How “Breaking News” Works

Graphic+by+Zainab+Imam

Graphic by Zainab Imam

How Breaking News Works:

Important information can happen any time of the day or night. It could be news about a fire, a major accident or a significant policy change (I.E. COVID-19 information) at the College of DuPage.

Sometimes we make a news judgment that it’s so important to get you a piece of information immediately that we let you know about it before we have the full picture or all of our (and your) questions answered. We attach the “Breaking” news tag or headline to these stories.

We deeply value accurate information. We never want to mislead our readers. But in a breaking news situation, sometimes not all the facts or all sides of a story are available right away. 

Stories with a “Breaking” news label reflect the best information available to us at that time. If that information turns out not to be incorrect, we will improve and adjust that information (while acknowledging the inaccuracy) as new and better information becomes available. 

The “Breaking” designation means we’re still working on this story and doing additional reporting. To that end, whenever you see “Breaking” news, it’s also an invitation to you, as the reader, to help us with any information or additional perspective you believe we are missing. Please contact the author of the article, leave a comment with a way we can reach you, or send an email to our editor-in-chief ([email protected]) with any information you have that can help us improve our breaking news coverage.