The problem with twitter is that it's an amalgam of increasingly lazy "serious" journalism, and lunatics from tumblr and 4chan. I'm pretty sure you've seen all those stupid news articles that just quote from twitter posts with minimal editorial input. I think Twitter has a reputation among some journalists for being a neutral public forum, which is reinforced by politicians giving official statements and press releases directly on twitter, but it's also a place where a guy with an anime avatar will call you names for saying pedophilia is bad. And there isn't exactly a good boundary between the journalism and the insane asylum, so the stupidest stuff imaginable gets loads of attention.
A different kind of social media website might attract different kinds of people and have a different atmosphere. Think about what comes to mind when you hear the word "redditor" or "facebook user", despite neither website actively selecting for those kinds of people. I think separating out the journalism, business and politics from the social media part would be a good start.
