The UK-based Sky News appointed their first-ever “Twitter Correspondent,” reports TechCrunch UK. Ruth Barnett will scour Twitter for breaking news that beats the mainstream media to the punch. She starts her new role this Monday, according to TechCrunch UK.

Read the memo, circulated to all Sky News staff yesterday, after the jump:

THE POWER OF TWITTER: The Twitter phenomenon continues to explode. A phono with an eyewitness in Lahore yesterday came to us through Twitter. Last night’s breaking story on the death of a Briton in the Alps came to us from Twitter. The first phone on the Buffalo plane crash came from Twitter. The first photo of the Hudson River rescue came from Twitter. Convinced?

The Online team is using Ruth Barnett as a “Twitter correspondent” – scouring Twitter for stories and feeding back, giving Sky News a presence in the Twittersphere. If you don’t understand Twitter and would like a demonstration of its power as a newsgathering tool, the Grand Master of Twitter, Jon Gripton, is running a session in Meeting Room 5 next Tuesday at 1400.