Journalism and computers

The pervasive use of computers and the Internet has changed the practice of journalism in many ways. This entry will focus on the general impact of technology on the creation and dissemination of news content. For discus-sion of software used in the production of publications, see desktop publishing, and word processing. For the role that journalism plays in the computer industry, see jour-nalism and the computer industry.

Research and Newsgathering

The gathering of on-scene information at newsworthy events began to change in the 1980s, when notebook-sized portable computers became available. Instead of having to “file” stories with the newspaper by telegraph or phone, the reporter could write the piece and send it to the newspa-per’s computer using a phone connection (see modem) or later, Internet-based e-mail.

The ability of reporters (particularly investigative report-ers) to do in-depth research has been greatly enhanced by the Internet. Traditionally, reporters looking for back-ground material for an assignment could consult printed reference works, their publications’ archives of printed arti-cles (the “morgue”), and various public records, usually in paper form. This process was necessarily slow, and it was difficult to widen research to include a greater variety of sources while still remaining timely.

Today most publications produce and store their mate-rial electronically and make it available online. Reporters thus have virtually instant access to articles written by their colleagues around the world. Instead of having to rely on a few press releases, position papers, or wire stories, report-ers can search the Internet to delve more deeply into the underlying source material, such as original documents or statistics. An increasing number of public records are also available online.

Changing Standards and New Challenges

After being submitted electronically, reporters’ stories can be edited, revised as necessary, and submitted to the com-puter-controlled typesetting systems that have now become standard in most publications. Besides saving production costs, computer-based newspaper production also makes it easier to make last-minute changes as well as to create spe-cial editions that include regional news.

However, at the same time the greater use of information technology has made print journalists more productive, it has also contributed to trends that continue to challenge the viability of print journalism itself. The nature of the Internet poses new challenges to reporter-researchers. The accuracy of traditionally published books or articles is backed implicitly by the reputation of the publisher as well as that of the author. By offering a wide variety of materi-als produced outside the mainstream publishing process, often by unknown authors, the Internet can provide a much greater diversity of viewpoints (see also wikis and Wiki-pedig). The downside is that the reporter-researcher has little assurance of the veracity or accuracy of facts given on unknown Web sites. This creates a greater burden of fact checking in responsible journalism or, alternatively, a relaxation of the traditional standards. (The most famous example of the latter is Matt Drudge, a self-made Internet-based journalist who sometimes dramatically “scooped” his more plodding colleagues but did not adhere to the old journalistic standard of finding two independent sources for each key fact.)

The use of the Internet as both a research tool and a medium of publication is also bound up with the ever-accelerating pace of the “news cycle,” or the time it takes for a story to be disseminated and responded to. Broadcast journalism with the advent of 24-hour news networks such as CNN has steadily increased the pace of the broadcast news cycle. Many newspapers and magazines have found having Web sites to be a competitive necessity. The Internet potentially combines the immediacy of broadcast journal-ism with the ability to use text to convey information in depth. The organization of Web pages (see hypertext and hypermedia) avoids the physical limitations of the printed medium.

In addition to Web sites that mirror and expand the contents of printed newspapers, a number of distinctive Internet-only sites emerged in the mid to late 1990s. Exam-ples include salon.com, an “online newsmagazine” that also includes regular featured columnists and discussion forums. However, the downturn in the Internet-based econ-omy in 2002 made the original idea of having free access supported by advertising less viable. Such sites are now try-ing to convert to a subscription-based model similar to that of print-based publications, but it is unclear whether they will be able to attract enough paying subscribers.

New Alternatives and New Questions

The Internet is rapidly changing not only how journalism is produced, but how it is delivered—and indeed, the role and future of the profession itself. Broadcast journalism, already greatly changed by the advent of cable TV networks in the 1990s, has now found itself needing to deliver programs through new channels (see podcasting, Internet radio, and music and video distribution, online). With “broad-casts” available any time at user request, the news cycle has essentially vanished into a 24/7 reality where wave upon wave of stories is constantly flowing and changing.

The more profound change, though, is in who gets to practice and define journalism. Everyone it seems has some-thing to say online (see blogs and blogging). Bloggers who cover current events (especially politics) at their best represent the latest incarnation of “citizen journalism” (see political activism and the Internet). However, issues of objectivity (and the line between activist and journalist) have been raised, as has the question of what legal protections for journalists should apply to bloggers and online news reporters.

In addition to blogs, photo and video sharing sites (see, for example, YouTube) now widely distribute mate-rial, often quite controversial, that might once have been ignored by mainstream media. For their part, many main-stream journalists now also maintain blogs through which readers can respond to stories of the day.

At the same time, in an era when a stream of both images and the printed word is on tap 24 hours a day, print journalism faces a shrinking market and the need to justify itself to consumers. The industry has responded since the 1970s by an increasing number of mergers of metropolitan daily newspapers as well as the merging of newspapers into broader-based media companies. Many people have grown up with the daily routine of a newspaper at the breakfast table, and there is still a cachet for prestigious publications such as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

Futurists have predicted that newspapers might eventually be delivered to “electronic book” devices, perhaps through a wireless connection (see e-books and digital libraries). This might combine the immediacy of the Internet with the physical convenience and portability of a newspaper.