So what is Breaking News

A couple of articles from MediaGuardian:
http://media.guardian.co.uk/bskyb/story/0,13935,1651582,00.html
http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,7493,1651614,00.html

BREAKING NEWS - what exactly is it. Well, according to research by Cardiff University alot of the time the term "Breaking News" is applied to "predictable diary events"


In Sky's case this is very high - 79.4%. For ITV News it's 32.1% while for BBC News 24 it's just 12.5%.

I think we all know this is the case - the term is often applied just to say Tony Blair arriving for a cabinet meeting etc.

Last week we had breaking news such as "George Best isn't dead!" and after he was, four hours later it was still classed as "Breaking News" by Sky at least.


The research took place over a 14 day period in July last year. Sky dismiss the research, pointing out it was funded by the BBC and covered just 9 stories out of the 15,000 they cover every year.

I imagine a lot of this is to do with speeches as well.

Watching Gordon Brown talk to the CBI this afternoon - which N24 didn't actually cover until he'd finished talking, illogically - Sky had up a breaking news strap throughout with snippets of what he was saying.

Can't help but think it would make more sense for them to use ''Latest'' or ''Update'' etc. rather than breaking news all the time. Since the relaunch (I'm assuming that this research took place prior to Oct 24th) they have got a bit better, using the ''alert'' more often, but it's still a pain.

I think serious events should first appear as Breaking News, then after 30mins, should turn to 'Developing Story' a bit like what CNN does. Keeping a Breaking News strap up for about 6hrs (George Best dies) is a bit OTT.

Also i would like the news channels to follow up on what they break, a lot of 'Breaking News' is not followed up, or we are not told what happens, weather situation was resolved.

You know why Sky do this though, don't you!

It's all about grabbing peoples attention. Many people are channel-hoppers, and if they flick through the news channels and see "BREAKING NEWS" splashed across the screen, then the viewer invariably is going to stay watching for a few moments to see what's going on.

Sky News are simply trying to get peoples attention - much the same way as its twin-in-print, The Sun does with big flashy and tacky headline text.

Sky News or Sun News? Hard to tell the difference these days...

Hence why the BBC are suggesting that Sky use breaking news as a "marketing ploy".

Some would say you should sell your most marketable asset in a competitive field...that's what the 24 hour news operation is and (for some reason) Sky have got a reputation for breaking news.

So, IMO, they're right to sell it to increase viewership.

Anyone with a handful of braincells ignores it of course.

The problem comes when you sell out so much of your channel to the lowest common denominator of viewer (I'm thinking Sunrise, Lunchtime Live, Sky News Today and Live at 5 particularly here).

You may bring in the masses, but you turn off the people searching for real news.

Hello News 24.