FEEDING the BEAST!

1. The beast in this analogy is the viewers of the media. It is everyone who is consuming news and is also critiqing it.

2. The beast needs to be fed because it is always hungry. In this case the audience is always looking for new and interesting news to keep them intrigued. There is always something happening and news gets old quickly so it is a constant struggle to keep the news flowing.

3. When feeding the 24 hour news cycle there might not always be a news story that is complete or newsworthy. In many cases compromises on how the news will be given occur. An example of this would be doing a telephone interview instead of a face to face one. This would be a compromise because the news is still delivered in through a second choice medium. This compromise could take place in TV and the Internet. Compromises like this might happen regularly however compromises that damage the trust of the audience should never occur.
In print other compromises take place because of the lack of hard news. Some publications might run a soft news story on light news days to fill the pages. This is not uncommon and usually doesn't damage the trust of the audience, as long as it the story has an interesting news angle.