Twitterized News

© Stan Spire 2009


Over at newspaperdeathwatch.com there’s an April Fools post about the Guardian newspaper in the UK converting its entire operation to the Twitter format, 140 character maximum per post.

Actually I think Paul Gillin has hit on something. After all how many politicians try to oversimplify a problem with a clever soundbite for TeeVee and radio? Most readers and viewers only scan headlines anyway; they’re too busy with their day-to-day struggles to delve deep into issues.

Don’t forget how Dubya handled news when he was president. When he was asked what newspapers he read, he replied his staff filtered the information for him: he didn’t need to read any papers.

Of course this meant completely unbiased info got to Dubya. He probably could barely handle 140-character-limited bits like “We can win in Iraq with less troops; they’ll greet us as liberators” or “Don’t worry; there’s only a few dead-enders left; send in more troops.”

For someone with limited vision like Dubya and his followers, maybe Twitterized news would expand their sphincter-view of the world, waking them up. “Civil war has broken out in Iraq after we invaded. We destabilized the region. Military action won’t work.”

Then again, maybe for such news to have an impact it would have to be scrawled with big, bright crayon colors.