The nature of the news-and its beast

The beast refers to the consumers- and the orgainzations that wish to keep them fulfilled. Consumers are creating the demand. They want reletive news in a timely manner from sources they can trust. News organizations want to feed it to them.

Consumers are eternally hungry for more and more. News organizations must give them not only what they need, but what they want- constantly, or consumers will turn elsewhere. News organizations must supply that information accurately and without fraud or bias. They cannot do this without hoards of people, especially journalists, constantly researching and preparing the food for the next meal.

The on-demand news presentation style that 24-hour stations and the internet require does not allow journalists much time to double-check their work and sources. Reporters now face the risk of receiving inaccurate information and passing it through to the consumer, more than they did in the past when news presentation was more structured than constant.

Also, the time and space crunch required to produce news in a timely and daily basis often does not allow reporters to give the full story the first time. Usually they report the most pertinent information in the time and space alloted. They can report a follow up that gives more in-depth coverage at a later time. However, that does not always happen because the story loses relevance when it becomes yesterday's news.