Forget about the newspapers, radio, and television. When it comes to breaking news alerts first, the Internet reigns supreme and Twitter is king. Be it the death of MJ or win of a sports person, the popular free social networking and micro-blogging service will let you know about it within seconds of its occurrence.

As those old G.I. Joe PSAs put it, “knowing is half the battle,” so let’s get right to it and find out how to track breaking news online with Twitter.

Follow the News

There are plenty of great Twitter accounts that specialize in bringing you only breaking news alerts. CNN’s (@cnnbrk) is the most popular, but if you’re looking for more updates daily, BNO News (@breakingnews) does it best.

Other good ones include Reuters (@reuters), ABC News (@abc), CBS News (@cbsnews), the BBC (@bbcbreaking), The New York Times (@nytimes), and NPR News (@nprnews) just to name a few.

Search for Updates

Once you have an idea of what’s happening, it’s easy to search for the latest updates and information. As well as providing the ability to monitor trending topics, Twitter’s own search service allows you to search for keywords. Twazzup, Monitter, and Tweet Scan are also great services for real-time results.

If you’re looking for pictures, head over to PicFog.

The real time image search service searches for picture links in tweets and continuously updates automatically.

How do you get your breaking news? On Twitter or elsewhere? Let us know in the comments.