks to the 21st century where it can become a news source that is accessible to modern readers—those who want information instantaneously, who want to interact with what their reading, and who have attention spans of 140 characters.
But questions remain about how well (and quickly) the grandfathers of journalism will jump on the bandwagon of Twitter and not only use it, but use it well.
The degrees of success that individual journalists have achieved with their twitter endeavors so far ranges significantly.
Peter Horrocks himself hasn’t done anything but retweet since mid-February, interestingly enough.
A familiar face for those who watch BBC America, anchor Matt Frei has recently begun a Twitter account, which is attempting to blend the personal (like a note about where he got married) and the newsworthy (like notes about who to watch in Britain’s upcoming election).
I spoke recently with Lee who maintains a very active Twitter account. He says he uses it regularly to get information for technology stories, though he would label his own content as being more personal than professional. But that will slowly change, he says.
“As I progress as a journo (I hope!), it’ll become more important to think out what I tweet — already I need to be aware I don’t, in the run up to the election, making any passing judgments on parties or politicians.”
So will Twitter change the face of the BBC? My vote would be for no, not yet. Not in the next few months, at least.
The BBC makes it exceedingly difficult to locate its journalists on Twitter, and often those journalists themselves are wary of making their Twitter accounts “official.”
The official Twitter accounts only spit out headlines like a robot (or do nothing at all). Where is the interactivity? Where is the transparency? There is a great deal of potential left in Twitter that the BBC has not yet taken advantage of.
