Newsgathering just gets Twitter and Twitter

A breakthrough for Channel 4 News yesterday: our first ever interview sourced from Twitter.

For the uninitiated, Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging site. Still no clearer?

Well, me neither. I’ve only just got the hang of blogging – let alone micro-blogging.

Anyway, I am reliably informed that today’s eye-witness phone interview with Dutchman Jonathan Nip – @nipp as he is known on Twitter – is the first sourced via the networking site for our programme.

He gave us first-hand details of the unfolding tragedy, and by proxy an interesting insight into how communication is changing.

For Twitter novices, Channel 4 News online has prepared a short guide. Click here.