Tag: twitter

Today the Denver Post gifts us with a gee-whiz article about a gee-whiz phenomenon: Politicians are using Twitter! Yes, they are. And they have been for half a year. Even that public relations ticking time bomb state Sen. Dave Schultheis is tweeting!

Six months after Tweeting the funeral of a 3-year-old -- a decision that caused some controversy -- the Rocky Mountain News Twitter feed covered the death of the Rocky itself. "Scripps CEO Rich Boehne just announced the last edition of the Rocky Mountain News will be tomorrow, Feb. 27," the Rocky's newsroom Twitter announced at noon from the meeting where employees learned their fate.

To join in the live Twitter conversation on President Barack Obama's address to the nation, add the hashtag #nsotu -- for non-State of the Union -- to your tweet or add your comment below the fold.

Check out the current President-elect Barack Obama's pre-inaugural event observations live from the nation's capitol via Twitter. Public event photos are also being archived at Flickr, embedded below the fold.

After a judge ruled last week that journalists could Tweet and live-blog a sensational child-abuse trial that got under way in Denver this week, the Boulder Daily Camera began blogging the Alex Midyette trial on Friday. Reporters John Aguilar and Vanessa Miller are filing live updates from Denver District Court, starting with opening statements from the prosecution and defense.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys wanted bloggers silenced in the courtroom next week, but a Boulder judge ordered Monday that cell phones and computers won't be banned from the child-abuse trial of Alex Midyette, the Boulder Daily Camera reports. The attorneys argued that live-blogging and Tweeting the sensational case could tip witnesses to proceedings before they testified, thus impeding a fair trial. "I think there are other manageable options and less restrictive options than shutting down the flow of information during the trial," Boulder District Judge Lael Montgomery said.

NPR is attempting a nifty experiment using the micro-blogging service, Twitter, to instant fact check and rate John McCain and Barack Obama's comments from the comfort of your own home. If you want to join in, include the hashtags #factcheck and/or #dialtest in your tweet.

An interesting idea (and far more appropriate than liveblogging a toddler's funeral) from the Center for Independent Media's youth vote correspondent, Mike Connery at Future Majority.com: I've written in the past about how the upcoming presidential debates seem to be stepping back from the viewer-participation models we saw in the primaries. Well Current TV and Twitter are trying to (somewhat) alleviate that. The two participatory media properties are looking to join forces to give viewers (somewhat) more of a say when Obama and McCain square off.

I'm just trying to envision the exchange between the reporter and his editors over at the Rocky Mountain News that led to their decision to live Twitter the funeral today of Marten Kudlis, the 3-year old boy killed at an ice cream store last week. And you know what? Whatever their rationale, it's inconceivable. Utterly, and unforgivingly, inconceivable.

Political communicators will seize any tool to reach voters. While email and blogs do heavy lifting on the campaign trail, both parties are experimenting with leaner communication platforms, hitting voters in the “abbreev” lingo of text messages and the irreverent one-liners of twitter.