(11ALIVE) — As if hosting “Saturday Night Live” to huge ratings wasn’t enough, Facebook fans now want Betty White to host next year’s Academy Awards. (Read More)

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Atlanta is embracing Facebook faster than any other major metropolitan area, a new study shows.

The number of Facebook users in the Atlanta area rose 142 percent the last six months, from 535,000 to nearly 1.3 million, according to a digital marketing firm called iStrategyLabs.

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(11ALIVE) -- Tuesday's memorial of Michael Jackson very well may have been one of the most watched events in history.

Media reports indicate that hundred of millions of people tuned in on television and online to watch the Jackson memorial from the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

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Rundowns that producers had worked all day to lay out were tossed out the window to make room for breaking news coverage. Reporters (myself included) were reassigned and asked to work double shifts. For the most part, news people are OK with all of this. In fact, despite the furloughs, and pay cuts, most of us stay in this business for high intensity moments brought by breaking news.

But there is a new dynamic in the coverage of breaking news, and it is being brought on by… you guessed it… social networking and the Internet.

During periods of national breaking news, local TV news outlets rely heavily on their network of national news affiliates. We look to the newsgathering resources of CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox to help us put together the facts.

Almost all of the national news outfits were quick to report Jackson’s hospitalization. The news spread like wildfire on blogs, Facebook and Twitter. Tens of thousands of messages were sent between friends.

To the best of my knowledge, TMZ.com was the first to report that Michael Jackson had died. At the same time, tradition news outlets like CNN and the Los Angeles Times couldn’t confirm it. It didn’t matter.

TMZ’s report spread across the Internet at lightning speed. Within moments, the news of Jackson’s death was essentially a common knowledge.

Immediately, news outlets were presented with a dilemma: Should continue reporting the facts that they know are true, waiting to independently confirm Jackson’s death? Or should they accept TMZ’s report as true, and report that Jackson has died?

Many of the traditional news outlets chose to wait for independent confirmation of Jackson’s death, a journalistically prudent decision. But, for every minute between TMZ’s breaking of the news and CNN’s confirmation, CNN became less relevant in the coverage. They were no longer part of the conversation.

News consumers had already moved on. Tributes were posted to Facebook. Tens of thousands of messages were streaming across Twitter. Jackson had died, no matter what CNN was reporting.

But hindsight is always 20/20. “What if TMZ had been wrong?” many journalists might ask. The answer to that question is uncertain.

The important lesson for journalists is this: We can no longer consider only reporting the facts. We should also consider the conversation. That conversation is a part of our coverage now. If we choose to ignore our audience, we’ll soon find that our audience is ignoring us.

Recently, they were on a press junkit, promoting their latest film, I Love You, Man, when the two of them completely lost control and couldn’t stop giggling.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pleNACHRadc

Segal and Rudd’s antics have inspired me to create a new game on Facebook. Here’s how it will work:

I’ll throw out a word or phrase. It’s up to everybody else to freely associate that word or phrase with something else from pop culture.

Here’s an example (a not very funny one):

I say: “Thunder”

Somebody else says: “Tropic Thunder”

The game continues.

Hopefully, this will be funny and provide you with hours of hilarious entertainment.

Or, it will be stupid.

The first topic: Michael Ironside

Enjoy.

As he taught me, I started talking, providing excuses, explanations and reasons why I couldn’t acquire the skill he was trying to teach me. As I was running my mouth, my father put his finger over my lips, telling me to stop taking. He pointed at my ears and said something that will stick with me for the rest of my life:

“You have one mouth and two ears. God intended you to listen more than you talk.”

Twitter.com

If you’ve been paying attention for the past couple of weeks, you may have noticed that the local and national media folks have been really jumping on the Twitter bandwagon.

At some point, a tipping point was reached, as editors and news directors around the country took notice of Rick Sanchez (Twitter.com/RickSanchezCNN) and other savvy journos Twittering their brains out.

Perhaps the furloughs that are striking many of the major media companies are finally giving reporters, photographers and news managers time to “discover” Facebook, Twitter, social networking and blogging. Time is plentiful on furlough, when you’re not allowed to make calls or check your e-mail. It’s enough to make a newsie crazy.

I think it’s great that traditional journalists and news organizations are wading into the waters of new media. But, creating a Twitter account and tweeting the morning meeting is not enough to be successful in this new world.

It seems old-media folks are simply applying the principals of mass media to Twitter and Facebook. Newspapers and television stations are creating accounts and then promoting the fact that they’re on Twitter every chance they get. Just as they did with subscriptions and ratings, old-media folks are trying to gather as many Twitter followers as possible.

There is value in gathering these followers on Twitter (or any other social network). But, that is only half of the value and potential the social web has to offer.

In addition to trying to gather as many followers as possible, news organizations should spend AT LEAST as much time trying to follow as many people as possible. The real value of Twitter is being able to hear, in real time, what your audience is saying.

The best examples of how media organizations can learn from Twitterers are shown in major breaking news events (hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires, etc.) that affect a lot of people. But, following people’s thoughts and experiences on Twitter every day can also provide endless story ideas for reporters.

Perhaps traditional journalists should watch the Twittering habits of radio talk show hosts who, in growing numbers, are using Twitter to interact with their audience in real time. Perhaps this is a natural progression for radio hosts, as they are used to soliciting listeners calls and opinions.

Just yesterday, Neal Boortz launched his own Twitter feed (Twitter.com/TalkMaster). His Twittering habits began as a one-way experience. Neal Tweeted his thoughts.

But, as the show continued on, Neal began reading the Tweets of others who were reacting to his show and his tweets. Whether he intended for it to happen or not, Twitter became an integral part of Neal’s show.

Additionally, Neal’s tweets widened his audience beyond the folks who could listen to him on the radio. People at work, in meetings, at the doctor or wherever can now follow Neal’s show through his tweets, delivered right to their cell phone.

Neal’s followers can now interact with him in more ways than ever before, simply because he created a free Twitter account and used it properly.

There’s no doubt, Twitter and other social networking services on the Internet have the potential to extend the reach of traditional media organizations. But one must remember that you must listen AT LEAST as much as you talk.

National Public Radio has noticed this phenomenon that is all the rage on the ‘book and they’ve written an article about lists.  Ironically, they made a list.

10 Reasons Why We Love Making Lists
Why is it that everywhere you turn there’s a list for this or that?

On Facebook, friends recently began posting 25 Random Things About Me — which bloggers have been doing for years. Now some people are lambasting the listiness while others are shortening it to a more manageable 3 Random Things (3 Places I Have Lived or 3 TV Shows I Watch).