My Year @ TwitterBay

One year ago, at the suggestion of my editors at Foreign Policy, I established a Twitter account associated with my blog, Turtle Bay. I obliged the request, but as a longtime newspaper reporter, I was skeptical that having access to a series of 140 character missives would change the way I report the news. Simply put, I was wrong. I’ve been covering the United Nations for over a decade, but joining Twitter gradually changed the way I cover my beat. Following the latest events in Egypt, I’m reminded that those changes are for the better and worse.

For news junkies, Twitter’s speedy and efficient dissemination of information is hard to match. I used to keep an eye on the news wires, but they can’t keep up with the mix of content — news stories from the mainstream press, analytical articles from out-of-the-way places, and specialty blog posts that I’d never have known to look for — that my Twitter feed curates for me. And I’ve learned that my followers — a modest, but sophisticated, group of nearly 2,000 — are themselves an able source for my reporting. They’ve directed me to important public documents, challenged my reporting, and answered oddball questions that Google couldn’t. Where else can you put out a request for the correct name of Burma’s traditional pink turban and get an answer within five minutes? (It’s called a khaung paung.)

Read the rest of my article on the FP homepage, or click here.