Online Journalism

Online journalism has combined the best, and in some cases the worst, aspects of all previous traditional news media. It offers a level of interactivity—direct communication between news organizations and audiences—never before known, made possible by online news forums. However, although it has brought text, audio, video, and graphics together in a single presentation, the practice of journalism on the Internet has not as yet broken any serious new journalistic ground.

The most common form of online journalism is the news Web site, such as http://CNN.com, http://Washingtonpost.com, and http://CNET.com. Some are partnered with or belong to traditional news outlets, and others stand alone on the Web. Email news services, which usually provide fragments of information and hyperlink pointers back to a Web site, are also important. Online bulletin board systems (BBSs), which are sometimes a haven for amateur journalists, and intranets, where financial news is often distributed to corporate employees and executives, are two other examples of online journalism.

What each of these adds to the pre-existing journalistic mix is interactivity. In online news, interactivity is most obviously represented by hyperlinks, which are the beginning of a new form of journalistic communication. They make news stories “non-linear,” meaning that readers or viewers don't have to rely on the judgment of editors or producers to decide which story deserves the greatest emphasis or should be looked at first; readers can choose what is most interesting to them. Online news agencies have responded in some cases by “pushing” personalized news to readers, often in customized emails, that are stocked with stories according to a pre-selected set of topics in which the reader has expressed interest. Many sites embed hyperlinks to background stories, audio and video clips, or other ancillary information directly within their news pages. In some cases, readers may choose not to view what is presented to them as “news” at all, but instead may seek out historical information on related topics instead. Or they may choose to visit another site altogether, by means of the hyperlinks that many news sites provide to other Web sites of interest. These are levels of choice and opportunity that have never before been present in any medium at any time in the history of news.

Interactivity's journalistic impact doesn't stop at hyperlinks. News organizations also can set up chats, email forums, and message boards, and they can conduct online polls. These tools enable news bureaus to trade ideas and information with their audiences, learn of news story ideas, and listen and respond to direct public criticism and praise.

At a forum sponsored by the University of Minnesota's Institute for New Media Studies in October 2000, former Wired magazine and http://Slashdot.org writer Jonathan Katz described how his reporting has been directly affected by the inclusion of an email link in his author's byline. Katz said that he once wound up writing five different versions of the same column, which initially was a condemnation of the rap artist Tupac Shakur. When he first blasted the murdered rapper's violent and misogynistic lyrics, African Americans in the audience complained that he didn't understand Shakur's true artistic intent. When Katz admitted that they were right, he wrote another column saying so, sparking waves of protest from those who'd agreed in the first place, which in turn prompted a third column. Later, he produced two others, as further and more refined communication continued between columnist and audience. Katz said that by the time he was done, he had an understanding of rap culture that he could never have gained any other way, and his final column was the one that he would have written in the first place had he better understood his subject.

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