Text strip describing important events
This article is about scrolling digital news displays. For paper strips, see
Ticker tape
. For the television news graphics in general, see
Lower third
.
A
news ticker
(sometimes called a
crawler
,
crawl
,
slide
,
zipper
, or
ticker tape
) is a horizontal or vertical (depending on a language's
writing system
) text-based display either in the form of a graphic that typically resides in the
lower third
of the screen space on a television station or network (usually during news programming) or as a long, thin
scoreboard
-style display seen around the facades of some offices or public buildings dedicated to presenting headlines or minor pieces of news. It is an evolution of the
ticker tape
, a continuous paper print-out of stock quotes from a
printing telegraph
which was mainly used in
stock exchanges
before the advance of technology in the 1960s.
News tickers have been used in
Europe
in countries such as
United Kingdom
,
Germany
and
Ireland
for some years; they are also used in several Asian countries and
Australia
. In the
United States
, tickers were long used on a special event basis by
broadcast
television stations to disseminate weather warnings, school closings, and election results. Sports telecasts occasionally used a ticker to update other contests in progress before the expansion of cable news networks and the internet for news content. In addition, some ticker displays are used to relay continuous stock quotes (usually with a delay of as much as 15 minutes) during trading hours of major
stock market exchanges
.
Most tickers are traditionally displayed in the form of scrolling text running from right to left across the screen or building display (or in the opposite direction for
right-to-left
writing systems such as
Arabic script
and
Hebrew
), allowing for headlines of varying degrees of detail; some used by television broadcasters, however, display stories in a static manner (allowing for the seamless switching of each story individually programmed for display) or utilize a "flipping" effect (in which each individual headline is shown for a few seconds before transitioning to the next, instead of scrolling across the screen, usually resulting in a relatively quicker run through of all of the information programmed into the ticker). Since the growth in usage of the
World Wide Web
, some news tickers have syndicated news stories posted largely on websites of broadcasters or by other independent
news agencies
.
Current uses
[
edit
]
Television
[
edit
]
The presentation of headlines or other information in a news ticker has become a common element of many different news networks. The use of the ticker has differed on a number of channels:
- News networks and local newscasts commonly use a setup in which news headlines are scrolled across an area near the bottom of the screen, though some variations have formed, such as showing one headline at a time with a scrolling or "flipper" effect.
- Financial news channels use two or more tickers displaying
stock
prices and business headlines.
- Networks with a focus on
sports
often use a slightly different system, where scores and statuses of ongoing and finished games are displayed one by one, along with minor sports highlights, statistics and sports news headlines. They are typically divided into categories devoted to specific leagues and events (with
college basketball
and
football
usually focusing on the top 25
ranked
teams on the
AP Poll
, occasionally supplemented by sections for specific
conferences
).
- Some programs, including news-based programs emphasizing viewer interactivity, or special events, may also use tickers to display messages and reactions from viewers and others that relate to the program. These comments are often sourced from
social networking services
such as
Facebook
and
Twitter
, typically curating comments from a specific page or
hashtag
.
Due to their current prevalence, they have been occasionally been made targets of pranks and vandalism. In one such example,
News 14 Carolina
allowed viewers to submit relevant information such as school closings or traffic delays via telephone or the Internet that would be incorporated into the ticker; the system was exploited in February 2004 to display humorous and crude messages, including the infamous "
All your base are belong to us
".
[1]
Some businesses and organizations have utilized tickers intended for relaying
weather-related closings
as a surreptitious source for free
guerrilla marketing
, proclaiming they were open rather than closed and giving their phone number if possible, allowing them to 'advertise' on a television station all day for free. Since then, many stations have required pre-registration of businesses or organizations with an authorized representative and a signed
affidavit
on company
letterhead
affirming their authenticity, along with filtering out unfamiliar businesses and organizations, before being able to display their closing announcements. Stations also confirm all closings involving
school districts
with authorized officials to prevent situations in which students either show up to canceled classes in dangerous conditions, or do not attend school due to an erroneous, prank-submitted, or false listing.
On personal computers
[
edit
]
Various applications have been developed over time to install news tickers on
personal computer
desktops using
RSS
feeds from news organizations, which are displayed in a fashion similar to those used by television channels but enable the user to access to underlying news stories, a feature not offered by traditional television channels. The
Bloomberg Terminal
and other
stock market
-tracking programs and devices also utilize tickers.
A ticker may also be used as an unobtrusive method by businesses in order to deliver important information to their staff. The ticker can be set to reappear, stay on screen, or be put into a retractable mode (where a small tab is left visible on-screen).
In the
United Kingdom
, broadcasters have stopped using this technology as other forms of communications have become available and increased in popularity.
BBC News
and
Sky News
discontinued their respective desktop tickers in March 2011 and 2012 to focus on other products, such as
smartphone
applications, to deliver updated information on breaking news and sport stories.
[2]
[3]
News tickers on buildings
[
edit
]
Since the advent of the telegraph, newspapers commonly used their buildings to share the latest headlines.
[4]
At first simple chalkboard signs were used for bulletins, but
limelight
illumination, electric lights,
magic lantern
projections, and other novel techniques were later employed.
[4]
The method of using electric lights to spell out moving letters was invented by Frank C. Reilly (August 20, 1888 ? April 10, 1947) and patented in 1923.
[5]
[6]
Reilly called his invention the Motograph.
In 1928,
The New York Times
installed a
Motograph
[
fr
]
to display news headlines on the sides of
Times Tower
. The display was 388 feet long, 5 feet high, and employed over 14,800 light bulbs.
[4]
Popularly known as the "Zipper", the sign remained in use until the building was sold in 1961.
[4]
The sign was darkened during World War II to comply with wartime lighting restrictions.
[4]
The Motograph operated until 1994
[7]
and was replaced by an electronic version in 1995, which was in turn removed in 2018 due to the replacement of all individual screens on the front of
One Times Square
with a 350-foot-tall
LED billboard
in 2018.
[8]
Ticker displays appear today on the exterior of the
News Corp Building
, which houses the headquarters for
Fox News Channel
/
News Corp
in the west extension of Manhattan's
Rockefeller Center
, as well as one that displays delayed stock market data that is located in Times Square.
NASDAQ
itself features a large display screen on the facade of the
NASDAQ MarketSite
building in Times Square.
The
Reuters
buildings at
Canary Wharf
and in
Toronto
have news and
stock tickers
; the latter type features market data for the
New York Stock Exchange
,
NASDAQ
and
London Stock Exchange
, while the Toronto building's ticker also includes quotes from the
Toronto Stock Exchange
.
A red-
LED
ticker was added to the perimeter of 10 Rockefeller Center in 1994, as the building was being renovated to accommodate the studios for
NBC
's
Today
. Placed at the juncture of the first and second floors, the ticker is visible to spectators in
Rockefeller Plaza
and passersby on West 49th Street and updates continuously, even at times when
Today
is not being produced and broadcast. As of 2015, the ticker strip is only a small part of a large two-floor LCD video display that is placed within the window of the studio showing promotional information.
The
Martin Place
Headquarters of
Seven News
, the news division of Australian television broadcaster
Seven Network
, also incorporates a ticker that wraps around the building.
In popular culture
[
edit
]
The use of news tickers has also been parodied on a number of films and television programs, including a 2003 episode of
The Simpsons
("
Mr. Spritz Goes to Washington
"), as well as a sketch featured on
Saturday Night Live
. Some programs and films such as
Austin Powers in Goldmember
sometimes place jokes within their parody news crawls.
The Onion News Network
uses a parody ticker to offer jokes in its online newscasts. The Australian comedy news series
CNNNN
went a step further: although it featured a joke news ticker throughout the show, one episode featured a news ticker that summarized the initial news ticker, as well as one for the sight impaired, which covered the whole screen.
The music video for the
Chamillionaire
rap single "
Hip Hop Police
" incorporated a parodical news ticker announcing the arrests of famous musicians.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Kevin Poulsen
(March 5, 2004).
"Wags hijack TV channel's on-screen ticker"
.
The Register
.
- ^
"Closing the BBC News Desktop Alert and Ticker"
.
BBC News
. March 30, 2011
. Retrieved
June 22,
2012
.
- ^
"Sky ticker"
. Sky Media
. Retrieved
June 22,
2012
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Cressman, Dale (2018).
"News in Lights: The Times Square Zipper and Newspaper Signs in an Age of Technological Enthusiasm"
.
Journalism History
.
43
(4): 198?208.
doi
:
10.1080/00947679.2018.12059181
.
S2CID
150332019
. Retrieved
27 September
2019
.
- ^
"FRANK REILLY, 58, DEVISED NEW SIGN; Inventor of Running-Electric Boards"
.
The New York Times
. April 11, 1947. p. 25
. Retrieved
27 September
2019
.
- ^
Reily, Frank.
"Patent #: US001451112"
. US Patent and Trademark Office
. Retrieved
27 September
2019
.
- ^
Gelder, Lawrence van (December 11, 1994).
"Lights Out for Times Square News Sign?"
.
The New York Times
. Archived from
the original
on May 8, 2016.
- ^
Young, Michael (May 19, 2019).
"One Times Square's 300-Foot-Long LED Screen Nearly Completed, in Times Square"
.
New York YIMBY
. Retrieved
2020-11-15
.
Another significant part of the exterior that was removed was the "zipper." This was the first of its kind in the world to display moving words for almost 90 years and was placed near the base of the tower
External links
[
edit
]