Category: Featured

The Agenda-Setting Effects Exist on the Internet, McCombs Confirms

Max McCombs, internationally recognized for his research on the agenda-setting role of mass communication, discussed the Internet as a new frontier for agenda-setting effects during the 7th International Symposium on Online Journalism. In response to a scholarly discussion that the Internet may end the agenda-setting effect, he confirmed the agenda-setting effects do exist on the …  Read More

Multimedia Packages are Becoming the Norm for Journalism Web Sites

Video is merging with animation, audio, and text to create the multimedia packages that are becoming increasingly familiar – and expected – at leading journalism Web sites. Media Web sites are looking less like their original printed or television broadcast products and developing their own styles, the panel at the 7th International Symposium on Online …  Read More

Citizen Journalism is Emerging Around the World

Pet photographs, little league statistics and 49th wedding anniversary announcements may not make it into traditional news sources, but these and other quirky topics are increasingly fodder for outlets publishing content from citizen journalists. A panel earlier today addresses the possibilities – and possible problems – raised by citizen journalism. Although she said she prefers …  Read More

UT Grad Students Survey Online Journalism

Taking charge of the second half of the panel on Issues in Online Journalism at the 2005 International Symposium on Online Journalism, graduate students Sonia Huang and Tania Cantrell gave in-depth analysis of who is using online news sources and how their experiences affect what they read. Following Thomas Terry’s presentation on independent journalism and …  Read More

Increased Internet Access Leads to Quick Global Change

Five years ago people devastated by a tsunami would not have received as much aid as quickly as they did in December, 2004. Without the invention of blogging and other modern forms of information dissemination, many victims might still be helpless. So says Gary Chapman, director of the 21st Century Project at the Lyndon B. …  Read More

Online Journalism Must Evolve

What business are we in? This was the question Steve Yelvington, Internet strategist for Morris Digital Works, asked at the 6th International Symposium on Online Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. Yelvington was referring to the present state of journalism. “Economics in journalism have changed from a scarcity of news to a surplus,” …  Read More

News Coverage: Past, Present, and Future

  The nature of online journalism has changed drastically since its inception in the early 1990s, but that evolution is nowhere near complete. Events such as the Iraqi War, and even the World Cup, are covered far differently today than they would have been five years ago. Similar events will be covered differently in the …  Read More

Audience Writes the News at Wikinews

Wayne Saewyc spoke Friday about Wikinews, an online news site that offers a unique way for viewers to edit any content on its website. The keyword of Saewyc’s presentation was “community,” emphasizing the idea that it is the readers who decide what appears on Wikinews. “It’s about the community and how we work together and …  Read More

OhmyNews editor says “Every Citizen is a Reporter”

  While the New York Times Online edition is just a “pipe for news delivery,” OhmyNews (English version here) is “a playground for readers,” said Jean Min, a deputy chief of the international division of the country’s liberal online newspaper, OhmyNews, at the 6th International Symposium on Online Journalism. “The attitude of the New York …  Read More

Gillmor Encourages Audience Participation as Symposium Begins

The future of journalism in the digital age is dependent on the continued growth of participation from a worldwide audience, Dan Gillmor said during his presentation to inaugurate the 6th International Symposium on Online Journalism at The University of Texas at Austin. The renowned author of “We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for …  Read More