The 24/7 News Cycle – Society’s Demand for Instant Information

The demand for instant information has created an entirely new media environment -

one that is always on, always updating, and always under pressure. News breaks not in days or hours but in seconds. A 2019 study examined how push notifications from news apps affect user engagement and learning. Results showed that enabling notifications increased app use, and CNN alerts led to modest knowledge gains, while BuzzFeed’s did not. The findings highlight how mobile alerts can bridge intentional and incidental news exposure (Stroud et al., 2019). As a result, audiences have become accustomed to live updates, real-time coverage, and mobile push alerts that keep them constantly connected.

This immediacy has changed both how stories are told and how they're consumed. It favors headlines over depth, emotional impact over nuance, and speed over accuracy. While this accessibility is powerful - it can mobilize social movements and inform communities - it also increases the risk of misinformation.

The George Floyd protests in 2020 are a powerful example. Footage captured by citizens, not journalists, became the primary source of truth. Social media transformed everyday people into frontline reporters. An example of this is from a study that analyzed over 1.1 million public Instagram posts from the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests to examine how visual content and emerging non-institutional opinion leaders shaped the movement. It finds that Instagram, unlike Twitter, amplified content from independent creators, meme pages, and fashion accounts, with viral imagery often focusing on symbols of injustice rather than combatant protest scenes. The research demonstrates how Instagram’s unique visual and algorithmic affordances contributed to a shift in framing, from deviance to dignity, and fostered widespread online solidarity, particularly during #BlackOutTuesday (Chang et al., 2022). While this democratized storytelling, it also flooded the information space with unverified or emotionally charged content.

Traditional media has had to adapt or be left behind. Outlets now live-tweet press conferences, post clips before full reports are written, and push articles that are still developing. The race to be first has replaced the commitment to be thorough in many cases, and society is learning - sometimes painfully - what that trade-off costs.

Here’s a video clip from PBS NewsHour examining how social media has shaped public understanding and urgency during breaking news like George Floyd’s death:

📺 How social media helped amplify the George Floyd protests

Reference:

Chang, H.-C. H., Richardson, A., & Ferrara, E. (2022). #justiceforgeorgefloyd: How instagram facilitated the 2020 black lives matter protests. PLOS ONE, 17(12). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0277864

Stroud, N. J., Peacock, C., & Curry, A. L. (2019). The effects of mobile push notifications on news consumption and learning. Digital Journalism, 8(1), 32–48. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2019.1655462