The technological revolutions of the Internet have ushered in a new age of journalism that cannot be confined to one medium or one platform of exchange.  It has made publishing and accessing news easier and cheaper than ever before with more sources and varied voices. The Internet offers unlimited space to whoever chooses to partake, unlike television programs and news articles that are confined by word count limitations and air time restrictions.  The relative ease with which information spreads creates an interactive playground for users that will only grow with time.

The Shift to the Digital

In the late 1980s, Cable News Network (CNN) began offering 24-hour news coverage that affected political discourse and public opinion, producing what is now known as the “CNN Effect.”  Around-the-clock reporting took news to the next level beyond the daily newspapers and weekly or monthly magazines.  Yet, the CNN effect seems limited compared to the possibilities of the Internet: Not only is national and international news available within minutes of the events happening, but there are also more news sources to choose from than just CNN.  The perspective of both American and international reporters, of journalists and citizens, are open to the public.

Wider and Broader News Conglomeration

Greater dependence on the web has sparked various trends relating to the collection of news stories. First, newspapers are turning more readily to news agencies for efficient news coverage. This can be seen with the growth of news agencies such as The Associated Press (AP), which creates and distributes content to registered members and subscribers in 121 countries. With 1,700 newspapers and 5,000 television and radio broadcasters reprinting their stories and images daily, it is no surprise that more than half of the world’s population sees AP news on any given day, according to their website.

The second trend is the emergence of news conglomeration websites that bring together stories from a variety of sources including AP and other nationally-based papers. For example, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) News, the world’s largest newsgathering organization, amasses its stories from over 4,000 sites.^{17 18} Even larger news-gatherers are online search engines themselves, such as Google and Yahoo! Search.  Not only do the searches include news stories, keywords also pull out the most searched-for commentaries, surveys, and blogs.

Where People Get Their News

Many studies have shown that the Internet is becoming increasingly popular as a news source. According to Pew Research Center, 54 percent of voting age Americans used the Internet to get political news and information and to email others to discuss the Presidential race during the 2010 midterm elections.¹⁹  During the 2008 presidential elections, the range and use of the internet reached unprecedented levels. The Obama campaign, utilized the internet as a communication, information and outreach platform in an unparalleled fashion.

The Pew study also found that people were no longer as dependent upon television and local news for information. For example, within a “high-powered” group of Internet users, defined as those who use broadband four or more times a day, 71 percent go online for news on an average day, while 59 percent get news from local TV, about half from national TV and radio, and 40 percent from local newspapers.²⁰

The generational gaps also show differences in where people turn to for news. In research conducted by the Associated Press, it was found that younger consumers get news from a variety of sources such as stories passed along by e-mail, social networking sites, and text messaging.²¹ 

Figure 6 reflects the divergences among the age demographics in regards to how they are informed of national and international news.  The Internet is the most popular source for the 18-29 crowd; while the 30-up age group prefers local television and cable news.

Figure 6: Generations Divide in Sources of National and International News²²

Multimedia and Interactive Dialogue

Words alone do not account for how individuals comprehend and share news—photos and videos are fervently uploaded to add perspective and visual aids. Forums and blogs (discussed below) allow for continual exchange of the multimedia dialogue, and the Web is able to combine both print and television for a comprehensive media package.

Americans are adapting to these high-tech advances and speaking out on various topics. Video-sharing websites such as YouTube have even been incorporated into the political process. During the 2007 U.S. Presidential Debates, CNN teamed up with the video-sharing hub and asked citizens to upload videos questions for the candidates. The debate forum was deemed by CNN’s DC bureau chief David Bohrman as “the most democratic of all possible structures” because anyone could voice his or her opinion, despite the usual barriers associated with politics.²³

New forms of Media

Information is dispersed in many different forms because of the overlapping of technology, print, and film.  We highlight three significant applications of the Web revolution to journalism and discuss how each is changing the way media is conceived and perceived by public.

Blogs

Blogs, or web logs, gained popularity right before the new millennium with the releases of LiveJournal, OpenDiary and Blogger in 1999.  As of 2010, there were an estimated 152 million blogs.²⁴ The purpose of a blog ranges from personal use, functioning like an online diary, to political commentary and trend analyses.  Web blogs are increasing in popularity due to the ease with which one can be publish material online.

One of the main features of blogging is the integration of folksonomy (tagging). Users are able to tag blog posts to make the content available through keyword searches. By grouping similar content, searching for and indexing the information is an easier task, making an age of “information overload” more convenient and adaptive.

A survey conducted by Universal McCann found that up to 45 percent of people worldwide have started a blog.  Asian countries like China, Taiwan, and South Korea show a larger portion of Internet users—around 70 percent—engaging in blogging, while 26 percent of U.S. users participate in blogs. Approximately 73 percent of those surveyed reported reading blogs regularly.²⁵

Though the majority of blogs is used for personal use (close to 63 percent), a handful are becoming a legitimate form of news.²⁶ The Daily Kos, the largest progressive community blog in the United States, receives two million unique visitors per month and notable figures such as President Jimmy Carter, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi have posted entries on the political website.²⁷ Newspapers such as The New York Times and The Washington Post have both incorporated online blogging as a form of news that is more interactive and less formal.

Besides the traditional forms of text blogging, video, audio, and photo blogs are taking form within the online community. Many of the users on YouTube, a website featuring user-generated videos, are bloggers of a wide range of interests, from comedy to commentary.  Flikr, an image and video-hosting website, serves as a photo repository for bloggers and also utilizes folksonomy (or tagging) to categorize content.

Podcasts and Web Syndication

Podcasts, dubbed by Apple Inc. as a literal combination of the “iPod” and “broadcast,” are expanding their reach beyond iTunes and iPod users.  Podcasts updates the age-old medium of radio broadcasting to compete with online content.  The broadcasts usual occur in a series of digital-media files which are distributed over the Internet using web syndicated feeds to notify listeners of updates. Listeners can subscribe for free to the audio-content through RSS feed that automatically update anytime new podcast shows are added.

In a recent survey conducted by the American Media Services, the Radio Index showed that 33 percent of participants said they have listened to a radio station on the Internet compared with only 12 percent who said they have listened to anything broadcast on HD radio.²⁸ Though the figures do not compare to the 61 percent of American adults that listen to the radio every day, organizations are turning their syndication into podcasts. National Public Radio (NPR), one of America’s largest public radio networks, has turned popular programs such as All Things Considered and This American Life into downloadable podcasts that can be streams anywhere.  Furthermore, they offer podcast-only material to reach out to younger audiences.

The market for podcasts is expanding, with a listener base of an estimated six million. Feedburner, a web feed management service that helps measure and put ads in RSS feeds for publishers, currently administers approximately 250,000 podcasts.²⁹  By 2011 Forrester research predicts 12 million people will be listening to podcasts, and the listener market will grow to $60 million domestically.³⁰

Issues and Controversy

Although access to up-to-date information is more widespread and accessible, the public availability of data is a double-edge sword. Because content is permanently available over the World Wide Web, accusations against inappropriate facts posted can result in unseen consequences.

For example, Lewis S. Mills High School senior Avery Doninger lost her position as class secretary after using the term “douche bag” to describe a school official. Although she stood behind the First Amendment for protection of free speech, the court finally sided with the school, stating “we are not authorized to intervene absent ‘violations of specific constitutional guarantees.” ³¹

On an even more serious level, some governments are tightening Internet restrictions further as blogging becomes more and more popular. For example, users who mention topics such as corruption, prostitution, or apostasy can possibly face a death sentence in countries such as Iran. Iran was also amongst the first countries to ban YouTube from the Iranian Internet providers.³²

For more on the role of the media and the Iranian elections, please read our news analysis: Two Historic Middle East Elections, with Two Radically Different Results.

The media revolution is consequently hurting print media, such as newspapers and magazines. Newspapers and magazine rely heavily on ad revenue to fund their companies, but competition with online mediums is hurting sales.  According to the Newspaper Association of America, in the past five years, newspaper ad revenue has fallen 51.9 percent from the 2005 peak of $49.4 billion to $25.8 billion in 2010.  However, less consumption of print also equates to less environmental damage. The Pulp and Paper Products Council (PPPC) found newspaper companies consumed 13.5 percent less paper from May 2007 to May 2008—that is equivalent to 800 million pounds of paper not used. 33

The recent economic recession further hampered the newspaper industry.  According to an April 27th,  2009 New York Times article, “At 395 daily newspapers, weekday circulation declined 7.1 percent for the six months that ended March 31, compared with the previous year. Sunday circulation for 557 daily newspapers was down 5.37 percent.”³⁴ Not surprisingly, “In the first quarter of 2009, newspaper Web sites attracted more than 73 million unique visitors each month, on average, according to an analysis by Nielsen Online for the Newspaper Association of America. That is a 10.5 percent increase from the first quarter of 2008.”³⁵

Print media has tried to adapt by integrating new content on websites to draw readers to both the web and paper, but with the expansion of web syndication and the popularity of interactive user forums, the future of media remains unclear.

To learn more about media and globalization, please read our Media in Depth.

17  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/help/3676692.stm

18  http://news.bbc.co.uk/newswatch/ukfs/hi/newsid_3970000/newsid_3975900/3975913.stm

19  http://www.pewinternet.org/Press-Releases/2011/The-Internet-and-Campaign-2010.aspx

20  http://www.usatoday.com/life/columnist/mediamix/2006-03-22-media-mix_x.htm

21  http://www.womma.org/blog/2008/05/young-people-prefer-to-get-their-news-via-online-social-connections/

22 http://people-press.org/2011/01/04/internet-gains-on-television-as-publics-main-news-source/1/

23 http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2007/06/youtube_and_cnn/

24  http://royal.pingdom.com/2011/01/12/internet-2010-in-numbers/

25  http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080429-report-like-it-or-not-number-of-bloggers-growing-rapidly.html

26  ibid

27  http://www.dailykos.com/special/about2

28  http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2008_April_8/ai_n25152189

29  http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/podcasts

30  http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/LiveITUP/Podcasting_The_new_tool_of_communication/articleshow/3170058.cms

31  http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080601-douchebag-blog-post-costs-senior-her-student-council-seat.html

32  http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080707-iran-considering-banning-filthy-bloggers-from-meatspace.html

33  http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2011/03/newspaper-ad-sales-hit-25-year-low-in.html

34 http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/forestwebs_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003820562

35  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/business/media/28paper.html

* Picture Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kalleboo/2214841137/

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