Kristof in Egypt: Columnist reports via Twitter, Facebook

Nicholas Kristof, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and columnist for The New York Times, arrived in Egypt Sunday and has been using Twitter and Facebook to report live from Cairo as protests continue for a sixth day against President Hosni Mubarak.

In his first Facebook posting from the ground, Kristof writes:

"I've arrived in Egypt! Amazing scene. Thanks for all your suggestions; I'll be FBing, tweeting, writing, if I can get on line. Borrowing a sat phone now. Tahrir Square is just unbelievable–first time I've ever strolled across it without worrying about traffic. Just tanks and thousands of protesters. Everybody's very hopeful and very nervous."

He later calls the streets in Cairo "very tense" and the mood at Tahrir Square, the site of much of the demonstrations, "giddy." He says he "especially love[s] the campfires," but he warns against feeling too relaxed.

"But it reminds me, painfully, of the equally giddy mood at Tiananmen Square before the shooting started. Some of the regime's moves — earlier curfew, buzzing protesters with fighter planes, nasty media — don't seem conciliatory at all."

Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, won a Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for their coverage of the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre in 1989.

On Twitter, he wrote: "Interviewed many folks at Tahrir. They see US as still supporting Mubarak. They plead for US to remove that support."

Kristof was an early embracer of new media and has a particularly large presence on Facebook and Twitter. His Facebook page has 187,000 fans, and his Twitter account has close to 1 million followers. Kristof was the first blogger on The New York Times website, according to his biography page.

Harvard University's Nieman Journalism Lab blogs about Kristof's use of social media in Egypt and argues that Facebook integrates user commentary in a particulary effective way. "On Facebook, when you're commenting on a story, you're not just responding to it; you're becoming part of it. You're aiding in its creation."

It also states that the immediacy of the Twitter and Facebook feed makes the reader feel part of the moment. The updates "treat 'the present moment' not only as their subject, but as their point: This is what I'm seeing now. No varnish — and very little artistry. And that makes them particularly compelling."

Egyptian authorities have tried to clamp down on the protests, which were initially organized online, by shutting off the Internet in much of Cairo and the country, blocking Twitter and Facebook and restricting cell phone service. Kristof writes on Facebook that he has borrowed a satellite phone, which he is probably using to sign online.

As the protesters continue to defy curfews and take to the streets, Egypt sent out fighter jets to pass over Cairo's Tahrir Square in an apparent display of force.

Opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei joined protests on Sunday and called for Mubarak to step down.

"You have taken back your rights and what we have begun can not go back. … We have one main demand: the end of the regime and the beginning of a new stage, a new Egypt. … I bow to the people of Egypt in respect. I ask of you patience, change is coming in the next few days."

See this slideshow of protests in Egypt.

Discussion: Do you follow journalists who use personal social media accounts? What strategies do you think work best? What do you want more of?

Follow GlobalPost on Twitter: @GlobalPost.