What is a time stamp and what does it tell you

A time stamp, also written as timestamp, is the time that is stamped on a web report and indicates when the report was published on the website.

It is made up of six elements: the day, the date, the month, the year, the time given in hours minutes and seconds and the time zone. However, it is not essential that all elements be presented in every time stamp. Different websites adopt different time stamp styles.

The time stamp is generally placed beneath the headline or the top photograph – just before the start of the story – so that the web users can notice the posting date and time and learn how fresh or old the news report is.

An important point about time stamps is that they are not manual. They are automated. The programme fetches the time and date from the server where the news report is stored. This ensures consistency.

Kinds of Time Stamps

1. Single time stamp: Some websites publish the date and time when the report was first uploaded. Such time stamps tell the reader when a story was first published but they don’t indicate if the story has been updated. The following is an example of such a time stamp:

Thursday, November 4, 2021 10:30:25 IST

2. Twin times stamps: Some news websites publish two time stamps. The first time stamp establishes the date and the time when the story was first published.

The second time stamp indicates the time when the story was last updated. This tool is especially useful in establishing the freshness of a developing story.

The following example illustrates how twin time stamps look like on a news website:

First Published: 06:34 IST (04/11/2021)
Last Updated: 12:05 IST (04/11/2021)

3. Time Stamp with a credit line: Today, several news websites include the byline (name of the reporter) or the credit line (name of the wire service which filed the story)– in the time stamp.

4. Time Stamp with city name: There are some news portals that also include the city name in the time stamp. The visitor on looking at the time stamp becomes aware of the city where the event occurred.

This time stamp is an extension of the classic newspaper dateline. There was a time when every newspaper report began with a dateline comprising of two elements: name of the city where the story originated and the date of filing the story.