News

Team members:

Joanne Wong
Teppo Nieminen
Yulia Pak
Markku Laskujärvi


Schedule:

Intro video - 2min

Teppo: Dawn of time & news - 15min

Joanne: Television, radio & news - 20min

Break - 15min

Group task: Make some news of given words and use whatever media you like. - 25min

Yulia & Markku: Internet age and the future of news - 20min


Altogether: estimatedly 82min without break



Dawn of time & news

The news have been around since the dawn of time, only the way conveying them has changed over time.

So what is the oldest way to of forwarding news?

Language. Of course, you can always bang two rocks together and hope the others understand but language is the best way to convey longer and more complicated news.

Though language spoken is a really good way to transport the news it’s really hard to transport without it forming by its spreaders and so the gossip is born. Anyway, somebody in the China 8600 years ago got fed up by the people morphing his messages and formed a written language by writing on turtle shells. This was a major innovation because news could travel further and the message would stay relatively unchanged.

But of course receiving side would also have to understand what you were trying to tell them. The ancient Babylonians were the first to create a unified language around 3800 BCE. Still, the clay they were writing on was heavy and fragile and hard to store. They used it mostly for short formal letters and bookkeeping. Around 3000 BCE the Egyptians discovered that if you press and dry some wetland wedge you can make papyrus, a paper-like material witch was light, strong and much, much easier to write on. Same technique, tough different materials were also used later by the Greeks and the Romans but papyrus was later replaced by parchment, made out of animal skin, in fourth century.

The written language also made possible another thing crucial to the news: reporting. When the early historians and scientists were writing down their new knowledge of new or past things, what they were actually doing was reporting. Reporting comes from word report and they were making reports about the things they had experiences. So basically in some sense, they were the first journalists.

So what do you think about the objectivity of the news at that time?

The news at that time weren’t really objective or nothing we expect form the news today. Most of the news people got were rumors and official messages by the rules. Only the richest could read. It has been analyzed that a modern Sunday paper of the NY Times includes more information than a peasant in the European Middle ages got in his lifetime. But they also didn’t need to know anything except the latest news of the neighbor.

Paper reached Europe in 610 and paired with the invention of ink gave information and the news even more speed and flexibility. One of the biggest changes in the history of news came when Johannes Gutenberg invented his printing machine in 1436. That meant that books and other information could be printed and spread in larger numbers and came chance for a common the learn how to read. Renaissance helped this by creation of written language for many spoken languages. Until that point information was mostly written in Latin and mostly about theological content in Europe’s Middle Ages.

In Seventeenth century the first “newspapers” were published. They were simple pamphlets telling recent events and also opinions of them. By the 18^th century these broadsheets had evolved into something we might today call a newspaper. These were, just like today, profit driven and it showed, these papers were much, much more politically and opinion charged than modern news broadcasts. They were also more aimed at specific demographics than today, this was the industrialisation era, remember, so social classes were much more divided than now.

This subjective new media form wasn’t unnoticed by the governments for long. New laws were invented to limit the freedom of the press (sound familiar?) so that these new journalist wouldn’t disturb the leaders. Those who broke the rule were imprisoned without a shame. However, the news were now a medium for masses. The telegram, invented in 1838, made sure that information could be transferred to anywhere in the world in seconds.

So what defines a newspaper?

-Publicity - the contents are reasonably accessible to the public.

-Periodicity- published at regular intervals, usually several times a week.

-Currency - information is up to date.

-Universality - It covers a certain range of topics. (Margarete Rehm)

We all know some newspapers and we probably have all read some. We all know the basic concept of a newspaper. There is, however one thing about newspaper, that has made it survive this far in the digital age it it’s one that made newspaper as a medium big after it had caught on.

So let’s talk about photojournalism for a minute.

It has been said that a picture can tell more than a thousand words. And it’s true. They can tell feelings and emotions like text just can’t. Pictures can also prove that things have actually happened. Can you imagine that the news of the Hindenburg disaster without the image, the news of the war without flags flailing or a suffering in the third world? The stories just wouldn’t have the same effect on us.

As photos became granted in the newspapers, some companies decided to add juicy stories to them to sell more papers. They told gossips about celebrities and made up news stories without any real evidence. This form of reporting was then known as Yellow journalism, named after a comic called Yellow boy appearing in one of the first this kind of journals. These kinds of papers are trying to capitalize on sensationalism, stories that dig very deep into the curiosity of the people. It’s done by printing very offensive or striking headlines. They also might try to bend your mind into some specific mindsets or opinions.

Television, radio & news

News on Radio Media

Since the birth of radio technology in the beginning of 20th centuries (around year 1920s), culture of news changed dramatically.

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News reporting quickly became a standard part of radio broadcasting schedule in the 1920s.

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News are reduced in detail and depth (shorter) and it did not require a reader to sit still in one place. 

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Public can now get news without buying or reading a paper.  -– save time – there's more and more workload placed on families, having less and less time available to read a newspaper.

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TRIVIA: Back in those days, radio can only be broadcast live, nowadays, it can be prerecorded.

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News updates occur more often on the radio than on the television - usually about once or twice an hour. Radio station newscasts can range from as little as a minute to as much as the station's entire schedule, such as the case of all-news radio, or talk radio. Stations dedicated to news or talk will often feature newscasts, or bulletins, usually at the top of the hour, usually between 3 and 8 minutes in length. 

They can be a mix of local, national and international news, as well as sport, entertainment, weather and traffic, or they may be incorporated into separate bulletins. There may also be shorter bulletins at the bottom of the hour, or three at fifteen minute intervals, or two at twenty minute intervals. 

All-news radio stations exist in some countries, primarily located in major metropolitan areas such as New York City, Toronto and Chicago, which often broadcast local, national and international news and feature stories on a set time schedule.

Today, with advance technology, online radio streaming brings local content to a much bigger scale. Endless array of devices to access tens of thousands of radio stations worldwide. We listen to what news we want, where we want. 

In this technology era, radio program can be downloaded as podcast. This is another form of News media.

A podcast is a type of digital media consisting of an episodic series of audio, video, PDF, orePub files subscribed to and downloaded through web syndication or streamed online to a computer or mobile device. The word is a neologism derived from "broadcast" and "pod" from the success of the iPod, as podcasts are often listened to on portable media players.

http://www.abc.net.au/newsradio/

ABC NewsRadio began broadcasting in August 1994 intent on delivering Australia's first continuous news network. Fifteen years on, ABC NewsRadio has over 60 frequencies, attracts nearly 1,000,000 weekly listeners and is still Australia's only national, continuous news network, delivering factual, independent and opinion-free coverage of news.

www.news24.com

News24 is Southern Africa and Africa's premier online news resource, with round-the-clock coverage to bring you local and international news as it happens, when it happens. It is accessible via the web, tv, and via mobile phone. The main news sections are South Africa, Africa, World, Sport, Sci-Tech and Entertainment. News24 also brings you the latest business news through Fin24. Other related content sites include Wheels24, Property24, Women24, Health24, Careers24 and Food24.

News are always related to all fields of topics and interests. 

News24 also produces regular Special Reports, bringing you in-depth coverage of the biggest news events of the day.

TV News Media

When Television is invented and became widely available among public, it became a revolution. Since 1940 onwards till today.

Television news refers to disseminating current events via the medium of television. A "news bulletin" or a "newscast" are television programs lasting from seconds to hours that provide updates on world, national, regional or local news events. Television news is very image-based, showing video of many of the events that are reported. 

Television channels may provide news bulletins as part of a regularly scheduled news program. Less often, television shows may be interrupted or replaced by breaking news ("news flashes") to provide news updates on current events of great importance or sudden events of great importance.

24-hour news channels are devoted to current events 24-hours per day. They are often referred to as cable news channels. The originator of this format from which the name derives is CNN, which originally stood for Cable News Network in reference to the then-new phenomenon of cable television. 

As satellite and other forms have evolved, the term cable news has become something out-fashioned, but is still in common use; many other television channels have since been established, such as BBC World News, BBC News, Sky News, Al Jazeera, ABC News 24, France 24, STAR News, Fox News Channel,MSNBC and ABC News Now. Some news channels specialize even further, such as ESPNews (sports from ESPN); The Weather Channel (weather); CNBC, Bloomberg Television and Fox Business Network (financial).

Very Embarrassing News Graphic Blooper

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IVvuV34E98&feature=related

News films ("clips") can vary in length; there are some which may be as long as ten minutes, others that need to fit in all the relevant information and material in two or three minutes. 

News channels these days have also begun to host special documentary films that stretch for much longer durations and are able to explore a news subject or issue in greater detail.

New form of news

Naked News

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwYBURmIj8g&feature=related

Naked News, billing itself as "the program with nothing to hide", is a subscription website featuring a real television newscast. The female anchors read the news fully nude or strip as they present their news segments. 

This services had shown how television news can be brought to different kind of level and perspective, and some people might wonder, can quality of television news became worst?

More tv news clip:

fell off chair

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6klmzrjlww

beer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8tgRIaw2Ac

Internet age and news

1. WWW
So, in early 90s Tim Berners-Lee created WWW. It was the beginning of a new era for news. Personal computer combined with WWW was gonna have a huge impact to news media. Personal computers and Internet evolved side by side, creating for example news media to be available for the average western citizen in so many different ways.


2. WEB 1.0
But firstly it was web 1.0 and it didn’t use much of possibilities of the Internet. Some newspapers created their online versions and from that time news started slooowly shifting from static to more dynamic ways of broadcasting their content. However, even today for example YLE does not open all of its news reports for comments.


3. Here you can see front page of the one of the first online newspaper. Very little to actually interact with here, as you can see, mainly just hyperlinks to other news topics which back then was actually quite revolutionary.


4. Web 2.0.
Around millenium web 2.0 started to move towards the Internet as we see it today. Web 2.0 had an even greater impact on news.


5. Web 2.0 brings blogs, social media networks, vloggs and etc. These are very easy platforms to operate for the average citizen. It gives an opportunity for readers to become a producers of news. Therefore the definition of news changed completely. What is news today?


6. Is it posts on facebook,twitter or in blogs?(MY GRANNY BAKED SOME COOKEES COME N EATEM)


7. Or it is a front page of (BBC, CNN, New York Times)? It depends who do you believe more. Nowaday every person can choose any source he prefers.


8. May be it is possible to say that now we have a kind of conflict situation between traditional journalism and people’s journalism. This video demonstrates it clearly. With unprofessional journalism, problems can arise as well. Who is actually responsible of the content? Opinions play huge role here as well as the tone, which can often be offensive. On the other hand, generally journalism doesnt go very deep from just “describing”. This is because professional journalism has its audience, which it is afraid of losing. Newspaper webpages really need to rapidly cover a lot of stories and circulate content and update so it is visible to the masses and easy to grab.


9. Definitely, the blogosphere has a big impact to the political life and news.
They affect news as well as create them by bringing up topics. News organizations carry a heavy image on their back, thus having to tread their set path in their viewpoint, which could be an advantage for civilian blogs.
EXAMPLE HERE?http://www.blogherald.com/2007/02/27/blogging-can-affect-politics-on-local-level/

Fox attacks bloggers video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpht4sXDhx0

10. FUTURE
How do you think what will happen with news in the future?
As we see know it is possible to find all information that you need in the Internet and the amount of information grows daily, it becomes messy.... May web 3.0 will decide this problem. Web 3.0 could feature for example a sophisticated semantic web idea, which stresses the user less and gives better results when searching is needed.


Let's watch a video about the future news & communications topic and perhaps discuss this(if time):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu0ztxdsFis



The Prezi presentation link:

http://prezi.com/8rkonj-xtapc/the-news/