Twitter makes its way into the federal courtroom

Journalism isn’t like it was in the good ‘ole days where the reporter woke up, moseyed on down to the office for a cup of coffee and typed out his story on an old black Corona typewriter. No, now instead of a Corona, we’ve got Tweets.

While reporters have been able to use online streaming in a courtroom before, it’s been rare, especially in federal cases. But the latest feather in journalistic caps is one that was won by Ron Sylvester, a reporter for the Wichita Eagle. Sylvester was allowed to use Twitter to give constant, live updates on a big racketeering gang trial he is covering. (You can check out Sylvester’s tweets here).

Sylvester isn’t new to using Twitter in court, but this is his first time using it in federal court. Several lawyers raised some objections to using this type of media coverage, but U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten says that since jurors are instructed to avoid the newspaper as well as broadcast and online reports, he was allowed. As the Judge said, “You either trust your jurors to live with the admonishment, or you don’t.”

The messages sent on Twitter (known as “tweets”), are fairly short, being that they are limited to 140 characters. Because of this, the updates sent out via mobile phone or computer may not be especially long or detailed, but they do keep the public up to date in real time. Sylvester, as well as others in support of Twitter being used in all courtrooms maintain that “It does improve public access to the courts.”