News

News may stand for the four directions : North, East, West and South

News may be formal or informal.

In the early days, News Agencies served as a source for newspapers and radio. Reuters, AP, UPI are some of the agencies.

In our younger days, there were Morning newspapers, Evening newspapers and Weekly newspapers.

The newspapers were printed in batches. The early batches were dispatched to other cities via car or rail. The later batches were usually given to distributors. Some newspapers reserve space on the front page to print “Breaking News”.

Newspapers employ reporters or correspondents for the Local and Regional News. There may be student reporters, sports reporters and ad-hoc reporters.

Newspapers usually print corrections the following day, but some people might not take time to read such corrections. Unethical journalists may rush to report news (without fact checking).

After the Coup d’etat, there were changes.

• NAB (News Agency Burma) was established to control the dissemination of news. The English Section editors compile the news from the news agencies. The Burmese Section editors compile the local news. They selectively translate the foreign news into Burmese.
• Four old newspapers were continued as government newspapers. Two new newspapers were established. “Loke Tha Pyithu Nay Zin” was headed by Shwe Oo Daung. “Working People’s Daily” (WPD) was headed by U Khin Maung Latt.
• Censorship grew over the years.

CNN (Cable News Network) was one of the early TV stations with emphasis on news. Its sister station HLN (Headline News) ran 30-minute segments of the “current” news.

The Internet and smart devices forced the demise of several newspapers.