Step 1.
Establish which agency story is the input to a given output story. In the world
of news, identifying the source text is a major problem. International wire
systems are massive and complicated, and the copy is hard to obtain (cf.
Boyd-Barrett, 1980, p. 103). Figure 1 shows only a fragment of how news
flows in one small country. Newsworkers and managers usually know only
their small link in the system. And the systems are constantly changing. The
only foolproof method of identifying what is the input to a given output story
is when the input copy bears the editor's actual markings. However, editing
increasingly occurs at video display terminals. Copy is fed in on tape,
displayed on a screen, and edited on the tape without necessarily ever being
printed out. The spread of this technology is rapidly eliminating bluepencilled
wire copy and the sure external evidence of identity which it offers.