Five journalists will embark on a Real World like journey for five days in an old farmhouse in France. They will report the news to their respective agencies using only Facebook and Twitter as sources. No web surfing, tv, radio, phone or print information is allowed. They can only click on Facebook and Twitter links directing them to online sources.

“This experiment will enable us to take a hard look at all the myths that exist about Facebook and Twitter,” said Helene Jouan, a senior editor at France Inter.

Because of the viral nature of the social networks, Twitter and Facebook have proven to be catalysts to spread news quickly and effectively. They have also been known to spread rumors and falsehoods. I think it will be interesting to watch the continued shift away from mainstream media to social media for news. I stopped reading the newspaper and watching the nightly news about 5 years ago. DrudgeReport, Google News and local/industry specific websites are all I use.

What do you think?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Press Gazette: French journalists’ five day social media experiment (blogs.journalism.co.uk)
• I need journalists’ stories and tips on using Twitter (stevebuttry.wordpress.com)
• Can You Write News Based Only on Facebook and Twitter? (mashable.com)