News Cycle
by Kitty Felde
In Episode 8 of The Fina Mendoza Mysteries, Fina asks: “Is there anything in the paper about the bird that pooped on the president, Papa?
PAPA: Not a word. The news cycle has moved on.
FINA: News cycle? Sounds like a giant bicycle made out of newspapers.
PAPA: Snowmozilla is the news of the day. Reporters have completely forgotten about that bird.
FINA: I wonder if the president has forgotten about the bird.”
News cycle.
It is not a giant bicycle.
Make it stand out
"News cycle" originally described the time between newspaper editions. The cycle could be as long as once a month, or once a week, or several times a day. The latest edition of that paper would include the latest news, pushing out older, less interesting or less important information.
Make it stand out
That “leisurely” cycle changed drastically on June 1, 1980 when CNN went on the air with the first 24-hour television news. With a continuous news cycle, the pressure was on to find something new to say, all the time.
Make it stand out
Weekends are notoriously slow news days. Mostly because government offices are closed. So is Wall Street. And so are many businesses. It’s the reason local news stations beef up their sports coverage on weekends. Everybody has to “feed the beast” – fill the newspaper pages or the 30-minute local TV news or the 5-minute newscast at the top of the hour on radio with SOMETHING.
Fridays are special. If there’s news you don’t want to become a headline, you release a lot of the information late on a Friday afternoon. They call it a “news dump.” The best definition is in this short clip from the old television series “The West Wing.” Of course, it can also backfire. Because of the scarcity of news over the weekend, that bad news you wanted to hide can quickly become a Sunday headline.