I've started following Democracy Now! on Twitter and Facebook. It's a nationwide, daily, independent news publication broadcast on NPR, college radio stations, and on the web via podcast (among other outlets). In an article in The Nation in 2005, professor and media critic Robert McChesney said of Democracy Now:"I think it's probably the most significant progressive news institution that has come around in some time."
Democracy Now! uses Facebook and Twitter in much the same way many news organizations do - to give updates for new and recently-updated stories. Whenever a new podcast or video production is finished, DN puts the link on their social media sites as well. The Twitter feed is particularly effective for reporting on breaking news, like the current protests in New York City. I think it's one of the best examples of a media putting something like Twitter to good use. The only downside I can think of is that sometimes they unleash a torrent of tweets on my feed, which can get irritating. They should consider dividing their feed into categorical divisions, like The Guardian.
As for an individual, I'm following Richard Dawkins, because I really like science writing and people critical of fundamentalist religiosity. Admittedly, though, his Facebook page is far from stellar; either he (or someone on his publishing team/entourage) just started using it, or he doesn't care about using it all that much, because the only post he's got up is about the release of his latest book. Twitter, however, is a different story. Dawkins uses his feed to not only publish links to his own articles and book releases, but also to articles by other authors on similar topics, in conjunction with his website. So, he's not ground-breaking in the internet department, but pretty good all the same.
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