You Tweet. We Report.

That's it in a nutshell. Of course it can be a little more complicated than that but really, the power of interactive and social media becomes more and more evident each day. From large scale examples like the fallout and protests in Iran following what many have claimed was a rigged election to more local examples like the Pioneer Courthouse Square Dave Chappelle performance here in Portland social media is breaking down barriers between journalist and citizen. In fact, the blog movement has in many cases been referred to as citizen journalism. It's also blurring the lines between what is fact and what isn't. Most often though, social media is supplanting telephone tips and viewer emails as the most direct and often expedient way of sharing news.

Only a few years ago it seemed that email was the height of viewer connectivity. You could see news happening and shoot an email to a TV station. That email would find it's way into someone's inbox and the tip might be followed up on. Now it's even quicker. A tweet or a tip in a live chat bypass that inbox. They go right to a person whether it's an anchor on twitter during a newscast or a producer monitoring a live chat. I've personally seen both happen AND seen those tips yield legitimate real time results.

In the past week it's happened twice. Just today a twitter tip lead to a breaking news situation in which I rearranged my entire newscast. It was a matter of minutes from the first tweet to the time the news made air. To break it down. A viewer tweeted to our anchor who was on the desk during the newscast saying they had seen police activity and believed there was some sort of major police situation developing. My anchor relayed this information to me. I contacted our assignment desk with the information and less than 5 minutes later we were rolling to the breaking news and I was cutting into my show to tell the audience about it. It doesn't get much quicker or streamlined than that. Viewer interaction and control at it's best. Another example shows how official sources can become even more versatile when they use social media as a means to get information out. We had been following news of a fire in our area through the course of the early morning hours. Traditionally we would listen for info on the emergency scanners. What seemed like a fairly minor fire over the scanner quickly turned into a larger story when we caught a tweet from a fire deparment information officer explaining that half a dozen families were now displaced because of the fire. What might have taken 30 minutes or an hour to figure out via old tech methods was reduced to a 5-10 minute window. That allowed me to re-order my show and allocate resources in a different way. It also lead to a more compelling story and better information for the audience.

There are other applications besides breaking news applications. Last spring I was monitoring a live chat during my newscast. A parent who lived hundreds of miles away in a different city was online in the chatroom. She was seeking information about a situation that was developing at the university where her son was enrolled. It involved the expulsion of and investigation of another student who was later accused of possessing illegal firearms on campus. While that mother may have emailed us it's not a sure thing. Instead, by coming to us and actively looking for the information she made us aware of the situation. We quickly followed up on this information and consequently had an advantage of several hours over the competition on a large story.

Both methods have great merit and while I find it unlikely they'll completely replace phone tips and email I do think that they will increase their share of news sharing. They'll also help us bring the audience information in a more timely manner. We always preach that our reporting is for the viewer and we're constantly seeking their input. This is a great example of how new media are letting us do that job better. Like I said.. You Tweet. We Report.