International Law

Scott Bridges has a good story on Crikey about how the news yesterday of what was taking place inside the Coalition's party room meeting on the ETS was reported first on Twitter:

Last night, as the coalition?s ETS party room meeting stretched into its eighth hour, there were hordes of people around Australia desperate to know the outcome of their ETS debate along with the status of Malcolm Turnbull?s leadership. But where to turn? The newspapers were 18 hours old and the new ones six hours away, there were no up-to-date stories on the papers? websites, and there was nothing on the telly for non-cable subscribers (after 7.30 Report finished).

Thank goodness for Twitter.

Throughout last night?s political drama and excitement, on Twitter via iPhone and BlackBerry from the halls of APH, were several of the nation?s leading mainstream media political journalists tapping away at their micro keyboards to ensure that the Twitterverse was the most informed cohort of political observers in Australia. Thanks to Twitter and those social media-savvy journos, thousands upon thousands of Australians learned about the goings-on in the opposition party room literally hours before anyone else, making (for a short while at least) traditional news channels redundant.

Read more here.

As I was following the breaking news on Twitter last night (and again this afternoon), I put together a Twitter list of Australian journalists who cover Federal politics.  You can follow that list here.