unfinished

text, news and event

15.10.11

an article a text by jeff jarvis made me think about the relation of events to news and to texts.
it could be analysed as a relation of frequencies and duration.
the event in real time meets a regular frequency of text, like a daily update in traditional newspapers. this frequency changes on the web.

but also events do not stretch equally over time.
some occur over a set duration (football game)
some occur in an instance (car crash)
some events condense a historical situation (9/11)
some stretch over a considerable time and produce chains of smaller incidences (the arab revolution, occupy wall street)

also the reportingextends over time
instant (twittter)
live with time lag (youtube)
with a scheduled rhythm (newspapers)
lagging and accumulating (books)

there is so to say economic relation between writing and event. jeff jarvis argues against the article on the basis of it outdated daily occurence, once made necessary by the printing press.
but his argument reaches much further.