New tools in the news!

What is news? Deciding what is newsworthy is not an exact science. News values are formed by tradition, organizational policy, and economics, and, more recently, by the digital revolution. Nonetheless, news is said to have five core elements that characterize new that is worthy. First it is timely. Yesterday's news is old news. No one really wants to hear about what happen yesterday but what happened earlier that same day. Secondly, its proximate, readers and viewers want to learn about their neighborhood, town, or country. Thirdly, news is prominent, the more important a person, the more valuable he or she is as a news source. Next, news is consequent, events that affect a great number or people have built-in news value. And lastly, it holds humans interest, those are stories that arouse some emotion in the audience--stories that are ironic, bizarre, uplifting, or dramatic.

The way news works in today's age is different from the past. As pointed out by Randy Reddick and Elliot King in The Online Journalist, in the past elite media organizations would send reporters to power centers and other locations where news usually happened to cover events. Today's reporters can sit at his or her desk and instantly access documents, databases, government records, and expert sources. There is really no more going out to look for news when they can just receive it at their desks. New skills are needed in order to make the most efficient use of the new tools. For example, the 21st century journalist must be able to perform Web searches, download data files and analyze them with spreadsheets, set up listservs, and use geographic mapping software. Those skills are generally lumped under the term computer-assisted reporting. Although the changes brought by the move to digital media are extensive, there are still some constants.

In my mass communications class we went to interview someone at a news station. Our interviewee gave us a tour around the place. In the production area we saw all the buttons on the production board. Tools that use to be used in the production room have changed or improved compared to what is used today. News stations now use the internet more than it use to be used. Most of all news stations have an online website. As for the news channel that I watched it did not seem biased or stereotypical. Now what news stations can do is report more news that people need or want to hear. Here's and research article on the topic: New news, old news.