What defines "news" anymore?

It seems like a lot of times in class we talk about how technology is obviously shaping and changing pop culture. It seems like as technology changes, not only the way we recieve news changes but what we view as news changes as well. Obviously celebrity news has only grown in the past 10 years. From tabloids to websites like PerezHilton, to shows like TMZ and Access Hollywood, the public can know what their favorite celebs are doing on a regular basis. However, aside from this obsession with celebrity culture (that goes back to when Hollywood even came about), it seems as though "reliable" news sources are changing just the same. Today I turned on the TV and CNN was on and I decided to watch it. I typically avoid watching news programs because they're pretty depressing. But, within the first 2 minutes of watching it, half the conversation was based on Twitter and what someone wrote on Twitter. How is that news? If I write "SAMANTHA IS eating a pancake" on my twitter or facebook, is that news? Obviously not because I have no real relevance as far as "celebrity" but the lady who posted the Twitter comment in question (which said something along the lines of "I had a miscarriage. Thank God") was someone I had never heard of before and apparently was just a blogger who wrote about how happy she was that she had a miscarriage. Regardless of whether or not you think it's appropriate to write something so personal on an online forum, the real question is "WHO CARES?" So you had a miscarriage and shared it on twitter, awesome. But why is this on CNN? Also a recent story on the news was talking about a Facebook poll someone made that asked, "Should the President be assisinated?" and the kids who clicked yes are being tracked down by the FBI. A FACEBOOK POLL.... and the FBI is involved? To me, that's crazy. Do I think someone should make a poll like that? Absolutely not. Is it probably some super conservative 16 year old who thinks they're being funny and have no actual plan to do anything of the sort? Yes. I understand it's a "threat" but these are probably kids who just thought they were being funny and they could have seriously ruined their lives over this Facebook quiz. It almost makes me not even want to have any sort of online anything because you can get in trouble so easily. Something you think is funny but offends someone else could end up getting you in lots of trouble. Or maybe you'll just end up on CNN!

Interesting piece on if there is "too much twitter?"