Today’s News
Today’s News is a video series that compiles scrolling headlines from the ticker tapes of cable news programs. Each video focuses on a single day in history, chronologically gridding the ticker tape from that day into a giant mosaic. Headlines enter at the bottom right of the screen and then move successively across each row of text from right to left until finally exiting the screen at the top left corner. The sound results from the layering of the sound tracks from each constituent video that forms the mosaic of the giant news ticker. This layering accumulates into a deafening roar of white noise as the sounds of hundreds of newscasters, reporters, and guests jumble together into incoherence.
Today’s News: April 9, 2003
12 hr. 38 min. (2 min. excerpt), video, 2020
Today’s News: April 9, 2003 chronologically aggregates the news tickers that ran along the bottom of cable news broadcasts (CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News) on April 9, 2003 when U.S. troops infamously toppled a statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad. Each headline enters at the bottom right corner and scrolls continuously on screen for 50 minutes as it snakes up 90 rows of text before exiting at the top left corner of the screen. The sporadic flashes that break up the flow of text mark transitions from one channel to another arising from the VHS recordings that served as this video’s source material. The sound results from layering up the soundtracks from each of the 540 videos that compose the overall mosaic. In addition to headlines about the Iraq War, viewers may also notice reporting on the 2003 SARS outbreak.
Today’s News: September 11, 2001
12 hr. (2 min. excerpt), Video, 2024
Today’s News: September 11, 2001 chronologically aggregates the news tickers from multiple cable news channels including CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News among others on September 11, 2001 during the terrorist attacks. The source material originates from six VHS tapes recorded by a single New Yorker in upper Manhattan starting shortly after the first plane struck the North Tower. Notably, the news ticker became a standard feature of cable news on September 11, 2001 because of the need to cover multiple stories simultaneously. Since then, the news ticker has remained a fixture of cable news coverage.
2 min. excerpt
Today’s News: April 22, 2022
10 hr. 41 min. (2 min. excerpt), Video, 2023
Today’s News: April 22, 2022 chronologically aggregates the news tickers from CNN’s live stream on April 22, 2022 during the early stages of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The source material comes from a screen recording. The periodic white flashes originate from the website refreshing during the live stream.