What is news in the 21st Century?

News is defined, by Mitchell Stephens a professor of journalism at New York University, as:  “New information about a subject of some public interest that is shared with some portion of the public”.

 From this, the conclusion could be drawn that any information that is new and shared becomes news.
However this is under the condition that it is "about a subject of some public interest", so to be news, some portion of the public have to care about reading or hearing it. If your Nan's cat has eaten all its dinner, and the computer savvy old lady posts this new information to her blog about cats, is that news??
Possibly... If your blog-writing grandma has a healthy readership of like minded cat enthusiasts, then technically a portion of the public are interested in the subject. However it certainly isn't going to make front page news in the local paper.

So what makes a story front page news, how can you measure how newsworthy a story is or whether it is even news?
Media researchers Johan Galtung and Marie Holmboe Ruge analysed news stories from around the world and in 1965 published a list of 12 factors that where found in particularly newsworthy story's.

Canon Dr Owen Spencer-Thomas, MBE, describes the 12 news values Galtung and Ruge outlined under three sub headings: Impact, Audience Indentification and Pragmatics of Media Coverage:
 http://www.btinternet.com/~owenst/NewsValues.html

 

http://owenspencer-thomas.com/

The traditional view of news is that it is written by professionals and broadcasted to the public, for example an article in a newspaper written by a journalist, or a news programme on television.

In the 21st Century, technology allows us to receive news 24 hours a day, with TV channels such as BBC News 24, streaming live news as it happens, as well as frequently updated news online. In the 21st Century news isn't as heavily mediated or controlled by editors or producers. Galtung and Ruge suggested that frequency was a factor in newsworthy stories. They suggested that things that happen suddenly and infrequently make better  news stories as opposed to ongoing events. However with 24 hour news we are able to continuely be updated and follow an ongoing story, in this century ongoing stories unfolding as we hear about them is a staple part of how news is now reported.

This makes the chances of news being more innacurate with less time for reporters to check sources or qualify information. However with it being constantly streamed it can be corrected, updated and added to as more of the story is revealed.

On the internet anyone can publish information, if someone witnesses an event, for example the recent fire at a bar in Northampton, and posts a status on Facebook about it or uploads a picture, then they are sharing "with some portion of the public", "New information about a subject of some public interest". That person is not a professional or even claiming to be any sort of amateur journalist, however they have written and shared what is seemingly News.

Can un-professionally posted stories really be considered news? Are they reliable sources or is there even any way of telling they are reliable? 

On Social networking sites like twitter and Facebook, the things that are written can be tracked, people posting about the same subjects or stories be compared with eachother to put together a more clear and accurate picture of the story. Users can even actively work together in collaboration to qualify eachothers information and build up accurate stories to be posted. This is known as Citizen Journalism.

Citizen Journalism

This phenomenon is seen by some as a real threat to the news industries as it raises questions such as: What does the rise of citizen journalism mean for the future of professional journalism?; Will professional journalism become obselete?; Will we continue to read newspapers, as they'll only be reporting on events as recent as the day before?; will newspapers and daily news programmes only be reporting old news?; and ultimately what does this mean for the future of news?

As interesting and exciting as citizen journalism could be, personally I feel established, reputable sources of news such as the BBC will continue to thrive, when we want reliable information our first point of reference will be trusted news broadcasters, and I believe we will continue to qualify stories produced by groups of web users or amateur journalists by checking them against what the BBC or CNN etc. have got to say. Big news corporations can also hope to survive by embracing the potential citizen journalism has to offer. Reporting on trending subjects that appear on social networking sites, allowing comments to be made on articles online, and other forms of interaction between traditional producers and consumers of news, already occur. A continuation and growth of this interaction will continue to ensure Professional journalism and more traditional forms of news reporting will continue to be important.