The Twitter phenomenon has captured the public’s imagination with scores of people following the likes of Barack Obama, Britney Spears, Stephen Fry and Snoop Dogg.

In joining the humble phone, fax, email and Facebook, Twitter has added yet another dimension to how we communicate with each other.

Ideas Shop is an advocate of Twitter (find us at twitter.com/ideasshop) and other social media platforms as a way of reaching new audiences and markets. Twitter’s influence on people’s opinions and decisions is immense. However its emergence as an important tool in news-gathering has also now been established.

Where before eager journalists were hitting the streets on the hunt for a scoop, others have instead turned to Twitter. None more so than in the United Kingdom where it seems Twitter has become a way of life for some.

Take for example, Victoria Raimes, a reporter with the Edinburgh Evening News, who secured an exclusive story just several weeks into the job thanks to twitter. In conversation with a follower about his Edinburgh Festival Fringe show, her contact mentioned the discovery of a dead body in the flat above.
A visit to the scene and an interview with the thin blue line at Lothian and Borders Police confirmed the story – 90-year-old Isabella Purves had lain undiscovered for five years.

Raimes, basking in the glory of her exclusive, says Twitter had proven invaluable in making contacts in a new area particularly when faced with limited resources and time. The journalist now reportedly now picks up a page lead a week from Twitter.

Critics may argue there is no substitute for good old fashioned research and conventional contacts, but Twitter is certainly making the headlines.