Guest post: I am Sir Lancelot and with my Twitter sword I’ll defend journalism’s honour
In this guest posting, ZDNet’s Renai LeMay argues that Twitter is journalism’s new sword, and he’s the man to wield it.
In my daily professional life, I often feel as though I am a medieval knight who has been called into action to defend with sword and shield the honour of a great lady of noble birth.
That lady’s name, of course, is Journalism.
Now, there is no doubt that she is currently beset on all sides.
A most excellent piece and one of the most cogent views I have heard a journalist express on this whole issue.
Wow. First. Thanks, Twitter!!! 🙂
Indeed – very interesting viewpoint. Wish more journalists in the Middle East would embrace Twitter
methinks you spendeth a little too much time with that ‘sword’ my Twitter lord …
Lancelot with his diddling destroyed Camelot.
Yes, yes Renai. Let me see if I can sum up your opening remarks:
“There’s been no journalistic triumphs since Watergate and I’m going to fix all that with my self-promoting yet hard-hitting twitter feed at 140 characters at a time”
And just how the f*#k was a twitter feed going to help Carl Bernstein? Was he going to sit on his twitter feed all night waiting for some guys to admit that they’d broken into the Democrat headquarters? Or Perhaps just keep an eye on Mark Felt’s twitter feed waiting for him to spill his guts?
Arrogant and absurd.
Great post Renai! Well-considered and insightful.
Is it just me or is Sir Galahad’s ‘summary’ a little simplistic and more than a little toxic? I just googled him and apparently he’s Sir Lancelot’s illegitimate son…
What a load of wank. He may be 28 and he may have is iPhone and work on ZDNet but who takes notice of ZDNet and what great stories has Twitter been responsible for in Australia.
Give me good old fashioned journalism any day.
At the end of the day great journalism is not about comment it is about facts and journalists having the contacts to firstly establish the facts and then publish them without being sued.
A classic example is the fake email affair now gripping Canberra.
I am waiting for the day when someone sues a Twitter writer as it will be an interesting event to follow.
I wonder how Renai LeMay would go writing a Painters & Dockers series or standing up to politicians with facts that force their resignation.
I don’t know of one great story in Australia that is down to “Twitter” comment.
Hi Sir Galihad (by the way, a bit of journalistic spell checking wouldn’t have gone amiss on that name), thanks for your comments.
I’m not sure I see the part where Renai argues that Twitter replaces all journalism that went before.
But I suspect that there are political journalists right now building relationships via Twitter with politicians and civil servants. Through those relationships they become sources, that, you never know, may one day involve standing in the shadwos in multi-storey carparks being pointed in the right direction.
And just for accuracy, Woodward and Bernstein’s focus was on the cover-up, not the break-in.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
A confidential tip off about the effects of the global financial crisis – LOL.
I agree that Twitter provides a feedback loop just like comments sections, email and good old conversations.
Tim,
Looks like we both fell down on the spelling issue. (I found various spellings).
And Bernstein still wasn’t going to conduct a relationship with his deep throat on twitter And the relationships that really matter aren’t going to happen on a highly public internet forum.
If you want to take all those arguments to their logical extent then it’s not twitter that is the enabler it’s just the bloody internet. The same relationships “could” form in a billion other internet platforms. But to declare yourself a Lancelot brandishing your mighty twitter sword and running down the last 20 years of journalism and making sweeping statements like twitter is “playground of pleasure that is helping to renew journalism and bring that great lady back to her rightful throne” is just arrogant.
How on earth does twitter help reporters going into Northern Pakistan? Or some poor cadet who has to go to a car accident and talk to a grieving mother.
It’s just so arrogant. It almost insults those who have really done the hard yards and risked themselves for this “great lady” who some 28 yo IT reporter has declared has fallen from her throne.
Get the F*#K real.
If ever there was proof needed that stopping some people writing more than 140 characters at a time was indeed a good thing…
Pure comment gold! You Iron Chef Dairy just won the internet
give Sir Galahad his own column. please.
If ever there was proof that some people needed to write more than 140 characters, not to mention include a little punctuation, Iron Chef Dairy is a good candidate.
Who on earth is your comment directed at?
marklen, is ICD your boss?
I think the way he uses the first person to reinforce his pitch really adds value for the client.
@DWR: I don’t think you should be preaching about ‘good old fashioned journalism’ when you were the one busted by Media Watch for plagiarizing other people’s work, under your own byline, and then blaming it on some rogue ‘phantom hacker’ when you got caught (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdtvJAKEHeU).
I agree with you that “At the end of the day great journalism is not about comment it is about facts” but it’s even better when they are your own facts and research and stories, not ones you’ve ripped off from hundreds of other journalists.
C’mon baby, tell me about how big and strong that sword of yours is.
Gag, what a pompous loser
Can I just say – “way to go Jack” – we all know that if Renai is journalism’s knight in shining amour…DWR is her rapist…
Thanks for the read. I enjoyed your take on it.
Don’t let the a’holes get you down.
My god. Who listens to DWR anyway?
Flattered that someone would use my name to post a comment (#22), but I know I certainly don’t have any proof to back up any of those allegations (and hopefully, my spelling isn’t quite that atrocious). 🙂 Or could it be the Phantom Hacker?
You’re right, Renai, you’re not a 60-something newspaper editor who cannot understand the internet or a chief executive of a television studio who is suing YouTube for re-publishing his TV news clips. But what you *are* is a bit of an egomaniac with a reputation in journalism circles for having a very, very high opinion of yourself as if putting words on paper, or into pixels, makes you smarter than the average person. And buddy… it doesn’t. I can’t believe you actually presented this to people with a straight face. Did anyone laugh out loud?
Hmm, since when was tech journalism the last bastion of real journalism?
If “your writer” (as I believe you used to call yourself on your blog) was out there breaking stories about politicians stealing from the people who pay their wages or if you were uncovering deep and dark secrets about companies polluting the land etc then I would applaud your stance – but you write about tech and you are one of the most egotistical journalists I have ever met.
Your reputation in the journalism and pr ciclres isn’t that great because of your ego, your aloof nature and your ability to think you hold some great place in the world..
Twitter isn’t the death of journalism, the death of journalism will come from people believing they are more important than the stories they are writing.
Hey DWR. I’m not one to go off on a tangent (much) but a few days ago you said:
> At the end of the day great journalism is not about comment it is about facts and > journalists having the contacts to firstly establish the facts and then publish them > without being sued.
> A classic example is the fake email affair now gripping Canberra.
Where was the great journalism? Wasn’t the Daily Telegraph journalist duped?
Twitter doesn’t mean the death of traditional reporting but it may be a useful information channel.
The blurring of the lines between “facts” (always a tricky term) and interpretive opinions and refusal to admit fault in only the most extreme cases might be where traditional media started down a slippery slope, no? Just saying…
Hmmm, sounds like Renai has pissed off a few PR types. Guess that means he’s doing his job.
Using Twitter, Facebook, his iPhone and blog to communicate and build connections doesn’t make Renai some sort of uber-geek that doesn’t follow the principals of so-called “old-fashioned journalism”
He’s just using whatever mediums are available to him to keep the bastards honest, which is after all what it’s all about. The DM capability of Twitter is just another way for sources to leak information. Let’s not confuse the medium with the message.
The only thing unique about Twitter is that it can add transparency to the conversation between journalists and their sources, businesses and their customers, and anything that adds transparency is good for journalism IMHO
Interesting to see that Gen Y gender politics are pretty similar to boomers, but that apart, Twitter’s more likely to pork-sword journalists galloping around on the Internet wearing their iPhone armour than rescue anything.
Of course, it takes a few years of experience and making some painful mistakes to learn that, and not just applying vaseline to head to make it fit through the office doors in the mornings.
Well, Sir Lancelot, what a twit you are. I’m one of the ‘old’ journos who just happens to have won a couple of Walkleys along the way, designed and edited my first website 15 years ago, have run a dozen since. But, hey, what would I know. Investigative reporting – who needs it!; skill in interviewing – who needs it!; sub-editing, grammar, article construction – who needs them!. All we need is Twitter, right, and you and the new generation of journalists – most of whom seem to be deserting you on this issue – will ride gloriously into an ever brightening future.
Like another correspondent, I am amazed you actually said all this in public.
Sadly, it is this kind of thinking that is killing off real journalism. You – and your naive thoughts – are just another very small – but serious – knife in its back. Grow up.
I can’t see that a Twitter sword would be very effective at only 140 characters long.