Online News and the New Global Awareness
Online news is fast becoming the medium of choice for web savvy users who want to stay on top of developing events without having to search for specific topics. News sites regularly offer RSS feeds so that readers can be informed of breaking news as it happens, literally as it hits the wires. Feeds can be as general or as specific as desired, providing only the most relevant news to any given user.
And now, as television moves more and more into the online world, online TV news provides news seekers with even more options through streaming video and written content, offering weather reports, national coverage, in depth stories, and local interest pieces for nearly anywhere in the world. Users can set alerts to notify them of breaking stories wherever and whenever they happen. And those alerts can go to email, Facebook, desktop notifications, or even to smartphones and tablets.
As the Internet has made communication more and more efficient and instantaneous, our world has grown smaller and smaller. Connections are more apparent than ever before, and we are beginning to take a greater interest in events around the globe. Rapidly developing technologies have stretched our awareness to every continent, and online news helps us to reach out to our worldly neighbors, share in their triumphs, and grieve with their losses. Social media has become the gathering place for an entire planet, speaking and sharing and debating with a variety of citizenry that would have ben impossible to duplicate as little as twenty years ago.
Online news is bringing our world together, and changing both the way we get our news as well as what we expect from it. As it becomes easier and easier to learn about events and happenings around the world and around the block, people who might never paid any attention to news are now taking notice, and a greater percentage of the population is now aware of and actively taking part in arenas such as politics, entertainment, reform, and education. Knowledge is power, and the global availability of online news is helping to empower a new generation of watchers. Stay tuned for what happens next.
