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"For a very brief period in our country's history, approximately from 1940 to the year 2000...you have a concentration of media where it's a higher barrier to entry. You can't start a newspaper in town, you can't start a TV network. Then the internet blows all that away, and everybody can start web sites, blogs, e-mail newsletters, that sort of thing, until you'll see us reverting back to the free flow of information that's more democratized."

Walter Isaacson, CEO of CNN

Web browsers opened up a whole new world. Since the 1800s, readers had rarely spoken to newspaper reporters, but the internet let ordinary citizens crash through the gates. Newspapers found themselves being scooped by online newsletters and flooded with e-mailed criticism, even as their profits were pinched by free online competitors. It's a new dialogue which empowers the masses, but it also represents a great opportunity. As newspapers adapt to a changing world, they'll discover that social media can also be a revitalizing force.

Many news sites now require their reporters to publish e-mail addresses for follow-ups, and hundreds of readers are simply leaving comments online at the bottom of articles. It's the beginning of a grand evolution, but newspapers need to reach out to the online community. It won't be enough to understand what social networks can do without also understanding where the social networks are. The market is dominated by a handful of major players, and these sites have tremendous potential if you learn how to use them.

Here's some of the best examples of how news organizations can use social media.

Twitter

Twitter offers a fun way for promoting newly-published articles - and you can also remind readers about scheduled online discussions. But Twitter's also being used as a tool for news gathering, since its updates are searchable, providing real-time reactions to events as they're happening. Twitter's intended purpose is for "status updates," so it's a culture of immediacy where readers expect breaking news. And this makes Twitter especially exciting - it's easy to peck out an update, and they can even be sent from a cell phone.

Twitter limits its post to 140 characters or less, so it's easy to keep readers updated. And loyal readers appreciate the timely reminders, since now they won't just know what the newspaper is publishing, but also when it's first published. But best of all, Twitter creates a sense of community. A Twitter user can read updates from their

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