Kombine

HARO, Twitter and the Future of Discourse

Sometimes the crucial difference between interesting and vapid journalism is found in what questions are asked. Pam Baker has asked some excellent questions about Twitter, and has come back with interesting answers.

Last month I responded to a request in Peter Shankman’s HARO [Help A Reporter Out] email from prolific tech writer Pam Baker. She was working on a piece titled Twitter and the Future of Discourse. Her query included several questions about Twitter such as:

• Is it a fad or is it here to stay?
• Will its 140 character limit on messages feed its success or prove to be a fatal flaw?
• And, is Twitter “reversing the course of intelligent conversation, taking us back to
  toddler language skills?”

I found her questions genuinely interesting, so I took some time to think through and respond to all of them. I began anticipating reading her article as soon as I sent her my thoughts, and was very pleasantly surprised to find out a few weeks later [thanks to Kreg's Google Alerts] that I’d been quoted in the article.

Since then Pam’s Twitter and the Future of Discourse Part 2 has been published on Technology News – check it out, both are worth reading. And no, not because of my two cents – there are many stronger points made by Pam herself and the others who responded to her.

Peter deserves a lot of credit for putting together HARO and making it possible for reporters to connect with an increasingly broad source of contacts for their research and writing in an efficient, timely manner. I know that without Haro this would never have happened. Thank you to Peter and Pam for giving the Twitter community [and others] the opportunity to participate in journalism in the midst of its huge upheaval, and hopefully – its renaissance.