Online journalism

Online journalism is reporting and other journalism produced or distributed via the Internet.

An early leader was The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., USA.

Many news organizations based in other media also distribute news online. How much they take advantage of the medium varies. Some news organizations use the Web only or primarily.

The Internet challenges traditional news organizations in several ways. They may be losing classified ads to Web sites, which are often targeted by interest instead of geography. The advertising on news Web sites is sometimes insufficient to support the investment.

Even before the Internet, technology and perhaps other factors were dividing people's attention, leading to more but narrower media outlets.

Work outside traditional press

The Internet has also given rise to more participation by people who aren't normally journalists, such as with Indy Media.

Bloggers write on Web logs or blogs. Traditional journalists often do not consider bloggers to automatically be journalists. This has more to do with standards and professional practices than the medium. But as of 2005, blogging has generally gained at least more attention and has led to some effects on mainstream journalism, such as exposing problems related to a television piece about President Bush's National Guard Service.

News collections

The Internet also offers options such as personalized newsfeeds and aggregators such as Google News. As of March 2005, Wikinews rewrites articles from other news organization.

Some people see too much personalization as detrimental -- for example, that people will have narrower exposure.

External links

• Online Journalism Review
• journalism.co.uk
• Press Think article by Jay Rosen about changes at the News & Record, in Greensboro, N.C., USA.
• Wikinews