News
The latest news is today also the current news. Fires in Australia are witnessed on the other side of the planet in real time, engineering achievements in space are watched by children sitting in their bedrooms, and great political debates see involvement from households tapping keys half a continent away. Today, news is no longer the business it used to be. With video cameras built in to mobile phones, we are the news, and the reporters, we are both the subject and the observer, and the news industry is now no longer reporting on society – it is society.
The older news media such as newspapers and magazines are still as popular as ever – a surprise to some who suspected that television, radio and the internet would kill them off. Rather than migrate to new forms we have simply seen an expansion of the global news empire, with up to date broadcasts available on scores of channels, images, observations and statistics just a few mouse clicks away.