Twinterview with a professional tweeter: Sky News's Twitter correspondent Ruth Barnett

Posted by Marion Geiger on March 20, 2009 at 11:15 AM

"I think most people do (understand what I'm doing). It's about being part of the conversation - listening and responding," said Ruth Barnett, Sky News's new Twitter correspondent in a "twinterview" today with journalism.co.uk.

Earlier this month, Sky News decided that the Twitter revolution was so large and useful to news that they appointed Barnett as "Twitter correspondent," someone designated to checking updates on twitter and feeding back.

Just in her first week as a professional Twitterer, Barnett has made her first two TV appearances, written stories for online, received comments from followers on stories "+ more" as she wrote in her simplified twitter language.

Although it is too soon to tell if this new position has increased readership in the last week, Barnett hopes "it makes us easier to approach, you can give feedback to us very quickly, it's a genuine interaction."

Some people are not convinced that such a role is necessary and think it is up to individual journalists to sieve through twitter. When asked about the benefits of having one twitter correspondent she said, "it helps you know who to contact. It means we can have one person who delves deeper, devotes more time and interacts". Even the interview process is efficient, she says, "because it's quick and simple and reaches more people."

According to a survey by Nielsen, Twitter experienced an impressive 1382% growth in the US in the last year, making it the fastest growing network by far.

Source: Twitter interview conducted by journalism.co.uk