Health Journalists on Twitter: Not Entirely Well, Thank You
July 4, 2009 by Craig Stoltz · 2 Comments
I’m going to be hosting a webinar on how health journalists use social media soon.
So I thought I’d check out the health reporters on Muckrack.com, a website that aggregates Tweets of our nation’s journalistic corps.
It can be fascinating to see what sort of brain-lint the media produce minute-by-minute on the world’s tiniest news platform.
As I began writing this entry, for instance, there were dozens of Tweets not so much reporting, but wondering aloud what was up with, the “fact” that Gov. Sarah Palin seemed to be resigning, or at least not running for re-election, or something.
It was an enlightening moment in journalistic pop anthropology. You could see the complex thoughts of inside-the-Beltway sophisticates taking shape right before your eyes.
Tweeted Howie Kurtz of the Washington Post: “Something must be up, I guess. Kind of weird.“
Talk about your first rough draft of history.
The Health Journalist Twitterers
But anyway, I was there to check out the Health niche. The health reporting corps has not for the most part discovered Muckrack yet: Only 10 health reporters’ Tweetstreams were aggregated on the Muckrack’s Health page.
They comprised three Baltimore Sun reporters, two from the Chicago Tribune, and one from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. [All Tribune Co. properties]. Then there is one each from CNBC, CBS News, the Montreal Gazette, and the New York Times.
And how were they using social media? The mixed bag you might expect.
Journalists on Twitter: Seeking Sources, Thinking Out Loud, Promoting Self, Getting Personal
Julie Deardorff of the Chicago Tribune, for instance, used Twitter to conduct some of source-fishing, cogitate about topics in her notebook, promote her own articles and, like all public-spirited Tweeters, reveal some personal information.
For health reporter Julie Deardorff, the professional is personal
In Deardorff’s case, at least, the personal was professional.
- On Thursday June 25 she reported that she “injured my intercostal muscles by coughing for a week straight.”
- Two days later she reported she’d been diagnosed with pneumonia.
- And two days later she was back on the beat, trolling for sources to discuss the Nuval nutrition rating system.
Best-of-Class: Mike Huckman of CNBC
The most prolific health Twitterer on Muckrack–and, with over 3,000 followers, the most watched–is Mike Huckman, the pharma reporter for CNBC. Anybody interested in the bloodsport in the drug trade should follow Huckman’s sluice of reports, rulings, research and rumors about the companies that make America’s meds.
There is also insight into the life of a business journalist, such as this ripe observation about dealing with flacks. [Note the #prfail hashtag]:
mhuckman #prfail Just got call from PR person.I pick up phone,as always,”This is Mike.”They say,”Mike Huffman?”Pitching pvte co anyway,so 0 interest
a day ago by Mike Huckman, Pharmaceuticals Reporter, CNBC
Doctor!!!! Doctor!!!!!
CBS medical correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton Tweets about her comings and goings conducting interviews. Fairly routine stuff for journalistic Tweetle.
But for someone who is both a journalist and an M.D., she can be unusually enthusiastic. Within the stretch of 5 Tweets she managed to use 10 exclamation points. That may be a record of some sort.
New York Times and Twitter: Not a Healthy Situation
The smart set says that it’s poor form to use Twitter simply as a “push” device, as a tool to inflict yourself on the world. Everybody who participates in Twitter [it is said], even journalists, should expect to give more than they take, share tidbits with people who may appreciate them, develop relationships, etc. This is the spirit of the social web, it is said.
The biggest violator of this principle among the health reporting set on Muckrack is the estimable Tara Parker Pope, author of the New York Times’ Well health blog.
Her Tweetery consists almost entirely of two things: Links to her own blog entries and acolytic admirations of the fine work of her fellow Timesfolk. [i.e., "Interesting slide show on NyTimes Lens blog of homeless transgendered teens. http://bit.ly/14POwF"]
It’s true that Pope also gets personal; she Tweets about her preparation for the New York City Marathon.
taraparkerpope My 5.4 mi run tonight spent 630 calories according to http://www.gmap-pedometer.com . But now I’m 800 calories worth of hungry.
Tara Parker Pope, Well Columnist, New York Times
But that’s professional self-promotion too: Pope is the proprietor of RunWell, an online community for distance runners the Times launched recently.
Clearly Pope hasn’t gotten the Tweet about social media ethos. Another Twitter profile bears Pope’s name and likeness. nytimeswell is nothing but a botstream that’s triggered every time her blog updates.
All is not Well at the New York Times blog autofeed
Actually it’s triggered more often than that. Check out the series of simuTweets on celiac disease.
I found it peculiar that the New York Times was using Twitter is such a graceless manner compared to its peers.
The Times, after all, recently hired Jen Preston as its first Social Media Editor. Her task, presumably, would be to help staff make enlightened use of social web tools like Twitter.
So I clicked over to Preston’s feed in Muckrack to see how she is faring.
Not all that well, it turns out.
The Times’ social media doyenne hadn’t updated in about 3 weeks, and only three times since this one:
Working on response to 1,000 replies to last week’s question, how can @nytimes better use Twitter. MediaBistro conference later.
12:15 PM Jun 3rd from web
SEO, Twitter and the Road to Hell
June 28, 2009 by Craig Stoltz · 15 Comments
Why didn’t I see this one coming?
The moment Twitter content became searchable, the seeds of its ruination were planted, watered and topped with Miracle Gro.
This is due to the unbending truth of the First Law of CyberDynamics: That which is searchable will be optimized for said search.
Regrettable corollary 1: Optimized content becomes visible without regard to its quality.
Regrettable corollary 2: Unworthy content becomes the lowest-hanging fruit in the InfoOrchard, unwittingly gobbled up by hundreds of millions of undiscriminating users daily.
[Note: Ungainly botanical metaphor ends here.]
Which is to say: Add to the current list of lifeforce-draining Twitter phenomena–childish follower-hoarding, strategic lurkery, tactical “messaging” and [this is now literal] prostitution–the Tweet designed to show up high on Google [and presumably other Twitter search tool] search results.
I learned this recently after I read an article on Twitter SEO on the website Mashable. I Tweeted thusly:
And so it has come to this: Writing Tweets for SEO. Mommy, make it stop. http://bit.ly/adRQO
Within moments my e-mail box showed that two SEO profiles were now following me on Twitter.
Not because I had said anything insightful about the art of search engine optimization, mind you, but just because I’d used the word. The e-mails arrived too fast for them to reflect human cognition.
And so I Tweeted again:
Hoot! My last Tweet included the term “SEO” and I was immediately autofollowed by two SEO trolls. SEO SEO SEO Come on, guys, you wanna *go*?
And of course my e-mail box was quickly beetling with several new messages telling me that other SEO trolls had emerged from their funkholes to follow me.
It should come as no surprise that SEOers are sniffing for keywords in Tweets. As Twitter becomes a firmly established marketing tool, more companies are monitoring what’s being said there about their products, people and clients. And participating so their wares and ideas will reach the public.
Disclosure: I know this because, among my many professional services is…helping people use Twitter to monitor what’s being said about their products, people and clients. And participating so their wares and ideas will reach the public. Ahem.
It is a common early adopter vanity to declare that what was once pure and authentic has been wrecked by the know-nothing vulgarian masses and their money-grubbing exploiters.
I’ve always tried resisted this facile snobbery. I remember the knuckleheads who whined that the Mosaic browser ruined everything because it made the Internet accessible to people who hadn’t paid their dues with ftp, Gopher and a soldering iron.
When I began writing this entry about 40 minutes ago, I sent out this Tweet:
I need cheap dietary supplements, online gambling and low-cost life insurance [Note: This Tweet is autofollow-bait to expose perpetrators]
#Neda and the Power of the Viral Image
June 21, 2009 by Craig Stoltz · 18 Comments
The 37-second amateur video that shows, in vivid and horrifying detail, a young woman named Neda dying of a gunshot wound on the streets of Tehran, has the capacity to change the political dynamic in Iran. It may already have done so.
I will not link to the video here. The decision to watch it should be made carefully, knowing it is sickening and likely to remain with you for the rest of your life. You can easily find it if you want.
I found it nearly overwhelming. I had to step away from the computer and gather myself. Afterward when describing it to my wife my voice was shaking and I couldn’t quite formulate my thoughts.
The morning after viewing it I can say this: I believe that 37 second clip can transform global opinion.
I liken it to the 1972 photograph of the young Vietnamese girl running naked through the streets, her skin seared by the chemical burn of napalm. Or the 1963 picture of police dogs attacking civil rights protesters in Birmingham, Alabama. Both, it is argued, played a key role in galvanizing public opinion on the political issues they represented.
For me, and I suspect many who view it, the Neda video says with absolute clarity: The violent crackdown on street protesters in Tehran must not stand. The perpetrators must be stopped or removed.
It removes any ambivalence or subtlety one might have about the situation there.
Last night I was actually wondering how a government responsible for Neda’s death–in an environment where cheap, instant, global, many-to-many communications has brought the phrase “the whole world is watching” closer to literal fact than it was in the 1960s–can possibly remain in power.
In the cool light of morning I realize that was dramatic hyperbole, heavily colored by emotion.
But still: That 37-second video has already become a singular, powerful fact driving global opinion. Its impact will only accelerate and expand. It will have consequences.
Let me also predict that the mainstream media is going to miss the import of that video. Partly because they dare not show it, and thus it will not become part of their newsrooms’ collective consciousness–or conscience.
But also because they still tend to view amateur, viral “reporting” as marginal “bonus” material, incapable of driving public thought in the way their own professional reporting and opinionating can.
There is a #Neda hashtag on Twitter. It captures conversations about and inspired by the video.
Yet it is now being added as a hashtag to general Twitterizing on the election protests, as an expression of commitment at least as powerful as the green avatars that hover like nauseated witnesses over the 140-character global thoughtstream.
Much is made about Twitter and its limited ability to drive change.
This isn’t about that.
It’s about the power of a single, brief incident captured on video–in an environment where people share what moves them instantly with a global audience, without the assistance or approval of governments, media or any institution—to change others’ minds.
Change the world?
In the cool light of morning, I realize that’s foolish too.
But if you are feeling strong and brave and willing to have a horrifying image seared into your brain, view the video.
It will change you.
One Picture is Worth 1,000 Tweets
June 16, 2009 by Craig Stoltz · 3 Comments
I tried to follow the Twit-stream coming out of the 140 Characters Conference in New York. I really did.
As you might imagine, though, a high-profile conference about Twitter attended by enthusiastic Twitterers hell-bent on ventilating their thoughts about Twitter via Twitter produces quite a bit of digital output.
Following the #140conf hashtag was like drinking Kool-Aid through a firehose.
Which is why [through a Tweet!] I was delighted to discover these images of conference presentations produced by attendee Jonny Goldstein.
Jonny Goldstein's sketch of @johnabyrne's presentation at the 140 characters conference
Like courtroom sketches, the images capture the vibe in the room. They even convey some of the content quite elegantly.
Huh: I wonder Goldstein has a business model?
Three Reasons to Love the Twitter Hate
April 23, 2009 by Craig Stoltz · 11 Comments
Longtime Twitteurs are in a hyperventilating snit over the ridicule being heaped on their plaything by, among others, the New York Times’ Maureen Dowd, Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart and Doonesbury’s Garry Trudeau.
I’m a longtime Twitteur, semi-evangelical and pretty well engaged with it on a daily basis. By this point it is as integrated in my being as lymph. But I think the ridicule is a delightful, even important development.
1. It’s a great time for a Twitter reality check.
It’s easy for insiders to get swayed by early adopter enthusiasm and begin to assume that anybody who doesn’t “get it” is a fool, rube or coward. It’s warm and nice in an echo chamber ringing with validation and self-love. It’s how Scientology works, and both political parties. Yet truth told, all the Twitter-bashing by people I respect has caused me to raise some of the existential questions about this maddeningly powerful little platform that I ignore on a daily basis. What’s gold and what’s garbage? What’s time wasted and a valuable investment? Who exactly is this persona I’m creating through accumulated actions rather than intent? I’m guessing the TwitterTrashing is doing the same for others, including–perhaps especially–those whose knickers are currently most entangled by it.
2. It’s making Twitter visible to the public at large in a usefully skeptical context.
It is no coincidence that Twitter’s [alleged] doubling of users from around 7 million to about 14 million in the past few months has occurred during the time mainstream media has been reporting on its use and abuse and [at the same time] adopting it in their work [while often ridiculing each other for doing so]. It’s healthy for mass culture to first encounter Twitter knowing that Senator Buttwhistle has made a fool of himself on the floor and that Twitter helped citizens of Moldova communicate about their street protests. This prevents childish enthusiasm or ignorant dismissal, neither of which is productive.
3. Mass resistance of a technology by “thought leaders” is a dependable predictor of its imminent acceptance.
As a journalist covering personal technology for The Washington Post back in [I am not making this up] 1994, I recall vividly how much cultural pushback there was against the Web, mobile computing, cell phones, DVD players and even, for god’s sake, e-mail. For instance: the late, legendary Meg Greenfield, editorial page editor of the Post at that time, famously declared that she would not accept any submissions by e-mail, that anyone who truly had important things to say would send their work on paper, via U.S. mail or hand messenger. When we got that internal memo [by e-mail!], my colleague Rob Pegoraro and I wondered how quickly she would capitulate. Answer: Less than 3 months.
So I’m feeling good about this: Personal reality check, public introduction with skeptical context, and evidence of imminent acceptance.
So bring it on, Twitter-bashers, and welcome to this odd, infuriating and [ultimately, inevitably] culturally transforming technology.
Health 2.0 Debut: Social Media for IBS
April 21, 2009 by Craig Stoltz · 2 Comments
Dr. Douglas Farrago, a family physician in Auburn, Maine, has debuted a new social media tool, one that ingeniously leverages the power of Twitter to serve patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome. His introduction is timed to the opening of the Health 2.0 Conference in Boston.
The application allows patients to connect with their physicians and other IBS patients to share real-time information, including messages of support and diagnostic photographs.
Social Media for IBS Patients
If something smells funny, it should be noted that Dr. Farrago is the creator of Placebo Journal, the funniest medical journal you’ll ever read, a sort of Mad Magazine-meets-JAMA. The above image is available for all you Health2.0 geeks and gastroenterologists.
