We've been talking about how to improve Twitter as a breaking news tool both on our show and with you guys, our listeners. We also heard from The Guardian's Heidi Moore and NPR's Andy Carvin. Their thoughts after the jump. 

During the Arab Spring, NPR's Andy Carvin used social media to report on uprisings happening a world away. Although Carvin's based in DC, his twitter stream became a reliable one-stop shop for news about events on the ground from Tunisia to Egypt, Libya to Bahrain. 

Tonight, Carvin sits down with Brooke to talk about how he does what he does and what it might mean for the future of journalism. 

You can follow along on the livestream below, and tweet Andy questions using the hashtag #OTMlive. We'll be live-tweeting the event as well. 

Also, be sure to check out Andy's new book, Distant Witness: Social Media, the Arab Spring and a Journalism Revolution.

It's pledge week at On the Media's parent station WNYC. Hosting this website and our podcast costs our producing station a sizeable chunk of change each year. If you’d like to contribute to WNYC to help keep us online and available to you whenever you want to listen, now is the time to do it. For a one time pledge of $60 you can get our popular ON [CAFFEINE] coffee mug which host Brooke Gladstone can be seen modeling below – follow this link to get the mug or to pledge at any level to WNYC (you can also see the other great thank you gifts on offer).

Normally for our pledge shows, Bob and Brooke spend the hour recalling some of our favorite segments, and talking about how great we are. But instead of tooting our own horns this time around, OTM decided to go to some of our favorite public radio personalities and ask them to tell our listening audience just how amazing, wonderful, and worthy of support we are. In this segment, Brooke talks to Deb Amos, an NPR correspondent who covers the middle east.  

We still have one more segment from our pledge show to come, so check our blog again tomorrow!

The situation in Syria is worsening, with estimates of over 5000 dead and the regime of President Bashar Al Assad showing no signs of backing down. With a virtual media blackout in the country, videos posted to YouTube and Facebook are providing some of the only glimpses into the atrocities taking place on the ground.  Bob speaks to NPR senior strategist Andy Carvin and Sky News digital news editor Neal Mann about walking the line between conveying the immensity of the brutality without traumatizing audiences.

The Chieftans - The Stone