Breaking News On the Web and TV
When we hear the phrase “Breaking News,” we feel a sense of urgency. Suddenly, we become more attentive. This is standard behavior for the human brain. Our brain reacts more quickly to unusual things or events than to ordinary ones. The visual and print media attempt to maximize the effectiveness of these two words in order to attract the attention of the audience.
Television channels are a major source of such news. TV channels are the most prominent visual medium for announcing such news on occasion. Typically, these news items appear on a scroll when the news is not being broadcast on television. During the news hour, in addition to the scroll, breaking news is also given more time and in-depth coverage. However, some television stations exaggerate the significance of a story and cover less significant events as breaking news. At times when there is nothing special to broadcast, some television stations will broadcast general events or stories as breaking news to attract viewers’ attention. The strategy may work in the short term, but it is almost certain that they will lose viewers in the long run. This will occur because they are misleading their viewers by labeling less significant events as breaking news.
There are also numerous websites offering such news on the Internet. However, can you rely on the veracity of the news articles provided by these websites? Certainly, you cannot trust everyone. Only reputable websites provide authentic and informative stories. Therefore, you must understand the characteristics of a reputable news website in order to obtain informative news. There are also websites that may provide authentic and informative stories but are poor at selecting the appropriate story to cover as breaking news. These websites consider nearly every story to be breaking news, causing confusion among their visitors. At some point, it becomes difficult for the website to attract the attention of visitors to important news stories. This occurs when visitors believe they are being deceived by general news presented in an exaggerated manner. This causes websites to lose visitors.
Therefore, both television channels and websites must be prudent in their news coverage. They should not misunderstand the significance of news articles and confuse visitors. However, these news sources should focus on providing informative news and refer to only the most significant stories as “breaking news.” If the media behaves professionally, the ultimate objective of informing the general public can be attained.
