association comments-o-matic

Ben,

An honest comment/question — I’m not just being a smartass.

You say, “Last night I got my election news by hitting refresh at Twitter’s mobile website.”

You also could have hit refresh at, say, CNN’s website.

You say, “Perhaps more up-to-date, as my tweeple were watching all manner of news stations: CNN, BBC, all the major American television affiliates, etc.”

So the news you were getting still depended on network televisions that depend on ad revenue to function.

You say, “I find myself going to search.twitter.com for news. Did the Redskins win? A quick search there will tell you.”

So will a quick search on news.google.com. Or washingtonpost.com. Or, in fact, redskins.com.

So … in these cases … what does Twitter replace? I assume it’s the “one source” and cellphone integration that makes it valuable, and I’m not saying that’s NOT valuable, but how does the “social” aspect of this “social” media come into play in the examples you outline here?

And, if the ad-supported sources being relied upon by the Twitter users for their reporting cease to exist because no one is watching their ads, will you continue to get the value you outline here from Twitter (which has yet to define a sustainable business model)?

Reply at Ben Martin, CAE