The news of the Royal baby exploded onto Twitter within minutes of the official announcement at
Buckingham Palace on the 3rd of December as Kate went into hospital with acute morning sickness. With several accounts springing onto our Twitter feeds under the names of @RoyalFoetus and @IamRoyalBaby the Twitter world soon went Royal baby mad.
Only two days later the @RoyalFoetus page had 7,700 followers and a mere minute after the announcement hash tags were trending such as #Royalbaby. Pretty quickly we all jumped on the bandwagon tweeting our congrats. There were also some angry tweets expressing feelings that Kate was getting 'special treatment' and that is was 'only morning sickness.'
The news was followed by a prank which involved two radio DJs in Australia putting in a call to the hospital in which Kate was staying. The DJs pretended to be the Queen and Prince Charles asking for an update on Kate's condition. They were put through to her room by a nurse working at the hospital.
Four days after the millions of joyous tweets another news story broke that again took Twitter by storm. On the 7th of December the nurse who put the phone call through was found dead in a flat close to the Hospital. This story took over Twitter within minutes.
I heard about these news stories from Twitter.
Both of these stories were huge in the news. Both were covered by the biggest news channels, papers and radio stations, but most of us heard of these breaking stories in a different way.
Twitter offers us a completely new news experience, never before have we been able to instantly interact with the news, voicing our opinions and contributing to spreading the word.
Right now Twitter isn't really considered as a source of news, but in terms of delivering information to the masses it is slowly overtaking traditional news platforms. No longer is it appropriate to hear a news story and just nod along and go 'ok then' or possibly mumble your opinion to the person sitting next to you. We want to write a snappy response and in turn generate new responses. We want to hear what all the celebrities have got to say, not just what David Cameron or the Queen has to say. We want instant news, right there on our phones or laptops, constantly updating 24/7. We also want opinions, to understand how we are supposed to feel.
As people we are sheep, we all want to fit in and crave to be 'normal'. Twitter is the only place we can read others' opinions on news stories before we decide how we feel about it and join in.
Twitter creates an immense 'buzz' when it comes to the news. Stories literally spread like wild fire, something that only happened before through word of mouth. It is due to this, that I am declaring Twitter as my go-to place for the news.
In the meantime, while I am waiting for the next Twitter story to take hold, I'll be thinking about the birth of the royal baby and the possible tweets to come. I'm sure the royal family's friends will be thinking about that very important moment when visiting the royal baby for the first time and presenting a gift, what do you buy a baby who is third in line to the throne? Personally I would go for a gift basket.