There is no doubt that TV, Twitter, and Facebook are three very different sources of media. They each have their pros and cons when it comes to covering news. The way people find things out today is much different than it was just 10 years ago. Facebook was founded in 2004, and Twitter in 2006. Before that, everyone was reading the newspaper and watching the local news station to find out what was happening all around. Now with the Internet, who needs newspapers? Why wait until the day after, when you can have the breaking news just hours after it happened by looking online?.
There was a recent story on the local news about how the SAT test is going through some major changes. The reporter touched on some specific changes such as the type of vocabulary words will change to more modern words used in school and jobs. She also mentioned that the essay that so many students stressed over will now be optional and the there will also be free test prep offered to the world. The good thing about TV news stories is they have visual aids. As you are listening to the story being told, you are watching b-roll of students filling out scantrons and flipping through SAT prep books. It is more engaging and eye appealing than just reading the story from a website or on a piece of paper. Another pro about TV is that they can keep your attention better and they have a preview of what is coming up soon. If you are on the Internet reading the article, there are so many distractions that can pull you away. From personal experience, as I'm reading a news article, I have Facebook and Twitter pulled up in different tabs. As soon as I see a notification for either one of them, I immediately click on it to see what it was and completely forget about what I'm reading. The likelihood of people going back to reading an article is not very good once they are distracted on the Internet. Now I know that people are probably on their phones or computer while watching the news, but at least they can look through Twitter while listening to the story on the TV.
