Real Time Information
Examples
News
RSS feeds
Weather
Social networking
Radio Websites
News
The BBC news website breaks
up articles into different
categories such as:
• World
• Local
• Business
• Politics
• Heath
• Education
• Environment
• Technology
• Entertainment/arts
Target audience: the
general public, 21+
News websites are constantly being updated in
real time. This means that the website will always
be up to date with the latest news stories and
even breaking news.
Older news articles and video
clips can also be viewed on the
websites.
RSS feeds
Target Audience: 18+
RSS: Rich Site Summary, or really simple syndication
RSS feeds allow automatic syndication of web content; whereas a
standard file format only allows the information to be published
once, then viewed by many different programs.
They are used by readers who want to subscribe
to timely updates from their favourite websites or
to collect feeds from many sites into one place.
The BBC news and the ITV news websites both use RSS feeds
to keep users up to date with the most recent headlines. The
RSS feeds include a heading and a short paragraph of
information.
Weather
Usually included in news
websites.
Weather pages typically display maps
with easy to understand icons to
represent the weather forecast.
Weather forecasts for different times can be viewed.
For example, the weather forecast for the rest of the
week can be viewed, as can the forecasts for
upcoming months.
Target audience:
• Long distance commuters
• Events management
• Schools
Online weather forecasts are updated daily,
and can therefore be classified as real time
information.
Social networking
Social networking sites such as “Facebook” and
“twitter” typically use real time news feeds.
This means that information that gets posted
by individual users is automatically added to
the news feeds of other users.
Radio
News, weather, traffic updates
and chart updates are all
included in radio broadcasts.
Information is in real time because
updates are made when listeners call
in with traffic news and weather
conditions
Target audience:
• commuters – traffic updates usually
occur during or just before rush hour.
• Teens and young adults for chart updates
Also, news updates are made
on the radio using real time
information sources e.g.
news websites or RSS feeds.
Benefits
RSS feeds allow brief summaries of web content to be made automatically, whereas a
standard file format only allows the information to be published once, then viewed by
many different users.
News websites allow free access to online
news stories without having to pay for a
newspaper.
Viewing the weather online eliminates the issue of
timing. The weather forecast can be viewed at any time
online, but it is only on the TV at certain times.
Social networking is an easy way to
communicate with others. It’s free
and doesn’t require modern, up to
date technology
Also, weather forecasts in the news
papers are not as detailed as online
forecasts.
Radio is also free to listen to and can be
listened to over the internet so a radio
device is not always required.
Drawbacks
RSS feeds can only be used with internet
access as there are no non internet
alternatives.
Social networking sites also
require internet connection.
Online weather forecasts are not
always accurate. But neither are
regular forecasts.
Updates to news websites may
be delayed if there are problems
with internet connection .
Non internet Alternatives
Alternatives for news and
Alternatives for social networking:
weather:
Texting (SMS)
Radio
Telephone
News papers
Television
Writing letters
Physical communication
Possible improvements
Improvements to real time information
websites usually only occur when specific,
individual websites need improvements;
General improvements to the whole sector
of websites that use real time information
are not usually made as each website is
much different to the next.