Thursday, December 3, 2009

Year in Review 2009: Tweeting Congressmen

Since about midnight almost 24 hours ago I have been quite sick.  Chills, aches, fever.  I missed work and our staff Christmas dinner.  No fun.  But I’m on the mend.

Today, when not sleeping off my illness, I tried to think of the best article from the year.  Although I’m in the habit of reading lots of articles, most are from news websites about politics, society, culture.  Not usually the kind of magazine analysis that might make for a more memorable article.  However, for some reason I very randomly remembered a piece from early in the year.  We certainly would not call it the year’s best article, but it spoke volumes about how media—specifically SoMe—is changing the way we live.

The February article in the Washington Post was titled, “A Tale of 140 Characters, Plus the Ones in Congress.”  It was in regard to how, and how many, U.S. Senators and Representatives used Twitter during President Obama’s first address to Congress.  One Congressmen, during the address, tweeted:

“Aggie basketball game is about to start on espn2 for those of you that aren't going to bother watching pelosi smirk for the next hour.”

Entries like the above prompted Post reporter Dana Milbank to write:

“At a time of national emergency, when America needs the focused attention of contemplative and reflective lawmakers, they are dispatching rapid-fire thoughts in 140 characters or less.”

Since the article is archived, I only found the limited quotes above.  If you would like, you can pay ProQuest/WaPo for access to archives in plans that range from $3.95 to $29.95.  Another sign of the times, I guess.

I opted to go with the free preview.

[This is the third in a series, based on a Blog Challenge.]