Chekhov's News

The protagonists turns on the TV, listen to the radio, or skim the newspaper as part of a morning routine and we get some brief look at the big news, then some background noise small articles and local goings-on. Of course, by the Law of Conservation of Detail, it's never really very small; even the most mundane or seemingly faraway events crash into the here and now with dramatic results.

That article about a new building opening? It will house the Doomsday Device MacGuffin. Reporter mentions sudden disappearance of a species? They're actually aliens going home. Radio announcement of an author cancelling his book tour? He's been silenced by the Brotherhood of Ancient Conspirators. Whatever the seemingly small-fry buzz, it may appear irrelevant or incidental right now but will turn out to be critical to the resolution of the plot.

Contrast Ignored Vital News Reports, in which the importance of a news item is obvious to the audience but the characters ignore it. This does not include news items that are purely Foreshadowing; to be Chekhov's News, the news must appear early on without obvious significance, and the payoff has to appear later in the work.

Anime and Manga

 * In Summer Wars, there is a news report in the beginning about a satellite hurtling towards the Earth, but will land safely. After everything has gone down, the satellite has been hacked and is now hurtling towards the Big Fancy House everyone's living in.
 * In Kiki's Delivery Service, there's a running news item involving a dirigible. At the climax,.
 * One arc in Black Butler begins with Ciel reading a newspaper article about a diamond trader having been murdered in faraway South Africa. The significance of this only becomes clear at the very end of the arc, when we learn why Mr. Woodley, another diamond trader. The motive for this was that

Comic Books

 * In Watchmen, news items mention the disappearance of prominent scientists and artists. It turns out that this is related, not only to the mask-killer cases, but to something much, much bigger.

Film

 * Date Night has an early mention of a local senate, an iconic broom and clean-up act who turns out to play a big part in why the heroes are getting chased down.
 * Early in the first Back to The Future movie, a random passerby mentions the 30th anniversary of a terrible lighting bolt that struck their monument in 1955..
 * Lampshaded in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, where the narrator expresses his contempt for the trope. It is later played straight by the film.
 * Subverted in Shaun of the Dead, where the news broadcasts follow this trope, but the characters never notice them.

Literature

 * In Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone, the Daily Prophet mentions a break-in at Gringotts that turns out to be an attempt at stealing the eponymous stone.

Live Action Television

 * Sherlock episode The Great Game, a bypass mention of an art display opening on the morning news later becomes a plot point.
 * The Doctor Who episode "The Wedding of River Song" starts with a radio broadcast about solar flares blocking out the signal.

Video Games

 * News reports early in Deus Ex Human Revolution prominently mention, which turns out to be The Very Definitely Final Dungeon. And additionally, the newsreader narrating those reports turns out to be a Chekhov's Gunman.
 * Inverted in Tachyon the Fringe. The Justified Tutorial has Jake Logan evaluating a novice flight instructor, and the tutorial's combat section has a group of drones go haywire and attack you. Later in the game, a news item reports that the instructor you evaluated saved her students when this happened again.

Western Animation

 * In The Incredibles, Mr. Incredible is reading the newspaper with a headline about his former superhero colleague Gazerbeam. Later, when he's escaping the robot, he finds Gazerbeam's skeleton in a cave, who had carved the word "Kronos" into the wall before he died.
 * In the The Legend of Korra "A Leaf in the Wind," Korra hears of up-and-coming pro-bending team the Fire Ferrets and star player Mako via a live radio broadcast, and later meets the team,.