This idea is for a set of symbols or icons to report news so that the salient points can be absorbed 'at a glance' much like weather symbols. It would have to be specially tailored for news and I don't think you'd be able to avoid text entirely.

Some examples:

"Small earthquake in Chile. Few dead"

would be reported by showing a small globe with a crack through it, the ISO 3166 country code for Chile ("CL"), and half a skull and crossbones symbol

"Election in Italy; Incumbent complaining"

would be reported with a symbol of a ballot box, the code for Italy ("IT"), and an unhappy face symbol.
-- hippo, Apr 14 2006

My Weather Report http://www.weather....ty/hourbyhour/20500
I can easily ignore the little smear and just read the predicted tempurature and chance of rain. [Galbinus_Caeli, Apr 14 2006]

would a british smiley be drinking warm beer?
-- po, Apr 14 2006


It is hard enough to understand news reports as it is. Now you want they to have their own special language? Big Bone for you!

Me=(Hates icons, can never remember what they are supposed to stand for. Is that a printer, a fax machine, a shredder?)
-- Galbinus_Caeli, Apr 14 2006


icons are great for people who cannot spell ;)
-- po, Apr 14 2006


+ Wasn't this baked in Egypt a few thousand years ago?
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Apr 14 2006


I like it. I don't see it as being a great improvement over TV news shows that have a little scrolly bar at the bottom of the screen, but it would be an improvement to those scrolly bars.

I don't watch news much, and like to be able to see what's happening at a glance, and to see how long I have to wait for full coverage of stories that interest me.

Just don't make the symbols so obscure that we need to spend a lot of time learning them. Occasionally show a map with the day's icons arranged on it, then slide them to the bottom of the screen in the order they will be covered. +
-- baconbrain, Apr 14 2006


[phlish], I'd propose including an icon for Weird News, and an icon for Serious And Very Complicated News - either would suggest that anyone intersted read the whole story.

For the headline you mentioned, how about:

[Weird News] [explosion] [consumer product] [Japan] [no dead]
-- gisho, Apr 14 2006


Actually, I had no trouble understanding at a glance those headlines you used. For me, I think the headlines are faster than interpreting a group of symbols would be. Which, when I think about it doesn't really make that much sense since I translate the words in to representative tokens in my head to make sense of them.

They're not necessarily well formed, simplistic, little pictures, but there is this blobby, rough shape accompanied by images of old Italian architecture and such that represents Italy and a flash image of a politician addressing a crowd, from behind a podium on an elevated platform, amidst falling confetti that pops in to my head when I see "election".

So, maybe you're right and it's only me that would prefer words.
-- half, Apr 14 2006


Isn't this how chinese script started off? Except for the news and the TV or Internet bit.
-- Ling, Apr 14 2006



random, halfbakery