In the past five years we have seen the rise of social media networks as key functions for delivering news to the world. Every day news organizations post hundreds of Facebook posts and tweets with small snippets of information and news from around the globe. These snippets of information come at us 24 hours a day, all 7 days of the week. This has become called “the 24 Hour News Cycle.”
Many feel that the 24 Hour News Cycle is a good thing. Information can be delivered the instant a story breaks with little wait. It allows news organizations to quickly and effectively deliver the news to their readers and viewers.
However, there are some that disagree, such as Deutsche Welle correspondent Matthias von Hein.
“The 24 hour news cycle has the tendency to confront us with an overkill of useless information at the cost of deeper analysis which takes time,” Von Hein said.
The 24 hour news cycle, according to von Hein, is under “inherent pressure to make stories more simple, more black and white, more sensationalist, just to make them more marketable…” The news media has appeared to adapt to be more of a commodity than a source of in depth information on world events.
“My work as a journalist has made me a much more critical reader, listener and viewer,” von Hein said.
He has become more critical of the media because “news commentaries, ‘stories’, are items on a market, that are produced according to more or less commercial gains – in most cases…”
Von Hein speaks from many years of experience in journalism, beginning with his experiences in Asia during late 1970’s.
“After finishing high school in the late 1970’s, I have been lucky enough to be able to extensively travel in Asia.”
Upon his return Von Hein felt that he had “a lot to tell” about the “different value systems and about different approaches to happiness.
Before becoming a journalist, von Hein studied Chinese, becoming a trained Sinologist. However, he never worked as a Sinologist. After finishing his studies in Sinology, von Hein began an internship with Deutsche Welle, the German international broadcasting organization, where he has been employed since.