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Wednesday, December 22, 2004

Abstracts
"Online Journalism"
Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication
Volume 4 Issue 1     September, 1998

Who Pays for Content? Funding in Interactive Media Sally McMillan Boston University      This study analyzes funding of content at a sample of 395 Web sites. Three factors that may impact on funding are considered: interactivity, the value which site creators place on intellectual property (property values), and audience size. Significant relationships were found between interactivity and funding source and between property values and funding source. No significant relationship was found between audience size and funding source. Four funding models emerged: 1) Sponsored Content: low interactivity, low property values, funding from advertising and/or sponsorship fees; 2) Sales and Promotions: low interactivity, high property values, funding is a cost of doing business of the for-profit organization that created the site; 3) Community Content: high interactivity, low property values, funding is minimal because content is developed by volunteers and/or non-profit organizations; 4) Public Information: high interactivity, high property values, funding from government and education organizations. Implications of these evolving models are discussed for educators, practitioners, and public policy makers. Online -- The Future of Newspapers? Germany's Dailies on the World Wide Web Christoph Neuberger Jan Tonnemacher Matthias Biebl Andre Duck University of Eichstatt      The research project "Online -- the future of newspapers?" examined the producers, their products and the users of German online newspapers. The study on online editorial boards was carried out in the form of a standardized mail survey of all 81 daily newspapers with a WWW presence in May 1997 (return quote: 78%). A questionnaire for the users was placed in the Web, where it could be accessed via links to the homepage of 27 online papers (2524 respondents). In addition five individual websites of newspapers were examined (semi-structured oral interviews with the heads of the editorial boards, content analysis). Almost half of the staff in online editorial boards have journalistic duties. Technical duties are of growing importance. The majority of online editorial boards surveyed depend on the editorial decisions of the print editors. The news sections in online papers consist mainly of duplicates of the printed "parent" paper. Articles for the online version are rarely edited. Very few external links and no graphic or sound effects were added. About two-thirds of users would have chosen the print newspaper and just under a third would have preferred the online version if only one of the versions had been available. The case studies show that online publishers and users base their activities and/or expectations on the print newspaper and use or design their product accordingly. Locating Information in an Online Newspaper Herre van Oostendorp Christof van Nimwegen Utrecht University      In this study several aspects of the usability of an online newspaper are examined. More specifically, the effects of reading-manipulation techniques as scrolling and using hyperlinks on finding information at different locations in this hypertextual system are studied. Subjects participated in two sessions with a week interval. In each session subjects received a number of searching tasks consisting of finding information at different locations in the newspaper. Speed and accuracy were measured, and afterwards subjects received a recognition task. In general subjects were highly satisfied with the online newspaper, also their performance on the searching tasks was very adequate, even on deeper levels. It took, logically, more time to locate the information by scrolling down or by using a hyperlink to go to a next level than when having the hyperlink leading to the desired information immediately available on screen. Also the recognition performance was worse. Locating information after scrolling and after using a hyperlink took approximately the same amount of time, and the recognition performance was about equal. However, also an interaction effect was found between reading-manipulation technique and hypertextual level: particularly finding information for which scrolling down on a deeper hypertextual level is necessary, took extra time and probably extra cognitive resources, leading to a lower recognition performance. It is concluded that it is probably better, if possible, to avoid to present information on deeper hypertextual levels for which scrolling is necessary. Community or Colony:The Case of On-line Newspapers and the Web Patricia Riley Colleen Keough Thora Christiansen University of Southern California Ofer Meilich Washington University, St. Louis Jillian Pierson University of Southern California      Although the development of relationships on the Net may be seen as "community," the increasing global presence from commercial media such as on-line newspapers suggest that another metaphor may be jousting for preeminence -- colonization. Findings from an on-going case study of online newspapers suggest the early ideals of democratic community-building in cyberspace are encountering resistance as newspaper organizations delineate "virtual geographic space" and stake out "territory" on the web by subtly discouraging access to other sites (i.e., a type of virtual "homesteading"). Additionally, changes in the production practices of print journalists due to the emergence of electronic newspapers are discussed. Online Journalists: Foundations for Research into Their Changing Roles Jane B. Singer Colorado State University      Interactive media have grabbed the attention of communication researchers in the latter half of the 1990s, but the focus to date has been primarily on media audiences and their use of these new forms.This paper suggests four approaches that may help provide theory-based underpinnings in a different area: the study of journalists and the ways in which their roles and jobs are changing. The approaches are gate-keeping theory; diffusion of innovation theory; sociological perspectives, particularly those involving the sociology of news work; and a somewhat eclectic perspective that explores the idea of journalism as a potential force of cohesion in an increasingly fragmented society.