Electronic+news+-+Song

**Song Yun 11C ITGS Area of Impact ** =Arts, Entertainment and Leisure =

**What is News/Electronic News? ** News, in general is defined as the reporting of unknown information or of a recent event. News has become a standard term for people who wish to know about what is happening throughout the world. The first actual newspaper was first made in 1440 but has since evolved into a much broader perspective for which anyone with a television, a computer or even a portable device can check the news.

IT System 1: Television Broadcasting
 Television has become one of the common forms of entertainment and nearly every household has one or more television sets that can pick up many different ranges of channels. Many news channels also exist within the list as well, that broadcast news events 24 hours a day such as CNN and BBC. The IT systems of television once again include both hardware and software considerations. First, the IT systems from the consumers’ perspective, relates to the idea of how we can see moving pictures on the monitor and how we can receive channels. First, the monitor is comprised of many pixels. Each pixel uses the RGB colour scheme where each pixel has three LED lights representing red, green and blue, which enable us to recognise images in colour. These images are presented in rapid succession so that we can recognise motion within the monitor. Audio output is possible through internal speakers that are located commonly under or on the sides of the television. Video transmission mainly involves the use of satellite television, which being the most common form of television today. For the video output, televisions must pickup signals from satellites that are in orbit around the Earth. These satellites communicate with microwaves from satellite dishes that are placed outside of the household. The dishes can transmit signals to that specific satellite to then receive television channels. Signals are sent from the dish to the satellite and then back in different frequencies so that it does not interfere with the original transmission. Manual configurations are done through a set-top box that is also given with the dish, which enables consumers to conduct normal television commands such as generating favourite lists or searching for new channels.

These being the IT systems of the consumers’ perspective, several news channels have IT systems from the reporters’ perspective as well. CNN for example is one of the news channels to report 24 hours a day and thus, must be constantly up to date. For CNN to broadcast news, they must have a broadcast network, which is an organization that records any piece of television content to then distribute to several channels. However, for live reports, CNN must have a newsroom so that the news can be reported. This newsroom a simple room commonly with a table and chairs, in which a news reporter can then use to broadcast the news. Cameras are used to then locally produce live footage. Aside from this, most news reports are not only comprised of the reporter talking, but of other footage as well. For example CNN also shows actual videos of a certain event such as the Russian parade celebrating the 65th anniversary after their victory in World War 2 to support their broadcast or even include the use of teleconferencing where reporters communicate live with another person who is for example in Moscow to then a show a closer look at the parade.

** IT system 2: News on the Internet and on Portable Devices ** News has also spread across the globe due the fact that it can also be accessed through the Internet. Taking CNN as an example again, they also have an Internet site showing the recent news events in text format for users to read. First, CNN must have a relational database containing the whole news history that they had reported to a certain year, so that users can easily navigate the website. One table in the database may contain one news genre such as technology or sports, each only having news reports for that particular genre. Each record in the table can have information such as, name of headline, date of publication, name of author and possibly the URL as a reference. Ultimately, this allows CNN to construct a very well organised website layout with features like the search function similar to Google to give viewers a more user friendly navigation. Another aspect that CNN must have is a computer network set up in their headquarters in Atlanta. Since CNN is a worldwide news broadcast channel, they need to collect data from around the globe and not only what is happening in the United States. Normally, CNN has more than just one headquarters. Many other news stations are scattered in various locations in the world. Therefore, CNN can use the network to communicate with these stations and thus retrieve news data from that specific location. First, CNN most probably will have both a LAN and WAN set up in the stations so that computers are able to communicate with each other. LAN is once again for communications between computers in the same building and WAN is for a greater distance. Through this network system, reporters are able to share information about their findings in their country location.
 * (Database, Networks and Wi-Fi) **

News has also spread into the portable area where the news can searched for on the go. Portable devices such as tablets, notebooks and possibly even mobile phones enable the users to connect to the Internet through the use of wireless connections. Most portable devices use wireless LAN technology such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, which can pick up any radio signal from a given radius of 100 feet to several miles. Various local coffee shops or fast-food restaurants have hotspots, areas where the user can connect to the Internet through a built-in router. Messages can be transmitted with a router by routing the messages into the WAN of the organisation, which sends the message through a series of networks until it reaches its destination, which being the relational database of CNN. Messages can also be sent to Atlanta where the reporter can then report the news in the newsroom.


 * The Social and Ethical Issues: **

Several developments in IT have lead to reliability issues concerning the actual truth of the news report. Many reporters who talk to the public and make interesting stories do not always tell the truth. One example of photo manipulation was used where two photos of a British soldier and a group of Iraqis were altered to then generate one photo depicting the soldier holding the rifle at the Iraqis who are pleading not to shoot. These of course caused a lot of turmoil within the public since they thought this was real and thus giving a bad viewpoint on the British military. Issues arise from this because if people are deceived into thinking that a British soldier really held a rifle at the Iraqis, this would then hurt the British reputation and the relationships in the international community. These are of course very unethical and show what reporters do so that their newspaper sells more than others and results in earning more profit.
 * Reliability: **

It is an integrity issue due to the news being reported is becoming less accurate even from news broadcasters like CNN. Data is becoming more irrelevant because the news has become even more accessible throughout the years since it can accessed by anyone who has a computer. Due to this wide level of accessibility, the actual demand for news has increased as it also serves as large form of an average person’s leisure time. If people want more news, broadcasters like CNN must always have a story ready. This may give pressure to many of the authors who write articles on the Internet as they are now even put under time pressure. Thus, the result is that the actual news reports in the central database of CNN may have a few errors concerning small details. Once again leading to the reliability issue, reporters may even seek even to create false stories like the British soldier one mentioned above, if there really is no other interesting story to report.
 * Integrity: **

Concerning the integrity of the news on the television, there is the concept of breaking news, commonly occurring. Breaking news normally refers to a news report that is shown to report a very serious or important event and is normally interrupts ongoing shows that are being broadcasted at that time. There has been criticism concerning breaking news because they are broadcasted at an early time possibly even a few minutes after the event, where the actual information given was to inaccurate sue to lack of more relevant information. Once again the integrity of the reports is put into questioning since they can lead to several misinterpretations.