Breaking News in the Age of New Media

The Pulitzer Prize winners were announced today and tucked away in the awards was the prize for "Breaking News"...and no one won. There were three nominees but apparently none of them met the committee's idea of breaking news as an "example of local reporting...with special emphasis on the speed and accuracy of the initial coverage." Slate's SCOCCA blog likes to joke that the committee should have just awarded the prize to Twitter. Slate's amusing (and extremely short post) raises an interesting question of what "breaking news" means in the age of new media. Twitter with its rapid posting rates and short bits of information reaches out and touches the boundaries of whatever former conception people previously had of breaking news. So, is breaking news "defunct" as Slate's blog asserts? Would be better off ridding this term from our vernacular and our understanding of reporting? Breaking news is no longer an exception--it's the norm. Perhaps it's time that the news media starts publicly recognizing this.