Who? Niall Paterson
Where? Niall is Sky News defence correspondent
Twitter? @niallpaterson
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Following last week’s election 2.0 debate at the Frontline Club, the Guardian’s digital media research editor, Kevin Anderson shared some fairly critical thoughts on his personal blog. Moderator, Sky News political correspondent Niall Paterson (social media practitioner but sceptic) wasn’t too impressed by Anderson’s charges against him.
It’s difficult to summarise this one fairly, so I’d urge you to follow the link and read the 11 comments – most of them mini-essays – in full, if you’re interested in the election, journalists and the influence of social media in politics. But mostly if you’re interested in the politics of journalism 2010.
The subsequent blog run-in is very illustrative of some of the ongoing tensions in newsrooms: the perceived regard held for online-only journalists or social media specialists; the tools-for-tools sake debate; and how (or how not) to prioritise social media in our work.
Maybe, like Anderson says, we need to start thinking about the impact of social media on the people not the journalism at these events, but in the meantime, this debate is worth a read.
Interesting interpretation by Daniel Bennett of a tweeted conversation between a Sky News field producer (@fieldproducer) and one of its political correspondents Niall Paterson (@niallpaterson) debating the usefulness of Twitter to journalists and whether its the hype about the service that influences some blog/media’s coverage of the microblogging platform. [The conversation was initially sparked by this blog post]
Also see the comments, where Paterson takes the debate further, responding to some of Bennett’s own comments.