Breaking news, sometimes interchangeably termed evening news or late-breaking news or simply news flash and is a subject that many broadcasters feel warrants the cancellation of their current programming or long-running news stories in order to bring its facts to the public. There are many different types of breaking news. Some of them are sports breaking news, international breaking news, local breaking news, and just local news. Sometimes the medium on which these news stories are being broadcast is television, while other times it is the internet. Any way you slice it, however, breaking news is one of the most popular ways for current events to be disseminated to the masses.
When the world finds out about a major event happening somewhere around the globe, breaking news is often first reported by local stations and then picked up by national media, including television and radio stations. Once the story is out on the news aggregators, such as Google Alerts, it will continue to spread throughout the internet and social media networks with little to no noticeable decrease in overall coverage or audience. The main concern that local stations have with local coverage of a breaking news story is that they may lose their audience and revenue. In other words, if the story is not being covered by the established media outlets, the station may not survive as a viable business entity.
A prime example of a breaking news story is the execution of a controversial execution. While most people are quick to call the police when they see blood spattered on the floor or hear screams coming from the room where an execution has taken place, few people consider watching a local news program before they switch the channel to the nightly news to find out what is taking place. Other than a short snippet in the beginning of the evening news or a brief overview during the pre-game show, breaking news coverage tends to come in the form of an in-depth report on the story that was broken. For example, when a local school teacher was arrested for punching a student in the head, Fox News chose to dedicate two nights to the story. The station then followed up with several segments on the arrest and the ensuing legal proceedings.
The difference between a breaking news report and a special report is that the latter tends to be more opinionated, has more detail, and is generally more factual than its source material. In most cases, the segment that airs after a breaking news segment on a major network or cable news network is designated as a live update, which means that the content will change at any given moment based on new information that is brought to light. If a breaking news segment does not include a story that is relative to the one being broken, then it will be marked as a non-breaking news segment and will not air until a specific time.
As mentioned before, many viewers are quick to check online sources when it comes to breaking news stories. The same principle is applied when it comes to traditional news media outlets, but the difference between the two is that viewers tend to stay on top of breaking news stories that are published online because they do not have the opportunity to go to a station to get the same story. This is because breaking news coverage is often posted immediately online and distributed throughout the internet via RSS feeds. Because of this, many viewers are able to read a story as soon as it is posted on the internet. In contrast, when a news segment on a local television station is broadcasting live, many people wait for the allotted time before they watch the segment if they know anything about the story.
Some news outlets have become dedicated to offering breaking news reports to their viewers in a variety of formats. For instance, many television stations live stream videos of local government and law enforcement events and police activities. Similarly, other media outlets have begun streaming live events from sports leagues and other major teams and organizations. It is expected that these efforts will continue to increase as more television stations take up the responsibility of broadcasting breaking news stories.