IF YOU are prone to roll your eyes at the mere mention of Twitter, maybe you should think again, according to one of Britain's most respected newspapermen, Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian.
The social media platform might offer inanity, and plenty of it, but Rusbridger insists it does plenty at least as well as - and often better than - the established media, including being first with the news.
It is also an ''amazing form of distribution'', because many Tweets are links to other sources of information; it rivals Google as a search engine and it is an agent of change.
Delivering the annual Andrew Olle Media Lecture in Sydney last night, Rusbridger conceded that Twitter had its shortcomings, such as the potential for the full weight of the world's attention to fall on ''a single unstable piece of information''.
''But we can be sure that the motivating idea behind these forms of open media isn't going away and that, if we are blind to their capabilities, we will be making a very serious mistake, both in terms of our journalism and the economics of our business,'' he said.
While the information revolution is ''splintering the fourth estate'', Rusbridger is an emphatic believer that it can make for better journalism and profitable, if different and leaner, newspapers. ''The best hope for survival is to completely study and understand these developing technologies, rather than rush to a businesss model as though they didn't exist,'' he told The Age.
''The whole ecosystem of information around the world is changing to something that is open, is collaborative, is linked. Place yourself at the heart of that information network and you will remain relevant and your brands will count for something incredibly strong.''
While opposed to ''throwing a gigantic [pay] wall around all your content'', Rusbridger said there was considerable potential for mobile applications of newspaper content because ''you are adding functionality, the charging mechanisms are easy and people are accustomed to paying''.