If you think Twitter just has people talking about, “Hey, I’m going to eat an apple now” and other mindless self-absorbed messages, you might want to think again.
During the summer, while there’s a little more time to poke around and explore, I thought I would check out whose tweets and which hashtags are useful to journalism advisers. For instance, I started using #YourStories last year as a way to post content ideas for student media, and then others — Sarah Nichols and Tracy Sena, for instance — have used that as well. I also have also started #JTeachingTips (yeah, it’s too long but oh well).
Summer training and workshops have been tweeting good stuff, too. At least two of the ASNE-Reynolds Institutes have done that: #ASNEmo and #ASNEKent10. Also, we have been putting out tips from Poynter’s NewsU Boot Camp for High School Journalism Advisers with #NewsUBootCamp. (I know, I know….I really have to work on that hashtag length.) Just now there’s #bsujw from the Ball State University summer workshops and I’m sure others, too.
JEA’s Scholastic Press Rights Commission uses jeapressrights with updates, info and alerts to new blog posts, and the Certification Commission posts tips leading up to testing at conventions from JEACertified with #CJE or #MJE. There’s also jeadigitalmedia with alerts to new info going on the committee’s site.
National, state and regional organizations have a presence in the Twittersphere. Of course there’s SPLC_org. NSPA has lots of tweets, along with using special hashtags for each convention. (NOTE: This fall JEA/NSPA convention is #hsjkc.) There’s jeaNorCal and MIPAMSU, for instance.
Of course don’t forget about APStylebook to follow — lots of good info plus answers to your questions, and following various local and national media outlets can be helpful.
In 140 characters, I have to say, “If you think Twitter is just mindless personal updates, check out what scholastic & commercial media folks are sending out to you!” (Woo. That still leaves me 10 characters for one of my overly long hashtags. Let’s see….)
cpb
