By COLLEEN MILLER

Managing Editor

As seen in The Oakland Post’s coverage of the bomb threat on campus last week, Twitter is a valuable tool for journalists to get the news out to the public when the newsroom is on lockdown and an alternate computer has not yet been found.

Other situations, like trials, also lend themselves to Twittering. According to a March 6 article in Editor & Publisher, more and more case law is paving the way for tweets in the court room. A federal judge in Kansas just gave the OK for reporter Ron Sylvester of The Wichita Eagle to tweet a trial continuing this week. Not only can he report instantly on his observations, but it opens up the activities of a court room to many more viewers.

As intimidating as it may be for aspiring journalists, we can watch as Twittering and live blogging become more acceptable forms of reporting and maybe eventually become the norm. Thinking back to Tuesday when The Oakland Post had staffers texting and calling in the status of the situation, Twittering as we went (even though we didn’t have the luxury of fact-checking) made the process of writing a detailed news story that much easier. The public demand for minute-by-minute 140 characters or less is frustrating, especially since I know I want to be in this field to feed democracy, not trends. But we really can’t ignore the benefits of the instant transmission of information.