BBC adopts twitter for Rugby World Cup
3October 19, 2007 by Colin
H
ere it is , folks. One of the first effective media applications of Twitter.
Two BBC reporters covering the Rugby World Cup are using Twitter as part of their reporter’s tool kit.
And the BBC has done a very smart job of integrating their Twitter messages into the overall reporting package.
Tom Fordyce and Ben Dirs are “blogging their way around France in a camper van,” as the BBC tells us. In addition to blogging and twittering, they are posting pictures to flickr.
Twitter seems a perfect application for sports reporting, especially in a high profile game like the Rugby World Cup final. It’s:
- immediate
- multi-platform
- already part of the user’s media diet
- already used to convey emotion and a sense of place by users
- easily integrated into the larger reporting plan
As Robin Hamman, a voice from inside the BBC points out:
“…One of the most exciting things that the BBC Blogs seem to have done is to give programme and website producers the opportunity to innovate by adding additional services, from social bookmarking to social networking, to their pages – creating some compelling new content and new building audience communities in the process….” (Cybersoc)
h/t to Matthew at Data Mining.
[tags] twitter, rugby, bbc, integrated news rooms, social media [/tags]
I would think that Twitter is ideally suited for any event coverage.
Maybe at the next Oscars, Joan Rivers will Twitter her red carpet reports?!
Mike
it’s a shame the boys didn’t get more followers – ben has 46 will tom had about 38 – which is strange considering the huge following Ben built up (on facebook) from his hilarious live text commentary of the cricket.
maybe it’s ahead of its time; but likely it’s because users could integrate the twitter concept into their own “media diet” – simply visiting the BBC Sport Web site…
Ed
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