Twitter influencing political journalism

Crikey Canberra’s correspondent Bernard Keane, has made an interesting observation about how Twitter has influenced how, and when, we get political information.

It’s now possible for everyone inside and outside Parliament House to know what is happening instantly.

With the Liberal CPRS debate yesterday all you had to do was follow enough political journalists on Twitter and you knew precisely what was happening mere seconds afterward.

Gone are the old days of careful information management, not merely by political parties but by journalists and media outlets. There’s still, notionally, a rule agreed earlier this year, that coalition MPs don’t take mobile phones into the party room. It’s lucky half of them didn’t end up with RSI of the thumb last night given the volume of texts coming out of the room.

This is fundamental change in political journalism. The last leadership contest, Nelson-Turnbull, was just over a year ago and Twitter played virtually no role.

Now it’s a vast combination of news outlet, rumour mill and commentary chamber, and it’s virtually instant. Media in its purest form, with all the flaws and benefits of media similarly magnified.

Keane notes that journalists to follow are not Oakes and Grattan and Kelly (although Grattan does tweet). The important ones are Maiden, Speers and Crabb and Latika Bourke.

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