When is news no longer news ?

[olddutch]

This arose in an earlier post and prompts the question when is news no longer news ?


)))))anotheoldgit Question Author (15:17 on Fri 11/Jun/10)

another-view

/// You're a bit late with that. It happened last night.///

Maybe but it is still headline news, and I haven't noticed anyone else commenting on it (((((

So has News got a limited shelf life - and if so what is it ?

[jno]

I suppose it used to be a day, as newspapers came out daily. Now with rolling TV news services, you could argue that something that happened an hour ago is no longer news. But it will depend. 9/11 was news for weeks if not months. 'World Cup opening ceremony staged' is probably dead news already because everyone who's interested was expecting it and has seen it.

[ll_billym]

It's subjective.

'News' is pretty much a cut down way of saying 'new things' so if somebody hasn't heard it yet, it's news to them no matter how long ago it happened.

In the context of 'is something having such an impact that it is still worth commenting on in AB', this really depends on the magnitude of what happened and how much has already been said about it.

[olddutch]

If when news is no longer news is subjective and when news is still news is subjective and it certainly appears to be - then it boils to down to news still being news until you believe it isnt news - and that in the exchange between anotheoldgit and anotherview in the original question both AOG and AOV are paradoxically right ? It seems then that the life of news is as long as a piece of string ?

[flobadob]

News is quite subjective I would think. What's news to me may not be to you in the sense that you don't pay any attention to certain items.

[olddutch]

flobadob is a great word to say

yes news, like beauty and loads of other stuff, appears to be in the eye of the beholder.

[anotheoldgit]

I find it incredible how I always come under debate, no matter what.

In this instance I posted a news item which may not have been 'hot of the press' but I thought it worthy of discussion since no one else had commented on it in the news section.

But could a certain party accept this? no. Instead of choosing to ignore the question, and seeing they had no other useful contribution to make, they chose to criticise me for posting a question that was a few hours old.

I replied to this person, who chose to ignore my explanation, but did it end there? no olddutch has made it into another question, when he could have just asked his question, under my original question.

Perhaps some of those AB adjudicators should have noticed this also, and responded in the manner they usually respond to me..

[olddutch]

AOG no upset intended old fella

Just thought it was a question that deserved highlighting separately outside your thread

Nothing derogatory said or implied - no harm done to your good name - even seems you were right !