What does ‘24 hour news cycle’ actually mean?

It’s a buzz term, “24 hour news cycle.” What does it mean—that the news never stops? Maybe. But Slate.com ’s media critic Jack Shafer has a different view. To him, “24 hour news cycle” refers to three phases of news. “Overnight, newspapers launch the news,” Shafer wrote. “They publish stories clarifying the events of yesterday; they break their own investigative stories; they print zeitgeist-defining feature articles and op-eds.” The morning bri…