Peers vs. Pros: Who's Faster on News?

One of the most fundamental shifts over the last several years has been the incredible acceleration of the news cycle. Today information travels faster than it ever did before. The pros and peers not only compete, they complete each other. Clearly technology is enabling this and mobile devices and cameraphones are giving it serious juice. 

These changes are at the heart of why the PR business needs to adopt a whole new way of working. As my CEO Richard Edelman is often heard saying, we need to now facilitate horizontal peer-to-peer communication even as we continue to rely on the traditional top-down media centric model that built our industry.

Here's an example that shows how pros and peers work in the wild and how the latter can help the former distribute information faster.

Over the past few weeks I have become totally addicted to Twitter - a micro blogging platform that is tied to IM and SMS. I am using it to actively lifeblog wherever I go. I share bits that include everything from meeting Carmen Electra yesterday to SMSing bite-sized nuggets that could one day be blown out here as posts (or perhaps not). The fact that the platform integrates with my mobile device makes all the difference. If you're interested, you might want to subscribe to my Twitter feed.

Twitter does more than keep me closer to my friends. It allows them to share news with me. Take a look at the screen grab below. I learned about Scooter Libby's conviction from Jason Calacanis minutes before I did from CNN and using the same channel of information. In this case, a Twitter IM.

Now I don't expect my friends to beat the pros on a big story like this. After all, the news media was there at the courtroom. Still, news big and small travels across all channels and this little anecdote shows that sometimes the peers are a lot faster because of the technology.

Comments

[Alan Weinkrantz]

Steve....totally agree. And I like your "lifeblog" metaphor of what Twitter is. Twitter also gives insights into the daily grinds of our collective lives.

For example, you got stuck at LAX yesterday after making a client pitch. Or that Jason had to get up early for a breakfast meeting. Or in my case, the joys of taking carpool with three 15 year old teenaged girls. I know that Jeff Pulver is in Miami and Chris Brogan is.....well, he is everywhere.

And the Libby thing: yes, I got it first from Jason and NOT CNN / WSJ / NYT.

[MWD]

"Twitter also gives insights into the daily grinds of our collective lives."

To that point, I've looked a Twitter since I've been seeing it talked about a lot, and I gotta say I don't think I'm depressed enough, or hate my job enough to be a target user of the product. Maybe when I get to the point of wanting to put a bullet through my head, which seems like a lot of Twitter users are to that point, I will think about using it.

[James Zhou]

Steve, I agree with you on some points. but what if my friends still stick to the traditional media outlet, In this case, Twitter works much less efficiently. It seem like Twitter has given us a new to way share what's going around us and our friends. but it's unlikely to become sites like digg, reddit, topix because one piece or two news from your friends is probably from CNN, NYT, BBC, or whatever. With Twitter, you just can save some time of scouring the web for the news. if we have no CNN, reddit, digg, Washington Post, NYT, Guardian, Slate,Twitter is going to nothing but a real life-blog, and we would get news much slower.We can get new faster from Twitter friends because we also have some big news sources elsewhere.
PS: my friends hate Twitter because they think it's a time-waster, and unnecessary to let others know what they are doing.

[Susan F. Heywood]

Thanks for describing so well the value and unique attraction of the unfiltered conversations on Twitter. I agree that this is a platform that will enable peer-to-peer sideways interaction in a way that cannot be duplicated by traditional media.

Tonight I noticed media logos in the twitter feeds (BBC, NYT.) The last thing I need is another feed source for these media outlets.

The beauty of Twitter is its raw account of everything from the mold in a sandwich to the content of a trade conference from a real person. Media channels' links can be found everywhere. I wonder if these are channels that were set up by a larger arrangement or by guerrilla innovation? I want to know what people are thinking and seeing themselves.

Depression or job dissatisfaction are not the main themes of the posts I read and follow. As with all social media applications, there are a wide variety of posts here, too.

Thanks for creating the search function, Steve!

[Karin Høgh]

I myself try NOT to be hooked on Twitter, but I am failing, I think - also got the news about Scooter Libby because of Calcanis twittering :)

[Jenguin]

The beauty of Twitter is that unless you're reading the public timeline, you won't have to be oversaturated with the news. Just don't follow them.

What I love about Twitter is that it behaves like a giant chat room but you only have to pay attention to those you really want to. I also love that television show writers, news stations, politicians, etc are joining in on the fun. Sure, it has potential for getting out of control, too many advertisers may get involved.. but again.. just don't follow them.

[James Joyner]

I've barely got enough time to blog and write freelance work. How in the world do you have time to micro-blog your life?

[David Scott Lewis]

"Mommy, mommy, guess what I found out!!" Come on, Steve, what the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post and other great dailies (and even influential regionals like People's Daily) add is perspective. Rather than sound bites taken out of context, they provide context.

Sure, the dailies make errors, but I suspect that their error rate is less than that of bloggers -- although this would be an interesting issue to study.

If there's a Tsunami heading for the Qingdao coastline, I want to hear about it ASAP. Tell me what I need to know now. But with something like the Libby conviction, I'd rather wait a few minutes and get a professional take on things from a real news organization, not a 20-something who lives in the "We the Media" fantasy land and who's probably a SL'er: Life in a 24/7 delusional existence of self-proclaimed self-importance.