What defines breaking news
Posted on Wednesday, April 12, 2023 at 4:33 pm
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The Cambridge Dictionary defines breaking news as information received and broadcast about an event that has just happened or has just begun. While some experts refer to breaking news as unexpected events, such as a building fire or a plane crash, others consider news of importance shared for the first time as breaking news coverage. .
Either way, with multiple media outlets—TV, radio, newspapers, and social media—covering the same developments, there’s a lot of competition to get the story out first.
Community newspaper staff sometimes feel challenged in this area, working against larger outlets with more staff to cover breaking news.
That’s why we rely on personal connections to “keep us in the loop” so we can share information with communities directly affected by events.
Four breaking news stories caught our attention last week.
In Butler County, Christopher Bradley Bush was sentenced to life imprisonment on March 30 following his conviction for the 2018 murder of JJ Mount.
The following Monday, the Butler County School Board hired the Demopolis High School coach Brian Seymore as a teacher, coach and athletic director at Greenville High School.
And in Lowndes County, Emergency Management Agency Director Rodney Rudolph called newspaper staff early on the morning of March 30 to report a overturned tanker transporting hazardous material near Fort Deposit, causing Interstate 65 to be shut down as crews worked to safely clear the crash site.
Meanwhile, Crenshaw County Sheriff’s investigators called March 31 asking for our help sharing news that deputies were pursuing Disgrace Robinson, 26, near Highland Home after evading arrest on outstanding warrants. Later that evening, officers reported a stalled truck stopped traffic on Highway 97 in Alabama.
He was asleep when Rudolph called. And when Crenshaw County Sheriff’s Investigator Chris Stewart called about Robinson and the stalled truck, I was in Ramer at the Dollar General.
Where else would it be at 9pm on a Friday night?
For readers who first saw our articles on social media, these events were breaking news. With the help of first responder relations, the initial reports of each situation went out through community newspaper websites.
When Seymore accepted the position at Greenville High School, I was sitting in the room. The new coach stopped to send a text message to another, larger media outlet before taking the stage to address the Butler County Board of Education and area residents.
The other channel, which received a tip, interviewed Seymore, wrote the story and shared the news while the coach’s acceptance was still on his lips.
But I wrote the article straight away and posted it on social media, because that’s what we do. We cover the news that matters to our communities.
The headline didn’t include “BREAKING NEWS” because we weren’t the first ones out the door. But we published it immediately anyway because it was important to our readers, and breaking news or not, what’s important to you is important to us.
Equally important is that our community knows how to relay breaking news to us so that we can report it accurately and in a timely manner. Many think we are the first to know about an event that affects us all, but sometimes we are the last to know, that’s why we need your help. If you have information on a breaking story, please call (334) 382-3111 or email news@greenvilleadvocate.com to let us know. While we may already be aware of this, it’s important not to assume that we are, hence the need for your help.
