Redefining news
When my friends update their Facebook, that’s news to me.
I pimped my dog is news to me.
Liquidicity’s Reference for EVERY Character Key on a Mac (just tagged by jamesjgill on del.icio.us) is news to me.
Something we — journalism educators, inspiring young journalists and established media moguls — need to reconsider is the definition of news. The old rules don’t apply quite the same way anymore.
“News Arithmetic”
1 ordinary man + 1 ordinary life = 0
1 ordinary man + 1 extraordinary adventure = News
1 ordinary husband + 1 ordinary wife = 0
1 husband + 3 wives = News
1 bank cashier + 1 wife + 7 children = 0
1 bank cashier – $10,000 = News
1 chorus girl + 1 bank president — $100,000 = News
1 man + 1 auto + 1 gun + 1 quart = News
1 man + 1 wife – 1 row + 1 lawsuit = News
1 man + 1 achievement = News
1 woman + 1 adventure or achievement = News
1 ordinary man + 1 ordinary life of 79 years = 0
1 ordinary man + 1 ordinary life of 100 years = News
From “Editing the Day’s News” George C Bastian Leland D. Case, 1932.
We spend a lot of time talking about the different strengths and weaknesses of the various media – print, television, radio, online – but maybe we need to take a closer look at the messages themselves. I think there is a new formula for news.
Me + My world + Anything = News
Sounds very broad, I know. But that’s just it, it’s actually very narrow. What defines “my world” makes me different from everyone else out there. Mass media isn’t always able to give me news and information about “my world.” And mass media rarely invites me to participate in conversations about topics that are of interest to me.
That’s why I read blogs, peruse Flickr and poke around Facebook. With all these resources online I get to decide what’s news to me.