If you are anything like me, you have an almost insane need to stay on top of the news. I love it when my local news station runs a banner and announces a “breaking news” story. Now, I have to admit that this so called breaking news is usually some story that is, in my opinion, not really “breaking.” I reserve this label for true breaking news, such as natural disasters and such, not a car accident on the freeway.
Many of us who love the news read or watch all sorts of news sources including online news outlets, and the traditional print publications. Online news sources, however, seem to be able to deliver the news much faster.
I can remember during a few of the top news stories of the past year or so, online news was constantly updating news stories such as the shootings in Connecticut or Colorado. Online news stories, and even blogging news sites were updated on an almost instantaneous basis.
These online news sources do make me realize that the face of news has changed. It has become much more instant. You do not have to wait for the evening news, or even for that paper to hit your doorstep to stay up to date. Now, we can have our info online news sources at our fingertips, just by logging onto our computers and opening our favorite site.
The problem that I have found is that with this instant news comes errors in reporting. Reporters are generally trying to report the stories very quickly, and sometimes the facts are erroneous. You may remember how fatality numbers changed from moment to moment during the last mass shooting. This can be due to a number of things, but online news sources do have the ability to change those facts quickly.
Another issue I see with online news is that because it is easy to set up your own website, anyone can call themselves news reporters. Unfortunately, a lot of these “news” sites are simply an outlet for people to espouse their opinions labeled as news.
Finding online news sources that are reputable is not difficult. All the major news outlets have online info and online articles, so it really is not difficult to stay up to date on the news.