T OOLS FOR C ONTENT D EVELOPMENT AND D ISTRIBUTION

Yahoo! News has several ways to develop the news stories and facilitate their distribution. An important feature of Yahoo! News is the rating system for news stories, which appears at the bottom of the story and photo pages.739 Every user can participate in the rating.740 Yahoo calculates each story’s or photo’s average rating, as well as the number of ratings it has received. Users can view the average rating and the number of participants, and what is more, add their ratings to the stories and photos. Yahoo! News presents the feature as a way to “recommend” the news story to others.741 This means that the rating system is designed to play an active role in attracting users’ attention by offering other people’s

evaluations of the news story. In this respect, the average rating and rating frequency become new information about the news story made available to users. Even though ranking is made

738 _{The order of the news selection process takes place in reverse order. A news story is selected for publication;}

the top story of each section is selected; the top news story overall is chosen; and headlines are chosen for the “In the News” section.

739 _{See, Yahoo! Help-Yahoo! News. Rating the news, available at http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/news/news-}

74.html.

740_{Id., Rating consists of 5-point scales, where 1 is recommend “Not at All” and 5 is recommend “Highly.”} 741 _Id.

by the user and not by Yahoo! News, the site calculates the rating and displays it as new information.

Every Yahoo! News user can post and read messages about news stories on a

message board.742 _{At the bottom of every story appears a box containing a link to that story’s} message board. After clicking on the link, the user can see a list of messages related to that story. In addition, a user sees the headline and summary of the news story being discussed.743

Yahoo! News has a “news alert” system to distribute news stories to users. If one signs up for its news alert service, he or she can receive updated information by e-mail or other means. Yahoo! News uses four types of alert channels to notify subscribers.744 _Yahoo! News notifies the user when a news story matches the user’s interest (by subject and source); offers the latest breaking headlines from the AP; sends an HTML or text e-mail of Yahoo! News category and feature pages; and sends news to a user’s mobile device.745 One

advantage of Yahoo! News for a user may be the use of an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed. Users can easily create and disseminate feeds of data such as news links, headlines, and summaries to their own Web site or blog. These devices allow Yahoo! News to play an active and aggressive role in distributing news and information.

742 _{Yahoo! Help-Yahoo! News, Yahoo News Message Board, available at}

http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/news/news-28.html.

743_Id.

744_{See, Yahoo! Help-Yahoo! News. About News Alert and Bulletins.}

Available at http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/news/news-37.html.

Yahoo! News also has a “Most Popular” section, which displays the news stories that users frequently used, divided into three categories: Most e-mailed, Most viewed, and

Ratings This peripheral content provides added value to the central content.

HEADLINE CREATION. Yahoo! News generally does not create the headline itself,

instead using the headlines provided by the news service. However, AOL often writes a headline for stories from wire services and other third-party sources. For example, on March 26, 2005, Yahoo! News and AOL News posted as a top item the same news story regarding a federal appeals court panel’s refusal to order the reinsertion of Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube. Yahoo! News ran the headline746 _{provided by The Associated Press: “Schiavo’s Father Says} She’s in Last Hours.”747 AOL, however, ran a different headline: “Federal Court Again Rejects Schiavo Parents’ Case.”748

Different headlines on AOL News and Yahoo! News point to a significant

implication regarding the issue of the creation or development of content. The AOL headline changed the news angle from that written by the creator of news story. While the AP

headline focused on the position of Schiavo’s father, AOL highlighted the court’s actions. AOL’s headline could be construed as an interpretation of the issue and the insertion of its point of view.

746 _{Mike Schneider, “Schiavo’s Father Says She’s in Last Hours,” March 26, 2005, Yahoo! News, available} athttp://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=1&u=/ap/20050326/ap_on_re_us/brain_damaged_woman&sid=8 4439559.

747 _{Mike Schneider, “Schiavo’s Father Says She’s in Last Hours,” The Associated Press (March 26, 2005),} available at

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BRAIN_DAMAGED_WOMAN?SITE=FLSTU&SECTION=HOME.

748 _{Mike Schneider, Federal Court Again Rejects Schiavo Parents’ Case, March 26, 2005, AOL News,} available at http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20050316235609990012.