Mind the Gap
Abstract
The message is familiar to anyone who's ridden the London Underground, but the warning to “mind the gap” doesn't apply just to trains and platforms any more. It's also a useful reminder to journalists and educators of a certain age: Beware the growing knowledge gap in newsrooms and classrooms. It hit me this spring as I was leading a workshop for the Illinois Broadcast News Association. When I asked how many in the room use the instant-messaging service Twitter.com on the job, only two hands went up. Most of the 100-plus people in attendance had no clue what I was talking about. Web producer Patrick O'Brien, then at KTVI-TV in St. Louis, said he was surprised to find that he and his girlfriend were the only Twitter-heads in the group. He's used it to share news content, find story ideas, and get a heads-up about breaking news, including the earthquakes in the Midwest earlier this year. “I woke up the morning of the earthquake not knowing what had happened, scrolled through several tweets discussing what they were doing when they felt it,” Patrick told me later via email. “Then I turned on the TV to see what was