I came up with this poll to answer this question: Is news what you experience in 24 hours or is news the events that happen in 24 hours?
It seems that how one person experiences the 24-hour news cycle can be different from how another person experiences the 24-hour news cycle?
As of this post, the 24-hour news cycle is half-way through.
What is the 24-hour news cycle?
Maybe I’m looking at it the wrong way. Then again, maybe I’m not.
After 23 voters:
12 AM 3 13.04%
1 AM 2 8.70%
2 AM 2 8.70%
3 AM 2 8.70%
4 AM 1 4.35%
5 AM 3 13.04%
6 AM 7 30.43%
7 AM 8 34.78%
8 AM 9 39.13%
9 AM 8 34.78%
10 AM 5 21.74%
11 AM 5 21.74%
12 PM 8 34.78%
1 PM 5 21.74%
2 PM 4 17.39%
3 PM 4 17.39%
4 PM 6 26.09%
5 PM 6 26.09%
6 PM 7 30.43%
7 PM 4 17.39%
8 PM 4 17.39%
9 PM 7 30.43%
10 PM 8 34.78%
11 PM 5 21.74%
It seems alot of Dopers get their news between 6 AM and 9 AM. That intuitively makes sense. Waking up, having breakfast, watching/reading the news, going to work or going about one’s day.
I’m still working out my news routine.
Here’s my news routine:
Go to time.gov (Eastern time zone) before 12 AM and watch as the 24-hour news cycle begins at 00:00:00. Marshall McLuhan would be proud.
Go to Google News between 12 AM and 5 AM (or sleep).
Turn TV to CNN at 5 AM. Watch for an hour.
Get The New York Times, in print or in PDF at 6 AM. Finish reading at 7 AM. Now I know the news.
What’s your news routine? Does anyone watch CNN between 12 PM and 5 PM?
Done. I watched on time.gov as the 24-hour news cycle began. I slept. I woke up shortly before 5 AM. I turned the on the TV to CNN. I watched CNN from 5 AM to 6 AM. At 6 AM, I went out to get The New York Times. Got a copy of The New York Times and read it from around 6 AM to around 7 AM. Now I’m posting on The Straight Dope Message Board.
Total time spent on news: 2 hours. Now I have the rest of the day until I go to work later in the afternoon.
How much time in a 24 hour day do you spend on news?
What did I learn since yesterday’s 24-hour news cycle began?
I had no idea, while watching the President speak at SUNY yesterday at 1:30 PM, that before he left the White House for Albany, New York, he would have a discussion with aides in the Oval Office and that he would decide to announce his endorsement of same sex marriage later that day. However, I did have a notion of this because of what the Vice President said about same sex marriage.
Some NPR stations carry the BBC World Service overnight; when my schedule skewed much later and I was going outside to smoke on a regular basis, I’d listen to the beeb all the time. Me, I mostly get my news–what little of it I manage to get–while I’m taking a shower in the morning and have NPR on. Aside from that and a few podcasts, I’ve also got a subscription to the Financial Times (which I read less often than I should) and there’s those damned screens in the elevators.
Interesting that you should say that.
Like I posted, I’m still working out my news routine. I use to watch CNN more often than I should. I’d watch CNN from 12 PM to 6 PM. That’s 6 hours!
Now, as I last posted, I watch CNN from 5 AM to 6 AM and then read The New York Times from around 6 AM to around 7 AM. That’s 2 hours.
So instead of spending 6 hours on the news I spend 2 hours on the news and, ironically, I’m more informed. Timing, also, is everything to being more informed. I get my 2 hours of news earlier in the day, which should hopefully free up more of my day. Oh, yeah, I also like watching ABC World News or NBC Nightly News and watching The Tonight Show. I spend 3 hours in a 24-hour day getting news. 3 hours in a 24-hour day. That’s not obsessive, is it?
I have a theory about when people get their news. People who get their news at 7 AM from Good Morning America are different from people who get their news at 5 AM from CNN. I’m not talking about a function of going to work later or earlier - I’m talking about someone intentionally getting up at 5 AM instead of getting up at 7 AM so that they can get the earlier news in the 24-hour news cycle. And people that get their news before 5 AM from Google News? I am deeply fascinated by them. Probably hackers who will make the news. They’re like Neo in that opening scene in The Matrix. There’s just something about seeing someone reading The New York Times at 6 AM that screams “journalist!”
Yeah, when I finished reading The New York Times at around 7 AM today, this is what I did. 
News briefs on the Today Show, and then skim through pre-recorded local 5:00 and/or 6:00 news and sometimes NBC Nightly News.
Yes! Instead of watching CNN for 6 hours, watch NBC Nightly News for half an hour. Does anyone else do that?
Instead of watching Good Morning America for 2 hours, watch CNN for an hour at 5 AM and then read The New York Times for about an hour at 6 AM. Finish reading through The New York Times at around 7 AM and be done with the news when Good Morning America begins. Does anyone else do this?
Who checks the news between 12 AM and 5 AM? People in the financial industry, people in politics, people in the military? Journalists? The President?
And why isn’t there a lot of news between 12 AM and 5 AM as there seems to be between 12 PM and 5 PM? Intuitively, one would think that the first five hours of the news cycle would be very active, yet, there is the proverbial calm before the storm.
After 27 voters:
**12 AM 3 11.11%
1 AM 2 7.41%
2 AM 2 7.41%
3 AM 3 11.11%
4 AM 1 3.70%
5 AM 3 11.11% **
6 AM 7 25.93%
7 AM 9 33.33%
8 AM 10 37.04%
9 AM 11 40.74%
10 AM 5 18.52%
11 AM 5 18.52%
12 PM 8 29.63%
1 PM 5 18.52%
2 PM 4 14.81%
3 PM 4 14.81%
4 PM 6 22.22%
5 PM 6 22.22%
6 PM 8 29.63%
7 PM 4 14.81%
8 PM 4 14.81%
9 PM 7 25.93%
10 PM 8 29.63%
11 PM 5 18.52%
Why isn’t there much news in the 24-hour news cycle before 6 AM? What is news? What is the 24-hour news cycle?