People are Twittering a lot these days.

Lest it sound as if I have lost my mind, Twittering is a relatively new communications device that is being adopted by news media with some fairly spectacular results in breaking news coverage.

Specifically, Twittering is a Web site that allows people to send short messages of 140 characters via cell phones or computers that can be read instantly, with longer messages sent to the person’s Twittering Web page.

Last month, The Spokesman-Review was one of the early newspapers to incorporate the technology into a news story when covering murderer Joseph Duncan’s sentencing trial. While I was attending the national Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) conference last week, I heard several people congratulate the S-R for yet again being a pioneer. Several of us discussed the technology and some concerns were interesting to note.

But first, a look at why and how the S-R used Twittering.

Ryan Pitts, assistant managing editor for online who describes the technology as a cross between blogging and text messaging, said the decision to use the service came from the city desk.

“I would say we decided to try Twitter while covering the Duncan case because trials lend themselves so well to quick, incremental updates on what’s going on,” Pitts said. “There was immense interest in this particular trial, and Twitter was a way for us to engage all those people. For the results, all the feedback I’ve heard was very, very positive.”

City Editor Addy Hatch agreed with Pitts’ assessment of the project’s success, adding that the staff learned some things about using such instant technology.

“We learned a couple of lessons from the experience, most notably that you only want to use Twitter for the most compelling portions of the trial,” Hatch said. “A lot of what takes place is, frankly, pretty dull and there is no sense in covering it minute by minute.”

In a perfect world, she said, the newspaper would find a way to mimic Twitter technology on Spokesman.com so interested readers would not be sent to another Web site to read the news.

Hatch said she does not foresee any ethical or accuracy problems. At the SPJ conference, some of the conversation revolved around the issue of inaccurate reporting when news organizations try to be the first with information; sometimes the first bits of information may be in error. Several news stories that broke with error-filled information (including the Oklahoma City bombing and 9-11) were brought up in the discussion; but as some people said, sloppy reporting or incomplete information is not limited to the introduction of new technology.

One point was on minimizing harm, a keystone of the SPJ code and echoed in various sections of the S-R code. Some journalists expressed concern that Twittering from a courtroom might transmit information before a family member might hear an outcome or report information that would be damaging to a rape or abuse victim.

Personally, I would think that most journalists would adhere to the idea (and, in many news organizations, a dictate) that we do not report names of rape or abuse victims under normal circumstances. Only in extraordinary cases or with permission would we give the names or release information.

Hatch said reporting from a courtroom would limit the ethical concerns because a court’s procedures are public record and there should not be questions of fairness, attribution and unnamed sources.

“That would be different on another kind of story, but I don’t think the ethical problems – or accuracy problems – are greater than those posed by the Web site,” she said. “It’s rare, but reporters sometimes post unedited material to the site that’s edited after the fact. We can’t edit Twitter posts, but we can delete them and did so in one case during the Duncan trial.”

Hatch said the S-R is looking at how to use Twitter in the future, but said the technology is currently best suited for breaking news.

“I don’t know that there is more or less potential for abuse of Twitter than there is for print or online,” she said. “The ‘you-are-there’ flavor of the medium might encourage more attitude in the reporter’s writing style, but that might in turn be welcomed by a younger audience. We’ll continue to look for ways to incorporate Twitter and other technologies into our reporting arsenal.”

Technology continues to morph, changing the way news is covered and delivered. The good news is that reporters and editors who write well and stay with ethical principles will always be a trusted source for information, no matter what the delivery system.