Local biases in reporting may now be quickly offset with information from different sources at relatively low cost. One recent example of bias in reporting concerns the diverse accounts of the number of people attending the Montreal rally held before the Quebec referendum of 1995 in Canada. Internet news readers were able not only to get diverse views of this story from across Canada but also to have continual updates of the referendum results, see reaction to the referendum from around the world, and gauge the reaction of financial markets. In other cases, local governments can suppress expression by groups and individuals. Finally, the so-called Trial of Century, namely, the O. J. Simpson case, was extensively reported and watched on television.
Television has a linear format for presenting information.
Even though television viewers had the option of changing channels, most channels were reporting the same information in similar formats. This style of news delivery has many advantages for the consumer of news, but it could represent a change and an ultimate loss of editorial control by news-providing organizations. To what extent users will be empowered to control the news they want to see and what effect this will have on society will probably be determined during the next few years. Future Trends Future news systems for the Internet will need to have flexible systems for multiple and remote authoring, as well as better methods for storing, organizing, and retrieving information. There is also an increasing trend in the design of user interfaces to create personalized displays of information.