ON THE FLY How news media are making friends in the world of social networking

Who needs a news channel in the Twitter-age?

A week after ITV News launched its social media strategy, the editor of the News at Ten has questioned the need for news channels when breaking news is distributed through the internet and Twitter.

Jason Mills, who is leading ITV News' move into social networking, said that they were developing a four-pronged web-strategy that will include the website, Facebook, Twitter and a YouTube channel. He asked why they would want a news channel when people can get the latest news from them via the internet.

"Do you sit at home watching news channels?" asked Mills. "No. Having a website is more important than a news channel. Why would you want a news channel?"

ITV News presenters and correspondents started tweeting last Monday as part of a brand re-launch with the tag line "Bringing the facts to life." A Facebook page has been created, with a YouTube channel and new-look website planned for the new year.

Mills said that the web strategy is important in reaching viewers outside of the four main bulletins. ITV News closed its 24 hour news channel in 2005.

"My own personal belief is that people don’t want news when you give it to them now," he said. "They want to be part of the newsgathering process, they want to be able to comment on it and they want to get it when they want it.

"The internet allows us to talk to viewers outside of the traditional bulletins. Twitter is useful for us in giving us the chance to put news out there before our bulletins."

He highlighted the example of International Editor Bill Neely who has been tweeting from Afghanistan. His coverage of the death of five British soldiers last week was picked up by other news sources.

"There are not many people who are able to tweet from Kabul and he had some good lines in relation to the deaths," said Mills. "It helped to exploit us before our bulletins at 6:30 and 10 o'clock at night. It was good for us."

Mills said that the social media launch is hopefully just the start for ITV News. "We're initially starting small, but eventually who knows where this will go. Five years ago we had not heard of Facebook or Twitter. It might be that at some stage it becomes vital for a bulletin," he said.

ITV News has appointed a web producer to run its new strategy and staff are being invited to train on how to use Twitter.

Mills said, "Tweeting is pretty simple, if you can use a mobile phone you can tweet, so the training is not that difficult. We have only been doing it with correspondents who have come forward and say they would like to do this. We are growing it organically.

"We have produced some advisory notes reminding people of how tweets might be perceived. The only real guideline that I would stress is that we are only tweeting what is broadcastable. It is important that we have the same standards of accuracy on Twitter as we would in our bulletins."