Enbeeone3 : A Freelancer

Twitter becomes a college course

by enbeeone3 on 17/09/09 at 11:38 am

Struggling to wrap your mind around the intricacies of the 140-character broadcasting system known as Twitter? Good news: You can now take a class on it at an accredited college.

DePaul University is now offering a course in its journalism department called “Digital Editing: From Breaking News to Tweets.” According to WBBM 770, “It will focus on how to confirm and evaluate reports by citizen journalists, particularly in cases of breaking news. The class will also help students learn how to sort through information on the Web for story tips and context.”

According to the university, the course, taught by DePaul alumnus and Chicago Tribune “digital intern” Craig Kanalley, “is believed to be the first college-level journalism course focused solely on Twitter and its applications.”

Frivolous? Twitter may not be the second coming that its proponents often profess it to be, but the site has definitely become the de facto medium by which most big news is broken. Eagle-eyed Twitter followers are often the first to hear about current events as they’re happening. Of course, Twitter is also legendary for spreading misinformation and lots of it. Just ask Jeff Goldblum, who is not dead.

And despite Twitter’s notorious unreliability, many over-eager reporters are more than happy to repeat anything published there as fact. Maybe a class on how to use a little common sense in evaluating a tweet isn’t such a bad idea.

Still, I for one can’t wait to see what the final exam questions are like. #twitterfinal