Why Expanded Tweets Will Be Great for Journalists

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Why Expanded Tweets Will Be Great for Journalists
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Twitter's recent announcement of expanded tweets may change that. You'll be able to preview the headline, intro and videos and photos without clicking through. If the preview is enough to warrant a re-tweet or favorite, you can do that from the expanded tweet, too.

As more journalists scan for news from smartphones and tablets, previewing will be a welcome time and bandwidth saver. Expanded tweets are already available on Twitter.com, and Twitter's mobile site and are expected to be available soon on Twitter's mobile apps for iPhone and Android.

What I find less convincing is that expanded tweets are currently only available for select media partners, almost all of them U.S. news organizations. There are some heavy hitters for the initial launch (The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, TIME magazine), but the only international source to make the first cut is Germany's Der Spiegel.

The example of the expanded preview Twitter led with -- from the World Wide Wrestling Entertainment Twitter account -- makes me wonder whether it didn't consider the potential impact of the feature on global news, or if the company wanted to avoid concerns about previews that are not safe for work or show real violence.

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