In my opinion, Twitter has really disrupted the traditional flow of the news process over the past 12-18 months. An example of this was seen today:-
===Wired blog posts Blogging is dead piece on 20th Oct
===Twitterverse discusses, many people link and blog about it on 21st Oct
===BBC journalist discusses on Twitter on 22nd October
===Radio 4’s Today programme calls for guests to discuss this the following day mid afternoon
===BBC blogs it on evening of 22nd October
===Presumably it will be an item on tomorrow’s radio 4 show.. Update: Here it is.
Now I don’t know about you but I remember when Radio 4’s Today programme was the source of most of my news first thing…not discussing things that have been around and heavily debated and discussed online for two days already. I presume this will be more of an analysis piece than news but it really illustrated to me how times have changed and how we are seeing “the news” be created these days, not just reading/hearing the finished article.
I am freelance 
This is the beauty of Web2.0 and highlights how the Wired (blog) article is flawed.
Web2.0 doesn’t represent blogging or twitter, it represents the rise of the community. Communities will migrate to whichever tool is the flavour of the month, but the sense of community will remain.
Except… this is only accurate about “disrupting the flow of the news process” where “news” means “news about technology stuff”.
Don’t think that much – any? – of the running on Ross/Brand happened on Twitter, did it? US election? Tends to link to news. (Though maybe I’m following the wrong stuff.) It’s a way of being ahead of what news is out there before it hits the airwaves, but I think only rarely does it really break news (eg the Chinese earthquake stuff).
That’s not saying it’s not going to make a big difference; the blogging/Today case is an early indicator, I think.
Thanks for the comments (nearly passed out when I saw Charles had responded to my blog *blushes and then acts all normal again*) I agree, it is so hard to tell WHAT is being done on Twitter as there is no audience as such, only your audience and no-one really sees the full colour of another person’s Twitter experience….
However, I’ve not yet seen instances of news stories being formed on Twitter in other industries but I reckon it won’t be long.
I first got the Kerry Katona link on Twitter and heard the furore there before the likes Philip Schofield were interviewed/coverage appeared on TV/Radio but it was just chattering and I didn’t see any media using Twitter to seek comment.
From a PR’s perspective, the tech media work in a different way to many other industries (where print is still seen as king) so whilst the shift is happening, it won’t happen overnight.