A Minute With...Journalism Professor Alecia Swasy
How has Twitter changed news covereage?
Twitter is playing a big role in the news these days. Presidential candidates get coverage trading barbs through Twitter. Citizens’ tweets from the scene of a protest or natural disaster can inform and even sway the coverage. News outlets often tweet first, then post online, then print. Alecia Swasy, a professor of business journalism at the University of Illinois, has made a study of Twitter’s effect on the news and reporting, based in part on 50 interviews at metro newspapers in Atlanta, Dallas, Denver and St. Petersburg, Florida. A former business editor and reporter at The Wall Street Journal, Swasy will present some of her research next week (Oct. 28-30) at a University of Oxford conference on news media culture. She also wrote a five-part online series of articles last fall and is working on a book. She spoke with News Bureau social sciences editor Craig Chamberlain.