The site has two main goals: 1. to help people enhance their worldview or perspective of global events; 2. to increase dialogue about international news and make the world smaller through conversation and interaction, both on this site and on Twitter.
The philosophy behind the site is "hyperlocal gone global." There is an emphasis on what is happening in a specific place at a specific time and looks at how people are reacting to that event(s) in the area.
Tweets are manually selected by editors and arranged to tell a story in a journalistic style, including transition paragraphs. Tweets are essentially treated as quotes. Those with pictures, videos, and/or eyewitness accounts from the scene are priority, while tweets with instant reaction to the news will also be selected.
Generally, each story will link to a media outlet of authority for brief background information on the news topic and for those seeking more information.
Breaking Tweets is not obsessed with "breaking the news," there are plenty of outlets to do that, but at times, it may do so anyway based on the tweets it collects. Instead, it is interested in chronicling key news events each day, creating an archive of these events and what people are saying about them on Twitter.
It also seeks to prove the value of Twitter as both a breaking news source and journalistic platform.
Follow Breaking Tweets on Twitter @breakingtweets.
