The way we get news now has changed over the past couple years. We went from getting news on the radio, to getting news in the paper, to now getting news online and via text message. The way we get news now is much more efficient.
Twitter has a page online specifically devoted to breaking news. On the page you can read small articles about US Secretary of State Clinton to testify before Congress on Benghazi attack and United Airlines has another large computer outage; passengers say they are stranded at airports across United States.
Even during the Presidential debate people were tweeting about Obama and Romney. "There were some 200 tweets about the event beginning in the minutes after Romney took the stage. There were many tweets before he appeared too. Roanoke Times’ staffers snapped and tweeted about 20 photos that were added first to Storify and later to a photo gallery," said Tharon Giddens reporter for the Columbia Journalism Review.
It is important that we have websites like twitter to update us. It is much quicker and people get them sent straight to their phones. They no longer have to wait until the evening news or read about it in the next mornings newspaper. The information is literally at your fingertips.
NBC news offers an app that sends breaking news straight to your cell phone via SMS text message. You can get various information like breaking news and business news sent to your phone through NBC. You can also sign up for the MSNBC alerts that text message you giving information on talk show hosts like Rachel Maddow and Morning Joe.
People are even capturing breaking news on their cell phones. Reporters who send you information always ask for your input. I do not respond I just read the articles, but many people like to give feedback on what they think, or what they captured on their phones relating to the subject.
I think it is extremely important that this technology is available to us because it makes literally makes breaking news breaking news. It is sent to you as soon as it happens. A breaking news story in the next days paper is old news.