Characteristics of online journalism

Characteristics of online journalism
Hypertextuality
A news story is connected to other stories, archives, and resources and so on through hyperlinks
Interactivity
• Complexity of choice available
• Responsiveness to the user
• Facilitation of interpersonal communication
• Ease of adding information
• Multimediality
It has to do with the media format or formats that may best convey given news story. Media are means of
disseminating knowledge.
Characteristics of the Internet
1. Anonymity
2. Interactivity
3. Beyond geography
4. Online community
5. Lower cost to participate in the public sphere
6. Lower threshold for self-expression of political opinions
Potential of the Internet
1. Active, participatory citizenship
2. Not only consumption but production
3. Undermines the centralized control of information
4. Reflects the range of views and ideas
5. Improve the level of civic engagement among younger generation
Limitations of the Internet
Inaccuracy: misrepresent and lie
Internet news audience is smaller than that of the traditional media Entertainment rather than political
engagement
“Digital divide”: a class system based on (a) computer ownership, (b) Internet access, and (c) computer
literacy that corresponds with social economic statuses
How digital journalism has changed the way we access the news?
The development of digital journalism has radically changed the way people access the news. The
introduction of the internet opened the way for the creation of an entirely new medium of journalism a
online journalism. Online journalism presents users with the unprecedented ability to chose when, where
and what news they will receive. The traditional news media of broadcast, print and radio all broadcast,
publish or air their bulletins at the time they chose, in the order they chose and to the depth they chose.
However, online journalism allows the user to access the news at any time from any computer or personal
device with an internet connection. Once connected, the user can select the stories they wish to view and
can easily access further information on the story if they so desire.Interactivity of Online Journalism
These developments have given the user an unprecedented amount of interactivity when accessing the
news. People have always interacted with the media however, interactivity is far more flexible in online
journalism (DeWold, 2001: 102). Users can sign up for an online newspaper and be regularly emailed
stories about their interests; online journalism also gives the user unprecedented possibilities in
responding to the story. After reading a story the user can email the journalist to tell them what they
though of the article, join a chat group to discuss the article or post a comment on a feedback page.
Construction of Online Journalism
Studies into how users digest content on online journalism sites show that users consume the story in a
completely different way to users of traditional journalism media. In the early stages of online journalism
many sites where attached to news outlets who simply posted their print story or the script of the radio
story onto the page. This proved to be ineffective as writing for the online world is vastly different from
writing for the printed page (DeWolk, 2001: 90). Author Martha Sammons pointed out in her Internet
Writer Book that people read off the computer screen thirty percent slower then they read off paper. Also,
people do not read carefully online, rather they scan. If they cannot quickly and easily find the
information they are after they promptly leave the site (DeWolk, 2001: 90).To complement this, online
journalism developed its own style of story construction. Presenting the story in chunks allows the reader
to quickly scan the story and single out the passages relevant to them (Ward, 2002: 148). Presenting
information in the form of bulleted lists, tables, graphs or other clear graphic elements allow the reader to
get the information they want quickly (DeWolk, 2001: 92). The writing towards the end of the page
should not conclude the story but rather should compel the user to link onto other pages connected to the
story.
In broadcast, print and radio the story is presented to the user in a linear fashion. The journalist decides
how the story should be constructed and it is presented to the audience in the manner chosen by the
journalist. The user would then hear, read or view the story from start to finish giving the user the option
of either consuming it or not. To a certain extent, the journalist can try to guide the user through the story
but ultimately the result rests with the user (Millison, 2004). The hyper textual nature of online journalism
allows the user to read the parts of the story they wish to, link onto other pages within the site, play audio
grabs or view short video pieces. To encompass this, the journalist must construct the story to be nonlinear,
allowing the user to be able to easily follow the story as they want to. Online journalism is the
place "where television, radio, and the new media forms of the internet collide" (Hall, 2001: 6). This
Convergence within Journalism is likely to change everything journalists think they understand
about mass media (DeWolk, 2003: 85)
Immediacy of Online Journalism
Immediacy has always been a fundamental element of journalism as the very nature of the new is that it is
new Broadcast and radio were traditionally the most immediate form of journalism as, should a major
story break, they could interrupt their programming with a bulletin. However, they are still constrained by
deadlines and cannot explore the story in too much depth (Gunter, 2003: 48). Print journalism allows
story depth but often the story is not reported until the morning after. Online journalism provides perhaps
the best arena for distributing news quickly (DeWolk, 2001: 51) as it presents the immediacy of broadcast
and radio with the depth of print. However, this has presented a problematic question for news
organizations that run both a traditional and online outlet whether or not to break a story on the online site
before broadcasting or publishing it. "In the one hand, the news organization wants to take advantage of
the incredible speed of the internet and be the one to break the story. On the other hand the organization
does not want to beat its own primary news vehicle and tell competitor what it has. The again, the
organization wants to use the web site as a promotion for its primary news product. But it does not want
to make it unnecessary for people to purchase the newspaper or to watch or listen to a broadcast because
they saw the story on the Web already." (DeWolk, 2003: 172-3)