UGH. I amaze even myself. Short is not always sweet, is the point I am trying to make. And 140 words from the scene of an event does not make someone a journalist. You need a skilled professional to give it context, remove biases, balance both sides of the story.

And I am afraid that people are so wrapped up in playing with all their new toys, that these very vital things will go by the wayside. People are learning all the technology and "fun" stuff, sure. But they don't have the foundation.

But I never said tell a story in 140 characters. I'm saying tell a story in 140 characters at a time. Make it easy to follow.

I agree with solid reporting. Who's to say you can't turn that into easily-digestible material for the Web?

BASIC JOURNALISM tells stories in short grafs. Nut graf, key facts, no run-on paragraphs.

BASIC JOURNALISM says write a lede that will grab someone's attention quickly.

These are not brand new things that idiot kids and Twitter came up with.

I agree with you. No arguments here. And this is nothing new. This has been recycled many times. Web writing has prompted short writing for years. With Twitter, it's gotten a lot shorter.

The difference now is that people THINK Twitter is some brand spanking new thing and look at it as the end-all-be-all and don't give traditional media the respect it deserves.

I don't look at that way at all. Without traditional media, new media fails. They feed off each other. Maybe one day that won't be true, but in today's world it is.

Twitter is just a new form of communication, and IMO it's pretty effective in terms of applications.

The problem isn't the problem. The problem is the attitude of people who don't know AP Style and yet think they should win a Pulitzer because they can text an update on a BlackBerry.

But who does that? I'm very confused.

Do you REALLY want me to name names and embarrass people in public? I would e-mail you but you might not respond.

ok, send me an email. contact info at the top.

You say "short attention span" and "quick hits" like these are GOOD things.

It might be FUN for now. But what you're missing is that "quick hits" can't tell the whole story, just bits and pieces. And someone needs to put together those bits and pieces. And because of the "short attention spans," the people who put those bits and pieces together

Sure, everyone has a voice on things like Twitter. But there needs to be a gatekeeper to make sense of things for the public. Citizen journalists, my ass. How would you like citizen surgeons? Citizen dentists? Citizen policemen? Without professionals who are trained in weeding out biases, giving a story context, and putting things together, you are NOT getting accurate and complete news.

Twitter and Facebook and having different ways to reach an audience are good things. But the fact is that all these new things that people promote are contributing to costing people I love and people you love their jobs.

Everyone can go off on a lark with this stuff and go "la la la, watch me be innovative and watch me give quick hits." And while you're playing with crowdsourcing and social media and looking down your nose at "traditional" journalism, just remember that "traditional" journalists supervised your first internships, taught you everything you knew....and you people don't even care that the people who worked their asses off to help you could be out of a job next week.

(BTW Craig, this wasn't all directed at YOU. It's more of a general 'you' to people who think the way i'm describing)

Thanks for the comment Nicole. I think what I'm getting at more than anything is Web writing here. And being clever with it to keep people's attention.

That's 10 paragraphs up there. It could have told a story if I had facts, quotes, etc., traditional journalism.

It's not the way it used to be, but if you can make it a practice to write short, sweet, and to the point, you'll do quite well in this age.

All my opinion of course, so again this is nothing against traditional journalism. And though I cite Twitter and Facebook as part of this push, I'm not at all saying news begins and ends with those sites.

YOU might not have anything against traditional journalism. But I am getting sicker and sicker of people who think social media is the end-all-be-all and who LAUGH at people for taking jobs at newspapers.

I'm upset with self-declared "expert bloggers" and "social media gurus" looking down their noses at people who have been through the ringer, paid their dues, and who have more journalistic integrity on their worst day than many of these people will EVER develop, and who deserve more respect than any of these people will ever earn.

I would take a Jim Castor over some random kid with a blog and Twitter account any day of the week.

I'm not sure who you're talking about, I don't know these people personally. But thanks for the comment.