Last week, Twitter introduced a new app that may be molding the future of news gathering.
The app is called Periscope, and it is set up so anyone can live stream what they are seeing.
The app is so new that it is only available on iOS. The Android app is still under development. Yes, the Android users on The Crow’s Nest staff are a little bitter.
Periscope says it aims to allow users to “(discover) the world through someone else’s eyes.”
This means users can take live video of anything happening. If there’s a breaking news event happening, there’s probably a user with a phone recording the event.
Just as news organizations have embraced the use of Twitter—journalists use it to make immediate updates as a story unfolds—now they must also look to embrace the use of an app like Periscope or something similar.
The app has the ability to make an even more immediate dissemination of news. But, at the same time, we see some potential problems with the app.
It is exciting that anyone can participate in reporting the news, but that is also the scary part. The average person may not be informed about issues like privacy and editorial discretion. Anything can be posted live, and some obscene or graphic things may catch unsuspecting viewers by surprise.
The live feature of the app is also a point of excitement and concern. Now, anyone with a smartphone can report what’s happening live, but this again creates problems. The user is in control of what they record—to an extent. Since it is live, users can accidentally record something they don’t wish to share with their followers. People aren’t in control of their surroundings, particularly in a breaking news situation.
And speaking of accidental recordings, users run the risk of streaming when they don’t intend to. As CNET points out, a mistake could expose the world to views of your house or even your private activities.
These issues aside, we see this app ushering in an exciting new future of live, breaking news. But while this is happening, we’re sure there will also be plenty of mundane videos.
A Wall Street Journal reporter made a video of her using the app. She brought up the point that she is not sure what to live stream. As a joke, she live streams a video of her eating her lunch.
Periscope is not the first app to introduce live streaming. Last month, the app Meekrat launched. Meekrat has functions similar to Periscope#launched. Alyssa Bereznak, a Yahoo National Technology correspondent, said that Periscope’s functionality and connections to Twitter will likely cause Periscope to be successful, while Meekrat falls behind.
We’re cautiously optimistic about apps like Periscope. Earlier this year, we suggested that Snapchat’s Discover feature could be the future of news.
The future just keeps coming.
