Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

The Vibrant VJ

Journalism. Visual storytelling. Blogging. Social Media. 

Filed under: twitter

NBC Los Angeles Twitter Project Looks Back at 1992 LA Riots

La_riots_screenshot

Naturally, I’m a big fan of combining journalism and social media. Social media is transforming journalism, especially since more people are getting their news from Twitter and Facebook than from many other “traditional” news sources. Twitter is a great tool for real time coverage of breaking news and monitoring digital conversations. Or in the case of Trayvon Martin, launching a little known local story out of obscurity and into the headlines of national news.

 But outside of using hashtags for audience engagement or curating social media content for multimedia stories, I’ve been yearning to see a creative social media project from a news source.

After seeing NBC LA’s project,  LA Riots: 20 Years Later, I’m saying “Finally!”

The NBC station in Los Angeles is asking ”What if Twitter existed in 1992?” and “live tweeting the past” with @RealTimeLARiots, a twitter account created to simulate real-time tweets about activity before, during, and after the LA Riots.  

Here’s the wow factor: each tweet corresponds to the actual date, time and sometimes minute of the events that unfolded back in 1992.

Launched on April 20 @RealTimeLARiots is currently covering the final days in the trial of Stacey Koon, Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind, and Theodore Briseno, the four officers accused of beating Black motorist Rodney King.

The account chronicles the events in the courtroom, including tweeting jury deliberation times and actual quotes.  

The tweets even cover activity outside of the courthouse.


On April 29 at 3:15 pm, corresponding to the date and time in 1992,  @RealTimeLAriots will tweet the verdict of the trial, which acquitted 3 of the officers, triggering the first events of the riots.

After that tweet, the account will shift its focus to covering the escalating chaos of the riots by tweeting archive footage and photos, as well as breaking news of events as they unfolded.

I’m really excited to watch this fascinating project develop over the weekend and continue throughout the coming weeks. Judging by the responses to the project, I’m sure @RealTimeLARiots will lead the Twittersphere in making the Los Angeles Riots a trending topic over the next week.

-The Vibrant VJ

Will you be following the twitter buzz about the LA riots? Let me know @ShaunaReporter!

Watch the Tweet: My Favorite Tweets about the Kanye West Twitter Rant

It’s been a more  than 24 hours since Kanye West shook up the Twitterverse.  Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past day, you know about how Kanye West took to twitter to voice his opinions about the American education system, set the record straight about his clothing line, and talk about his trials as a fashion intern (if you don’t know the story by now, hide your face in shame and then update yourself by reading the story here)
 
Of course, there was DONDA.  What is Dona? Well, I would tell you, but I think Mr. West says it best:
 

So what’s the next step  when you create a new company?  Start recruiting! In Kanye’s case, he was looking for umm... everyone:



(Honestly, if you don’t fit into one of those categories and you want to work for Kanye West, you need to redo your life plan. I’m serious. Go now.)

Then came the most epic twitter moment of ALL TIME: Kanye posted the beacon of light to all DONDA employee hopefuls: the DONDA email address.

I’m surprised gmail didn’t crash.

Kanye seems to have said his peace (at least for now) and hasn’t tweeted since.

Well it’s been a day since Kanye wrote the 86 tweets heard around the world. The Huffington Post led the online world in writing about the rant, publishing a post barely an hour after Kanye stopped tweeting. Since then, tech sites from Mashable, to gossip blogs like Necole Bitchie have all had their say about West and his proposed “best company of all time.” Jimmy Kimmel also took his shot last night with his own commercial for DONDA based on Kanye’ tweets.

The fire has died down significantly from two nights ago, but the online world is still buzzing.

Maybe it’s the journalist inside of me that requires me to listen to the voice of the people, but to me, what was just as interesting as the Kanye West twitter rant was people’s RESPONSES to the Kanye West twitter rant.

I spent the last 24 (give or take a few) hours looking at tweets about  Kanye. Using the hash tag #DONDA and searching the trending topics DONDA and Kanye, I came across quite a few interesting tweets. They were hopeful, skeptical, supportive, and logical. A lot of them were also HILARIOUS.

Please pardon me while I bring briefly bring DONDA back into relevancy to share my favorite tweets of the day.

Funny, despite the flurry of activity on Twitter the night before, a couple of my followers had no idea what I was talking about when I mentioned DONDA that night or the next morning. Maybe because they have an actual...umm... life? My friend Chip Dizard was one of them.





He retweeted that last tweet. I swear he was mocking me.

Some of those following Kanye’s rant were confused by the DONDA concept. By “some” I really mean “many” (I know I was giving  the DONDA idea the sideye).

One tweeter creatively expressed her confusion Kanye style, with lyrics from the Watch the Throne album:

Not everyone in the Twitter world was on board with the DONDA idea. Some gave Kanye’s concept the good ole *Kanye Shrug*:

http://twitter.com/#!/scottdools/status/154810903710281728


Others  were glad to see Mr. West tweeting about creative vision and innovation.

DONDA particularly caught the eye of tech entrepreneur Wanye Sutton.

You may remember him from the CNN’s Black in America 4: The New Promised Land- Silicon Valley. Sutton is one of the partners and creators of the NewMe Accelerator, the first minority led startup accelerator in Silicon Valley.  So yeah, that means he’s competition.


If Sutton gets a call from DONDA, I’m thinking that company definitley has a shot.

No matter how innovative DONDA sounds, one tweeter warned DONDA future employee hopefuls to use some common sense, and not throw it all out the window just because Kanye West came a callin’.

So...will DONDA ever come to fruition? We’ll see. Kanye is a mover and shaker, so I’m sure at least a part of this project will see the light. I mean, it’s not like this is Diddy and he’s trying to make a band (yeah, I went there).

I’m excited to see how this project unfolds. And if you get a response from DONDA, remember we’re friends.

-The Vibrant VJ


Like what you read? Hate it and wish I were dead? Tell me @ShaunaReporter

 

 

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