BBC Learning English
Words in the News
21st March 2011
Twitter celebrates its fifth birthday
The social networking site, Twitter is five years old today. It has grown from having a few
thousand users to more than 175 million members around the world. The BBC's technology
correspondent, Rory Cellan-Jones spoke about the impact of Twitter on BBC Radio 5 live.
Rory Cellan-Jones: Well, I'm just looking at another tweet right now from a journalist, saying:
 Twitter's five today - the most important innovation for journalists in that time. Not much
good for insomnia though," and I think that's about right. The first thing I do every morning
is have a look at it, because it s become an extraordinary means of communicating news. I
find that the first I see of news is it breaking on Twitter.
Rachel Burden: Rory, can you just literally explain how it works for those people who don t
know, who don t use it?
Rory Cellan-Jones: It s a system for putting out messages that are no more than 140
characters long, so, the length of a text message, really. And you put your message out there,
and gradually you hope that more and more people follow you. It s a system slightly like
Facebook, where you ve got friends, but much more public. And on Twitter you have
followers, and you follow people. So, I m following you, Rachel. I hope you re following me.
I m following about 1,000 people. I think we ve all learnt over the years, those are the people
who use Twitter, to, you know, walk this little line between the personal and the professional.
And I certainly find it useful professionally - a, to see news, and b, to get news. If you put a
message out there and say:  Who knows about X? - you ll find the world s experts on
Twitter, and they will come to you.
Nicky Campbell: Completely, and also to share links with people as well?
Rory Cellan-Jones: That s right. I think that s become more and more important. You see an
interesting article, and you put it out there, and everyone can see it. And it s a quick way of
reading the news in the morning.
Words in the News © British Broadcasting Corporation 2011
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Vocabulary and definitions
innovation new or original idea or invention
insomnia medical condition which causes people to have difficulty
sleeping
about right close to the truth
means way or method
breaking on Twitter being told or revealed for the first time on Twitter, before
any other news source
putting out here, publishing
out there here, online or on the internet
walk this little line achieve a balance or strike a balance
links hyperlinks, website addresses
article here, piece of writing which has been published on a
website or other online platform
More on this story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12805216
Read and listen to the story and the vocabulary online:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2011/03/110321_witn_twitteris5_page.shtml
Words in the News © British Broadcasting Corporation 2011
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