I said I'd never do it. It's no coincidence that my Twitter debut came at the same time we revamped @dailycollegian. I didn't want to miss a second of Collegian tweets, and after months of resistance to a personal Twitter account, I've finally caved.
And now I'm officially @rossilynne on Twitter.
I didn't want the tweets about eating a sandwich. And I didn't think 140 characters were enough to say much of anything. But I've since seen how effective Twitter is in disseminating information, and I've come to expect my news at a tweet-it-as-you-see-it pace. Just yesterday, I heard a colleague exclaim about Mark McGwire's admission of steroid use -- and I thought to myself, I already read that two hours ago.
There's always an ongoing discussion in the newsroom about how we should best use new media like Twitter. As the semester begins, we've decided to revitalize our @dailycollegian Twitter account by giving you more than just links to articles.
Sports Twitter accounts like @psufootblog led the way during the fall, giving play-by-plays from the press box as well as some insight into what it's like to be on the road covering Penn State football. @psufootblog did more than just link, and that model is one we've adopted for our Collegian account.
We're using Twitter to post breaking news as quickly as we can, to give you an easy way to share links with followers and to provide a means to discuss articles on a platform you already use.
We know that you want local news as soon as possible, and we don't want to make you wait for us to write a full story to get the main facts.
This week, for example, we found out about new Interfraternity Council rules for spring recruitment. As soon as we knew the basic information, we tweeted this: "IFC announced tonight that rush will be dry this semester. Read the full story in tomorrow's Daily Collegian." Once we had a longer Web update written, we linked to it on Twitter, and once we wrote a full story for Monday's newspaper, we linked to it.
It's a different model than we've used before, straying from one that made you wait until the print edition for news. The standard of timeliness has evolved, and we're evolving along with it. While social networks like Twitter give you short bursts of information, our print product is where to turn for all the details and a bigger-picture look at stories.
That's not to say that my few tweets so far have been of earth-shattering proportions -- trust me, they're not. And that doesn't mean I don't expect the same devotion to accuracy from my reporters on @dailycollegian. But it is to say that Twitter is helpful in generating an online community and in knowing the news.
The Collegian is renewing its Twitter efforts to give you up-to-the-second information. And I've joined the Twitterverse to be there right alongside it.
