Almighty Link

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Journalists can use Twitter to as a live reporting tool, but what if you are writing a story from afar and are looking for quotes as provided by “citizen” journalists at an event?

Simply adding a widget that pulls in tweets about the event will likely just add confusion and repetition. For example, author Chris Brogan spoke at Blog World Expo yesterday. Take a look at the Twitter search results for “@chrisbrogan #bwe09″.

What about focusing on just one part of the event? You’ll still get similar results. Let’s focus on something that Brogan (reportedly) said about the Farmville Facebook game.

Click on the image at the right to see the many retweets and Twitter reaction to Brogan’s Farmville comment. Adding that into a blog post or article would do little to clarify or advance a story.

What if a system could automatically eliminate retweets and just list the few messages from the people who originally quoted Brogan? Here is a my handmade version of that list:

1. 
   sradick @chrisbrogan has one bit of advice for you – “get out of Farmville, you dumbass” #bwe09 16 Oct 2009 from m.slandr.net
2. 
   daynah lol, @chrisbrogan just told us to uninstall Farmville. :) #bwe09 16 Oct 2009 from Twitterrific
3. 
   JayBerkowitz @ChrisBrogan Uninstall Farmville you stupid monkeys #BWE09 #fightcancer 16 Oct 2009 from TweetDeck
4. 
   suzannepeters @chrisbrogan: “uninstall farmville you dumb monkeys” lol #bwe09 16 Oct 2009 from UberTwitter
5. 
   krynsky “Uninstall Farmville you dumb monkeys” @chrisbrogan at #bwe09 16 Oct 2009 from SimplyTweet

— this quote was brought to you by quoteurl

There a some serious discrepancies that need to be addressed:

• Did Brogan tell people to stop playing Farmville, or to actually uninstall the Facebook app?
• Did Brogan call people dumbasses, stupid monkeys or dumb monkeys?

So how would you address those questions?

• Would you go through Craig Kanalley’s tweet verification process and share only what you determine to be the most accurate comment?
• Would you share the list of five original tweets and let readers decide which quote to believe?
• Would you link to the Twitter search results and give readers the chance to see all of the white noise, public reaction and spam for themselves?
• Would you omit Brogan’s comment from the story altogether?

Please leave your comments below. I’m trying to figure out how a storystreaming platform could help support that part of today’s reporting process.