Northern Kentucky University

Television and Internet News

Target audience: General public

Television news is broadcast at regular intervals during the day, usually morning, evening, and night, and whenever important news demands that other programming be interrupted. WWW news sites (like CNN.com) are also an important news resource. They can be accessed at any time; they can provide links to other information sources on the Web; and they allow users to explore on their own.

Strengths:

• Web links allow exploration of related information
• Immediate access to breaking stories
• Stories updated regularly and often
• Access to first-hand interviews & video footage

Considerations:

• WWW sites and broadcast media aren't always archived and preserved; stories can "disappear" overnight
• Commercialism (ads, banners, editorial choices driven by sponsors) may create bias and sensationalism
• Can be difficult to access the story you want

Newspapers

Target audience: General public, usually in a specific city or region

Daily publications with accounts of the day's events and other features. Most newspapers are typically published for a single city or town (Courier-Journal), while papers from the largest cities (The New York Times) have a more global readership, and others target a specialized audience (Wall Street Journal).

Strengths:

• Local perspectives on a story
• Primary source for events
• Good for local news stories too small to be published elsewhere

Considerations:

• Large city papers may publish separate city and national editions with different content
• Articles written with newest developments first and background information later (pyramid style)
• Back issues of most papers, when available, are normally only on microfilm or in Web archives
• Web versions usually differ from print versions

This tutorial by W. Frank Steely Library, Northern Kentucky University is licensed under a Creative Commons License. Based on a work at www.lib.washington.edu.