Live blogging the murder trial, with Twitter
Last year Ron Sylvester blogged for his newspaper’s Web site for the murder of a small-town sheriff (EDIT: Added link). I read along as the trial unfolded, and it was incredibly riveting. But sometimes it took a while for blog posts to appear on the Web site due to editing resources.
This time, Sylvester is covering another murder trial. The copy desk said “no more.”
People are going on vacation. We’re short-staffed. There was no time to sort through my updates each hour.
The trial: Ted Burnett is accused of killing Chelsea Brooks, a 14-year-old girl who was nine months pregnant, in June 2006, during a murder-for-hire.
Like any journalist with a passion, he thought around the problem. He started posting updates on Twitter. Usually his paper doesn’t cover jury selection, but this time they did. It was a capital murder trial. He wanted to know who was going to be on the jury.
Who would notice?
I didn’t expect the reaction..
I received an email from a Wichita police officer following the trial on Twitter, saying “Keep it up.”
(snip)
But this is important to me, because they are local people, looking for local news. They’re not readers or viewers or audience anymore – in this world of social networking, they’re my friends. I like that.
Katie, our online content developer, is working on a widget to put my tweets on Kansas.com, when the trial really gets going.
Read Sylvester’s post on Technolo-J. This is great for reporters who want to find a fast easy way to start using this as a liveblogging tool. But you have to be extra vigilant about your copy because there is no safeguard between you and the readers.
(Note: I literally just started using Twitter last week. I’ve been updating much of my technology skills, like making sure I had all my RSS feeds in a Google reader, updating my blog (still in process) and subscribing to Facebook. During my last Anacortes School Board meeting, I sorta practiced with Twitter, right around when Mr. Sylvester started liveblogging the jury selection.)
Follow me on Twitter: KateMartin13