This week it was twitter where the story of Whitney Houston’s death first broke. Nearly half an hour before any media reported it!

Chapter 4 talked about microblogging. Twitter is the major source of microblogging, where people send out short and simple messages.

Journalists can use twitter to let people know about their stories and get feedback. They can also use it to be up to date on the latest topics and find sources. Storify, a new tool to create articles often relies on the tweets of many to tell the story.

It can also act as a connector when a topic goes viral. Take for instance the excitement following Mason’s basketball’s win over rival VCU. George Mason was on twitter’s top 10 trends worldwide  – if only for a few seconds. People found out the score, then linked to news reports, photos and video.

WARNING: twitter is not always right. While Houston’s death was real there are many celebrities who have been twitter killed and are perfectly fine.