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I've been thinking about news lately. What it is, how its transmitted, and how it changes things.

News is undoubtedly important; it's how we learn what happening around us. Other than experiencing it for ourselves, it's the only way we know what's going on in the world.

News takes many different shapes, from formal investigative reporting, to anecdotal storytelling. All news are stories; but not all stories make the mainstream news. Here enters social media and the independent reporter.

We no longer have to accept the sensationalized definition of news. Mainstream media, in my opinion, creates news that the largest percentage of the population in a given area will find interesting. This averaging of news often ends up including reports some people don't care about; and not including reports other people really care about. Through social media we can now choose what we consider news - and here's how news propagates through the social media universe.

Often, news starts out as rumor and speculation. One person hears something from a source, and it gets spread to another and another. The more interesting the information, the quicker it will spread.

Once a legitimate news source picks up the story (you can decide for yourself what a "legitimate news source" is) they'll start the reporting cycle: Research, lead checking, analysis etc. Until they produce a finished news product. This could be a written story, tweet, photo, video, etc.

When a finished news product is released, it'll spread throughout the social media sphere based on how relevant it is, how trust-worthy the source is, and how engaging the story is. It'll eventually reach maximum interest and start becoming 'yesterdays news'.

When the most of the audience starts to forget about the story; the really engaged ones will start to reflect on how the story affected them. They'll probably post comments, either in a provided comment section, or as stories of their own. Eventually the interest in these refections will also die off, and will leave the audience prepared to be interested in the next story.