Broadcast Yourself

On the first day of class, we began with a discussion of what news sources each of us followed. Surprisingly, none of us said Facebook or Twitter.

But after Professor Towns mentioned these sites, we all had stories to share, "Oh yeah, I heard about that from..." moments, and instances that we had used the social networks to broadcast our own news. But this week a question was posed: Can we get real news from social networks?

The first time I can really remember getting news other than what someone was doing, planning on doing, or what lyrics expressed their feelings at that given moment was the night of Rep. Joe Wilson's "You Lie!" outburst. I saw someone's disbelieving status about Joe Wilson, which included a link. I followed it to Yahoo! News where I read the whole story, and then returned to Facebook to post my own incredulous message to the world.

Now that I'm in college, and particularly in the Journalism School, I'm connected to other students who keep up with current events, I find myself getting more and more information via links, posts and statuses. Tonight for example, one of my classmates status mentioned the Tim Tebow abortion commercial that's been stirring up a fuss. I had already seen the commercial when it aired, but had I not, I would have known that it existed and hunted for it on the internet, just to see what all the hype was about.

Facebook also keeps me connected to campus events. With the Events feature on Facebook, users can invite each other to just about anything. Facebook is linked to my Blackberry as well, so any events that I respond to automatically show up on my Calendar. This is a great way to stay informed as to what is going on when, and it sure beats having to pencil in everything in my DayRunner.

I am a member of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Class of 2013 Facebook group, which occasionally does send out messages that keep me connected on campus. Also, during the last local election, many candidates had their own Facebook groups which allowed voters to stay connected with their campaign activities.

But while events and groups provide some news, they don't necessarily keep me informed of what the Town Council is doing, or whether or not I'll have class tomorrow due to snow (although the second one shows up in status quite frequently). I don't really get much local political news from Facebook unless one of my friends posts a link to a local news source (which does occasionally happen). The only really local news I get comes from the businesses trying to catch my eye and entice me with "College Days" when I can save a dollar on my frozen yogurt, like at Local Yogurt, or get 20% off of a burrito, and for the most part I've found this information credible.

Twitter, on the other hand, seems to be the place to be for local news.

While not a Twitter aficionado, I did find quite a few groups tweeting local news, including the Chapel Hill Chamber of Commerce and the Town of Chapel Hill. So if I can go right to the source, why do I need a reporter telling me what's going on? I can get information immediately from pages like these about what is going on in my town. And they are constantly updating. No more waiting for next morning's issue, the when news is new it's up there.

With resources like these at people's fingertips, it's no wonder that newspapers are becoming antiquated. People can pick where they want to get their news, how many updates they want and how often they want them. It's all very modern, if a bit overwhelming.