Jolley: Five minutes with Twitter & tweeting for ethanol

There is a theory being tossed around that social media is replacing traditional news media.  Why pick up the New York Times to see what Barack Obama had to say about an issue yesterday when Facebook or Twitter can give you the same thing right now?  The problem is you have to sift through a lot of nonsense to get to the good stuff.  Certainly mixed in among the constant drivel about what some relatively remote contact had for lunch or where your long lost cousin happens to be knocking back an afternoon toddy are some real nuggets of information from VIP’s and rational responses from a few of us among the unwashed masses.

From a reporter’s point-of-view, social media is a great way to track the importance of issues.  Want to know if your personal hot topic is a major concern to the general public?  Maybe they don’t give a damn about it or it could be it just hasn’t reached critical mass.  You can track its public impact on Twitter or read all about it on Facebook.  Understand, though, that what you read is a jumbled mass of truly meaningful statements from people who know what they’re talking about and incredibly misinformed nonsense from others who find critical thinking to be just too much trouble.

So today, I thought checking in with Twitter to see what people are saying about ethanol could be an interesting exercise in modern electronic journalism.  The following comments are all short, concise, unfiltered by the monotonous hand of well-paid spin meisters (for the most part) and a few are even meaningful.

renewablefuel Missy Ruff

RT @matthartwig: According to Geoff Cooper, ethanol use of US corn supply is 23% - 1/3 of every bushel used goes back to livestock feed

aravm Aravind

@_R_Srikanth @TheAstronomist It will lead to food inflation as ethanol consumption goes up. More agri land diverted for fuel

OnGreenInc OnGreen, Inc.

New deal: California Ethanol & Power will grow 60,000 acres of Sugar Cane in the Imperial Valley and process to Ethanol http://bit.ly/fZzMpA

MikeLSUMeyers MikeLSUMeyers

What's effecting food prices besides fuel cost? Ethanol! Greater demand for corn effects all beef and poultry cost!

EthanolMagazine Ethanol Producer Mag

Ethanol is THE best molecule, and biomass-to-ethanol most efficient, says paper from GM and Coskata. http://ow.ly/4qGuo

GovWaste CAGW

A-Maizing Waste in the federal Ethanol program; time to repeal the subsidies. http://fb.me/Ipr1P1Bq

AskQuestionsPls Ask Questions Please

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