Epic News Alerts On Twitter

In my continuing saga to understand everything about Twitter, I wanted to see how mainstream news is contributing. Twitter is a communication tool, so there is no surprise that mainstream media wants to capitalize on the service. I hardly watch TV for news unless there is a breaking story that I want to see video of. I get most of my fill of ‘whats going on in the world’ by going online. The online world moves much faster than the TV and Twitter moves much faster than my surfing habits. Here is a story from the Los Angeles Times discussing how Twitter beat mainstream news to breaking the story about the 5.4 earthquake in July.

One of the first news tracking profiles I followed and set up mobile notifications of was called sfquake. between this and setting up Twitter Tracking on the word “earthquake” I am able to get information on earthquakes all over the world and specifically in the Bay Area.

Mainstream news has been quick to get on the Twitter bandwagon. Some are moving slower than others but there are hundreds of news agencies that now post updates on breaking news.

http://twitter.com/cnnbrk – CNN Breaking News has over 62,000 followers. This is because CNN has mastered the art of sending updates about any news that comes across their desk.

http://twitter.com/cctimes – This Contra Costa Times is my local newspaper and though they have a pretty low level community platform on their website someone thought far enough ahead to set up a Twitter profile. They send out news updates as well as pass along other news from the BBC and other news agencies.

Here are a list of other news agencies using Twitter profiles that you should be following.

Quick shameless plug for my Bay Area local news Twitter profile. I blog about news in Concord Ca. as well as surrounding cities.

Mayor of Concord

California Local News

Breaking News

Broadcast News Services

National News

Besides just getting news, mainstream media has brought there Entertainment News to Twitter.

Entertainment

The United States Govt. also uses Twitter to update people on what’s happening at an executive level.

President-elect Barack Obama

The White House: Communications Office
The White House: Office of National Drug Control Policy
Department of Defense: US Joint Forces Command
Department of Defense: Department of Army: US Army
Department of Defense: Department of Navy: Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division: HJ Armstrong, public affairs
Department of Homeland Security: Transportation Security Administration blog team
Department of Homeland Security: US Citizenship and Immigration Services
Department of Interior: National Park Service: National Center for Preservation Technology & Training
Department of State: Country-specific Information, travel department
Department of State: US Embassy, London

There have got to be more.

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There are 4 comments. Leave a comment!

¬ Gigi
#2498 December 5th, 2008 at 8:11 pm

OMG. I’ve been looking for a list like this forever. I knew there were more than 4 news station using Twitter but I couldn’t find any of them. This is a great list.
¬ Brad
#2499 December 5th, 2008 at 8:12 pm

Thanks for putting this together. This is a must save bookmark.
¬ Tracy
#2508 December 7th, 2008 at 11:31 am

This is really a cool feature. I have to admit I have not jumped on the Twitter bandwagon just because I thought it was only a bunch of people telling everyone what they are up to, and really I do not care about that.

Tracy’s last blog post..Getting Either A Relaxing Or Deep Tissue Massage
¬ KJ
#4799 September 26th, 2009 at 4:48 pm

Twitter is good but boy you need time to look at it.
have some of these links now. Thanks
And now i can go a relaxing massage.

Koka Sexton dot Com