If the Tool Doesn’t Fit, You Must Try Twitter

Posted by Peter Luyckx on
Sunday, October 5th, 2008 at 10:07 pm

The latest O.J. Simpson trial never captured the imagination of the general public. Maybe we were all too busy worrying about the financial meltdown to pay attention to more important matters. Or maybe the details of the case were not as riveting as the trial that held the nation in thrall more than thirteen years ago.

Perhaps there will never be another court case that will be followed quite as obsessively as the O.J. Simpson murder trial, but if there is, twitter would be the perfect tool for staying up to date on every twist and turn of the proceedings.

In fact, the Las Vegas Sun did follow the latest O.J. Simpson trial on twitter—416 updates and counting.

Even reading the tweets after the fact, you get a sense of some of the narrative tension that twitter can build. Here, in order of tweeting, are some of the last posts, announcing the (upcoming) verdict:

The jury has reached a verdict. They will deliver their decision momentarily. 10:17 PM October 03, 2008 from web.

The court is awaiting the arrival of both defendants. The jury will deliver their verdict once they arrive. Judge Glass is standing by. 10:34 PM October 03, 2008 from web

O.J. Simpson has entered the courtroom. He will soon learn his fate. If convicted, the 61-year-old could spend the rest of his life in jail. 10:40 PM October 03, 2008 from web

Tom Scotto arrived with Simpson this evening, as Simpson’s sister and his daughter, Arnelle. 10:52 PM October 03, 2008 from web

The jury has handed Judge Glass their verdict. 10:53 PM October 03, 2008 from web

One year ago another verdict acquitted Simpson in the double murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman. 10:54 PM October 03, 2008 from web

Clarence “C.J.” Stewart has been found guilty of all 12 charges against him. 10:54 PM October 03, 2008 from web

O.J. Simpson has been found guilty of all 12 charges against him. The former All-Star running back will be sent to prison. 10:57 PM October 03, 2008 from web

Sparse prose, but if you were following this trial closely, imagine how nail-bitingly intense the forty minutes would have between the “The jury has reached a verdict” tweet and “O.J Simpson has been found guilty.”

Live From the Courthouse

In a recent podcast interview, Ron Sylvester, court reporter for the Wichita Eagle, and author of the blog “What the Judge Ate For Breakfast,” provides a journalist’s perspective on using twitter for live coverage of court proceedings.

Sylvester says he started using twitter when reporting on a high-profile local murder case—a 14-year old pregnant girl was killed by the 19-year old father of the child in the hopes of ducking charges of statutory rape.

During the trial, Sylvester received several emails from family members of the victim expressing their appreciation for his twitter reporting. Many of the young girls’ relatives could not get time off work to follow the court case in person, or they lived in other states.

Since the original case in May, the Wichita Eagle has been incorporating a twitter feed in their coverage of all major trials, and Sylvester has continued to use twitter in his reporting of court proceedings. The response he’s received has been positive. At local tweetups, young tweeters who don’t read newspapers and don’t follow court cases (even online) have come up to Sylvester to tell him that his “trial coverage is addictive.”

“For traditional print outlets, it puts us back in the game,” says Sylvester. Not only does twitter allow his newspaper to cover court proceedings live, during the murder case “a lot of people preferred twitter coverage [over tv channels streaming live] because they didn’t want to watch the whole thing. […] I was filtering information for them.”

In addition, a professional reporter like Sylvester familiar with the ins and outs of court procedures and litigation strategies can provide context and explain what’s going on, Sylvester believes.

Twitter not only offers unique value to the audience, it also helps reporters manage their workflow, says Sylvester. “At the end of the day, [twitter] serves as my notebook, except the notes are as complete sentences. […] Some of the tweets make it into the print story word for word.”

Finally, twitter has an added bonus, says Sylvester: “[It] makes you more of a person instead of just a voice behind a byline.”

Listen to the podcast interview with Ron Sylvester on Mevio.com.

Cross-post from my resurrected blog Fiat Lux.