ABSTRACT
This is a completely new chapter in the book. The biggest and most important change in TV newsrooms today involves the concept of digital first: that news should be sent out to the public on the first available content platform. That’s almost always online – the station’s website and social media. There are some markets and stations that haven’t fully bought into the notion of digital first, but they’re now the exception. Nexstar, the country’s largest station owner, has gone so far as to require that 20% of each station’s workforce be digital only. The chapter also goes into the agenda-setting function that digital provides. Digital isn’t simply the first platform used to post news. What people are reading and reacting to on digital (social media and the web) commonly determine at least a part of the day’s coverage assignments.
