Merits of News Cycle Reduction - Essay Example

News Cycle Introduction As the world advances, the amount of news or information also increases in each second. During olden days it was radio or telephone were the medium of information exchange. Later Television has conquered the news industry. The television monopoly has continued till the latter half of the 20 th century. Thereafter internet came into exist and now there is immense competition going on between cable news networks' and internet in order to provide the news and information at the same moment as it happens. Moreover cable news networks' were trying to report live telecasts as far as possible to attain upper hand in the media industry. News cycle is a technical term used in the media industry to represent the time period between the successive reporting of news events. "A news cycle is defined as the amount of time that passes between the release of one edition of a news outlet and the follow up edition. The most common example of a new cycle would be the daily newspaper. Released early in the morning of one day, the next edition does not appear until roughly twenty-four hours later. That one-day period between the daily edition constitutes a news cycle. Originally associated with newspapers, the term is applied today in all forms of news distribution." (Tatum) The period of news cycle has come down drastically because of the immense development in the information sector. The reduction of news cycle period has its merits and demerit as well. Though live telecasts were useful for the public to receive information instantly, because of immense competitions between different news channels quiet often the public receives contradictory information from different channels which sometimes create problems even to the government and the administrations. Merits of news cycle reduction The main advantage of instant reporting trough live telecast of the incidents is that it gives the public enough preparation time to respond with the news. For example, the live telecast of the battle between Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan military has given the external world the exact picture of struggles experienced by the Tamil refugees. The world has succeeded in forcing the Sri Lankan government to declare cease fire after watching the live telecast of the injuries and death caused to the innocent people. The recent Mumbai terrorist attack also showed live by most of the domestic and foreign cable news networks'. The public got the clear picture about what was going on in Mumbai during that period instantly. Such instant information will make the public aware of the necessary precautions needed at the time of a terrorist attack. "A number of markets rely strictly on broadcast network news for the early morning." (Tatum) For most of the markets it is essential to know the market conditions in order to prepare strategies for their daily activities. For example, the natural rubber prices in India will vary depends on the prices of rubber in the international market. The tire manufacturing companies will procure rubber from the domestic market based on the prices in the international market. If the domestic prices are higher than the international prices they will import rubber from outside and hence the domestic price of natural rubber in India will vary in accordance with the international price. The rubber growers in India need to know the international price variations in order to take decisions whether to accumulate the stock or to sell out the stock. They will watch media for knowing the price fluctuations in international market. Instant information always will be helpful for them in taking decisions. Share market is another area in which the instant information is precious. The current economic recess was an unexpected one for many. Nobody expected that the American banking sector will be destroyed like this. Many people sold out their shares immediately when they receive the information about a possible collapse of American banking sector. Those who failed to receive such information suffered major setbacks. "Early morning news programs that ranged from fifteen to thirty minutes allowed people to catch up on world events before leaving for work. (Tatum) Early morning news was normally provided by news papers earlier before the arrival of television and the internet. But as per the current trends people are getting capsules of news events happened when they were sleeping, at early morning. The evening news round ups provides the public the access of news happened around the world while they were at work. In any case the news media are keen in not missing any relevant information for the public. Demerits of instant reporting 24 hour news creates lot of tight competitions between media and hence many times this immense competition will be resulted in news manipulation and wrong reporting. Television revenue depends on the viewership and hence the media groups will adopt all means irrespective of healthy or unhealthy in order to attract the viewership towards their channel. Sensationalism is a common strategy most of the media depend in order to attract public attention towards them. US President Barack Obama has blame the 24-hour news cycle for the current mess his country finds itself as its political leaders tend to take decisions which fetch them few moments of high ratings on these news channels. (Jha) As per Obama, the media has put more colors to the economic crisis and sensationalized the crisis. In fact the media were celebrating such a wonderful opportunity for their own advantages rather than the country's advantage. The widespread rumors about the intensity of the current crisis have created lot of problems to the government. For example the current bailout package proposed by the government to save some of the big organizations in America has been criticized severely by the media. Though the government has identified the need of supporting these organizations in order to save the employment of many people, media has criticized government immensely for looting the public money for saving big business tycoons. CNN is widely credited with initiating the acceleration of the modern news cycle with the fall 2006 debut of its spin-off channel CNN:24, which provides a breaking news story, an update on that story, and a news recap all within 24 seconds. In addition to creating its groundbreaking format, CNN:24 broke many important stories with reports such as "Ford No Money Everyone Fired," "Iraq Bomb Kill Truck," "Country Hates Bush," "Dow High Now," and "Squirrel Water Skis." (Media Landscape Redefined By 24-Second News Cycle) Many channels followed the methods of CNN after realizing the potential benefits in instant reporting. In many countries nowadays many news channels has adopted the strategies of CNN in news reporting. The news reporter does not need many academic qualifications nowadays in order to join a cable news network. All they need is better facial expressions or gestures and good verbal control or communication skills to convince or attract the viewers. "Today's ace reporter isn't the one with the best command of the language, but the one who can say 'Congress!' or 'Health care'' or 'Slam dunk!' with the most appropriate expression on his or her face." (Media Landscape Redefined By 24-Second News Cycle) "Journalists themselves are also feeling the strain of having to file more stories more quickly" (Media Landscape Redefined By 24-Second News Cycle) Because of the tight competition between different medias, the job of a journalist in such medias is stressful. In some instances the pressure seems to be immense and hence he will try to manipulate things when he fails to collect the actual information which others easily done. "All cable news succumbs to the rumor mill, and each of the major networks were guilty of hasty and inadequate reporting during the Bush years. They all sacrifice valuable news time inflating feature stories and having shouting matches" (Risen) Moreover the journalist's profession in these segments need 24 hours vigilance and the journalist often forced to work overtime to satisfy the management. For example we have seen that the reporters from all over the world were gathered around the Taj hotel in Mumbai, India for around 3 days continuously in order to instantly report the actions against the terrorist by the rapid action force. We no longer have a twenty-four news cycle. Something happens in the world (Mumbai, Gaza, or that someone was involved in a plane crash) and somebody, somewhere is informing the world through text, images, audio and even video within sixty seconds. (Joel) "The news cycle has changed so much in the past five years. This has had a direct effect on Marketing and Advertising. It's about to change again and - as usual - Marketers are not prepared. And, from the looks of it, the general mass population might not be ready either." (Joel) It is not easy for the either the common people or the business world to keep up with the pace of news cycle. Earlier it was 24 hour, now it became 24 minute and in near future itself it may become 24 seconds. Internet has changed everything. The wide spread usage of internet has provided threats to the cable news networks' and hence they forced to change their strategies. "The 24-hour news cycle that media critics used to bemoan seems as quaint and leisurely as a taffy pull. We're now living in a 24-minute news cycle. One source of tension is that the media run so fast while politics moves so slow. By February, political observers doing the math saw where the Democratic primary was going--but it would take three months to get there. So the media revived their engines like a car in neutral" (Poniewozik) Cable news network and magazine news "Newspapers are not the only form of print news media with a news cycle. A number of magazines devoted to high profile news events operate with a news cycle of one week. Each new edition features news and events that have occurred in the seven days since the last publication." (Tatum) magazine news normally may not be critical ones for the public. It usually provides general information about the incidents which happening around us. The news value of magazine reports may not be same as that of the cable news network reports. Cable news networks' usually concentrate mainly on emergency news which have immense importance to the public where as the magazine news always concentrate on other sensational news which may not be so much critical to the public. 24 hour news reporting "We may be lining up to eat at soup kitchens in 2009, but we'll have the fastest news cycle ever to keep us informed" (Winer)The 24-hour news cycle is a term generally used by cable news network media for providing the instant information and news to the public. Earlier the news papers were the prominent media depended by the public. But the period of news cycle of news papers are generally 24 hours and hence as per the current rapidly moving world, such news cycle time period is not acceptable and hence the prominence of news papers are slowly but steadily giving ways for the faster internet and cable news network technologies. While the changes have brought higher ratings and ad revenues to televised news, print newspapers have suffered greatly, due to the high cost of printing and distributing a new edition every 24 seconds (Media Landscape Redefined By 24-Second News Cycle) Conclusions The information or news media is undergoing rapid changes every day so that the common people and business world struggled to move along the developments in the media industry. The 24 hour news cycle now became 24 minute and in near future itself many people believe that it will become 24 seconds. The instant reporting has its merits and demerits. The quick access of what is going on around the world will make the public better equipped with the preparation. On the other hand the competition to become first in making the news available to the public, more often reporters forced to manipulate news or sensationalize the information. Works Cited 1. Tatum Malcolm, 2003, What is a News Cycle' Retrieved on May 5, 2009 from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-news-cycle.htm 2. Media Landscape Redefined By 24-Second News Cycle, 2007, Retrieved on May 5, 2009 from http://www.theonion.com/content/news/media_landscape_redefined_by_24 3. Joel Mitch, 2009, Welcome To The Sixty Second News Cycle - Death To The 24 Hour News Cycle, Retrieved on May 5, 2009 from http://www.twistimage.com/blog/archives/welcome-to-the-sixty-second-news-cycle-death-to-the-24-hour-news-cycle/ 4. Winer Dave, 2009, The 24-Minute News Cycle, Retrieved on May 5, 2009 from http://www.scripting.com/stories/2009/01/19/the24minuteNewsCycle.html 5. Risen Tom, 2009, Downward News Cycle, Retrieved on May 5, 2009 from http://www.scoop44.com/2009/04/29/downward-news-cycle/ 6. Poniewozik James, 2008, Campaign '08: The Media's 24-Minute News Cycle, Retrieved on May 5, 2009 from http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1855330,00.html 7. Jha Lalit K, 2009, Obama Blames 24 Hour News Cycle for America's Trouble Retrieved on May 5, 2009 from http://news.outlookindia.com/item.aspx'658240 Read More