Media warm to Twitter lists but public remains cool
Social media has been placed at the centre of many news organisations' coverage of the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference. Twitter lists have been popular for aggregating the tweets of both journalists and organisations at the conference, however it seems that the public are yet to warm to them.
News organisations, such as the BBC, have set up special Twitter feeds to promote coverage from the conference. The Danish hosts have set up an official Facebook page and Twitter feed and the US Department of State have launched their own conference Facebook page.
However with thousands tweeting with the hash tag #cop15 it can be difficult to find sound among the noise. Twitter lists are a great feature that help to do this. The Guardian and Huffington Post are among those with lists aggregating the tweets of key organisations at Copenhagen, such as Greenpeace and the Department of Energy and Climate Change. The Huffington Post also have lists for news organisation and journalists tweeting from Copenhagen.
However the amount of people following these lists is still relatively low. The Huffington Post only has a handful of people following its lists. The more popular Guardian list only has 350 followers, a small proportion of the 10,000 people who follow GuardianEco on Twitter.
Sky News today ran a Twitter list for coverage of the Pre-Budget Report, but it only attracted 16 followers.
While more people seem to be turning to Twitter to follow news organisations, it seems that Twitter lists are yet to take off with the public.
Sky News apologises after breaking Twitter silence
Sky News has apologised after it accidentally broke a two minute silence on Twitter that was backed by the Royal British Legion.
Websites and newspapers, including Sky News, had promoted the #2minutesilence campaign. It was hoped that users would not post tweets for two minutes from 11am on 11 November.
"2 minute silence on Twitter 11:00am GMT on 11 November #2minutesilence RT plz" was re-tweeted thousands of times in the run up to the silence and #2minutesilence became a top trending topic.
Sky News and BBC Business both sent out tweets during the silence. The tweets from @skynews, which had been sent out by automatic feeds, were deleted and an apology issued.
Some Twitter users say they are now boycotting the @skynews feed. Sky News have contacted some of the complainants individually to say they will take measures to ensure it does not happen again.
Times journalist Caitlin Moran also apologised after she accidentally tweeted during the silence. She tweeted: "Argh I tweeted during the two-minute silence! I just literally didn't know what time it was. I am very, very sorry. I am the new Jan Moir."
Sky News Boulton: ‘Need for professionals amongst trivialities of Twitter’
Sky News political editor Adam Boulton said Twitter is 'another thing he has to do' (Photo: Sky News)
While most of the political twitterati were tonight at Tweetminster's #parl2010 debate, Sky News political editor Adam Boulton was giving the Tom Olsen Lecture at St Bride's Church, Fleet Street.
According to Boulton there is a need for professional journalists on Twitter. He said that he believes Twitter is more civilised than other internet sites filled with unbalanced and horrible comments, but seemed unconvinced when I asked him what Twitter had to offer him, twice.
"If you look at the trivialities of Twitter, it is not surprising that consumers are looking to the professionals in that," said Boulton. "The reality is that our reporters use it not to tell people that they are cutting their nasal hair, but to tell users what is going on."
He added that he thinks tweets are more intelligent and civilised than most online comments, but did not appear to be convinced that Twitter was a useful source for journalists.
"Comments posted on most news sites do not reflect the readers' opinions in general," said Boulton. "I'm happy not to have comments on my site as I believe they offer little.
"The interesting thing is that conversations on Twitter are a lot more intelligent and civilised."
However, when the political editor, who only follows nine people on Twitter, was asked what the site had to offer Sky News, he said: "It is another thing I have to do."
John Stevens
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