Ben Smith’s tweets make me wish I were a neuroscientist. I’d love to do a scan so that I could see the neurons firing in that guy’s brain. One thing is clear: The activity up there is moving around at rapid fire speed.
In some cases, Smith might tweet several times within the same 1-minute window. His motto is: ”A running conversation about politics,” and with just a few exceptions, he stays on topic. Smith gets his material from multiple sources: his fellow colleagues at Politico; other news organizations, such as ABC News, CNN, MSNBC, local television broadcasts or the person sitting next to him–where ever he is. Interestingly, Smith is based in Brooklyn, N.Y., which a few years ago might have placed him at a geographical disadvantage in covering politics. But his ability to cover politics all over the country is proof that a 21st century journalist can gather news effectively regardless of his physical location.
I get the impression that while Ben Smith is tweeting, he’s looking at several computer screens, handheld devices, and television sets simultaneously. Smith is plugged in to the micro ideas about political developments that are bubbling below–and above the surface. In short, Smith’s use of Twitter is a good example of to how social media can be used effectively. His writing is witty and engaging–despite the space constraints.
One criticism of Smith’s coverage is that it seems to lean center-left. Perhaps this is tendency because his assignment at The Politico during the 2008 race was to cover the Democratic Party as a blogger.
Smith ventures away from politics every now and then, but the off-topic tweets are interesting. For example, in one tweet he asked: “A friend’s looking for an easy podcasting set-up, if anyone’s got a recommendation.” I don’t think anyone answered, using Twitter, anyway.
Another time, he uses Twitter to let his followers know that he would be appearing on a panel about the November elections at Columbia University. This tweet included the other panelists’ names, and the date and time of the event.
One of my favorite Ben Smith tweets of the last few days shows the depth of his resourcefulness. It reads: “Guy next to me, w/20-something son: ‘If they overturn this health care bill, it’s going to cost me $6,000.’ ” Smith makes a point of tweeting the smallest details: ”MSNBC painted the white space behind POLITICO yellow today, it seems.” I’m not sure what Smith was referring to there, but I was intrigued by the tweet, nonetheless.
On Oct. 13, Smith tweeted five times in 1 hour. In most of those cases, he tweeted about something he’d written himself, which makes sense. Because in doing so, he’s driving people back to the politico.com site. He does a lot of retweeting and a fair amount of “modified tweeting,” which allows him to expand on ideas expressed in the original tweets.
A survey taken last year in Norway found that journalists in that country use Twitter in these ways:
Ben Smith gets it in terms of understanding the many ways that journalists can leverage Twitter. He seems to have a left-leaning bias. Other than that, his use of Twitter is a model for journalists.