In 1988 a plane blew up over Lockerbie, a town in Scotland. 270 people died. It was the top story for days. About 1,600 people die on British roads every year. They almost never lead the news.
Hurt when a footbridge fell this morning12 people
Cannot afford to heat their homes, today and yesterday500,000 people
A newsroom looks for one thing: what changed since yesterday. A footbridge fell this morning, and yesterday it stood. That is a change, and it is news. Half a million people cannot afford to heat their homes. That was true yesterday too. There is no day when it is new.
Four ways people died in one country this year. Tap the one that leads tonight's news.
Tap the part of the picture that answers it.
A plane crash, all at once this afternoon30 deaths
Road crashes, spread across today4 deaths
Air pollution, spread across the year100 deaths
The junction that kills one person a year1 death
Illustrative, except the road number, which is Britain's daily average.
A plane crash, all at once this afternoon
Right. Thirty at once, in one place, with wreckage to film. It is not the most deaths on the list. It is the only one that happened today.
Road crashes, spread across today
Not yet. Four today, four tomorrow, in four different places. There is nothing to point a camera at. The same four in one crash would lead.
Air pollution, spread across the year
Not yet. The most deaths on the list, and no day on which any of them happened. It is reported when a report about it comes out, because a report has a date.
The junction that kills one person a year
Not yet. One death, exactly as expected. It becomes news the year the council fixes the junction, because that is a change.
Killed on British roads, a whole year1,600 deaths
Killed at Lockerbie, 1988270 deaths
About 1,600 people are killed on British roads each year. A year has 365 days. On an average day, about how many is that?
people a day
Right. Between four and five, every day of the year. Four people killed at once in one crash would lead the evening news. The same four killed in four places across one day lead nothing. There is no one thing to report.
A glacier loses a little ice every summer
++
A language dies as its last speakers grow old
No morning when it happened.
Some things never happen on a day at all. A glacier loses a little ice every summer. A language dies as its last speakers grow old. There is no morning when the change happened. So there is no morning when it is news.
Which of these has a day it happens on, and which never does?
One card at a time. Tap the pile it belongs to.
Card 1 of 6
An earthquake
A currency losing a third of its value in an afternoon
A coastline moving inland a few centimetres a year
Antibiotics gradually working less well
A factory announcing 900 job cuts
Farmland getting slowly saltier each season
An earthquake → Has a day
Not yet. An earthquake has a day. It happened this morning, and a camera can point at the rubble tonight.
A currency losing a third of its value in an afternoon → Has a day
Not yet. The crash has a day. It happened in one afternoon, so the news can say 'today' about it.
A coastline moving inland a few centimetres a year → Never has a day
Not yet. The coast never has a day. It moves a little every year, and there is no morning when it happened.
Antibiotics gradually working less well → Never has a day
Not yet. This never has a day. The drugs work a little less each year, and no single day is the day it changed.
A factory announcing 900 job cuts → Has a day
Not yet. The announcement has a day. The company said it on one morning, and that morning is the story.
Farmland getting slowly saltier each season → Never has a day
Not yet. Salt creeping into the soil never has a day. It gets a little worse each season, so no day is the day.
Has a day it happens onnews that day
vsvs
Never has a daywaits for one
Right. The slow ones are not smaller. They are harder to point a camera at on any one day, and the news is made one day at a time.
A river rises by three metres. Move the control to change how long the rise takes. The chart always covers fifty years.
0 m1.7 m3.4 m
NowYear 50
How long the rise takes: In one day
All three metres in a single day, then nothing for fifty years. Biggest change on one day: 3 metres.
0 m1.7 m3.4 m
NowYear 50
How long the rise takes: Over one year
The same three metres, spread over a year. Biggest change on any single day: about one centimetre.
0 m1.7 m3.4 m
NowYear 50
How long the rise takes: Over fifty years
The same three metres again. Biggest change on any single day: under a fifth of a millimetre.
The river ends three metres higher every time. What makes the first one news and the last one not?
Only the first one has a day on which something happened.
Right. The change is the same size in all three. The news is made one day at a time, and only the first rise fits inside a day.
The first one is bigger.
Not yet. It is the same three metres in all three. Speed is doing all the work here, and size is doing none of it.
The last one is too far off to matter yet.
Not yet. It is happening now, every day, at a rate too small to point at. Being far away in time is a different problem from being small.
Move the control.
A slow problem, with no day of its own→A report on it is published on Tuesday→Tuesday's news carries the problem
A slow problem can still reach the news. It waits for something with a date. A report comes out. A court case starts. A price changes. A famous person speaks about it. Then the slow problem gets into the news along with the fast event.
For every one person killed by a volcano, how many must die in a drought before the story has the same chance of reaching US television news?
Pick one. Nothing is scored.
Deaths needed: a volcano1
Deaths needed: a drought40,000
What it takes for each to have the same chance of being covered.
About 40,000.Nobody decided this. It was measured across thousands of disasters. A volcano goes off on one day, so it has a day to be news on. A drought takes years and has none.
Deaths from it, last year20,000 deaths
Deaths from it, this year20,000 deaths
Illustrative.
A disease kills a steady 20,000 people a year. A medicine that prevents it exists but does not reach them. When does this reach the news?
Steadily, in proportion to the harm it does.
Not yet. Nothing in a newsroom's day is in proportion to harm. The day is made of things that were not true yesterday.
When the number of deaths rises sharply.
Not yet. A sharp rise is an event and would be reported. But this number is steady. A steady number has no day on which it changed.
When something with a date attaches to it: a price change, a court case, a famous person.
Right. The disease has no day of its own, so the story waits for something that does. That is why a big slow problem usually reaches you attached to a small fast event.
Lesson complete
News is what changed since yesterday. What is true every day is never news.