The path an idea or event takes to come into our awareness depends on the type of information and the intended audience.
The Research Pyramid illustrates the way scholarly information begins with an idea and gradually makes its way through different types of publications.
The Information Cycle A tutorial from Penn State libraries that "will help to introduce you to the way information is created, distributed, and eventually digested in the days, weeks, months and years following the occurrence of a newsworthy event." The Columbine massacre is the example used. This is quite different from the way scholarly research gets distributed. [Sound required]
Open Access Publishing is an idea that takes advantage of the openness of the Web to to make information readily accessible and free of charge. It operates outside traditional scholarly publications [either print or online]. The Public Library of Science is one such scholarly initiative. Open access publishing does not bypass copyright as creators retain legal rights to their work but agree, via licensing such as the popular Creative Commons, to share the work and allow for distribution by others.