I love Twitter.
Live-tweeting a 2008 fire or whatever
It took mere seconds for Twitter to archive my tweets from day one. That’s nearly 19,000 tweets that takes up only 3.91 MB on the hard drive.
I was excited to open up July of 2008 to read my tweets from the Valley View Fire or whatever you want to call it that burned some homes near Dishman-Mica.
I was working in production at a local tv station back then and I rediscovered Twitter. It seemed useful to talk about what was happening around me. Being a techie isn’t much into the process of news gathering, but I feel like I picked up some interesting observations.
The time stamps weren’t accurate in the excel sheet, so here’s just the tweets.
- There are fires all around us. The biggest danger to Spokane in a long time.
- First off, I do not live in the Spokane Valley. I am okay. If something was wrong, for god sakes, I’d be blogging about it.
- Omgosh. The crew has been here for 13 hours. Broadcasting on and off since 5pm yesterday. I’m so proud.
- The reporters look exhausted out on the scene. They’ve been out there for hours and have not had any decent sort of a break.
- There’s talk about getting bagels. Moral appears to be low.
- There’s nothing like cold pizza. It’s magical.
- The problem with these long newscasts is that batteries have a tendency to die when you least expect and desire them to.
- It’s 6:20am and we’re going till 9:00am. That would be practically 6 hours straight. Its monotonous picking up last nights news scraps.
- The engineers showed up a little while ago and they just did a sweet move with the tower cam up on Tower Mountain.
- I’m enjoying the amounts of user pictures but I wish they would credit the photographers.
- Right now, the crew would be eating breakfast in the kitchen, but now we’re still attending our posts following the newscast.
- Less focus on the fires now. Our cameras have turned to the reactions and stories of the people in the shelters.
- We’re done with the news till 10am. I won’t be taking my break so I can stick around here. Updates at 10 & 11.
- I’m back on graphics for the rest of the afternoon. No more studio for me!
- We just finished the noon show. We’re staying here for live cut ins at 1 and 2. We probably won’t be here as long as the evening crew was.
- DONE! For the effin’ day. Thank you fires for making my Friday silly tired.
While cleaning out what was formally a guest room to make way for an office, Mike found this embarrassing doodle in a sketch book. In early 2010, I started drafting my Halloween costume that I never got around to.
Apparently I wanted to be Twitter for Halloween. Not quite a sexy Twitter, but a well-polished one.
Mike handed this sketch to me and I was a mix of embarrassed and shocked that he went through my sketchbook. At least he didn’t find my drawings of —
Notes:
- Twitter logo is old logo.
- I can’t draw heels.
- I’m not sure why I thanked @SpoCool for Sangria.
- I apparently stabbed myself with a pencil.
- I referenced my old employer.
- I can’t draw hands.
Distractions
It’s nice to hear this from New York Times reporter, David Carr.
What is your writing/reporting day like?
Today, I spent far too much time on email and Twitter, and far too little time reporting a story I’m working on.
Source: tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com
Now that my music collection is up and running again, I can access my favorite musical ever and relate it back to a tweet from a few days ago.
@InlanderJoe wrote on a Friday night, “A bunch of guys walking up Riverside in sailor outfits. I kid you not. #Spokane”
I think I’m the only one that immediately thought of the lyrics to “On the Town” because I immediately retweeted his tweet saying: “Spokane, Spokane! What a helluva town!”
The only difference between the movie and musical version of the song is that the movie says “It’s a wonderful town” while the musical says, “It’s a helluva town.” I guess “helluva” is a word they weren’t willing to attempt in Hollywood quite yet.
Video Courtesy: Jwingfield1588/Youtube
#Reg10SPJ - Josh Trujillo Talks Occupy Seattle
Who are the usual suspects in your town’s protest presence? Josh Trujillo, visual journalist with the Seattle P.I. thought he knew before he started covering the Seattle Occupy movement.
He describes Seattle as a hot bed for protests so you get to know the people. Trujillo even thinks he’d make a decent protest consultant.
When Occupy first started, he walked through their camps and realized he didn’t recognize a lot of these people.
“I didn’t see the activist types,” Trujillo said.
It was people who felt personally affected by economic recession. A big surprise was the amount of soldiers participating, unable to find jobs after their military experience.
He found the movement intelligent especially with their tactics to get their message across by projecting images on the building that Mitt Romney was speaking in on the campaign trail.
Thinking back to Spokane’s movement, I’m not sure if we saw that same affect. Walking through the crowd, I recognized the faces as the activist types. They were the usual suspects. I wonder how that affected coverage of their localized movement.
Regarding Social Media Coverage
A question from the audience asked Trujillo how he used social media during his Occupy coverage. Advanced Twitter search to find out when and where these groups were going to be. Following the key players and developing a solid following.
“They love to participate with the news gathering process,” Trujillo said.
Newsie Twitter Directory Eye Candy
Best feature for you to copy: Somewhat similar to the NY Times, LA Times highlights three must-follow accounts at the top of the page.
Best feature for you to avoid: Avoid listing out all the accounts as straight text. People who use twitter are used to seeing context beyond a username: an avatar, a biography.
I’m in love with the LA Times’ Twitter directory. I agree with 10,000 Words assessment about providing more context. My favorite part about this directory though, is the 1-3 word description of the account.
An interesting account to note on this directory: @latimesgoodnews - Breaking positivity, by popular request. I love the positive twist, but the account is only updated about once a month. Does that mean there’s little good news?
Too bad there’s no account for @latimesbadnews. Cue parody account.
Ooooh! City Council!
We just received the confirmation that the resolution to approve Brad Thoma’s settlement against the City of Spokane and Anne Kirkpatrick will be on Spokane City Council’s agenda tonight. It was struck from the agenda last week after Mayor David Condon wanted more time for a review on the case.
Assignment Editor: City just called. Thoma is back on the agenda tonight.
Me: Oh! *shuffles everything on desk* I’m so nervous!
Reporter: Why?
Me: EVERYONE will be watching my tweets.
Reporter: Ooooo! City council!
Blind dates no longer sacred on Internet
Ever thought somebody was listening in to your coffee shop conversation? Chances are - they are.
A blind date was documented from a table and a half away at the downtown Starbucks at 2nd and Division. Their “all over the map” date covered all the bases of topics including baseball, video games, Bob Ross and weight loss tips.
Was the date successful? We may never know, but the Twittersphere was paying close attention and have their own thoughts about the blind date.
Storify: It all started when the coffee-goer realized there was a blind date sitting next to him.
Nicole Hensley is a reporter at The Spokesman Review.