Are Twitter and Facebook providing news like traditional media do? Five journalists, all working for French speaking radio, kept up with news via Facebook and Twitter only. They tried to test if micro-blogging service and social networking websites are reliable sources of information.

This experience is a move to adopt social networks in French editorial staffs, considers Colette Brin, professor of journalism at Laval University in Quebec City. “This is a watershed for French media”, she said.

Nour-Eddine Zidane took part in this original week experience, in February.

"Twitter and Facebook are not equivalent", Zidane said. Twitter is an asymmetrical service: we can follow someone without being followed, contrary to Facebook. "That makes easier to keep up with news on Twitter than on Facebook", Zidane considered. "For most of members, Facebook is a hobby not a way to keep updated", Colette Brin said.

“I missed any important news during the experience but some topics are not really developed, such as international, economy or political issues”, Zidane said.

Journalists sometimes deal with topics, which are not actually popular on Twitter or Facebook, explained Zidane.

The emergence of social networks reveal an ethical concern: should traditional media give priority to most popular topics on Twitter and Facebook?

“The Twittersphere is not actually built-up in France. So the most popular topics on Twitter are not necessarily relevant and representative”, said Zidane. “Even if it is the case, journalists should not focus on sensationalist stories, which are often the most popular subjects”, he added.

Peter Horrocks, the new BBC Global News director, has recently demanded to journalists to become familiar with social media and use it more. “This is not just a kind of fad. I am afraid you are not doing your job if you can’t do those things”, Horrocks quoted in Ariel, BBC in-house weekly newspaper.

In France, social networks are definitely a new phenomenon.

Twitter has been available in French for four months, only. A majority of French has ever heard about Twitter but fewer than one million French have already joined it, according to IFOP pull.

France is the sixteenth country with the most Twitter users, behind Philippines, Japan and Germany, according to Sysomos, a social media analytics company.

Facebook is more popular. Fifteen millions of French, or about twenty per cent of global French population, are reported to have already signed up for an account, Facebook managers said. According to Mashable, majority of French Facebook users connect once a day at least and close to eighty per cent are younger than thirty five year- old.

“Twitter remains very time-consuming, even if you could make research with keyword, “hashtags”, Colette Brin said. “That could harm Twitter”, Nour-Eddine Zidan said. “This cacophony is also its main asset”, Brin said.

“The quality of the information depends on the quality of the network: who are your contacts”, said Zidane. But developing a relevant network is a "long-drawn-out activity”, according to Nour-Eddine Zidane. He tries to "not get in journalistic zone, with following active members always in look out for latest news". “Official or journalists are not necessary the most interesting people to follow on Twitter”, Colette Brin said.

“We are still not able to use efficiently Twitter or journalists are expected to work faster”, said Brin.

“To make Twitter stream clear and to work smart with it, editorial staff may have a watcher, someone following social networks only”, Brin suggested. But “news organizations, facing a deep economic crisis, are not likely to recruit”, Zidane said.

Since his experience, Nour-Eddine Zidane has changed a little bite his methods. “Now I check TweetDeck quite as much as our breaking news tool.”

“Micro-blogging can help to alert media about local news”, Zidane said. The train crash in Belgium, which caused eighteen deaths, “was firstly reported by a passenger’s tweet”, Zidane said.

“On Twitter, international news are local news as it is reported by inhabitants”, Colette Brin noticed, “Iran protest is reported by Iranians themselves”.

Journalists can get in touch with people for a report via social networks, Zidane said. “I was looking for pro-degrowth, two month ago, and thanks to my network on Facebook I managed to find an activist and interview him”, he explained.

Nour Eddine Zidane does “not understand why French media are so reluctant to use it as new journalistic tool”. “This is not a threat for journalists”, Zidane said. “Social networks and micro blogging do not compete against media”.

“On the contrary, it complements each other: one informs and the other relays”, Zidane said.

However, French news agency is victim of micro-blogging success. Agence France Press news wires have been struggling as newspapers are reconsidering their need for subscriptions. Why paying when scoop are available on Twitter for free? Last September, Clearstream trial was entirely covered on Twitter by a journalist of Le Nouvel obs, French weekly newsmagazine. Agence France Press is currently discussing its modernization: how can it remain indispensable in these digital times?

“I heavily recommend my colleagues to use social networks”, Zidane said. “I tell them that there are not gossip and rumors only”.

“It can be very helpful, in condition that journalists continue to be contentious and serious and to source every reported facts”, Zidane said.

“In France, we are too much conservative”, Zidane considered. “Sooner or later, every journalist will use it to work."

“Anglo-Saxon media are truly enthusiastic for new technologies whereas French media are more skeptical and immediately find limits”, said Colette Brin. “In the United-States, micro-blogging and social networks were easily adopted ten years ago, while in France news companies are still asking if they should”, she compared. According to Nour-Edinne Zidane, "it is a hollow debate”.

The emergence of social networks causes many change for journalists, said Brin. “They need to change their style and their ton when they tweet because of the 140-characters limit”, Said Brin. “Journalists are not used to exchange directly with readers or call for suggestions", she added. "Their monopolistic system is fading away.”

Aspiring journalists should learn at school how to use social media in a professional way, Professor Bin proposed. "This education is not necessary", Nour-Eddine Zidane said. He would prefer "a sensitization of internet in general to warn young audience to not take all published facts in internet at face value."

"Social networking is a complex and heterogeneous structure, but all has in common sharing", Colette Brin said. "Now an international community of sharing exists, even if it is still not full-scale."

“The one who launches a rumor doesn’t bother refuting it. But other members will publish a denial”, Zidane said. “In social networks, the solidarity between members is strong.”

"The greatest of internet is altruism between surfers", Colette Brin said.