Twitter Lists Get a Tryout During Fort Hood Shootings

As news of the Fort Hood shooting rampage spread last week, media outlets and readers both put Twitter and its new lists feature to the test.

Just as the service was instrumental in providing updates during the summer’s election protests in Iran, Twitter feeds from Texas-based news sources such as the Austin-American Statesman and the Killeen Daily Herald provided a stream of local updates.

The Statesman’s feed amassed more than 3,000 followers by the end of the day Thursday, and soon larger news outlets such as Huffington Post, CNN and the New York Times (NYT) had tapped into it and other sources by using Twitter Lists, which lets users create groups of other Twitter accounts that others can view and follow.

“Lists proved a new way to follow breaking news on Twitter, with filtered groupings of local news outlets, military accounts, and local citizens,” Craig Kanalley wrote on Poynter’s E-Media blog.

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