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Stefanie  Dazio    

The  Landscape  of  Breaking  News    

Faculty  Adviser:  Professor  Wendell  Cochran,  School  of  Communication    

University  Honors  in  Journalism    

Fall  2012  

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Stefanie  Dazio  The  Landscape  of  Breaking  News    Abstract:  From  the  town  crier  to  Twitter,  breaking  news  has  been  an  integral  part  of  the  information-­‐sharing  landscape  for  centuries.  As  technology  advances,  so  too  does  the  way  a  story  is  reported,  produced,  and  consumed.  This  capstone  discussed  and  disseminated  the  landscape  of  breaking  news  through  three  papers.  The  papers  respectively  delved  into  the  past,  present,  and  future  of  the  breaking  news  landscape.  Research,  interviews,  and  subsequent  analysis  showed  that  technology  has  largely  driven,  and  will  continue  to  drive,  the  evolution  of  this  landscape.  Looking  toward  the  future,  news  organizations  must  learn  how  to  adapt  in  this  social  media-­‐friendly  climate  in  order  to  best  compete  in  the  digital  age  and  whatever  lies  ahead.                

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The  Landscape  of  Breaking  News  

Senior  Honors  Capstone  

Stefanie  Dazio  

Faculty  Adviser:  Professor  Wendell  Cochran  

 

“The  Past”  

Part  1  of  3

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Introduction  

Journalism  has  been  called  the  first  draft  of  history,  and  those  first  words  are  often  

written  as  a  result  of  some  form  of  breaking  news.  While  the  news  itself  has  remained  the  

same  –  crime,  corruption,  and  celebrities  often  dominate  headlines  –  the  way  it  is  

transmitted  has  changed  dramatically  over  the  centuries.  Technology  has  played  a  very  

integral  part  in  speeding  up  the  dissemination  of  news,  allowing  it  to  be  published  faster  

and  faster,  and  forever  changing  the  landscape  of  breaking  news.    

This  paper,  the  first  in  a  three-­‐part  series,  will  discuss  the  “past”  of  the  evolution  of  

breaking  news  landscape,  focusing  largely  on  the  19th  and  20th  centuries  and  how  

technology  has  affected  the  dispersal  of  breaking  news.  This  analysis  will  delve  into  how  

carrier  pigeons,  pony  express  routes,  boats,  “EXTRA”  editions,  the  telegraph,  and  satellites  

transformed  the  landscape  of  breaking  news  over  time,  through  the  increasing  rapidity  of  

these  technologies.  In  addition,  this  paper  will  also  use  the  assassination  of  President  John  

F.  Kennedy  as  a  case  study  of  how  major  breaking  news  is  covered,  using  that  technology.  

The  goal  of  this  paper  is  to  ultimately  show  how  technology  has  influenced  the  evolving  

landscape  of  breaking  news.    

The  next  two  papers  will  delve  into  the  “present”  and  “future”  of  the  landscape  of  

breaking  news.    

Carrier  pigeons,  pony  express  routes,  and  boats  

  Carrier  pigeons,  pony  express  routes,  and  boats  all  had  relatively  small  effects  on  

the  dissemination  of  breaking  news  compared  to  the  telegraph,  but  they  are  definitely  

worth  a  brief  mention  in  this  paper.  Carrier,  or  homing,  pigeons  were  often  used  to  relay  

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information  or  film  back  to  the  newsroom,  in  order  to  make  deadline  or  publish  a  scoop.  In  

the  1840s,  independent  news  collector  Daniel  H.  Craig  used  African  pigeons  to  send  

European  news  to  his  customers  from  arriving  ships  in  Halifax,  Baltimore,  and  Boston.1  As  

Walter  R.  Mears  wrote  in  Breaking  News:  How  the  Associated  Press  has  Covered  War,  Peace,  

and  Everything  Else,  Craig’s  newspaper  customers  received  the  news  hours  before  any  

competitors.2  These  competitors  sought  to  stop  Craig,  even  chartering  steamships  and  

asking  captains  to  seize  the  pigeons.3  Craig  stowed  one  in  his  pocket,  and  was  able  to  send  

it  off  before  a  captain  could  get  his  gun:  “but  before  he  had  a  chance  to  shoot,  the  bird  was  a  

mile  above  him,  flying  straight  to  his  home  in  Boston,  100  miles  away,  and  safely  delivered  

his  news.”4  Tired  of  getting  scooped,  the  Associated  Press  hired  Craig  in  1849,  and  he  

became  the  wire  service’s  first  foreign  correspondent,  based  in  Halifax.5  

As  Jessie-­‐Lynne  Kerr  wrote  in  The  Florida  Times-­Union,  pigeon  measures  were  

necessary  at  least  twice  in  the  Sunshine  state  in  the  20th  century.6  In  the  late  1950s,  a  

Daytona  Beach  News-­Journal  photographer  used  a  pigeon  to  fly  film  out  of  Cape  Canaveral  

when  it  was  closed  for  a  suborbital  manned  space  flight,  Kerr  said.7  Three  decades  later,  in  

1987,  President  Ronald  Reagan  and  First  Lady  Nancy  Reagan  came  to  Jacksonville,  Fla.,  to  

honor  37  sailors  killed  after  two  missiles  were  fired  into  a  U.S.  ship  stationed  in  the  Persian  

                                                                                                               1  Mears,  Walter  R.  "A  Brief  History  of  AP."  Breaking  News:  How  the  Associated  Press  Has  Covered  War,  Peace,  and  Everything  Else.  New  York:  Princeton  Architectural,  2007.  404-­‐05.  Print.  2  Ibid.  3  Ibid.  4  Ibid.  5  Ibid.  6  Kerr,  Jessie-­‐Lynne.  "Homing  Pigeon  Helped  Get  Film  of  President  Reagan  Honoring  USS  Stark  Soldiers  Back  to  Newsroom."  Jacksonville.com.  The  Florida  Times-­‐Union,  16  May  2010.  Web.  15  Sept.  2012.  <http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-­‐05-­‐16/story/look-­‐back-­‐birds-­‐helped-­‐get-­‐film-­‐back-­‐newsroom>.  7  Ibid.  

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Gulf  during  the  Iran-­‐Iraq  War.8  Due  to  strict  security,  members  of  the  media  were  not  

allowed  to  leave  the  naval  station  where  the  president  spoke  until  after  the  Reagans  had  

left  the  base  on  Air  Force  One.9  This  posed  a  problem  for  Florida  Times-­Union  photographer  

Bob  Self,  who  needed  to  meet  a  12:30  p.m.  deadline  for  an  afternoon  paper.10  Editors  

suggested  Self  find  a  homing  pigeon;  he  was  able  to  use  a  2-­‐year-­‐old,  14.5  ounce  female  that  

had  won  400-­‐mile  races  thanks  to  a  local  “pigeon  enthusiast.”11  The  day  of  the  event,  Self  

brought  the  pigeon  in  a  ventilated  carrier  box,  with  security  never  noticing  it  –  despite  

checking  everything  else,  even  taking  the  lenses  off  Self’s  cameras.12  “But  they  never  even  

looked  down  at  the  box  I  was  carrying  the  pigeon  in,”  Self  said.  “It  never  made  a  noise.”13  

After  shooting  a  few  frames  of  the  Reagans  disembarking  Air  Force  One  holding  hands,  Self  

strapped  the  film  canister  to  the  pigeon’s  leg  and  let  it  go.14  Just  over  an  hour  later  –  after  

getting  stuck  in  a  pine  tree  in  the  owner’s  yard  –  the  film  was  retrieved  and  the  photo  made  

the  deadline.15  Readers  saw  the  photo  of  the  morning’s  event  in  their  afternoon  papers,  a  

photo  that  would  not  have  been  possible  without  the  pigeon.16  

  The  pony  express  routes  served  a  similar  purpose  for  newspapers,  but  the  true  

importance  of  this  “technology”  lies  not  in  competition,  but  in  cooperation.    In  1846,  New  

York  newspapers  needed  a  way  to  cover  the  Mexican  War,  and  Moses  Yale  Beach  of  the  Sun,  

the  largest-­‐selling  newspaper  in  New  York  City,  devised  a  pony  express  relay  to  do  just                                                                                                                  8  Ibid.  9  Kerr,  Jessie-­‐Lynne.  "Homing  Pigeon  Helped  Get  Film  of  President  Reagan  Honoring  USS  Stark  Soldiers  Back  to  Newsroom."  Jacksonville.com.  The  Florida  Times-­‐Union,  16  May  2010.  Web.  15  Sept.  2012.  <http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-­‐05-­‐16/story/look-­‐back-­‐birds-­‐helped-­‐get-­‐film-­‐back-­‐newsroom>.  10  Ibid.  11  Ibid.  12  Ibid.  13  Ibid.  14  Ibid.  15  Ibid.  16  Ibid.  

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that.17  The  ponies  would  take  news  from  New  Orleans  and  Mobile,  Ala.,  to  Montgomery.  

The  copy  would  then  be  put  on  the  Great  Southern  Mail  stagecoaches  to  be  delivered  to  the  

closest  telegraph.18  According  to  the  Associated  Press’  website,  this  arrangement  was  faster  

than  the  U.S.  Post  Office.19  Beach  chose  to  share  this  relay  with  his  rivals,  despite  it  

guaranteeing  him  and  the  Sun  basically  a  day’s  scoop  on  any  war  news.20  In  mid-­‐1846,  five  

other  New  York  publishers  met  with  Beach,  and  the  Associated  Press  was  unofficially  

born.21  

  Steamships  were  also  widely  used  to  carry  news  both  from  the  West  Coast  to  the  

East  Coast,  as  well  as  across  the  globe.  Messengers  often  waited  at  ports  to  get  the  latest  

headlines,  racing  it  back  to  their  newsrooms  weeks  after  the  news  first  broke.  In  1876,  Lt.  

Col.  George  Armstrong  Custer  was  defeated  at  the  Battle  of  Little  Bighorn  July  25,  and  his  

entire  force  killed.22  The  Bismarck  Tribune’s  reporter  Mark  Kellogg  filed  his  last  dispatch,  

saying:  “We  leave  the  Rosebud  [River]  tomorrow,  and  by  the  time  this  reaches  you,  we  will  

have  met  and  fought  the  red  devils,  with  what  result  remains  to  be  seen.  I  go  with  Custer  

and  will  be  at  the  death.”23  News  of  the  massive  defeat  did  not  reach  the  East  Coast  until  

July  6,  brought  back  by  the  expedition’s  supply  steamer.24    

  The  Spanish-­‐American  War  in  1898  used  chartered  boats  both  to  cover  naval  

actions,  as  well  as  ferry  copy  to  cable  points  in  Haiti,  Jamaica,  Key  West,  and  the  Danish                                                                                                                  17  Mears,  Walter  R.  "A  Brief  History  of  AP."  Breaking  News:  How  the  Associated  Press  Has  Covered  War,  Peace,  and  Everything  Else.  New  York:  Princeton  Architectural,  2007.  403.  Print.  18  Ibid.  19  "AP'S  HISTORY."  AP-­History.  The  Associated  Press,  n.d.  Web.  01  Oct.  2012.  <http://www.ap.org/company/history/ap-­‐history>.  20  Mears,  Walter  R.  "A  Brief  History  of  AP."  Breaking  News:  How  the  Associated  Press  Has  Covered  War,  Peace,  and  Everything  Else.  New  York:  Princeton  Architectural,  2007.  403.  Print.  21  Ibid.  22  Pyle,  Richard.  "A  Circuit  to  Anywhere."  Breaking  News:  How  the  Associated  Press  Has  Covered  War,  Peace,  and  Everything  Else.  New  York:  Princeton  Architectural,  2007.  39-­‐40.  Print.  23  Ibid.  24  Ibid.  

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West  Indies.25  In  addition  to  having  reporters  based  on  navy  ships,  the  Associated  Press  

chartered  the  Wanda,  a  142-­‐foot  steam  yacht  that  was  called  “with  one  exception,  the  

fastest  in  these  waters.”26  AP  Assistant  General  Manager  Charles  Sanford  Diehl  ran  the  

organization’s  operations  from  the  yacht,  and  soon  newspapers  followed:  there  were  about  

15  news  craft  boats  at  one  time.27    

EXTRA  editions  

  “EXTRA”  editions,  or  editions  published  outside  the  regular  print  cycle,  were  

published  for  ‘extraordinary’  news,  according  to  research  done  by  John  Kelly.28  The  

Newseum  has  what  seems  to  be  one  of  the  earliest  “EXTRA”  editions:  a  copy  of  the  London  

Gazette  from  1746  that  was  printed  after  the  Battle  of  Culloden,  where  the  English  defeated  

the  Scottish.29  During  the  19th  century,  “EXTRA”  editions  were  common,  Jeff  Schlosberg  of  

the  Newseum  told  The  Washington  Post,  because  the  telegraph  and  high-­‐speed  printers  

allowed  the  production  of  papers  to  speed  up.30  The  morning  after  President  Abraham  

Lincoln  was  shot,  the  New  York  Herald  put  out  six  “EXTRA”  editions.31  Newspapers  

apparently  also  put  out  “EXTRA”  editions  to  increase  revenue  in  the  late  1800s,  and  the  

Milwaukee  Sentinel  even  said  a  rival  paper  was  overdoing  it:  “the  truths  it  contains  are  not  

new,  and  the  news  it  contains  is  not  true.”32  In  the  late  20th  and  early  21st  centuries,  The  

Washington  Post  published  several  “EXTRA”  editions,  including  for  the  release  of  hostages  

                                                                                                               25  Pyle,  Richard.  "A  Circuit  to  Anywhere."  Breaking  News:  How  the  Associated  Press  Has  Covered  War,  Peace,  and  Everything  Else.  New  York:  Princeton  Architectural,  2007.  39-­‐40.  Print.  26  Ibid.  27  Ibid.  28  Kelly,  John.  "Answer  Man:  Pre-­‐Internet,  Newspapers  Had  'Extras'"  Washington  Post.  The  Washington  Post,  07  May  2006.  Web.  15  Sept.  2012.  <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-­‐dyn/content/article/2006/05/06/AR2006050601151.html>.  29  Ibid.  30  Ibid.  31  Ibid.  32  Ibid.  

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in  Iran  in  1981,  after  the  O.J.  Simpson  verdict  was  released,  after  the  contested  2000  

presidential  election,  and  after  the  terrorist  attacks  of  Sept.  11.33  Now,  these  editions  are  

increasingly  rare:  "Now  we  look  at  the  Web  site  as  being  the  next  edition  of  our  paper,"  Ed  

Thiede,  an  assistant  managing  editor  at  The  Post  told  John  Kelly.  "We  put  our  energies  into  

creating  the  best  product  on  the  Net  and  for  the  next  day's  paper."34  

  The  Seattle  Times  published  an  “EXTRA”  edition  after  Sept.  11,  and  the  paper’s  

executive  editor  Michael  R.  Fancher  wrote  a  column  after  readers  accused  the  organization  

of  profiteering.35  The  paper  sold  additional  copies  of  the  addition  ($2.50),  as  well  as  glossy  

poster  reproductions  of  the  edition’s  front  page  ($15).36  “We're  not  trying  to  make  a  profit  

in  offering  these  reprints,”  Fancher  wrote.  “The  only  reason  we  do  it  is  that  some  people  

want  them  as  a  piece  of  history.”37  In  actuality,  the  paper  lost  money  on  the  “EXTRA”  

editions  because  of  a  lack  of  advertising,  Fancher  said,  but  the  organization  felt  it  was  

necessary  to  publish.38  “As  I  said,  we're  a  journalism  company,”  he  wrote.  “We  cover  the  

story  first  and  figure  out  the  finances  later.  In  deciding  to  do  the  Extra  Edition,  no  one  

asked,  ‘Can  we  afford  this?’  The  only  question  was  whether  it  was  possible.”39  

The  Telegraph    

  The  telegraph  was  arguably  the  most  influential  technology  to  change  the  landscape  

of  breaking  news,  and  its  successors  built  upon  its  triumphs.  The  telegraph,  as  Irwin  Lebow  

                                                                                                               33  Kelly,  John.  "Answer  Man:  Pre-­‐Internet,  Newspapers  Had  'Extras'"  Washington  Post.  The  Washington  Post,  07  May  2006.  Web.  15  Sept.  2012.  <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-­‐dyn/content/article/2006/05/06/AR2006050601151.html>.  34  Ibid.  35  Fancher,  Michael  R.  "Extra  Edition  Driven  by  Devotion  to  News,  Not  Making  a  Profit."Advanced.  The  Seattle  Times,  23  Sept.  2001.  Web.  01  Oct.  2012.  <http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20010923>.  36  Ibid.  37  Ibid.  38  Ibid.  39  Ibid.  

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wrote  in  Information  Highways  and  Byways:  From  the  Telegraph  to  the  21st  Century,  began  

the  process  of  wiring  up  the  world.40    Through  his  1845  invention,  Samuel  Morse  sought  to  

make  “one  neighborhood  of  the  whole  country,”  and  keep  news  and  information  flowing  

from  coast  to  coast.41  Before  the  telegraph,  as  previously  discussed,  news  could  take  days,  

even  weeks,  to  make  it  from  California  to  New  York,  and  publishers  devised  elaborate  

systems  where  copy  traveled  by  pony  express  routes,  steamships,  and  carrier  pigeons  

(after  the  telegraph,  these  routes  were  altered  to  head  to  the  nearest  telegraph  office).  

There  was  an  appetite  for  news  at  this  time,  although  Lebow  argues  it  should  not  have  been  

called  ‘news,’  since  there  was  nothing  new  or  fresh  about  information  that  arrived  three  

weeks  late:  “Information  about  things  that  happened  far  away  was  reported  long  after  the  

events  occurred,  usually  so  long  after  that  the  recipients  of  the  news  could  do  little  but  sit  

back  passively  and  treat  the  events  as  history.”42  But  despite  this  delay,  there  was  a  “thirst”  

for  information,  and  “it  is  because  of  this  thirst  for  such  news  that  the  most  important  

application  of  the  early  telegraph  was  in  helping  create  the  press  in  the  form  in  which  we  

know  it  today.”43    

  This  thirst  led  to  a  larger  and  larger  appetite,  where  newspapers  took  as  much  as  

they  could  off  the  telegraph’s  dispatches.  “We  live  in  a  transition  period  of  society,”  wrote  

the  New  York  Herald  on  May  7,  1846.  “In  yesterday’s  paper  we  published  the  intelligence  of  

the  proceedings  of  Congress  of  the  preceding  day,  simultaneously  with  newspapers  which  

                                                                                                               40  Lebow,  Irwin.  "Wiring  Up  the  World."  Information  Highways  and  Byways:  From  the  Telegraph  to  the  21st  Century.  New  York:  IEEE,  1995.  3-­‐4.  Print.  41  Lebow,  Irwin.  "The  American  Leonardo."  Information  Highways  and  Byways:  From  the  Telegraph  to  the  21st  Century.  New  York:  IEEE,  1995.  11.  Print.  42  Lebow,  Irwin.  "The  Telegraph  and  the  News"  Information  Highways  and  Byways:  From  the  Telegraph  to  the  21st  Century.  New  York:  IEEE,  1995.  19.  Print.  43  Lebow,  Irwin.  "Expanding  the  Neighborhood.  "  Information  Highways  and  Byways:  From  the  Telegraph  to  the  21st  Century.  New  York:  IEEE,  1995.  18.  Print.  

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are  published  in  Washington  city  itself  –  220  miles  distant.”44  Indeed,  when  the  first  

transatlantic  telegraph  link  was  placed  in  1858,  one  of  the  first  messages  from  the  U.S.  was  

“PRAY  GIVE  US  SOME  NEWS  FOR  NEW  YORK,  THEY  ARE  MAD  FOR  NEWS.”45  Reporters  

themselves  felt  the  invention  suited  their  needs  well:  “To  the  press  the  electric  telegraph  is  

an  invention  of  immense  value.  It  gives  you  the  news  before  the  circumstances  have  had  

time  to  alter.  The  press  is  enabled  to  lay  it  fresh  before  the  reader  like  a  steak  hot  from  the  

gridiron,  instead  of  being  cooled  and  rendered  flavourless  by  a  slow  journey  from  a  distant  

kitchen.”46  

  In  addition  to  changing  how  quickly  news  traveled,  the  telegraph  also  forced  writing  

styles  to  evolve.  In  order  to  cut  down  on  costs  and  transmission  time,  journalists  filed  brief,  

concise  reports  that  lacked  the  flowery  language  of  previous  stories.47  Further,  the  reports  

were  now  objective  –  so  they  could  be  used  by  any  publication  that  had  access  to  the  wire  

services.48  The  new  writing  style  became  known  as  the  ‘inverted  pyramid,’  which  is  still  in  

use  today.49    

  The  teletype  replaced  the  telegraph  in  the  1920s  as  the  technology  which  reporters  

filed  stories  over,  and  its  clattering  sound  became  well  known  as  the  soundtrack  to  the  

                                                                                                               44  "Network  Effects:  How  a  New  Communications  Technology  Disrupted  America's  Newspaper  Industry  in  1845."  The  Economist.  17  Dec.  2009:  n.  pag.  Web.  15  Sept.  2012.  <http://www.economist.com/node/15108618>.  45  Ibid.  46  Ibid.  47  Kielbowicz,  Richard  B.  "Telegraph."  Encyclopedia  of  American  Journalism.  Ed.  Stephen  L.  Vaughn.  New  York:  Routledge,  2008.  523-­‐26.  Print.  48  Scanlan,  Chip.  "Birth  of  the  Inverted  Pyramid:  A  Child  of  Technology,  Commerce  and  History."  www.poynter.org.  Poynter,  16  Feb.  2011.  Web.  3  Oct.  2012.  <http://www.poynter.org/how-­‐tos/newsgathering-­‐storytelling/chip-­‐on-­‐your-­‐shoulder/12755/birth-­‐of-­‐the-­‐inverted-­‐pyramid-­‐a-­‐child-­‐of-­‐technology-­‐commerce-­‐and-­‐history/>.  49  "Network  Effects:  How  a  New  Communications  Technology  Disrupted  America's  Newspaper  Industry  in  1845."  The  Economist.  17  Dec.  2009:  n.  pag.  Web.  15  Sept.  2012.  <http://www.economist.com/node/15108618>.  

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journalism  industry.50  Despite  this,  the  telegraph  was  still  used  in  other  capacities,  and  is  

considered  the  precursor  of  the  teletype,  also  known  as  the  wire  machine.    

Flashes,  Bulletins,  and  Urgents  

  In  order  to  designate  the  importance  of  an  incoming  story  on  the  wire  machines,  

news  organizations  developed  terms  and  brief  ways  to  describe  the  varying  levels  of  a  

story’s  caliber.  Bells  rang  to  signal  to  newsrooms  that  something  significant  was  on  its  way,  

and  editors  crowded  around  the  wire  machines.  Wire  services  United  Press  International  

(UPI)  and  the  Associated  Press  (AP)  both  use  flashes,  bulletins,  and  urgents,  but  classify  

them  slightly  differently.  In  “Total  Domination,”  Patrick  J.  Sloyan  described  the  UPI  “flash”  

as  to  be  used  for  events  known  as  ‘earthshakers.’51  Flashes,  for  both  UPI  and  AP,  were  just  a  

few  words  long.  “Flash  –  FDR  dead”  was  a  UPI  example,  according  to  Sloyan.52  UPI  flashes  

received  15  bells  –  “to  alert  editors  around  the  globe  that  UPI  was  sending  news  that  would  

stun  everyone,”  Sloyan  said.53  He  said  the  flash  was  sometimes  overused:  often  when  an  ill  

statesman  or  sports  star  died,  despite  knowing  the  end  was  near.54  AP  flashes,  however,  

were  very  rare.55  Bulletins  were  considered  major  breaking  news,  and  often  contained  one  

paragraph.56  UPI  bulletins  received  five  bells.57  Urgents  also  received  five  bells  from  UPI,  

                                                                                                               50  Kielbowicz,  Richard  B.  "Telegraph."  Encyclopedia  of  American  Journalism.  Ed.  Stephen  L.  Vaughn.  New  York:  Routledge,  2008.  523-­‐26.  Print.  51  Sloyan,  Patrick  J.  "Total  Domination."  American  Journalism  Review  May  (1998):  n.  pag.www.ajr.org.  American  Journalism  Review.  Web.  30  Sept.  2012.  <http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=1672>.  52  Ibid.  53  Ibid.  54  Ibid.  55  "Glossary  of  Wire  Service  Terms."  Breaking  News:  How  the  Associated  Press  Has  Covered  War,  Peace,  and  Everything  Else.  New  York:  Princeton  Architectural,  2007.  20-­‐21.  Print.  56  Ibid.  57  Sloyan,  Patrick  J.  "Total  Domination."  American  Journalism  Review  May  (1998):  n.  pag.www.ajr.org.  American  Journalism  Review.  Web.  30  Sept.  2012.  <http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=1672>.  

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and  were  the  top  few  paragraphs  of  the  story.58  For  the  AP,  urgents  were  often  used  to  

supplement  bulletins.59    

  For  example,  when  Neil  Armstrong  landed  on  the  moon,  AP  used  the  flash,  bulletin,  

and  urgent  like  this:  

FLASH  SPACE  CENTER  ASTRONAUTS  LAND  ON  MOON.    BULLETIN  SPACE  CENTER,  Houston  (AP)  –  Man  landed  on  the  moon  at  4:18  p.m.,  EDT,  Sunday,  July  20,  1969.    BULLETIN  SPACE  CENTER,  Houston  Apollo:  Two  men,  Neil  A.  Armstrong  and  Edwin  E.  Aldrin  Jr.,  240,000  miles  away  from  their  home  planet  called  Earth  and  their  nation,  the  United  States  of  America,  came  to  a  dusty  landing  on  the  moon’s  surface,  the  first  men  to  touch  its  alien  soil.  “Tranquility  Base  here,”  said  Aldrin,  an  Air  Force  colonel.  “Eagle  has  landed.”    URGENT  SPACE  CENTER,  Houston  Apollo  From  some  60-­‐odd  miles  above  the  moon  Air  Force  Lt.  Col.  Michael  Collins  in  the  command  ship  Columbia  chimed  in  with  “fantastic.”  The  unofficial  time  of  the  Eagle’s  landfall  on  the  moon’s  Sea  of  Tranquility  was  102  hours,  45  minutes  and  42  seconds  after  blastoff  last  Wednesday,  July  16,  from  Cape  Kennedy,  Fla.60    

Satellites    

  The  invention  of  satellites  changed  how  quickly  international  news  could  break,  and  

allowed  more  news  to  move  around  the  world  more  cheaply,  according  to  an  article  by  

Hugh  R.61  Satellites  made  it  possible  for  viewers  to  see  news  as  it  happened  through  their  

                                                                                                               58  Sloyan,  Patrick  J.  "Total  Domination."  American  Journalism  Review  May  (1998):  n.  pag.www.ajr.org.  American  Journalism  Review.  Web.  30  Sept.  2012.  <http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=1672>.  59  "Glossary  of  Wire  Service  Terms."  Breaking  News:  How  the  Associated  Press  Has  Covered  War,  Peace,  and  Everything  Else.  New  York:  Princeton  Architectural,  2007.  20-­‐21.  Print.  60  Benedict,  Howard.  "Like  a  Monster  Bird."  Breaking  News:  How  the  Associated  Press  Has  Covered  War,  Peace,  and  Everything  Else.  New  York:  Princeton  Architectural,  2007.125.  Print.  61  Slotten,  Hugh  R.  "Satellite  Technology."  Encyclopedia  of  American  Journalism.  Ed.  Stephen  L.  Vaughn.  New  York:  Routledge,  2008.  464-­‐66.  Print.  

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televisions,  despite  the  event  occurring  halfway  around  the  world.  The  first  major  global  

use  of  satellites  was  to  broadcast  the  Apollo  moon  landing  in  1969,  and  it  helped  spark  an  

appetite  for  immediate  news  shown  live  on  television.62  Thanks  to  portable  transmission  

antennae  and  miniature  satellite  dishes  that  linked  quickly  and  relatively  easily  to  satellites  

in  space,  news  channels  were  able  to  report  live  from  nearly  any  scene.63  This  technology  

further  enabled  reporters  to  bring  war  fronts  home,  broadcasting  from  all  over  the  world.  

During  the  1990-­‐1991  Gulf  War,  broadcasts  from  Iraq,  Israel,  and  Saudi  Arabia  “created  a  

sense  of  immediacy  for  U.S.  audiences,”  Slotten  wrote,  resulting  in  more  than  one  hundred  

million  viewers  the  first  night  of  the  war.64  

Case  Study:  The  Assassination  of  John  F.  Kennedy  

  Most  of  these  technologies  came  together  on  Nov.  22,  1963,  to  aid  reporters  in  

covering  the  biggest  breaking  news  event  of  their  generation:  the  assassination  of  

President  John  F.  Kennedy.  

The  motorcade  in  Dallas  was  supposed  to  be  a  typical  presidential  appearance,  with  

relatively  little  fanfare  or  danger.  But  that  all  changed  at  12:30  Central  Standard  Time,  

when  the  bullets  from  Lee  Harvey  Oswald’s  gun  pierced  the  president’s  head.  In  the  

journalism  industry,  several  careers  were  defined  by  the  coverage  of  this  massive  breaking  

news  event,  for  better  and  for  worse.  Reporters  covered  the  assassination  on  all  levels,  

using  several  different  technologies  to  get  the  word  out,  and  it  was  this  combination  that  

truly  permeated  the  American  public,  who  sat  transfixed  in  front  of  their  TVs  and  

newspapers  for  days.  

                                                                                                               62  Slotten,  Hugh  R.  "Satellite  Technology."  Encyclopedia  of  American  Journalism.  Ed.  Stephen  L.  Vaughn.  New  York:  Routledge,  2008.  464-­‐66.  Print.  63  Ibid.  64  Ibid.  

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  Almost  immediately  after  the  shots  were  fired,  UPI  reporter  Merriman  “Smitty”  

Smith  called  UPI’s  Dallas  office  from  his  front  seat  in  the  wire  car  –  having  grabbed  it  from  

Associated  Press  reporter  Jack  Bell  earlier  in  the  day.65    Smith  filed  that  three  shots  had  

been  fired  at  the  motorcade  from  the  car’s  radio-­‐telephone,  and  UPI  immediately  put  the  

bulletin  onto  the  A-­‐wire.66  Smith  kept  asking  the  Dallas  bureau  to  repeat  his  feed,  while  Bell  

in  the  backseat  grew  more  and  more  upset  –  the  AP  had  already  been  scooped  and  it  was  

only  getting  worse.67  A  fistfight  broke  out  over  the  seats  of  the  car,  as  Bell  tried  to  wrestle  

the  phone  away  to  file  his  own  copy.68  When  the  car  stopped  at  the  hospital,  Smith  ran  out  

while  Bell  tried  to  contact  the  AP  Dallas  bureau,  only  getting  out  “This  is  Jack  Bell”  before  

the  connection  failed.69    

  Smith  filed  a  second  report  after  hearing  from  a  Secret  Service  agent  that  Kennedy  

was  dead,  the  one  that  would  help  him  later  win  the  Pulitzer  Prize:  “FLASH  FLASH  Kennedy  

seriously  wounded  perhaps  seriously  perhaps  fatally  be  assassins  bullet.”70  He  continued  to  

file  from  the  hospital,  adding  on  to  his  original  copy  so  UPI  was  able  to  churn  out  a  500-­‐

word  dispatch  before  Bell  could  file  anything  substantial:  “The  wire  service  war  of  seconds  

had  grown  to  minutes,  and  AP  was  falling  farther  and  farther  behind,”  former  Baltimore  

Sun  reporter  William  Manchester  wrote  in  his  book,  “The  Death  of  a  President,”  according  

to  Sloyan’s  “Total  Domination”  story.71  

                                                                                                               65  Sloyan,  Patrick  J.  "Total  Domination."  American  Journalism  Review  May  (1998):  n.  pag.www.ajr.org.  American  Journalism  Review.  Web.  30  Sept.  2012.  <http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=1672>.  66  Ibid.  67  Ibid.  68  Ibid.  69  Ibid.  70  Ibid.  71  Ibid.  

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  Away  from  the  hospital,  other  reporters  began  working  to  publish  the  breaking  

news.  Don  Gardiner  broke  into  ABC  Radio  programming  at  12:36  p.m.  CST,  the  first  

broadcast  to  a  national  audience,  according  to  Ralph  B.  Levering,  in  his  article  

“Assassination  of  John  F.  Kennedy.”72  Four  minutes  later,  Walter  Cronkite  used  a  radio  

booth  to  cut  into  the  CBS  soap  opera  As  the  World  Turns,  delivering  the  news  only  by  voice  

as  no  cameras  were  set  up.73  NBC’s  announcement  was  similar,  with  Don  Pardo  at  12:45  

CST  in  a  voiceover,  as  well.74  But  less  than  a  half  hour  later,  all  three  networks  had  their  

anchors  on  camera.75  

  CBS  reported  Kennedy’s  death  first,  though  by  accident:  Dan  Rather  believed  he  was  

speaking  to  another  reporter  when  he  said  the  president  was  dead,  but  instead  he  was  

talking  to  a  radio  producer  who  put  it  out  over  the  radio  waves.  Cronkite  first  broadcasted  

it  on  TV  at  1:16  p.m.  CST,  but  calling  the  report  unconfirmed.  But  at  1:37  p.m.,  he  

announced  that  the  news  had  been  verified.  He  wrote  in  his  autobiography,  A  Reporter’s  

Life,  that  it  was  difficult  to  actually  say  the  words:  

“’From  Dallas,  Texas,  the  flash  –  apparently  official.  President  Kennedy  died  at  1  p.m.  Central  Standard  Time  –  a  half  hour  ago  [pause]  …’  The  words  stuck  in  my  throat.  A  sob  wanted  to  replace  them.  A  gulp  or  two  quashed  the  sob,  which  metamorphosed  into  tears  forming  in  the  corners  of  my  eyes.  I  found  back  the  emotion  and  regained  my  professionalism,  but  it  was  touch  and  go  there  for  a  few  seconds  before  I  could  continue  …”76    

 

                                                                                                               72  Cressman,  Dale.  "Assassination  of  John  F.  Kennedy."  Encyclopedia  of  American  Journalism.  Ed.  Stephen  L.  Vaughn.  New  York:  Routledge,  2008.  541-­‐42.  Print.  73  Ibid.  74  Ibid.  75  Ibid.  76  Cronkite,  Walter.  "Chapter  14."  A  Reporter's  Life.  New  York:  A.A.  Knopf,  1996.  304-­‐08.  Print.  

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On  Sunday,  TV  stations  broke  into  their  tributes  to  bring  more  breaking  news:  Oswald  had  

been  shot  by  night  club  owner  Jack  Ruby.  The  shooting  was  seen  live  on  NBC;  it  was  the  

first  televised  murder  in  U.S.  history.77  

The  coverage  continued  for  days,  with  reports  from  Dallas  and  Washington,  D.C.  

through  the  radio,  television,  and  newspapers’  “EXTRA”  editions.  At  the  time,  it  was  the  

most  extensive  coverage  ever  given  to  one  story,  according  to  Dale  Cressman  in  his  article  

“Assassination  of  John  F.  Kennedy.”78  NBC  was  on  the  air  the  longest  of  the  networks,  71  

hours  and  36  minutes,  and  used  the  most  technical  equipment,  recording  three  thousand  

miles  of  tape.79  The  network  lost  an  estimated  $40  million  on  its  massive  coverage.80  But  

the  public  was  watching.  About  40  percent  of  U.S.  households  were  watching  the  network  

coverage  over  the  weekend,  consuming  an  average  of  13  consecutive  hours,  Cressman  

wrote.81  An  historic  93  percent  of  households  and  41.5  million  TV  sets  watched  Kennedy’s  

funeral.82  

It  was  the  story  of  a  generation,  and  the  media  pulled  out  all  the  stops  to  cover  it.  It  

was  the  breaking  news  story  that  never  ended:  it  started  with  a  footrace  (or  a  wrestling  

match)  to  the  phone,  and  kept  going  from  there.  UPI’s  Smith  was  honored  with  the  Pulitzer  

Prize,  while  AP’s  Bell  only  saw  defeat:  “I  should  have  yanked  the  goddamn  phone  out  of  its  

socket,”  Bell  said  later.83  It  was  constant  competition,  and  despite  NBC  being  on  the  air  the  

longest,  it  was  Cronkite’s  choked  announcement  that  made  waves.  The  culmination  of  all  

                                                                                                               77  Cressman,  Dale.  "Assassination  of  John  F.  Kennedy."  Encyclopedia  of  American  Journalism.  Ed.  Stephen  L.  Vaughn.  New  York:  Routledge,  2008.  541-­‐42.  Print.  78  Ibid.  79  Ibid.  80  Ibid.  81  Ibid.  82  Ibid.  83  Sloyan,  Patrick  J.  "Total  Domination."  American  Journalism  Review  May  (1998):  n.  pag.www.ajr.org.  American  Journalism  Review.  Web.  30  Sept.  2012.  <http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=1672>.  

Dazio    18  

the  different  coverage  using  different  technologies  –  from  the  phone,  to  the  wires,  to  the  

radio,  to  the  television,  to  the  newspapers  –  resulted  in  one  of  the  most  thoroughly  

reported  stories  of  all  time.  The  technology  enabled  the  word  to  get  out  fast,  as  the  news  

was  still  breaking,  and  allowed  Americans  to  keep  updated  throughout  the  days  that  

followed.  Had  only  newspapers  been  in  use,  the  public  would  have  had  to  wait  hours  for  

the  next  edition,  even  if  it  was  an  “EXTRA.”  But  thanks  to  TV  and  radio  reporting  the  wire  

machines’  flashes,  bulletins,  and  urgents,  the  breaking  news  continued  to  break  almost  

immediately.  That  immediacy  and  extensive  coverage  defined  Kennedy’s  death  for  decades  

to  come.    

Conclusion  

  The  facts  themselves  do  not  change  as  a  result  of  faster  technology.  A  four-­‐alarm  fire  

will  always  be  a  four-­‐alarm  fire,  regardless  of  which  medium  imparts  the  information  to  a  

larger  audience.  But  the  main  currency  of  breaking  news  is  speed,  and  speed  can  change  

because  of  new  technologies  and  revolutionize  the  entire  landscape  of  breaking  news.    

  In  the  current  age  of  the  Internet  and  Twitter,  the  speed  is  almost  instantaneous.  In  

order  to  study  the  present  and  future,  which  will  be  explored  in  the  next  two  papers  in  this  

series,  it  is  important  to  look  at  the  past.  The  evolution  of  the  breaking  news  landscape  will  

continue  to  change,  and  it  can  only  be  fully  appreciated  if  the  strengths  and  weaknesses  of  

the  past  have  been  truly  understood.  

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Works  Cited    "AP'S  HISTORY."  AP-­History.  The  Associated  Press,  n.d.  Web.  01  Oct.  2012.  

<http://www.ap.org/company/history/ap-­‐history>.    Benedict,  Howard.  "Like  a  Monster  Bird."  Breaking  News:  How  the  Associated  Press  Has  

Covered  War,  Peace,  and  Everything  Else.  New  York:  Princeton  Architectural,  2007.125.  Print.  

 Cressman,  Dale.  "Assassination  of  John  F.  Kennedy."  Encyclopedia  of  American  Journalism.  

Ed.  Stephen  L.  Vaughn.  New  York:  Routledge,  2008.  541-­‐42.  Print.    Cronkite,  Walter.  "Chapter  14."  A  Reporter's  Life.  New  York:  A.A.  Knopf,  1996.  304-­‐08.  Print.    Fancher,  Michael  R.  "Extra  Edition  Driven  by  Devotion  to  News,  Not  Making  a  

Profit."Advanced.  The  Seattle  Times,  23  Sept.  2001.  Web.  01  Oct.  2012.  <http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20010923>.  

 "Glossary  of  Wire  Service  Terms."  Breaking  News:  How  the  Associated  Press  Has  Covered  

War,  Peace,  and  Everything  Else.  New  York:  Princeton  Architectural,  2007.  20-­‐21.  Print.  

 Kelly,  John.  "Answer  Man:  Pre-­‐Internet,  Newspapers  Had  'Extras'"  Washington  Post.  The  

Washington  Post,  07  May  2006.  Web.  15  Sept.  2012.  <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-­‐dyn/content/article/2006/05/06/AR2006050601151.html>.  

 Kerr,  Jessie-­‐Lynne.  "Homing  Pigeon  Helped  Get  Film  of  President  Reagan  Honoring  USS  

Stark  Soldiers  Back  to  Newsroom."  Jacksonville.com.  The  Florida  Times-­‐Union,  16  May  2010.  Web.  15  Sept.  2012.  <http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-­‐05-­‐16/story/look-­‐back-­‐birds-­‐helped-­‐get-­‐film-­‐back-­‐newsroom>.  

 Kielbowicz,  Richard  B.  "Telegraph."  Encyclopedia  of  American  Journalism.  Ed.  Stephen  L.  

Vaughn.  New  York:  Routledge,  2008.  523-­‐26.  Print.    Lebow,  Irwin.  Information  Highways  and  Byways:  From  the  Telegraph  to  the  21st  Century.  

New  York:  IEEE,  1995.  Print.    Mears,  Walter  R.  "A  Brief  History  of  AP."  Breaking  News:  How  the  Associated  Press  Has  

Covered  War,  Peace,  and  Everything  Else.  New  York:  Princeton  Architectural,  2007.  403-­‐13.  Print.  

 Pyle,  Richard.  "A  Circuit  to  Anywhere."  Breaking  News:  How  the  Associated  Press  Has  

Covered  War,  Peace,  and  Everything  Else.  New  York:  Princeton  Architectural,  2007.  25-­‐52.  Print.  

 

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Scanlan,  Chip.  "Birth  of  the  Inverted  Pyramid:  A  Child  of  Technology,  Commerce  and  History."  www.poynter.org.  Poynter,  16  Feb.  2011.  Web.  3  Oct.  2012.  <http://www.poynter.org/how-­‐tos/newsgathering-­‐storytelling/chip-­‐on-­‐your-­‐shoulder/12755/birth-­‐of-­‐the-­‐inverted-­‐pyramid-­‐a-­‐child-­‐of-­‐technology-­‐commerce-­‐and-­‐history/>.  

 Slotten,  Hugh  R.  "Satellite  Technology."  Encyclopedia  of  American  Journalism.  Ed.  Stephen  L.  

Vaughn.  New  York:  Routledge,  2008.  464-­‐66.  Print.    Sloyan,  Patrick  J.  "Total  Domination."  American  Journalism  Review  May  (1998):  n.  

pag.www.ajr.org.  American  Journalism  Review.  Web.  30  Sept.  2012.  <http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=1672>.  

                 

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The  Landscape  of  Breaking  News  

Senior  Honors  Capstone  

Stefanie  Dazio  

Faculty  Adviser:  Professor  Wendell  Cochran  

 

“The  Present”  

Part  2  of  3  

Dazio    22  

Introduction  

  Breaking  news  is  the  bread  and  butter  of  most  media  organizations.  Coverage  of  

grisly  murders,  raging  fires,  and  contentious  elections  has  long  been  a  staple  of  the  press,  

and  will  likely  continue  to  be.  But  as  technology  evolves,  news  organizations  must  keep  up  

with  the  changing  landscape  of  breaking  news,  and  cover  these  events  in  both  the  print  and  

digital  spheres.  With  Twitter,  Facebook,  and  other  social  media,  the  breaking  news  cycle  is  

faster  than  ever  before  –  almost  instantaneous  –  and  the  pressure  and  competition  

betweens  news  outlets  is  fiercer  now  than  during  any  other  time  in  history.  

This  paper,  the  second  in  a  three-­‐part  series,  will  discuss  the  “present”  of  the  

evolution  of  the  breaking  news  landscape,  focusing  largely  on  how  newsrooms  have  

tailored  their  work  to  the  changing  landscape  of  breaking  news.  This  analysis  will  delve  

into  how  news  organizations  have  adapted  to  the  evolution  of  breaking  news,  the  problems  

with  getting  information  first  versus  getting  it  right,  the  issues  newsrooms  face  in  juggling  

online  and  print  operations,  social  media’s  effects  on  breaking  news,  and  recent  changes  to  

the  Pulitzer  Prize’s  “Breaking  News  Reporting”  category.  In  addition,  this  paper  will  use  

NBC’s  London  2012  Olympics  coverage  as  a  case  study  of  how  the  network  attempted  to  

thwart  breaking  news  using  a  tape  delay.  The  goal  of  this  paper  is  to  ultimately  show  what  

newsrooms  are  currently  doing  to  survive  and  thrive  in  the  digital  age  of  the  breaking  news  

landscape.  

The  first  paper  in  this  series  delved  into  the  “past”  of  the  landscape  of  breaking  

news,  and  the  third  and  final  paper  will  look  at  the  “future.”  

 

 

Dazio    23  

Adapting  to  the  evolution  

  Print  readership  is  down.  Broadcast  viewership  is  steady.  But  online  news  

consumption  has  increased,  according  to  the  Pew  Research  Center,  with  a  growing  number  

of  people  getting  their  news  from  mobile  devices  and  an  increased  use  of  social  networks.84  

About  17%  of  Americans  say  they  got  news  yesterday  on  a  mobile  device,  with  78%  getting  

the  news  on  their  cellphones.85  In  2012,  19%  of  the  public  said  they  saw  news  or  news  

headlines  on  social  networking  sites  yesterday,  up  from  9%  in  2010.86  

  But  despite  this,  news  organizations  –  particularly  newspapers  –  have  been  very  

slow  to  evolve  and  innovate,  said  American  Journalism  Review’s  Rachel  Smolkin  in  2006.87    

Six  years  later,  the  press  is  still  struggling  to  keep  up  with  changing  technology  and  its  

effect  on  breaking  news.  The  authors  of  “Breaking  News:  Mastering  the  art  of  disruptive  

innovation  in  journalism”  even  went  as  far  as  including  this  “cautionary  note”  in  their  2012  

report:  “Due  to  the  rapidly  changing  media  landscape,  some  of  the  examples  provided  in  

presenting  these  frameworks  may  no  longer  be  relevant.”88  But  the  main  problem  with  the  

media  is  that  traditional  organizations  have  not  yet  fully  embraced  technology  or  invested  

in  the  new  skills  required  to  compete,  and  win,  in  the  digital  landscape,  said  Larry  Allen  of  

the  Real  Media  Group.89  The  few  who  have  come  out  ahead  have  either  completely  shed  

                                                                                                               84  "In  Changing  News  Landscape,  Even  Television  Is  Vulnerable."  Pew  Research  Center  for  the  People  and  the  Press.  Pew  Research  Center  for  the  People  and  the  Press,  27  Sept.  2012.  Web.  02  Nov.  2012.  <http://www.people-­‐press.org/2012/09/27/in-­‐changing-­‐news-­‐landscape-­‐even-­‐television-­‐is-­‐vulnerable/>.  85  Ibid.  86  Ibid.  87  Smolkin,  Rachel.  "Adapt  or  Die."  American  Journalism  Review.  American  Journalism  Review,  June-­‐July  2006.  Web.  02  Nov.  2012.  <http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=4111>.  88  Christensen,  Clayton  M.,  David  Skok,  and  James  Allworth.  "Breaking  News:  Mastering  the  Art  of  Disruptive  Innovation  in  Journalism."Http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/.  Nieman  Reports,  2012.  Web.  02  Dec.  2012.  <http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/article/102798/Breaking-­‐News.aspx>.  89  Allen,  Larry.  "These  Two  Media  Companies  Realized  They  Had  To  Evolve,  Or  They  Would  Die  Out."  Business  Insider.  Business  Insider,  11  July  2012.  Web.  02  Nov.  2012.  <http://www.businessinsider.com/evolve-­‐or-­‐die-­‐2012-­‐7>.  

Dazio    24  

their  analog  product  or  expanded  it  with  digital  counterparts,  like  the  New  York  Times,  

Allen  said.90  

  Multiplatform  journalism  has  changed  the  name  of  the  game,  one  of  Smolkin’s  

sources  said,  arguing  that  eradicates  the  one  daily  deadline  and  put  journalists  back  in  the  

business  of  breaking  news  around  the  clock.91  There  is  definitely  a  challenge  in  a  Web-­‐

centric  world  for  journalists,  Smolkin  said,  when  there  isn’t  time  to  “make  that  extra  call  to  

the  mayor,  or  the  police  chief,  or  the  local  gadfly  –  time-­‐consuming  reporting  that  adds  

nuance  to  stories  and  sometimes  changes  their  direction  entirely.”92  But  that  isn’t  a  bad  

thing,  said  David  Carr  of  the  New  York  Times.  Carr  believes  that  change  is  inevitable,  and  

journalism  will  weather  the  storm.93  “Good  information,  quickly  and  memorably  rendered,  

never  goes  out  of  style,”  Carr  said.94  

‘Getting  it  first’  versus  ‘getting  it  right’  

In  1997,  then-­‐Nightline  anchor  Ted  Koppel  did  his  first  interview  on  the  subject  of  

the  Internet  with  the  American  Journalism  Review.95  Although  his  words  are  more  than  a  

decade  and  a  half  old,  his  advice  continues  to  ring  true  in  the  21st  century:  

"Reporting  is  not  really  about,  'Let's  see  who  can  get  the  first  information  to  the  public  as  quickly  as  possible.  It's  about,  'Let's  see  who  can  get  the  information  to  the  public  –  as  soon  as  we  have  had  a  chance  to  make  sure  the  information  is  accurate,  to  weigh  it  against  what  we  know,  to  put  it  in  some  sort  of  context.'  Only  when  you're  satisfied  as  a  professional  journalist  that  you've  got  the  story  and  the  facts  

                                                                                                               90  Ibid.  91  Smolkin,  Rachel.  "Adapt  or  Die."  American  Journalism  Review.  American  Journalism  Review,  June-­‐July  2006.  Web.  02  Nov.  2012.  <http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=4111>.  92  Ibid.  93  McKinney,  Kelsey.  "Changing  Media  Landscape  Won't  Stop  the  News:  NYT's  David  Carr  on  the  Future  of  Journalism  |  Knight  Center  for  Journalism  in  the  Americas."Knight  Center  for  Journalism  in  the  Americas.  Knight  Center  for  Journalism  in  the  Americas,  29  Oct.  2012.  Web.  02  Nov.  2012.  <http://knightcenter.utexas.edu/blog/00-­‐11899-­‐changing-­‐media-­‐landscape-­‐wont-­‐stop-­‐news-­‐nyts-­‐david-­‐carr-­‐future-­‐journalism>.  94  Ibid.  95  Lasica,  J.D.  "Get  It  Fast,  But  Get  It  Right."  American  Journalism  Review.  American  Journalism  Review,  Oct.  1997.  Web.  02  Nov.  2012.  <http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=1381>.  

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have  been  verified,  only  then  can  you  go  with  it.  If  we  are  moving  into  an  era  in  which  reporters  are  pressured  to  get  it  online  before  we  have  a  chance  to  check  and  edit  the  material  –  if  speed  is  the  main  criterion  of  putting  something  online  –  then  I  think  that's  dangerous.  Ultimately,  a  journalist  has  a  responsibility  to  separate  truth  from  rumor."96  

Koppel  foresaw  the  very  battle  the  media  has  created  for  itself,  a  battle  that  is  still  waging  

today.  At  a  time  where  competition  is  cutthroat  and  the  rivalry  over  clicks,  pageviews,  and  

readers  is  seemingly  at  its  peak,  many  journalists  wonder  if  scoops  are  becoming  more  

treasured  than  accuracy.    

  Steve  Buttry,  the  digital  transformation  editor  at  Digital  First  Media,  blogged  

extensively  about  what  he  calls  the  “false  choice  ”  and  “excuse”  of  choosing  between  

‘getting  it  first’  and  ‘getting  it  right.’97  “Accuracy  is  one  of  our  highest  values  as  journalists,”  

he  wrote,  “and  you  don’t  sacrifice  accuracy  for  the  sake  of  competition.”98  The  ‘getting  it  

first’  versus  ‘getting  it  right’  debate  seems  to  be  raised  most  often  by  those  who  have  been  

scooped,  as  an  excuse  for  their  late  work,  Buttry  said.99  Although  around-­‐the-­‐clock  

deadlines  are  ‘new’  for  veteran  print  reporters,  accuracy  and  verification  isn’t  –  and  it’s  

more  important  than  ever  to  confirm  information  before  publishing,  Buttry  said.100  “You  

always  want  to  be  right.  And  you  always  want  to  be  first.  If  you  aren’t  managing  both,  you  

need  to  work  harder,”  he  wrote.101  

  But  on  Election  Night,  all  bets  are  off.  After  2000,  media  organizations  are  hesitant  

to  be  the  first  ones  to  definitively  call  states.  Before  the  2012  presidential  election,  Brian  

                                                                                                               96  Ibid.  97  Buttry,  Steve.  "A  False  Choice  —  and  an  Excuse  —  for  Journalists:  Better  to  Be  First  or  Right?"  The  Buttry  Diary.  Steve  Buttry,  29  July  2011.  Web.  02  Nov.  2012.  <http://stevebuttry.wordpress.com/2011/07/29/a-­‐false-­‐choice-­‐and-­‐an-­‐excuse-­‐for-­‐journalists-­‐better-­‐to-­‐be-­‐first-­‐or-­‐right/>.  98  Ibid.  99  Ibid.  100  Ibid.  101  Ibid.  

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Stelter  of  the  New  York  Times  wrote  of  “a  media  vow  of  Election  Night  restraint  despite  

social  media  clamor,”  reporting  that  all  the  news  executives  interviewed  said  they  would  be  

comfortable  with  making  projections  after  their  competitors.102  Twelve  years  later,  the  

media  is  still  trying  to  recover  from  the  Gore/Bush  fiasco,  which  was  happened  because  

“television  put  too  high  a  premium  on  timeliness  and  competition,  to  the  detriment  of  

accurate  and  responsible  reporting  of  Election  Night  returns,”  according  to  a  CNN  report.103  

In  the  2012  election,  executives  said  a  winner  probably  wouldn’t  be  projected  before  11  

p.m.104  NBC  News  called  it  a  re-­‐election  for  Barack  Obama  at  11:12  p.m.,  after  projecting  a  

win  in  swing  state  Ohio.105  

  But  perhaps  the  biggest  gaffe  this  year  in  accuracy  versus  an  exclusive  fell  to  Fox  

News  and  CNN,  when  both  incorrectly  reported  that  the  Supreme  Court  had  overturned  the  

Affordable  Care  Act  in  June.  Interestingly,  as  SCOTUSblog’s  director  publisher  Tom  

Goldstein  noted,  the  Court’s  verdict  was  treated  as  breaking  news  –  even  though  the  

opinion’s  released  had  been  schedule.106  The  mistakes  made  by  Fox  and  CNN  were  called  

the  Twitter  generation’s  “Dewey  Defeats  Truman”  moment,  and  compounded  by  TV  

reports,  tweets,  Facebook  statues,  and  website  banners.  The  stations’  reporters  did  not  

read  through  the  opinion  far  enough  to  see  that  individual  mandate  was  upheld  as  a  tax,                                                                                                                  102  Stelter,  Brian.  "Facing  an  Election  Night  Clamor."  The  New  York  Times.  The  New  York  Times,  05  Nov.  2012.  Web.  15  Nov.  2012.  <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/05/business/media/a-­‐media-­‐vow-­‐of-­‐election-­‐night-­‐restraint-­‐despite-­‐social-­‐media-­‐clamor.html?smid=tw-­‐share>.  103  Konner,  Joan,  James  Risser,  and  Ben  Wattenberg.  "Television's  Performance  on  Election  Night  2000:  A  Report  for  CNN."  Cnn.com.  CNN,  29  Jan.  2001.  Web.  02  Nov.  2012.  <http://archives.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/stories/02/02/cnn.report/cnn.pdf>.  104  Stelter,  Brian.  "Facing  an  Election  Night  Clamor."  The  New  York  Times.  The  New  York  Times,  05  Nov.  2012.  Web.  15  Nov.  2012.  <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/05/business/media/a-­‐media-­‐vow-­‐of-­‐election-­‐night-­‐restraint-­‐despite-­‐social-­‐media-­‐clamor.html?smid=tw-­‐share>.  105  Mirkinson,  Jack.  "NBC  News  First  To  Call  Obama's  Re-­‐Election."  The  Huffington  Post.  TheHuffingtonPost.com,  06  Nov.  2012.  Web.  12  Nov.  2012.  <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/06/nbc-­‐news-­‐obama-­‐reelection_n_2085860.html>.  106  Goldstein,  Tom.  "We’re  Getting  Wildly  Differing  Assessments."  SCOTUSblog.  SCOTUSblog,  7  July  2012.  Web.  02  Nov.  2012.  <http://www.scotusblog.com/2012/07/were-­‐getting-­‐wildly-­‐differing-­‐assessments/>.  

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rather  than  under  the  Commerce  Clause,  before  breaking  the  news  –  and  confusing  the  

world,  including  the  White  House,  for  a  bit.    

Bloomberg  was  the  first  media  organization  to  accurately  break  the  news  that  the  

Affordable  Care  Act  had  been  upheld,  but  it  was  a  few  minutes  before  CNN  and  Fox  had  

corrected  their  initial  reports.107  CNN  later  apologized  for  its  inaccurate  reporting,  saying  it  

“regrets  that  it  didn’t  wait  to  report  out  the  full  and  complete  opinion  regarding  the  

mandate.  We  made  a  correction  within  a  few  minutes  and  apologize  for  the  error.”108  Fox,  

however,  did  not.  “Our  job  is  to  share  the  news  as  we  learn  it,”  Michael  Clemente,  executive  

vice  president  of  news-­‐editorial  at  Fox  told  the  Washington  Post.  “As  we  were  hearing  it,  

and  as  we  were  reading  it,  we  let  our  viewers  know  about  it.  You  don’t  have  to  wait  until  

the  conclusion  of  the  Yankees  game  to  give  the  score.”109  

In  the  aftermath,  many  reporters  and  editors  stopped  to  reevaluate  ‘getting  it  first’  

versus  ‘getting  it  right.’  “In  a  news  environment  that  is  hyper-­‐competitive  and  highly  

interconnected,  inaccurate  reports  travel  just  as  fast  as  solid  ones,”  wrote  Washington  

Post’s  Paul  Farhi  in  his  story  about  the  debacle.110  And  what’s  lost  in  the  shuffle  is  

credibility,  Michael  Norman,  a  journalism  professor  at  New  York  University,  told  Farhi.111  

So  to  avoid  that,  SCOTUSblog’s  Goldstein  told  the  Associated  Press  before  the  ruling  came  

                                                                                                               107  Ibid.  108  Farhi,  Paul.  "Early  Reports  on  Health-­‐care  Decision  from  CNN,  Fox  Overturned  One  Mandate:  Accuracy."  Washington  Post.  The  Washington  Post,  29  June  2012.  Web.  02  Nov.  2012.  <http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/cnn-­‐fox-­‐botch-­‐supreme-­‐court-­‐health-­‐care-­‐decision-­‐in-­‐latest-­‐media-­‐misstep/2012/06/28/gJQA7tU19V_story.html>.  109  Ibid.  110  Ibid.  111  Ibid.  

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down,  “We’re  not  racing  you.”112  He  added:  “No  one  will  remember  if  you  move  this  story  

first  or  we  do,”  but  the  “only  thing  anyone  will  ever  remember  is  it  we  f***  it  up.”113  

Online  versus  print  

  The  print  journalism  industry  is  taking  a  major  hit  in  the  21st  century  because  of  the  

Internet.  With  newspaper  circulation  declining,  more  and  outlets  are  going  online-­‐only,  and  

the  ones  still  with  a  print  product  are  desperately  trying  to  save  it.  In  the  latter’s  case,  many  

newsrooms  are  struggling  with  covering  breaking  news  in  both  print  and  online.    

  But  to  keep  information  just  for  print  is  both  bad  for  readers  and  the  newspaper,  

said  Mandy  Jenkins,  the  interactives  editor  for  Digital  First  Media.114  Breaking  news  must  

be  broken  in  the  fastest  way  possible,  Jenkins  said  in  an  interview.  “If  you’re  in  the  role  of  

providing  your  readers  with  the  service  of  knowing  what’s  happening  in  their  community,  

you  should  want  them  to  know  as  soon  as  possible,”  she  said.115  Further,  it’s  important  to  

treat  it  as  an  evolving  story,  rather  than  a  finished  product  after  the  paper  goes  to  bed,  she  

added:  “They  need  to  destroy  the  concept  of  the  ‘completed  story.’  They  need  to  put  people  

in  place  who  can  report  and  edit  and  update  all  day  (and  night,  if  possible)  to  keep  the  news  

up-­‐to-­‐date.”116  Brent  Johnson,  an  online  news  producer  for  The  Star-­Ledger,  believes  in  this  

day  and  age,  almost  everything  is  breaking  news.117  When  Johnson  is  readying  the  print  

stories  for  online,  he  rarely  waits  until  the  morning  to  post  them  to  the  website,  he  said  in  a  

                                                                                                               112  Goldstein,  Tom.  "We’re  Getting  Wildly  Differing  Assessments."  SCOTUSblog.  SCOTUSblog,  7  July  2012.  Web.  02  Nov.  2012.  <http://www.scotusblog.com/2012/07/were-­‐getting-­‐wildly-­‐differing-­‐assessments/>.  113  Ibid.  114  Jenkins,  Mandy.  "Social  Media's  Effect  on  Breaking  News."  Online  interview.  5  Dec.  2012.  115  Ibid.  116  Ibid.  117  Johnson,  Brent.  "Using  Social  Media  in  Breaking  News  as  an  Online  News  Producer."  Telephone  interview.  4  Dec.  2012.  

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phone  interview.  “Otherwise,  a  few  hours  makes  the  difference  whether  your  story  is  a  

dinosaur  or  whether  people  want  to  read  it  right  away.”118    

  But  San  Gabriel  Valley  Tribune’s  Warren  Swil  argues  that  print  and  online  products  

should  not  compete  –  instead,  they  must  enhance  and  complement  each  other.119  “Print  can  

and  must  offer  more  rigorous  stories  that  analyze  and  explain  the  news.  Electronic  editions  

can  and  must  break  news  fast  and  expand  content  in  ways  not  possible  in  print  –  allowing  

comments  on  stories,  reader  polls  and  giving  photographers’  work  more  room.”120  Jenkins  

agrees.  She  believes  it  should  be  digital  first,  but  print  can  offer  a  more  comprehensive,  

explanatory,  second-­‐day  story  that  is  more  than  just  a  collection  of  tweets  mashed  together  

in  a  narrative.121  This  enables  the  print  product  to  have  a  purpose,  and  still  serves  readers  

as  the  story  continues  to  grow.  

Social  media  

  Without  a  doubt,  social  media  has  changed  the  world.  It’s  obliterated  barriers  of  

communication  once  thought  to  be  impenetrable.  Expensive  long-­‐distance  phone  calls  are  

now  a  thing  of  the  past:  a  Skype  call  or  Facebook  message  doesn’t  cost  either  party  a  dime.  

Social  media’s  capability  to  chronicle  events  unfolding  in  real-­‐time  has  had  a  huge  effect  on  

media,  particularly  on  the  breaking  news  landscape.  It  has  taken  competition  to  a  new  level  

with  its  instant  publishing  capabilities.  It  has  largely  cut  out  the  middleman  in  news  

organizations,  with  reporters  filing  tweets  from  the  field  to  be  later  compiled  into  a  more  

complete  story.  It  has  forced  news  organizations  of  all  shapes  and  sizes  to  be  attached  to  a  

                                                                                                               118  Ibid.  119  Swil,  Warren.  "Journalism  Undergoing  Great  Paradigm  Shift."  San  Gabriel  Valley  Tribune  [West  Covina]  27  Aug.  2007:  n.  pag.  CBCA  Complete.  Web.  4  Nov.  2012.  120  Ibid.  121  Jenkins,  Mandy.  "Social  Media's  Effect  on  Breaking  News."  Online  interview.  5  Dec.  2012.  

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computer  monitor,  tablet  or  smartphone,  waiting  for  the  latest  news  to  drop  and  being  the  

first  to  report  it.  

  “It’s  always  this  delicate  balance  act  in  the  newsroom  of  trying  to  be  the  fastest,  

most  accurate  outlet  possible,”  said  Ethan  Klapper,  the  social  media  editor  for  Huffington  

Post’s  politics  section,  in  a  phone  interview.  “Newsrooms  have  always  been  about  speed  

and  accuracy,  but  this  kind  of  pressure  for  speed  is  unprecedented.”122  The  real  problem,  

Klapper  said,  is  handling  that  speed  and  pressure  without  damaging  credibility  by  making  

mistakes  –  like  during  the  Supreme  Court  health  care  ruling.  

  But  by  and  large,  Klapper  said  the  rapid  pace  of  social  media  is  a  good  thing.  “It  

really  speeds  up  the  news  cycle,”  he  said.123  Jared  Keller,  director  of  social  media  for  

Bloomberg,  agreed.  “How  can  we  break  this  as  fast  as  humanly  possible?”  he  asked  in  a  

phone  interview.124  But  it’s  really  about  the  audience,  he  added,  and  social  media’s  role  in  

breaking  news  for  the  readers.  “It  spreads  faster  than  ever  to  more  people  than  ever,”  he  

said.125  

Covering  breaking  news  with  social  media  

  Fox  and  CNN’s  blunders  during  the  Supreme  Court’s  health  care  ruling  are  obviously  

not  examples  of  how  to  properly  cover  breaking  news  with  social  media.  But  there  are  

countless  reporters  who  do  cover  breaking  news  well  using  social  media,  both  inside  and  

outside  the  newsroom.  

                                                                                                               122  Klapper,  Ethan.  "Social  Media's  Effect  on  Breaking  News."  Telephone  interview.  3  Dec.  2012.  123  Klapper,  Ethan.  "Social  Media's  Effect  on  Breaking  News."  Telephone  interview.  3  Dec.  2012.  124  Keller,  Jared.  "Social  Media's  Effect  on  Breaking  News."  Telephone  interview.  4  Dec.  2012.  125  Ibid.  

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  Inside  the  office,  online  news  producers  at  The  Star-­Ledger  constantly  check  social  

media  to  see  if  there’s  anything  the  publication  should  be  covering,  Johnson  said.126  When  

news  is  breaking,  he  and  the  other  producers  will  tweet  out  the  information  to  set  up  the  

coverage.    Once  the  bulletin  story  goes  up,  the  link  will  be  tweeted  and  put  on  Facebook.  

Any  major  updates,  he  said,  also  get  tweets  and  Facebook  posts.  To  increase  readership,  the  

producers  try  to  use  hashtags  and  pithy  sentences,  he  added,  for  SEO  and  engagement  

purposes.  “It's  almost  as  if  everything  now  is  to  attract  the  reader  with  giants  carrots,”  he  

said.  “That'  s  how  you  get  noticed.”127  

In  the  field,  The  Star-­Ledger’s  police  reporter  James  Queally  uses  social  media  to  find  

out  more  about  victims.128  He  culls  whatever  he  can  from  their  public  profiles,  and  often  

contacts  friends  and  family  through  Facebook  and  Twitter  to  find  out  more.  But  when  he  

started  working  in  the  industry,  Queally  said  social  media  was  not  as  crucial  to  reporting  as  

it  is  today.  “Now  it’s  almost  the  first  or  second  step  in  what  you’re  doing  when  something’s  

breaking,”  he  said  in  a  phone  interview.129  Instead  of  immediately  hitting  the  streets,  “now  

it’s  check  the  computer  first,”  he  added.130  If  it’s  an  active  situation  like  a  standoff,  Queally  

said,  he’ll  do  his  best  to  tweet  so  people  “sitting  on  pins  and  needles”  can  get  more  

information.    

  In  addition  to  his  police  beat,  Queally  recently  helped  The  Star-­Ledger  cover  

Hurricane  Sandy  by  reporting  from  Seaside  Heights,  one  of  the  hardest-­‐hit  towns  in  New  

Jersey.  Walking  around  the  beach  town  after  the  hurricane  had  passed  through,  he                                                                                                                  126  Johnson,  Brent.  "Using  Social  Media  in  Breaking  News  as  an  Online  News  Producer."  Telephone  interview.  4  Dec.  2012.  127  Ibid.  128  Queally,  James.  "Using  Social  Media  in  Breaking  News  as  a  Police  Reporter."  Telephone  interview.  4  Dec.  2012.  129  Ibid.  130  Ibid.  

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struggled  to  find  residents  to  interview.  So  he  took  to  the  Internet,  sending  out  tweets  to  

both  inform  readers  and  find  sources.  “They  wanted  to  know  what  happened,  they  wanted  

to  know  what  was  going  on  with  their  houses,”  he  said.131  Later,  as  one  of  the  first  people  to  

see  the  iconic  Seaside  Heights  roller  coaster  washed  out  to  sea,  he  stepped  up  his  Twitter  

coverage.  “I  just  started  tweeting  everything  I  saw,  photos  of  damage,”  he  said.  “Essentially  

you  got  a  narrative  of  the  devastation  of  what  was  going  on  there.”132    

Social  media  guidelines  and  policies  

  Determined  to  keep  their  credibility  and  avoid  major  mistakes,  many  news  outlets  

have  designed  social  media  policies  and  guidelines.  They  run  the  gamut  from  very  strict  to  

very  lose,  but  almost  all  strongly  discourage  reporters  from  endorsing  certain  opinions.  

Most  wire  services’  policies  include  the  basic  tenet  of  ‘don’t  scoop  the  wire.’133  This  applies  

to  reporters  attempting  to  break  the  latest  news  on  Twitter  first,  and  is  considered  a  real  

problem  for  wire  services  and  other  similar  outlets,  like  Bloomberg.  Keller  said  

Bloomberg’s  subscribers  pay  to  have  information  first,  and  no  reporter  can  break  news  on  

social  media  until  it  crosses  Bloomberg’s  “Terminal”  to  subscribers.134  “The  people  who  are  

paying  for  it  and  who  are  subsidizing  the  journalism  get  the  news  first,”  he  said.135  

  But  Jenkins  would  prefer  to  see  looser  guidelines  that  help  journalists  learn  to  use  

social  media  more  responsibly,  rather  than  prohibitive  policies  that  play  into  “old  media-­‐

style  fears.”136  Such  guidelines  would  teach  reporters  to  highlight  attribution,  fact-­‐check,  

and  use  images  properly,  among  other  things,  she  said.  Klapper  said  guidelines  and  policies                                                                                                                  131  Ibid.  132  Ibid.  133  Van  Grove,  Jennifer.  "Reuters  to  Journalists:  Don’t  Break  News  on  Twitter."  Mashable.  Mashable,  11  Mar.  2010.  Web.  4  Nov.  2012.  <http://mashable.com/2010/03/11/reuters-­‐social-­‐media-­‐policy/>.  134  Keller,  Jared.  "Social  Media's  Effect  on  Breaking  News."  Telephone  interview.  4  Dec.  2012.  135  Ibid.  136  Jenkins,  Mandy.  "Social  Media's  Effect  on  Breaking  News."  Online  interview.  5  Dec.  2012.  

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should  be  made  on  case-­‐by-­‐case  bases,  and  be  open  to  adaptation  as  the  technology  

evolves.137  “The  guidelines  are  tough  because  social  media  is  so  fluid,  things  change  so  fast,”  

he  said.  “It  really  is  hard  to  have  a  one-­‐size-­‐fits-­‐all  environment.”138  

Does  Twitter  break  news?  

  When  singer  Whitney  Houston  died  in  February  2011,  many  people  were  saying  

“Twitter  broke  the  news.”  Social  media  blog  Mashable  ran  the  headline  “Twitter  Breaks  

News  of  Whitney  Houston  Death  27  Minutes  Before  Press.”139  A  few  random  users  did  

tweet  the  news  because  they  knew  people  close  to  Houston,  but  the  information  wasn’t  

widely  known  until  nearly  a  half-­‐hour  later,  once  journalists  had  confirmed  it.140    

But  the  phrase  went  around  the  Internet,  and  bothered  American  Journalism  

Review’s  Barb  Palser.  “Unless  Twitter  employs  people  who  source  and  fact-­‐check  the  

information  that  ricochets  through  its  network,  the  answer  is  no,  Twitter  does  not  break  

news,”  she  wrote.  “Twitter  is  a  vehicle  for  breaking  news,  but  that’s  not  the  same  thing  as  

Twitter  breaking  news.”141  Further,  she  added,  “There  is  a  difference  between  saying  

something  and  reporting  it.”142  News  outlets  should  never  credit  Twitter  or  other  social  

media  in  breaking  news,  Jenkins  said,  adding  it’s  a  personal  pet  peeve  of  hers.143  But  

readers  don’t  understand  the  difference  –  and  don’t  care,  she  said.144  

 

 

                                                                                                               137  Klapper,  Ethan.  "Social  Media's  Effect  on  Breaking  News."  Telephone  interview.  3  Dec.  2012.  138  Ibid.  139  Palser,  Barb.  "The  Twitter  Death  Epidemic."  American  Journalism  Review.  American  Journalism  Review,  Feb.-­‐Mar.  2012.  Web.  4  Nov.  2012.  <http://ajr.org/Article.asp?id=5265>.  140  Ibid.  141  Ibid.  142  Ibid.  143  Jenkins,  Mandy.  "Social  Media's  Effect  on  Breaking  News."  Online  interview.  5  Dec.  2012.  144  Ibid.  

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Changes  to  the  Pulitzer  Prize’s  “Breaking  News  Reporting”  category  

  In  April  2011,  the  Pulitzer  Prize  board  declined  to  award  a  prize,  for  the  first  time  

ever,  for  the  “breaking  news  reporting”  category.145  The  category  then  recognized  “a  

distinguished  example  of  local  reporting  of  breaking  news,  with  special  emphasis  on  the  

speed  and  accuracy  of  the  initial  coverage,  using  any  available  journalistic  tool,  including  

text  reporting,  videos,  databases,  multimedia  or  interactive  presentations  or  any  

combination  of  those  formats,  in  print  or  online  or  both.”146  Later  that  year,  the  board  

changed  the  “breaking  news  reporting”  category  to  emphasize  real-­‐time  reporting,  to  take  

effect  in  2012.147  The  revision  means  reporting  must  “as  quickly  as  possible,  captures  

events  accurately  as  they  occur,  and,  as  time  passes,  illuminates,  provides  context,  and  

expands  upon  the  initial  coverage.”148  “It  would  be  disappointing  if  an  event  occurred  at  8  

a.m.,”  the  board  said  in  a  press  release.  “And  the  first  item  in  an  entry  was  drawn  from  the  

next  day’s  newspaper.”  The  board  was  looking  to  stress  real-­‐time  reporting  to  complement  

context  in  a  breaking  news  situation,  Pulitzer  Prize  administrator  Sig  Gissler  said  in  an  

email  interview.149  “In  short,  the  board  was  looking  for  a  balance  between  immediacy  and  

meaning,”  he  said.150  

  The  announcement  caused  many  in  the  media  industry  to  see  the  changes  as  a  move  

toward  a  more  Internet-­‐friendly  Prize.  “Are  we  closing  in  on  a  Pulitzer  Prize  for  tweets?”  

                                                                                                               145  Tompkins,  Al.  "Few  Entries,  No  Consensus,  No  Pulitzer  Prize  for  Breaking  News  Reporting."  Poynter.  Poynter,  18  Apr.  2011.  Web.  02  Nov.  2012.  <http://www.poynter.org/latest-­‐news/als-­‐morning-­‐meeting/128483/why-­‐no-­‐pulitzer-­‐for-­‐breaking-­‐news/>.  146  "The  2011  Pulitzer  Prize  Winners:  Breaking  News  Reporting."  The  Pulitzer  Prizes.  The  Pulitzer  Prizes,  18  Apr.  2011.  Web.  2  Nov.  2012.  <http://www.pulitzer.org/citation/2011-­‐Breaking-­‐News-­‐Reporting>.  147  Moos,  Julie.  "Pulitzer  Prizes  Change  Breaking  News  Category  to  Emphasize  ‘real-­‐time’  Reporting."  Poynter.  Poynter,  30  Nov.  2011.  Web.  2  Nov.  2012.  <http://www.poynter.org/latest-­‐news/mediawire/154546/pulitzers-­‐shift-­‐to-­‐all-­‐digital-­‐entry-­‐format/>.  148  Ibid.  149  Gissler,  Sig.  "Changes  to  the  Pulitzer  Prize  for  Breaking  News  Reporting."  E-­‐mail  interview.  2  Dec.  2012.  150  Ibid.  

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wondered  Nieman  Journalism  Lab’s  Justin  Ellis.151  But  more  importantly,  the  changes  allow  

news  organizations  to  showcase  “snapshots  of  the  active,  in-­‐the-­‐moment,  messy-­‐at-­‐times  

reporting  outlets  are  giving  their  readers,”  to  prove  that  live-­‐action  reporting  is  no  longer  

just  the  domain  of  TV  and  radio  organizations.152  Steve  Buttry,  then  the  director  of  

community  engagement  and  social  media  at  the  Journal  Register  Co.  &  Digital  First  Media,  

wondered  what  role  social  media  would  play  in  future  Prizes:  “At  least  one  Pulitzer  Prize  

(most  likely  Breaking  News  Reporting)  will  have  used  Twitter  and/or  Facebook  

significantly  in  its  coverage  and  its  entry,  and  the  social  media  use  will  be  cited  by  the  

judges  (or  their  refusal  to  cite  it  will  be  glaring).”153  

  The  judges  did  cite  social  media  use  in  the  2012  “breaking  news  reporting”  category.  

Based  on  the  entries,  Gissler  said,  it  appears  to  be  that  real-­‐time  reporting  has  increased,  

particularly  with  social  media.154  “An  entry  might  include  a  collection  of  tweets  in  the  early  

stage  of  coverage  or  some  use  of  Facebook,”  he  said.155  According  to  a  release,  the  

Tuscaloosa  News  staff  won  for  “its  enterprising  coverage  of  a  deadly  tornado,  using  social  

media  as  well  as  traditional  reporting  to  provide  real-­‐time  updates,  help  locate  missing  

people  and  produce  in-­‐depth  print  accounts  even  after  power  disruption  forced  the  paper  

to  publish  at  another  plant  50  miles  away.”156  Social  media  was  a  key  factor  in  weeding  out  

                                                                                                               151  Ellis,  Justin.  "Could  Pulitzer  Changes  Mean  an  Award  for  Live-­‐tweeting?"  Nieman  Journalism  Lab.  Nieman  Journalism  Lab,  30  Nov.  2011.  Web.  2  Nov.  2012.  <http://www.niemanlab.org/2011/11/could-­‐pulitzer-­‐changes-­‐mean-­‐an-­‐award-­‐for-­‐live-­‐tweeting/>.  152  Ibid.  153  Buttry,  Steve.  "Steve  Buttry:  From  a  Dropped  Paywall  to  a  Social  Media  Pulitzer,  Expect  a  Year  of  Transformation."  Nieman  Journalism  Lab.  Nieman  Journalism  Lab,  21  Dec.  2011.  Web.  2  Nov.  2012.  <http://www.niemanlab.org/2011/12/steve-­‐buttry-­‐from-­‐a-­‐dropped-­‐paywall-­‐to-­‐a-­‐social-­‐media-­‐pulitzer-­‐expect-­‐a-­‐year-­‐of-­‐transformation/>.  154  Gissler,  Sig.  "Changes  to  the  Pulitzer  Prize  for  Breaking  News  Reporting."  E-­‐mail  interview.  2  Dec.  2012.  155  Ibid.  156  "The  2012  Pulitzer  Prize  Winners:  Breaking  News  Reporting."  The  Pulitzer  Prizes.  The  Pulitzer  Prizes,  16  Apr.  2012.  Web.  2  Nov.  2012.  <http://www.pulitzer.org/citation/2012-­‐Breaking-­‐News-­‐Reporting>.  

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news  organizations,  said  Pulitzer  jury  member  Kathy  Best.157  “Were  the  news  

organizations  that  entered  taking  full  advantage  of  all  of  the  tools  they  had  to  report  

breaking  news  as  it  was  happening?  We  took  that  really  seriously  and  eliminated  some  of  

the  entries  because  they  waited  too  long  to  tell  readers  what  was  going  on,”  she  told  

Poynter.158  

Case  study:  NBC’s  London  2012  Olympics  coverage  

  Without  fail,  there  will  always  be  difficulties  in  broadcasting  the  Olympics.  Different  

time  zones  make  it  tricky  to  feature  high-­‐profile  events  in  prime-­‐time,  particularly  with  the  

advent  of  the  Internet.  For  the  2012  London  Olympics,  NBC  tried  to  thwart  breaking  news  

and  ignore  the  Internet  using  a  tape  delay.  Tape  delays  are  nothing  new,  of  course,  but  the  

2012  Olympics  was  the  first  one  where  social  media  was  a  major  force.  NBC’s  strategy  was  

to  live-­‐stream  events  online,  but  save  big-­‐name  ones  for  TV  broadcasts  until  prime-­‐time  –  

even  if  they  could  be  shown  live  during  normal  viewing  hours.159    The  decision  was  based  

on  advertising  revenue,  highest  during  prime-­‐time,  to  pay  off  the  Olympics  rights  fees.160  

  The  move  was  largely  decried,  particularly  across  social  media.  Twitter  exploded  

with  parody  accounts  like  @NBCDelayed,  which  tweeted  things  like:  "BREAKING:  Orville  

and  Wilbur  Wright's  machine  flies,"  "Tommie  Smith  and  John  Carlos  create  controversy  

during  medals  ceremony,  wear  black  gloves  and  raise  fists.  More  to  come"  and  "UPDATE:  

                                                                                                               157  Sonderman,  Jeff.  "How  The  Tuscaloosa  News’  Post-­‐tornado  Tweeting  Helped  Bring  Home  a  Pulitzer  Prize."  Poynter.  Poynter,  17  Apr.  2012.  Web.  2  Nov.  2012.  <http://www.poynter.org/latest-­‐news/media-­‐lab/social-­‐media/170607/how-­‐the-­‐tuscaloosa-­‐news-­‐post-­‐tornado-­‐tweeting-­‐helped-­‐bring-­‐home-­‐a-­‐pulitzer-­‐prize/>.  158  Ibid.  159  Sandomir,  Richard.  "NBC  Goes  Digital  for  Olympics,  but  Tape  Will  Still  Roll  in  Prime  Time."  The  New  York  Times.  The  New  York  Times,  28  June  2012.  Web.  03  Nov.  2012.  <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/28/sports/olympics/nbc-­‐will-­‐show-­‐every-­‐olympic-­‐event-­‐live-­‐online.html>.  160  Ibid.  

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We  will  be  retroactively  delaying  anything  we  may  have  broadcast  LIVE  by  accident.  Sorry  

folks."161  The  hashtag  #NBCFail  was  also  popular  across  social  networks,  which  criticized  

the  network  similarly:  “I’d  say  congrats  Michael  Phelps  on  19  Olympic  medias,  but  I  haven’t  

seen  it  happen  yet,  don’t  wanna  jinx  him  #NBCFail.”162  The  Orlando  Sentinel’s  George  Diaz  

tried  to  tell  NBC  that  with  about  800  million  people  on  Facebook  and  140  million  users  on  

Twitter,  “resistance  is  futile.”163  “The  Pooh-­‐Bahs  at  NBC  must  think  we  are  still  celebrating  

the  Industrial  Revolution  –  duly  noted  in  the  Opening  Ceremonies,”  Dias  wrote.  “And  aren’t  

tethered  to  a  computer  or  mobile  device  nearly  24-­‐7.”164    

  But  NBC  had  the  last  laugh.  About  217  million  people  in  the  United  States  watched  

the  2012  London  Olympics,  making  it  the  most  watched  television  event  in  history,  

according  to  research.165  “The  first  social  Olympics”  garnered  83  million  Olympics-­‐related  

comments  on  social  media  sites  –  about  4.9  million  comments  per  day  –  and  95%  of  the  

comments  took  place  during  prime-­‐time  viewing  hours.166  Seventy-­‐three  percent  of  

viewers  surveyed  said  they  stayed  up  later  to  watch  events  shown  in  prime-­‐time,  research  

showed.167  Further,  the  network  expected  to  take  a  $200  million  loss  for  broadcasting  the  

games,  a  result  of  high  production  costs  and  the  $1.2  billion  it  paid  for  the  rights  to  show  

                                                                                                               161  Diaz,  George.  "Social  Media  Striking  Gold  in  NBC's  Tape-­‐delayed  Olympics."  Orlando  Sentinel.  Orlando  Sentinel,  1  Aug.  2012.  Web.  03  Nov.  2012.  <http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-­‐08-­‐01/sports/os-­‐george-­‐diaz-­‐twitter-­‐olympics-­‐0802-­‐20120801_1_london-­‐olympics-­‐summer-­‐olympics-­‐olympic-­‐legacy>.  162  Ibid.  163  Ibid.  164  Ibid.  165  Chozick,  Amy.  "NBC  Unpacks  Trove  of  Data  From  Olympics."  The  New  York  Times.  The  New  York  Times,  26  Sept.  2012.  Web.  03  Nov.  2012.  <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/26/business/media/nbc-­‐unpacks-­‐trove-­‐of-­‐viewer-­‐data-­‐from-­‐london-­‐olympics.html?pagewanted=all>.  166  Ibid.  167  Ibid.  

Dazio    38  

the  Olympics  online  and  on  TV  in  the  United  States.168  But  instead,  it  broke  even  –  and  

expects  to  turn  profits  on  future  Olympics.169  

Conclusion  

  The  journalism  industry  is  currently  in  a  state  of  transition.  As  companies  either  

shed  or  fight  to  keep  their  print  products  in  the  digital  age,  it  is  even  more  apparent  how  

important  breaking  news  is  to  the  field.  Readers  want  news  and  they  want  it  now,  with  no  

excuses,  about  almost  every  topic.  Grisly  murders,  raging  fires,  and  contentious  elections  

must  be  reported  in  real-­‐time,  often  using  websites  and  social  media  to  keep  the  

information  flowing  as  fast  as  it  is  received.  

Media  outlets  are  still  adapting  to  the  latest  changes  to  the  breaking  news  landscape,  

and  are  trying  to  keep  pace  with  whatever  technology  comes  next.  News  organizations  

have  tried  to  learn  from  the  past  as  they  move  forward,  and  learn  from  their  mistakes.  But  

with  technology  that  publishes  at  the  click  of  a  button,  experts  wonder  what’s  in  store  for  

the  industry  in  the  future,  and  how  anything  could  move  even  faster.  

 

   

 

                                                                                                               168  Svensson,  Peter.  "NBC  to  Break  Even,  Not  Lose  Money  on  Olympics."  Yahoo!  News.  Yahoo!,  01  Aug.  2012.  Web.  03  Nov.  2012.  <http://news.yahoo.com/nbc-­‐break-­‐even-­‐not-­‐lose-­‐money-­‐olympics-­‐195204861-­‐-­‐finance.html>.  169  Shapiro,  Rebecca.  "NBC  Breaks  Even  On  London  Olympics."  The  Huffington  Post.  TheHuffingtonPost.com,  26  Oct.  2012.  Web.  03  Nov.  2012.  <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/26/nbc-­‐breaks-­‐even-­‐london-­‐olympics_n_2025466.html>.    

Dazio    39  

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Dazio    42  

Van  Grove,  Jennifer.  "Reuters  to  Journalists:  Don’t  Break  News  on  Twitter."  Mashable.  Mashable,  11  Mar.  2010.  Web.  4  Nov.  2012.  <http://mashable.com/2010/03/11/reuters-­‐social-­‐media-­‐policy/>.  

 

 

 

Dazio    43  

                               

The  Landscape  of  Breaking  News  

Senior  Honors  Capstone  

Stefanie  Dazio  

Faculty  Adviser:  Professor  Wendell  Cochran  

 

“The  Future”  

Part  3  of  3  

Dazio    44  

Introduction  

  Breaking  news  is  the  past,  present,  and  future  of  journalism.  Although  reporters  and  

editors  have  used  different  technologies  and  mediums  to  gather  and  present  breaking  news  

over  the  centuries,  the  headlines  themselves  have  basically  been  recycled  from  generation  

to  generation.  How  newsrooms  have  adapted  to  the  changing  landscape  of  breaking  news,  

however,  has  often  signaled  their  fortunes  with  respect  to  the  future.    

  This  paper,  the  third  in  a  three-­‐part  series,  will  discuss  the  “future”  of  the  evolution  

of  the  breaking  news  landscape,  focusing  on  the  importance  of  studying  this  topic  and  what  

might  happen  in  years  to  come.  This  analysis  will  delve  into  an  overview  of  the  issue,  why  

it’s  worth  studying,  how  newsrooms  can  move  forward  in  this  landscape  to  better  serve  

their  readers,  and  how  the  future  might  look  for  journalists  covering  breaking  news.  The  

goal  of  this  paper  is  to  ultimately  show  the  full  evolution  of  the  breaking  news  landscape.      

The  first  two  papers  in  this  series  delved  into  the  “past”  and  “present”  of  the  

landscape  of  breaking  news.  

Overview  of  the  series  

  The  first  paper  in  this  series  covered  the  “past”  of  the  breaking  news  landscape.  It  

focused  mostly  on  the  19th  and  20th  centuries  and  how  technology  has  affected  the  

dissemination  of  breaking  news.  Carrier  pigeons,  pony  express  routes,  boats,  “EXTRA”  

editions,  the  telegraph,  and  satellites  greatly  impacted  the  breaking  news  landscape  during  

this  time  frame,  with  the  news  breaking  faster  with  each  new  invention.  The  assassination  

of  President  John  F.  Kennedy  served  as  a  case  study  for  how  breaking  news  was  covered  

using  several  different  technologies  in  1963.    

Dazio    45  

  The  second  paper  in  this  series  covered  the  “present”  of  the  breaking  news  

landscape.  It  focused  mostly  on  how  newsrooms  have  adapted  to  the  changing  landscape  of  

breaking  news  in  the  digital  age.  Journalists  in  the  21st  century  are  currently  facing  

problems  related  to  the  Internet,  and  how  it  has  affected  reporting.  The  media  faces  

problems  between  getting  information  first  versus  getting  it  right,  juggling  online  and  print  

operations,  social  media,  and  recent  changes  to  the  Pulitzer  Prize.  NBC’s  coverage  of  the  

London  2012  Olympics  served  as  a  case  study  of  how  the  network  tried  to  turn  back  time  

by  using  a  tape  delay  for  its  broadcasts.    

  This  paper  is  very  different  from  the  other  two.  It  is  much  shorter,  and  has  far  fewer  

citations  because  there  is  simply  less  material.  There  are  no  theories  put  forth  by  

academics  in  scholarly  articles  about  the  future  of  the  breaking  news  landscape,  no  studies  

estimating  the  percentage  of  people  who  will  continue,  or  stop,  tuning  into  their  local  

nightly  news  broadcast  or  subscribing  to  their  local  newspaper.  Indeed,  it  seems  as  though  

most  academics  who  specialize  in  communications  and  journalism  are  afraid  to  look  into  

the  future,  terrified  of  what  further  turmoil  it  might  bring  an  industry  already  suffering.  

This  paper  is  based  on  thoughts  from  reporters,  editors,  and  online  producers  currently  in  

the  field,  as  they  learn  how  to  navigate  it  now  and  for  the  future.  There  are  no  definite  

answers  in  this  paper,  and  there  are  no  guarantees  of  anything  to  come.  

Why  is  this  topic  worth  studying?  

  Americans  often  complain  about  the  media.  It’s  too  left,  too  right,  too  shallow,  too  

biased.  But  the  public  doesn’t  just  play  games  on  its  laptops,  tablets,  and  smartphones:  

people  still  want  to  read  the  news.  There  is  a  demand  for  content,  and  for  breaking  news.  

People  want  to  know  what’s  happening  right  now  and  why.  And  they  want  it  fast.    

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  But  it’s  outrageous  to  continue  to  fill  that  need  and  serve  the  public  properly  

without  studying  the  landscape  of  breaking  news.  The  landscape  has  evolved  from  carrier  

pigeons  to  cable,  from  the  telegraph  to  Twitter,  from  satellites  to  websites.  It’s  very  difficult  

to  function  now  as  a  news  organization  without  knowing  what  succeeded  and  failed  for  

previous  generations  of  journalists,  and  it’s  downright  impossible  to  move  forward.    

  It’s  incredibly  important  to  study  the  breaking  news  landscape  now,  especially  

because  the  industry  is  in  such  turbulent  times.  But  regardless,  the  field  evolves  quickly,  

and  there  isn’t  much  time  to  try  and  get  ahead  on  the  next  trend,  the  latest  invention,  and  

the  most  creative  innovation.  Put  simply,  “it’s  important  because  it  will  always  be  

changing,”  said  Mandy  Jenkins,  the  interactives  editor  for  Digital  First  Media.170  In  her  eight  

years  in  the  journalism  business,  she  said  technology  has  changed  from  a  nightly  news  

dump  that  scheduled  the  next  day’s  print  stories  for  online,  to  a  social  media-­‐based  

strategy  with  stories  flooding  the  Internet  every  second.171    

  But  Brent  Johnson,  an  online  news  producer  for  The  Star-­Ledger,  believes  it’s  more  

important  to  study  the  Internet  now  than  ever  before.172  “Online  is  the  future,  there’s  no  

going  back,”  he  said.173  He  still  believes  there  will  be  a  place  for  print  publications  –  which  

he  said  give  readers  both  intellectual  and  comforting  feelings  –but  breaking  news  won’t  

really  be  a  part  of  the  paper  product.  “Breaking  news  is  becoming  more  valuable  in  our  

society,”  he  said,  and  will  likely  remain  in  a  medium  where  it  can  be  transmitted  

instantaneously.174  

                                                                                                               170  Jenkins,  Mandy.  "Social  Media's  Effect  on  Breaking  News."  Online  interview.  5  Dec.  2012.  171  Ibid.  172  Johnson,  Brent.  "Using  Social  Media  in  Breaking  News  as  an  Online  News  Producer."  Telephone  interview.  4  Dec.  2012.  173  Ibid.  174  Ibid.  

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How  can  newsrooms  move  forward  in  the  breaking  news  landscape  to  better  serve  their  readers?       The  journalists  interviewed  all  agreed  that  more  social  media  training  is  needed  for  

reporters,  editors,  and  producers  across  the  board.  As  more  and  more  people  across  the  

globe  join  these  networks,  it  has  become  imperative  that  journalists  learn  how  to  cater  and  

connect  to  this  massive  audience.  Ethan  Klapper,  social  media  editor  for  the  politics  section  

of  the  Huffington  Post,  said  no  one  should  walk  into  a  job  interview  without  social  media  

experience  and  a  Twitter  account,  regardless  of  age  and  experience.175  Bloomberg’s  social  

media  director  Jared  Keller  agreed,  adding  that  journalists  need  to  know  what  is  and  is  not  

a  real  story  on  Twitter.176  Small  stories  on  social  media  are  often  blown  out  of  proportion  

and  over-­‐exaggerated,  he  said,  often  with  celebrities’  and  politicians’  tweets.  

      Another  point  where  the  journalists  agreed  was  with  attribution:  news  on  social  

media  needs  to  be  better  sourced.  Whether  that  means  adding  a  “h/t”  (hat-­‐tip),  “via”  or  

direct  link  to  the  first  source,  the  journalists  said  current  standards  for  attribution  are  far  

too  low  –  particularly  with  images.  “I  truly  believe  journalists  are  held  to  a  higher  standard  

for  attribution  of  images,”  Klapper  said,  but  many  don’t  follow  the  same  rules  they  would  

for  a  print  product.177  

  On  a  larger  scale,  however,  Jenkins  believes  a  reorganization  of  most  newsrooms  is  

necessary  at  this  point.  In  the  digital  age,  they  need  to  emphasize  digital-­‐first  operations,  

she  said,  by  “putting  the  right  people  in  the  positions  that  most  need  social  savvy  and  

speed;  changing  their  workflow  to  make  online  the  top  priority  and  making  sure  every  

department  knows  their  role  and  expectations  for  serving  readers  on  all  their  

                                                                                                               175  Klapper,  Ethan.  "Social  Media's  Effect  on  Breaking  News."  Telephone  interview.  3  Dec.  2012.  176  Keller,  Jared.  "Social  Media's  Effect  on  Breaking  News."  Telephone  interview.  4  Dec.  2012.  177  Klapper,  Ethan.  "Social  Media's  Effect  on  Breaking  News."  Telephone  interview.  3  Dec.  2012.  

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platforms.”178  Without  planning  for  the  future,  she  said,  all  improvements  and  innovations  

made  up  until  now  would  be  futile.  “If  we  think,  ‘This  is  how  it  is  now,  I've  changed  my  

workflow  and  my  staff  and  now  we're  done’  ...  in  a  few  years  we'll  be  back  where  we  

started,”  she  said.179  

Looking  to  the  future         Technology  has  largely  driven  the  evolution  of  the  breaking  news  landscape.  The  

latest  inventions  have  allowed  journalists  to  get  the  freshest  news  out  to  the  largest  

audience  time  and  time  again.  So  it  follows  logically  that  what  will  come  next,  whether  it’s  

in  50,  100  or  1,000  years,  will  also  be  determined  by  further  advances  in  science.  Even  the  

Pulitzer  Prizes  –which  have  been  awarded  since  1917  –  evolve  over  time,  said  Prize  

administrator  Sig  Gissler.180  

  Social  media  or  something  closely  related  to  it  will  likely  play  a  large  role,  the  

journalists  interviewed  predicted.  The  way  social  media  has  connected  the  planet  and  truly  

made  it  smaller  –  through  the  Arab  Spring,  for  example  –  is  not  to  be  overlooked  for  the  

future.  “It’s  become  the  currency  of  our  language,”  Johnson  said.181    

  Because  publishing  on  the  Internet  is  already  immediate,  Keller  is  curious  about  

what  the  next  century  could  bring.182  “It’s  hard  for  me  to  imagine  what  could  be  faster  than  

Twitter,”  he  said.183  Perhaps  machines  will  break  the  news  one  day,  he  suggested.184  But  

Jenkins  sees  a  different  picture:  “apps,  SMS,  and  the  mobile  web  will  continue  to  play  a  

                                                                                                               178  Jenkins,  Mandy.  "Social  Media's  Effect  on  Breaking  News."  Online  interview.  5  Dec.  2012.  179  Ibid.  180  Gissler,  Sig.  "Changes  to  the  Pulitzer  Prize  for  Breaking  News  Reporting."  E-­‐mail  interview.  2  Dec.  2012.  181  Johnson,  Brent.  "Using  Social  Media  in  Breaking  News  as  an  Online  News  Producer."  Telephone  interview.  4  Dec.  2012.  182  Keller,  Jared.  "Social  Media's  Effect  on  Breaking  News."  Telephone  interview.  4  Dec.  2012.  183  Ibid.  184  Ibid.  

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huge  role  as  well  –  and  it'll  be  interesting  to  watch  and  see  how  those  three  areas  evolve  

alongside  social  media,”  she  said.  “Will  they  eclipse  social  as  the  preferred  means  of  

breaking  news  for  readers?  Or  vice  versa?”185  

  But  Johnson,  despite  working  constantly  with  the  Internet  and  social  media,  

proceeds  with  more  trepidation  when  thinking  about  the  future.  “The  news  doesn’t  change,  

but  everything  else  does,”  he  said.  “That’s  a  really  terrifying  prospect.”186  

Conclusion       It’s  clear  the  journalism  industry  has  struggled  to  adapt  to  the  digital  age.  Problems  

with  circulation  and  paywalls  abound,  and  journalists  have  been  slow  to  adopt  the  

measures  necessary  to  save  their  companies.  The  breaking  news  landscape  has  long  

dominated  the  field,  and  will  continue  to  do  so  as  technology  moves  ahead.  But  in  order  to  

progress  with  the  latest  gadgets  that  both  aid  and  abet  reporting,  journalists  need  to  study  

how  their  predecessors  weathered  similar  storms.  The  moves  from  print  to  radio,  from  

radio  to  television,  and  from  all  three  to  the  Internet  have  not  been  easy.  The  next  

transition  is  likely  to  be  even  more  difficult  –  which  is  why  it  is  very  important  to  start  

preparing  for  the  future  now,  before  it’s  too  late.    

  Breaking  news  has  evolved  from  a  landscape  dotted  with  carrier  pigeons  to  Twitter  

bluebirds,  all  while  performing  a  public  service  for  the  world.  Journalists  have  reported  the  

news  quickly  and  accurately  for  centuries,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  those  

traditions  will  ever  stop.  The  past,  present,  and  future  of  the  breaking  news  landscape  have,  

                                                                                                               185  185  Jenkins,  Mandy.  "Social  Media's  Effect  on  Breaking  News."  Online  interview.  5  Dec.  2012.  186  Johnson,  Brent.  "Using  Social  Media  in  Breaking  News  as  an  Online  News  Producer."  Telephone  interview.  4  Dec.  2012.  

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and  will  continue  to,  honor  the  highest  journalistic  ideals  and  principles  while  reporting  

the  who,  what,  where,  when,  why,  and  how  of  every  story.    

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Works  Cited  

 Gissler,  Sig.  "Changes  to  the  Pulitzer  Prize  for  Breaking  News  Reporting."  E-­‐mail  interview.  

2  Dec.  2012.    Jenkins,  Mandy.  "Social  Media's  Effect  on  Breaking  News."  Online  interview.  5  Dec.  2012.    Johnson,  Brent.  "Using  Social  Media  in  Breaking  News  as  an  Online  News  Producer."  

Telephone  interview.  4  Dec.  2012.    Keller,  Jared.  "Social  Media's  Effect  on  Breaking  News."  Telephone  interview.  4  Dec.  2012.    Klapper,  Ethan.  "Social  Media's  Effect  on  Breaking  News."  Telephone  interview.  3  Dec.  

2012.