Maybe you are into social media, maybe not. Maybe you think getting news from someplace like Twitter is fine (or even a good idea), maybe not. Whatever your opinion on the state of journalism (sic) in the social media world, there is no denying that Twitter is playing a role in the international news cycle- and that means it’s playing a role in politics.

Mashable reported today on two different events, both of which are getting heavy exposure on Twitter: an earthquake in Chile and a tsunami in Hawaii. There’s a decent chance that big twitter users actually knew about the disasters before the news wires got a story out there for them to link to. If I saw and earthquake and was alive, I’d take a picture with my iPhone and tweet it. I’m a nerd, yes, but I’d also scoop Reuters.

Here’s how it works.

On Twitter, you can label things with a #hashtag, like:

“Here’s a picture from my hotel of the #ChileEarthquake damage http://twitpic.1234567” (Sample link, not real)

Or something like that. Then, anyone who wants to see what is going on with the #ChileEarthquake does a search for that #hashtag label on Twitter’s search and you can watch the stream and get real-time information and photos.

Clearly, this means that news agencies can either just use the information or pictures coming through Twitter or they can take their sweet time and send their own reporter and photographer in Chile out. It means real-time information from hundreds of sources. But…

How does this affect politics? It means that the news is out there and the politicians have no impact on it with spin. It means that people will talk about how the government is or is not reacting to what is going on. It means that whatever is happening can get documented by the people who are living it and broadcasted to the world. For free.

It changes the game big time.

In the past the election protests in Iran and wildfire season in southern California have both benefitted from real-time updates on Twitter. Iran, of course, is an obvious political use of Twitter- the wildfire updates and communication may be an indirect one, though. Think about all the heat the UN is taking over Haiti. And all the heat the U.S. took over Katrina. Both times the culprit is slow response. Twitter has sped up both the ability of people to talk to each other and their ability to update the world at large on their situation- that makes government response easy to expose when it’s not sufficient, and maybe even makes it look slow by comparison.

On the other side of the coin, though, Twitter could be implemented into every disaster relief effort the same way radio frequencies are- you know, all of the disaster relief people are using #haitigov or something, so that they can all stay updated. And anyone who has timely information about the road conditions or the weather conditions or the need for supplies can use that #hash as well.

It would be a very public way for the disaster relief people to communicate with those they are helping.

Photo Credit: Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten (via Flickr under CCL)