All the News That is Fit to Tweet

This is how I learned last night that there was news to know.  I'm on Twitter (@CRL26) and this tweet prompted me to visit CNN's website - which was not yet updated.  

I continued to get my news from today's leading Twitter journalists (which aren't really journalists at all, at least not in the traditional sense).  These are people who are digesting the Internet at a rate that makes keeping up a game and a challenge. 

In the next few minutes, without the use of television and only my little smartphone, I learned the following:

Rumors:

 

With Sources:

Facts:

During the Twitter news-cycle I saw a lot of people tweeting about "Where they were when..."  They discussed where they were when they first head of 9/11, and now where they are as the President announces that Osama bin Laden had been captured and killed.  

To me what is most interesting is how did you learn?  In 2011 I was in high school, and I learned via the public address that something was wrong, and then watched on the morning news.  Last night, I learned via Twitter.

The low barriers of the Internet make it possible for us all to be journalists and to be on the front lines and embedded within our own daily lives.  Just ask @ReallyVirtual who unknowingly live-tweeted the assasination.  

The low barriers of the Internet allow for us all to be published authors (hello, this blog!), leaders of movements (the 2008 election) and revolutionaries (Iran, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and so on).  The Internet isn't going anywhere, and the technology is accelerated further because of the value that it adds to the potential for  democracy and transparency for all people.

I look forward to seeing what  makes the news next and when, I already know how...