2. News industry

The main source of news used to be paper newspapers and some half-hour programs on standard television such as 'News At Ten'.

But the last twenty five years has seen a huge shift in the way people now receive and consume news.

With commercial satellite television channels appearing in 1990 in the form of Sky Television and the British Satellite Broadcasting company, 24 hour news channels appeared. Now people could tune in to see the news at any time. Those 24 hours had to be filled and so journalists now have to cover more minor stories such as 'Lama escapes on to road' as well as the more serious news. There is also far more opinion interviews to fill in the time.

The internet has also changed the industry. The circulation figures for traditional newspapers continues to fall as people increasingly read their news online and on mobile devices. This means that the business model for traditional newspapers has to change to remain profitable.

For example, some leading newspaper have developed 'pay wall' web versions of their paper. Subscribers pay a fee every month to gain access. For example the Financial Times. But this has not worked for all papers.

Instead, some newspaper sites have managed to gain world wide audiences in the tens of millions visitors per month. And this level of viewing means advertising remains an effective way to pay for it all.

Here are the viewing figures in 2015 for the more successful UK news sites

• Daily Mail - 53,000,000 unique visitors per month.
• The Guardian - 42,000,000 unique visitors per month.
• BBC News - 35,000,000 unique visitors per month.

Digital cameras have made capturing images much easier compared to the old film cameras. Now a picture can be snapped and sent instantly to the main office via the internet. The public can easily share their photos and videos with news companies by simply uploading to a server. This is especially useful with dramatic events such as a massive storm or a huge protest where there are not enough journalists available to cover the event.

Technologies having an impact on the news industry

• 24 hour satellite channels
• Internet web sites
• Mobile phones.
• Digital printing technology
• Digital cameras