M EDIA LAW ASSIGNMENT

[MEDIA AND INTERNET]ONLINE JOURNALISM

ContentsINTRODUCTION2What is Online Journalism?2Branches of Online Journalism3ONLINE NEWS3History of Online News3Differences between the Print and the Online Version of Newspapers6Competition between Online Newspaper and Print Newspaper6ONLINE JOURNALISM AND THE SOCIETY7Advantage and Disadvantage of Online Journalism7CONCLUSION9

INTRODUCTION

Print journalism has existed in our lives hundred of years already and some people would always prefer the traditional than what is innovative. Analysts once said that Television would end the popularity of radio and kill it sooner or later but Radio never left its broadcast. Would this also happen to print? Well never know for other factors would affect whether print will exist or online will prevail.

According to wikipedia.org, Interne or simply the Net is the publicly available worldwide system of interconnected computer networks that transmit data by packet switching using a standardized Internet Protocol (IP) and many other protocols. It is made up of thousands of smaller commercial, academic, domestic and government networks. It carries various information and services, such as electronic mail, online chat and the interlinked web pages and other documents of the World Wide Web.

What is Online Journalism? On the other hand, Webster (2006) defines Online as connection of a computer to one or more other computers or networks, as through a commercial electronic information service or the Internet.

Online journalism is the science or art of writing newspapers, journal, magazines, etc through electronic service information or the internet. But wikipedia.org, simply defines online journalism as the reporting of facts produced and distributed via the Internet. Another definition from Hall (2005) is it is revolutionizing the way news is reported and read. The rise of the Internet has forever changed the way audiences interact with the news--stories are posted the moment they break and readers routinely expect to be able to access both the news sources and local perspectives. Online news and the media juggernauts who own it raise a number of urgent questions about accuracy, press autonomy, freedom of speech, and economic exclusion.

Branches of Online Journalism According to Below the Fold, Online Journalism is traditionally functioning with the three to four branches of involvement, each as vital as the other and with appropriate checks and balances:Mainstream Journalism purpose will be more focused and its managers more humble. This journalism as a public service role, making the most of its experience, depth and access. Citizen Journalism will create public journalism in a mostly hyper-local role, focusing on issues close to home. It will hold the mainstream media accountable to both the public and the truth.Consumers Journalism or much known as Just Plain Peoples Journalism. These people will participate by reading, watching and listening. Then, they will comment and interact. They are just as much a part of the media as anyone else, because media is no longer a passive exercise. Media are now accountable to each other, from the Wal-Mart shopper to the head of CNN.The former mainstream journalist who works exclusively online or the journalism school trained reporter who has only worked in new media and not for a traditional media outlet. This journalism version of a mash-up may prove to be the most popular of all, as todays reporters become more disillusioned and tomorrows reporters become more comfortable with all new forms of media.Online Journalism catches up to the traditional form of journalism. The online world is up-to-date and real world is left behind. Online Journalism can publish anytime the news breaks but the Offline Journalism is left behind and usually published the next day.

ONLINE NEWS

History of Online News

According to Online Journalism Review(OJR), the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois released a beta version of Web browser Mosaic in September 1993. Within a month, the University of Florida's journalism school launched the first journalism site on the Web. Around the same time, O'Reilly launched the Global Network Navigator as the first e-zine to map the Web, and the White House launched a Web site. By 1994, Wired magazine's online arm, HotWired, was running the first banner ads, and newspapers started to post content on Web.

Inky newsprint papers with its 10-point Times Roman Font were the center of every kitchen table and an integral part of everybodys morning routine. The newspaper industry revolutionized us for hundreds of years. Readers learned to trust certain bylines and to understand signs of importance, such as the screaming banner headline. Most people believe the newspaper will never be replaced by a computer screen. After all, you can't take it with you on the Metro or spill your coffee on it.

However, online newspapers are starting to popularize their own, especially among the news hounds, the computer savvy, and the young, who see the Internet as a viable medium for information and news. Online is a medium perfectly suited for people who have gone beyond MTV, beyond Entertainment Tonight, and even beyond Wired magazine. With its tendency to blur and blend media, the online newspaper is not as straightforward as its ink counterpart, even if it contains all of the news and information that is in the newspaper.

According to Thiel (1998) when they first created an online presence in the early to middle 1990s, editors were not worried about the day-to-day message of a newspaper -- the content. They had content down pat; the difference online was the time scale, not the content itself. But they did not realize that the time scale imposed its own message, which going from a daily to an hourly publication made it different, not just faster.

Because the online newspaper is never "put to bed" and never completely finished so long as there is news to report, or readers to receive that news for the first time as they log on at various hours of the day and night, the individual stories are not the message of the online paper. Instead the message is in the overall "look and feel." The news has to be presented in an accessible way, an attractive way. Readers have to be sold on the content by the general look and feel of the site rather than the news itself.

Online newspapers splash their headlines and sometimes their lead paragraphs on their front "page." Bylines are relegated to the full story. Readers who click to the home page of washingtonpost.com might scan the stories that are presented up front (presumably the most important), and not know whether they will be getting an AP story (which is likely, since the site uses the AP wire to update breaking news throughout the day), an in-depth political analysis by senior Post reporter David Broder, or a lighter, written-for-the-Web piece by a post.com producer with very little journalism experience. Some readers (and even journalists) might argue that is an improvement in an age where top reporters are household names and "McLaughlin Group" celebrities -- it brings equality to news and features and allows fresh voices to emerge. Others might argue that it muddies the news because it does not provide readers with a clear distinction between hard news, features, and canned articles.

By not making a distinction between different kinds of news articles, an online newspaper turns its articles into commodities, to be sold by the brilliance of the headline and its placement on the front page, rather than by the content. Such commoditization cuts the reader off from the process of news gathering and dissemination by blurring one of the links -- the byline. And making news a commodity makes it less personal, more alien.

Online newspaper seems to emphasize style over substance, and has found a medium and an audience perversely receptive to that emphasis, producing today's postmodern journalism.

In the postmodern newspaper there are fewer boundaries, either within the publication, or in its relationship with the rest of the world. Online newspapers may have "sections," but going from one to another is seamless: no need to lick forefinger and thumb and turn pages. Seamlessness is more insidious, too, as information is added to an article as it is revealed to the reporter, or the placement or headline (size and content) is changed throughout the day as other stories wane and wax. Such practices are not possible on a one-edition-a-day paper, and they happen so rarely on multi-edition big-city daily papers that no one thinks about the effect of moving a story. In the postmodern medium of an online newspaper, however, it happens a lot. So the online newspaper in subtle ways forces the reader to become postmodern.

Differences between the Print and the Online Version of Newspapers

Most readers of newspapers predicted that online versions of newspapers will die easily. But surprisingly online newspapers didnt die but continued publishing on cyber space. In fact, the researcher found out that the online version is different from the print. A study conducted in the University of Columbia gave details that majority of the subscribers of the print version also wants the online version thats why they subscribed. Another finding was that those prefer the reading newspapers online likes it better because they can easily choose the type of news they wanted to read.

There are a lot of different from the print and online newspapers. Articles were shortened from the print edition. Stories are extended to include additional information for the online edition. Order of content of an article is altered for the online edition. Style is revised for the online edition making it more creative and colorful than the black and white basic style of printed papers. Story is given a new headline for the online edition that readers became curious of whats new in the content of the article. A lot of graphics were also added to give better story for the online edition. E-mail links to the editorial board, author, staff, etc. were also added to giving audience freedom to express their views, comments, suggestion about the news item. Discussion forum on the subject of the article set up for the online edition giving audience a greater liberty to share their knowledge to others. Music, sounds, video sequences, animations and spoken texts are attractive by means of adding variety to the plain news report. Aside from the up-to-date-minute information from the printed version, daily newspapers also offer numerous additional features on their web sites like archives, entertainment (games, comics, etc.), special offers, services and a lot more.

Competition between Online Newspaper and Print Newspaper

A number of questions dealt with the comparison of the information content of online newspapers compared with print newspapers. Compared with the print version, the online newspaper provides more "breadth" of information. The often very much smaller size of online newspapers compared with the print newspaper may be the reason that the print newspaper was rated by considerably more respondents as providing greater "depth" of information.

Regarding the navigability, the position is more positive for online publications. Users stated that they could find their way around online publications better. As regards to entertainment value, Users found online newspapers just as good as print newspapers. The online versions of newsstand newspapers are an exception in this respect, users rated the online version as more entertaining than the print version. What about reader loyalty? Majority of users would have chosen the print newspaper and a number would have preferred the online version if only one of the versions had been available. The decision in favor of the print version was based on its portability, while the advantages of the online version were seen as being its accessibility from outside the normal circulation area and the avoidance of unwanted paper. The main advantage, however, in the eyes of the respondents, was that online newspapers are normally provided free of charge. It is not surprising that users would not be prepared to accept a charge. Readers are not willing to pay for online newspapers. Apparently, users are not willing to pay for the advantages of online newspapers.

ONLINE JOURNALISM AND THE SOCIETYAdvantage and Disadvantage of Online Journalism

Advantage of Online Journalism:

1. ImmediacyOnline publication allows the publishers to get the information to the reader much more quickly than the print newspaper. Newspapers were available online before the print edition. The online version is updated several times a day. The greater immediacy of the online newspaper was very important the more page views they have.

2. Use is usually free of chargeReaders dont have to go to newsstand and pay money to access news and information. Most readers who easily access WWW prefer the online news and newspapers for they can have the news without charge.

3. Use of a wider spectrum of newspapers possible and of foreign newspapersNot all print newspapers reach destinations on time. Sometimes, it even took hours or days to get a printed news papers. Online news and newspapers are available easier to be accessed specially the foreign papers. Online is better for catching the attention of people across the country

4. Use of back copies / Archiving of articles on the computerThe advantages resulting from hypertext, automated searching and the availability of back numbers were some of the reason why reader prefers the online versions rather than print.

Disadvantage of Online Journalism:

1.Online newspapers do not report on all subjectsOne serious disadvantage of online newspapers was felt to be that they usually provide only a selection of the articles available in the print newspaper. That online version extracts the news that is in the paper. Readers felt that they are not given the complete news and information that the print offers to them.

2. They do not convey the experience of reading a newspaperOther disadvantages cited by many users is that online newspapers can not provide the same experience of reading as a print newspaper. Most of them said that reading a news paper while eating breakfast, traveling at the metro, etc. is a whole different experience than sitting and reading computers straight from the computer monitors.

3. Long download timesAlso, the download times are long. There seem to be few technical problems connected with reading online newspapers. Some users complains that it really takes time for a webpage to load for so many graphics, pictures, advertisements and pop-ups are included online.

4. Reading the screen is tiringStaring too long at computer screens and monitor for some are tiring. Than in print, the plain black and white and universal fonts dont hurt the eye.CONCLUSION

There has been a proliferation of online newspapers over recent years. Despite this, factors affecting the quality of online newspapers remain only partially understood. Even if online journalism is easily available and updated regularly, credibility and news sense has always been a question on whatever that is uploaded and published online.

The question of content in the published news material online will always affect its reader. Whether they will believe or not, online journalists should always be responsible in the information they are uploading.

Online gives everyone a world wide freedom and a world wide freedom deserves a world wide responsibility. Not only to its regular readers and subscribers but also to people who are just curious what news online is all about.

We are in the information age. It is the age where information is freely accessible to everybody. We want the news in other countries and we get it right away.

Since we are in this age, it also gives the researcher the conclusion that news, whether online or offline, people would always want to chase what is new within its society. And the future would not kill traditional print journalism.

The newer form, online journalism, will emerge but the older form would not die for they will continue to evolve and adapt to what the society needs.

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