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Types and Daily Newspapers: Use of World Wide Web Technologies by Wendy Dibean and Bruce Garrison |
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This study
examined U.S. daily newspapers' use of available technologies,
including multimedia and interactivity, for development of World
Wide Web sites. It also looked at how the three market-geographic
types (local, regional, and national online newspapers) varied
in their use of features commonly found in Web site design.
The study employed content analysis of the online newspapers
at two different eleven-day time periods -- during November
1998 and July 1999 -- to evaluate usage of Web technologies.
The study found that most online newspapers have adopted innovations,
such as links to related information, and consumer services,
such as searchable classifieds. In the past eight months, emphasis
seems to be on electronic commerce, perhaps at the expense of
news content delivery itself. National online newspapers showed
growth from November to July in most areas, including forums,
links to related information, video, audio, electronic mail,
search engines, consumer services, sign-up for personal delivery,
and instantaneous updates. Regional online newspapers showed
a decline in use of search engines and growth in use of forums,
video, other language use, and consumer services. Local online
newspapers showed a decline in use of Java applets and growth
in use of audio, electronic mail, search engines and consumer
services. Some individuals have proclaimed the Internet to be the future of communication of all types-business, personal, and other forms of human and machine interaction. Media critic Jon Katz (1999) believed that the future of journalism is found on the Internet and that online news will one day become mainstream journalism. "The [World Wide] Web is transforming culture, it is transforming language, transforming information, and we're seeing this in very dramatic and measurable ways, which some liken to the invention of movable type" (p. 14). He notes that the old model of a few people providing information to many is "breaking down" in favor of many providing to many. Rules are being rewritten and the news media are being transformed. The way in which news organizations relate and interact with their audiences is also in transition (Katz, 1999; Pavlik, 1999). What does this fundamental shift in communication mean to journalism? How are journalists, with these new network communication tools, using them? In the past five years, news media, including U.S. daily newspapers, news magazines, and broadcast stations, have flocked to the World Wide Web. The number of newspapers in the United States that have launched online editions has grown rapidly in recent years. One study reported online editions had increased from 745 in July 1996 to 2,059 a year later (Li, 1998). The amount of change that has occurred in online newspapers has been significant in the past five years, particularly since 1997. One observable shift has been toward increasing original news reporting by online news site staffs. Journalists are less likely to serve as traditional information gatekeepers. Users have larger amounts of information and a wider range of sources upon which to draw (Smith, 1999; Anonymous, 1999b). For many online newspapers, the role of the new medium has yet to be defined. In some cases, the online editions are not much more than electronic versions of portions or all of the printed newspaper. At many others, they are a hybrid of the printed newspaper and original Web content. And a few online news sites contain almost entirely original content created by completely separate Internet news staffs. Sources of news and information are widening also- to meet the needs of the new multimedia medium. At least one online services journalist at the Evansville, Ind., Courier & Press has called for higher standards. He argues that online newspapers should think of themselves as full-service independent Web sites similar to CNN Interactive and MSNBC. They should not, he says, be newspapers that are also presented in an online format. In their ideal form, he argues, these sites will work with 24-hour deadlines and update content on a frequent and regular basis (Derk, 1999). A key issue in 1999 has been whether newspaper Web sites are considered part of the print edition or a separate and competing medium (Stone, 1999a; Stone, 1999b). Similar questions about the role of the print news medium arose when newspapers competed against and developed their own radio stations in the 1920s and 1930s and again when with television stations in the 1950s and 1960s. While the heart of the competition is advertising dollars, news content is also a concern in the face of any new developing medium (Shaw, 1997). Riley (1998) and her colleagues at the University of Southern California have argued that commercial media influences, such as those by online newspapers, point to a "colonization" metaphor describing the Internet instead of the commonly described "community" of the Internet. The ideals of democratic community building on the Internet, they offered, are resisted by online newspapers as they "stake out" territories on the Web by discouraging access to other sites. Peng, Tham & Xiaoming (1999) found differing online objectives in online newspapers, but online newspapers were similar in the goals of seeking additional readers, increasing revenue, and promotion of the print edition. South (1999) recently observed that online newspaper staffs often must urge their print colleagues to think about the needs of online sites as they gather and edit news. For example, print reporters and editors do not usually gather audio or video for the print editions of the newspaper, but will assist their online counterparts if they do so.
Nevertheless, many newspapers with Web sites have not found the right model just yet. Some, including large publications such as The Buffalo News, Jackson Clarion-Ledger, and Honolulu Advertiser, did not have Web sites with daily news content as recently as summer 1999 (Dotinga, 1999). This rapidly evolving state can be characterized by considerable experimentation with content, technologies, and distribution. Furthermore, the result is frequent changes and often-radical site redesigns. In 1999, online newspapers were at an important point of media convergence. Online newspapers still have many ties to traditional print newspapers, but they also have the potential to utilize many new features from the world of mixed-media digital communication. These include audio, video, animation, and increased user control. The Internet2, when available to the general public and commercial news companies in the next decade, is expected to have a significant content- and process-changing influence as well (Phipps, 1999b). Experts have already speculated that how journalists gather and distribute news, as well as how the public will use it, will be different in the future (Phipps, 1999b). How do these technologies change news? That question remains unanswered. However, this study explores one aspect by analyzing the available online technologies used by newspapers. The paper compares use on the basis of newspaper market type and explores reasons whether there are differences between the market types of online newspapers. The transition to news on the Internet has not been simple. Many critics of the move have pointed out that newspapers are not using this new technology to its potential (Outing, 1998). They argue that daily newspapers have not made necessary changes in the way they collect and distribute news to stay ahead (Lasica, 1997, June). Some authorities say that newspapers are following the old newspaper guidelines of presenting news every 24 hours instead of continuous updates, that they are just creating "shovelware"- the term for the process of taking the content of a print edition and reproducing it on a Web site (Cochran, 1995; Marlatt, 1999). Critics have also argued that newspapers are not taking advantage of such special features of the World Wide Web as interactivity, hypertext, and multimedia (Cochran, 1995; Marlatt, 1999).
Literature about Technologies Used for Online Newspapers Singer (1998) suggested that there are four theoretical foundations useful to study of online journalism and online journalists. She pointed to gatekeeping theory, diffusion of innovation theory, sociology of news work, and the role of journalism as a cohesive force in a fragmenting society. Singer's (1999) study of print and online editions of six Colorado newspapers proposed that the newspaper's gatekeeping role is changing with its online editions. Such research is multidisciplinary and wide ranging, she observes. Analysis of technological devices used for online news delivery is, perhaps, best seen within the diffusion of innovation context (Garrison, 1999; Maier, 1999). Rogers' (1995) five stages of new technology adoption provided a useful paradigm for computer use in newspaper newsrooms. It appears, from data about computer use presented by Garrison (1999), that journalists are clearly beyond the stages of exposure to this innovation, formation of attitudes toward it, making a decision to adopt or reject the innovation, and implementation of the innovation of computer-based newsgathering. Those stages, Garrison (1999) concluded, occurred from 1994 to 1996. In 1997 and 1998, implementation was well underway. It also appears, from Garrison's analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of using computers in newsgathering, that the final stage of confirmation or reinforcement was taking place in early 1998.
Users and Audiences Research has shown increased use of newspaper Web sites. Many users are seeking local news at the sites (Strupp, 1999). More women are reading news online (Flagg, 1999). While increasingly larger audiences are using the Web, a technology gap has evolved. A recent federal study determined that while the Internet has become a major communication force, it has done so at the expense of some elements of American society. The study concluded that there was a "digital divide" between technology haves and have-nots. Some of the gap is based on economic levels, but race and geography are also factors (Irving, 1999). The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press recently reported that Internet news audiences were becoming more "ordinary" in addition to becoming larger. Among its findings were that weather was the most popular online news attraction in 1999, replacing technology news and information that had been the top subject two years earlier. The report also noted that users were less well educated than two years ago, included more females, and more users with modest incomes. The study authors concluded that these new demographics of online news indicate changing news interests. Weather and entertainment news is growing in popularity much faster than politics and international news, the Pew Center stated (Anonymous, 1999a). Despite the growing interest in online news, many news organizations do not emphasize it nor satisfy demand for it. Web editors admitted that they are still learning how to use the Web (Strupp, 1999). Because of their nature, usability of Web sites is a focal point of some online news research. Dutch researchers van Oostendorp and van Nimwegen (1998) studied scrolling and use of hypertext links for reading and finding information contained in an online newspaper. The study concluded that site designers should "avoid presenting information on deeper hypertextual levels for which scrolling is necessary (n.p.)."
User Interactivity There are a handful of interactive tools available that online news edition can use to enhance their products on a story-by-story basis and on a general basis. These include links to other stories, e-mail to reporters and editors, chat rooms, forums, animations, photographs and biographical information about reporters and columnists, related coverage, and searchable databases. They also include, of course, multimedia such as audio and video. According to online authority Steve Outing (1998), "It's a no-brainer that newspapers' archives are of interest to readers, and a potential revenue stream (n.p.)." Yet, he found that the majority of sites had yet to make their archives available online. He determined that a good number of sites either included no names of staff members or included staff listings but no electronic mail addresses, offering no way for readers to interact with the newspaper staff. He also found a large absence of obituaries, birth notices, and other matters of interest to local readers, especially on small-town newspaper Web sites. Few sites operated online discussion forums (Outing, 1998). Cochran (1995) noted that the San Jose Mercury Center is one of the best examples of sites using interactivity. It incorporates ways to send electronic mail to groups related to the topic of the article, links to related sites, and connections to sites that offer more information on the topic in a feature called Modem Driver. Because this column was about a bill just introduced in Congress that many Internet users believed would affect them, it was a very popular item. Cochran said these features were used so, "if the reader were so inclined, she could have (a) learned about an important issue, (b) gathered additional information not provided by the newspapers, (c) seen what other folks were saying about the proposal, and (d) taken steps to register her position on the issue with lawmakers (p. 36)." Cochran also said that The Wall Street Journal offers a personalized version of the newspaper that will contain news on just the topics the reader selects (Cochran, 1995). Massey and Levy (1999) used a five-dimensional conceptualization of interactivity to study online English-language newspapers in Asia. They looked at complexity of content choice, responsiveness, ease of adding information, facilitation of interpersonal communication, and immediacy. The analysis found a relatively complex choice of content, but the sites studied did not rate highly on the remaining four interactivity dimensions.
Content, Design, Deadlines, and Distribution Production of an online news site requires more than the effort of one individual, just as traditional newspapers require numerous specialists with a wide range of newsgathering, editing, production, and distribution talents (Stone, 1999a). A major characteristic of online news that differentiates it from traditional newspaper news is the nonlinear nature of writing and reporting. Analysis of online news sites has shown that nonlinear storytelling is increasing. Newspaper Web sites use fewer links than broadcast news station Web links, one recent study found (Tremayne, 1999), but in general both types of news sites were increasing in their use of hypertext links. With links and other writing devices sites can offer users additional depth, background information, graphics, and references to previous coverage. Some online authorities feel newspapers should offer more breaking news. Lasica offers some solutions to this problem. Companies like Marimba, PointCast, and Starwave have made push news software popular. Multiple deadlines are necessary for newspapers to keep up with other news Web sites. "If you look at newspaper deadlines, that's an artificial deadline based on distribution needs," observed Scott Woelfel, editor-in-chief of CNN Interactive (quoted in Lasica, 1997, October). "In a way, it's a throwback to the old days when newspapers had three or four editions a day. It will require newsrooms to recruit staff members with an entirely different set of skills," added Valerie Hyman a professor at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies (quoted in Lasica, 1997, October). Other critics feel that online news sites often depend too much on wire service content, such as that from Associated Press or Reuters, even though there is no substantial limit to the volume of information that can be provided (Welch, 1999; Marlatt, 1999). This is attributed to small budgets, few staff members, and other limited resources. Another criticism of online news is that it often is too fast in passing along information to readers. Some observers feel Web publications often are careless in posting unconfirmed information during breaking stories and under other less deadline-intensive circumstances (Lasica, 1997, June). When the Los Angeles Times first launched its Web site, its goal was to offer the most comprehensive guide to California on the Web. It offered calendar events, archived reviews, community databases and minimal discussion forums and live chat sessions (Outing, April 1996). A 1999 study by Editor & Publisher, a newspaper industry publication, found that users of 120 online news Web sites sought local news from local news sites (Flagg, 1999; Phipps, 1999a; Strupp, 1999). Local news content (72%) was more valued than weather information (40%), national news (39%), and classified advertising (38%), among other types of content. Even users (58%) of newspapers Web sites with circulation over 250,000 sought local news. For newspapers with less than 250,000 circulations, the figure jumped (83%). A University of Georgia study found that individuals who direct or manage newspaper Web sites feel content should drive the site's design, not technology nor appearance (Lowrey, 1999). While traditional print design concerns and principles apply to the Web, there are differences. Many of these involve use of technologies, such as links or multimedia features, available to Web designers but not to print designers. Another recent study (Nadarajan & Ang, 1999) focused on how online newspapers' errors and corrections policies, noting that news organizations do not use the technologies of the Web, such as archiving and hyperlinking, to do a more effective job to influence the flow of accurate information to the public.
Skills and High Tech Resources The nature of the Web demands technical skills to maximize its communication potential. Neuberger, Tonnemacher, Biebl, and Duck (1998) studied German daily newspapers on the Web by focusing on the producers, their products, and their users. While about half of the newspapers' staff members had journalistic duties, the authors stated that technical responsibilities were "growing" and that editorial decisions were often left to print editors. Stepp (1998) observed that distribution of online news requires different, additional skills to those of traditional journalists. While most of those skills involve using computers and associated software, Stepp observed that there must also be an ability to look at the profession in an innovative manner. Expertise and versatility are characteristic of these new journalists. These journalists are able to work in a wide spectrum of news media and use a broad base of technologies. Lessons newspapers on the Internet are learning include "don't go it alone." Outing (1996, March, n.p.) stated, "newspaper companies generally do not have all the skills and resources necessary to succeed in new media." Some examples of online newspapers that have learned from this advice include The Washington Post, which teamed with Newsweek magazine and ABC-TV News to operate site ElectionLine. Boston.com is a compilation of all competing New England media, including The Boston Globe (Outing, March 1996). Many resources available for news distribution online involve interactivity. For many years prior to widespread development and use of the World Wide Web, bulletin boards provided a virtual space for community discussion and distribution of information. One popular form on the Internet, used for a number of years through commercial online services such as America Online, is the chat room. Los Angeles Times electronic editor Jeffrey Perlman (1999) recently observed that online newspapers do not use chat rooms or bulletin boards. The potential is there, Perlman noted, by citing the volume of chat room use growth that occurred on AOL immediately after the Columbine shootings in spring 1999.
Electronic Commerce Online news sites are moving into the realm of electronic commerce (Noack, 1999). A recent Editor & Publisher national study found that 65% of online newspaper users were involved in some type of electronic commerce. While it is not yet as popular as electronic mail, reading news online, and conducting research or searching for information, online news users are also involved in online shopping and making purchases (Noack, 1999). BarnesandNoble.com has started on "Affiliate Network" that creates co-branded marketing and book selling opportunities. Newspapers involved in the affiliate program include the Chicago Tribune, USA Today Online and the LATimes.com. Other newspapers, including the Hartford Courant Online, have launched an online auction that allows online newspaper visitors to bid on a range of items. The SunOne Web site of the Gainesville Sun launched a "sports boutique" selling products related to the University of Florida "Gators" football team. Tampa Bay Online is offering popular CD-ROMs for sale. The Star Tribune Online has developed a project called Gift Generator, a way to connect buyers and sellers for holiday gifts (Anonymous, 1997). Astor discussed the quantity and revenues of using syndicated materials on newspaper Web sites in his E & P Interactive article. Newspapers have had difficulty putting their syndicated and supplemental news service material on their Web sites. The Minneapolis Star Tribune's online service was one of the first online newspapers to offer syndicated general-interest columns. But, since newspapers have started to generate more revenue, the extra cost of using syndicated materials has become less of a problem (Astor, 1996).
Online Newspaper Market Models Traditional newspaper markets have been divided into categories based on circulation size - small, medium, and large. Outing (1998) mostly looked at small and medium size newspaper Web sites although he did not define these classifications. Garrison (1998) defined large newspapers as those with a circulation larger than 50,000 and small newspapers as those with a circulation smaller than 50,000. Chyi and Sylvie (1999) conducted an economic analysis of online newspaper geography, noting differences in the print newspaper's traditional local focus and the boundary-transcending capacity of the Internet. They offered an "umbrella" model of online newspaper markets that focused emphasis on the ability of online news to seek markets at a variety of different levels. Their model included a five-layer approach that was described as community, metro, regional, national, and international. This differs, they note, from the conventional community, metro, and national levels most often used by print newspapers. Chyi and Sylvie concluded that geography is not relevant for online newspapers, but that they do have market boundaries. "Online newspapers are still a local product for all intents and purposes, despite the Internet's boundary-spanning capabilities. The ramifications should not be lost on most media managers and, to a lesser degree, on media scholars" (p. 29). Having stated this, Chyi and Sylvie also concluded that newspapers must cease "thinking 'local' when it comes to online markets" (p. 31), especially for advertising sales. They also concluded that "the larger the print market, the larger the online product's long-distance market" (p. 31). The goal of this study was to determine how U.S. daily newspapers use the World Wide Web to publish information. More specifically, this study compared the approaches of three market types of online newspapers. Exploratory research questions include:
Methods Three major market types were studied, a variation of the Chyi and Sylvie (1999) approach. These market types were chosen in relation to the audience they cater to, which in some ways is based on their circulation and market served. USA Today and The New York Times were the national publications selected. The regional newspapers chosen were The Boston Globe and The Orlando Sentinel. The local publications were The Naples Daily News, in Naples, Fla., and The Macon Telegraph, in Macon, Ga. Table 1 lists the newspapers, their Web site addresses, and recent circulations. The newspapers studied were chosen because they fit the market types analyzed and because of their journalistic reputations for quality. Many other newspapers fit in one of the above market types and could have been used, but for the needs of this study, two newspapers for each category were selected. A t1-t2 longitudinal research design was used to determine change in technology use at the newspaper Web sites over time. Eleven consecutive days (November 5 to November 15, 1998) of home pages and top news story pages of the above six electronic newspapers were content analyzed for the t1 content analysis. A second set of eleven days (July 12 to July 22, 1999) was also studied for the t2 content analysis. Li (1998) used the eleven-day time frame of analysis. These dates were selected because it was believed that there were no significant scheduled news events that could skew routine coverage practices. The home page was defined as the initial page of the initial page of the newspaper's Web site. Top news story page was defined as the story link on the home page that is given the most prominence, either by position, size of type or use of art, on the page. The top news story link was found on the home page as the first news story link that also had a large type size (point size 14 or higher as an image or font size 4 or higher in HTML) or was accompanied by art (photograph or graph) or both. For analysis purposes, the data collected from each of these pages was combined for a total of use occurrences per day, per site. The units of analysis were the pages of the Web site and its components. Variables examined include forums, chat rooms, related information for stories, video, audio, flash, other plug-in based technologies, Java applets, other language use outside of the basic HTML 4.0 standard, electronic mail, polls with instantaneous results, search tools, consumer services (electronic commerce functions including searchable classifieds, home finders, job finders, and merchandise sales), sign-up for electronic delivery of a personalized newspaper and instantaneous updates of information (including stocks, sports scores, and weather) that are located on the home page and top news article page (see Appendix 1), and links to the above uses of the new technology. Each instance of the above features as well as a link to one of the features was counted on both the home page and the top news article page by two coders. Intercoder reliability was computed with data collected during three days of the study. The reliability coefficient was 0.96 for the first content analysis and 0.99 for the second content analysis, using the R=(2(C12)) / (C1+C2) (Budd, 1967, p. 68). TABLE 1 NEWSPAPER SITES, CIRCULATIONS
Findings
Analysis of the data brought about clear-cut findings. In reference to the first research question, to what extent are U.S. daily newspapers using technologies available for development of Web sites, the data in Table 2 show that a majority of the pages had forums by summer 1999 (31.9% in 1998 and 53.0% in 1999), related information (53% in 1998 and 65.9% in 1999), electronic mail (59.8% in 1998 and 69.7% in 1999), site searches (79.5% in 1998 and 88.6%), and consumer services (95.5% in 1998 and broken up in 1999 with 100% use of consumer services and 96.9% of electronic commerce). Very little use of chat rooms (2.3% in 1998 and 7.6% in 1999), other languages (6.1% in 1998 and 10.63% in 1999), polls with instantaneous updates (9.1% in 1998 and 25% in 1999), and sign-up for personal delivery (2.3% in 1998 and 25% in 1999) was found. No instances of other plug-in based technologies were found on any of the sites studied. Flash was not found in 1998, but appeared on a small percentage of pages (0.8%) in 1999. Java applets saw little use in 1998 (15.2%), but dropped to no use in 1999. This was the only decline found among the 15 variables. Instantaneous updates (25.8% in 1998 and 37.9% in 1999), audio (12.1% in 1998 and 27.3% in 1999), and video (10.6% in 1998 and 30.3% in 1999) were used on certain sites, but had not taken hold on the majority of newspaper sites. TABLE 2 PAGES WITH AT LEAST ONE INSTANCE OF TECHNOLOGY
A breakdown of the technologies used by each newspaper in November shows dominance by the two regional newspapers. The Orlando Sentinel had more occurrences per day in links to related information, audio, video and polls with instantaneous results. The Boston Globe had the most occurrences of search engines, consumer services, sign-up for personal delivery and instantaneous updates. The Naples Daily News had the most occurrences of chat rooms and electronic mail, The Macon Telegraph had the most occurrences of Java applets, and The New York Times had the most occurrences of forums, but none lead by a very large margin, as shown in Table 3.
T1 = November, 1998, T2 = July, 1999. Eight months later, the regional dominance still held. The Orlando Sentinel had more occurrences per day in forums, audio, video, other language use and polls with instantaneous results. The Boston Globe had the most occurrences of links to related information, chat rooms, and electronic mail. Local newspapers' domination disappeared in July. National newspapers grew in dominance in some areas. USA Today had the most occurrences of Flash, search engines and consumer services. The New York Times had more occurrences per day of sign-up for personal delivery and instantaneous updates. With regard to the second research question -- how do the three types of online newspapers vary in their use of the technological features commonly found in the design of a Web site -- the data show that the market types vary greatly in the technologies they offer readers. National online newspapers showed a considerably higher adaptation of forums in 1998. Local online newspapers showed a notably higher adaptation of Java applets, and electronic mail use in 1998. Regional online newspapers showed a remarkably higher adaptation of polls with instantaneous updates, related information, video, audio, polls, search, consumer services, and instantaneous updates in 1998, as shown in Table 4. Scheffe post hoc analyses for 1998 showed most significant differences were between regional-local (ten) and national-regional (seven) market newspapers, but not as often for national-local (four) newspapers. Use evened out less than a year later, data in Table 4 also show. National online newspapers showed the highest adoption of search engines, sign-up for personal delivery, and instantaneous updates. Regional online newspapers showed the highest adoption of forums, chat rooms, other language use, and polls with instantaneous updates. Local online newspapers showed the highest adoption of links to related information, audio, video, and electronic mail. But, none of these were overwhelming. Scheffe post hoc analyses for 1998 showed many of the differences the most significant differences between regional and local market newspapers (nine) and national-regional (six), but not as many for national-local markets (four).
n = 11 days. Post hoc tests (Scheffe):
Time comparisons show growth in almost all areas. July 1999 saw significantly higher occurrences per day in forums, chat rooms, links to related information, video, electronic mail, polls with instantaneous updates, consumer services, and sign-up for personal delivery. The use of Java applets dropped to nothing in July 1999, as shown in Table 5.
TABLE 5 T1-T2 MEAN OCCURRENCES OF TECHNOLOGIES USED
n = 11 days National online newspapers showed significant growth from November to July in most areas, including forums, links to related information, video, audio, electronic mail, search engines, consumer services, sign-up for personal delivery, and instantaneous updates, as shown in Table 6. TABLE 6 MEAN OCCURRENCES OF TECHNOLOGIES USED BY NATIONAL SITE
n = 44 (11 days, two newspapers, two pages) Regional online newspapers showed a decline in the use of search engines, and a growth in forums, video, other language use, and consumer services, as shown in Table 7. TABLE 7 MEAN OCCURRENCES OF TECHNOLOGIES USED BY REGIONAL SITE
n = 44 (11 days, two newspapers, two pages) Local online newspapers showed a decline in the use of Java applets and a growth in audio, electronic mail, search engines and consumer services, as shown in Table 8. TABLE 8 MEAN OCCURRENCES OF TECHNOLOGIES USED BY LOCAL SITE
n = 44 (11 days, two newspapers, two pages) Conclusion Technological innovations change routines and processes. Development of the technology of the Internet and World Wide Web in itself was perhaps the most significant change in world communication in a half-century or longer. It continues to create change in all aspects of life. When technology is so rapidly evolving as the devices and processes of communicating on the Internet have been during this decade, businesses and institutions are required to redefine old rules and create new ones (Ebo, 1998). The Internet has been considered by some social scientists an equalizer. It has the potential to bring communication to equal terms for social and economic groups as well as for businesses and industries. In one way, this study analyzed whether the Internet was a technology equalizer for newspapers that have used the World Wide Web to extend their news distribution reach and contact with audiences. This has not been found to be the case in terms of social classes (Wolf, 1998). Clearly, there are differences in how newspapers are using the Web and their use of technologies to distribute information to audiences. This study points to some of the differences. The most prominent technology used by all three categories of online newspaper was consumer services. This is a technology that any person with browser software and online service can utilize. Consumer services usually allow a person to insert a value of something that is desired and it returns what is available in the database. In can be used for automobile sales, home rental and sales, dating services, and many other classified related services. The area for the greatest growth, perhaps one of the most significant findings of the study, is electronic commerce. Newspapers are using this tool to increase interaction with site visitors for a variety of purposes and growth of use is occurring at all three levels of service. The two technologies that were not used or had very limited use were both plug-in based technologies. These technologies require readers to have extra software on their computers to utilize the technologies. The disappearance of the use of the Java applet can possibly be explained by the inability of the computer industry to standardize this technology in browsers. Java applets cause some readers problems (including computer crashes), so newspapers discontinued use as to not upset readers.
Since their creation, online newspapers have experienced constant change. For example, The Orlando Sentinel recently has added new services that offer their readers an electronic mail account through them. Some of the newer services were still in testing mode on some sites in late 1998, and so, although they are offered, they may not have shown up very prominently on the pages studied. With time, it is expected that more of the technologies will appear with more prominence on the sites. Since this is still a very new medium and the technology is still being developed, changes occur every day. With this growth, it will be interesting to see how the popularity of online newspapers will grow along with it. The regional newspapers, with a large base of technological use will steadily grow in popularity. Unless national and local online newspapers catch up in the use of technologies, regional newspapers will take over their readership. It is not probable that any online newspapers will take up use of plug-in based technologies, such as Flash and Shockwave, unless they are made easier for the consumer. To do this, browser software must be standardized. Integration of these technologies into browsers in the future, for instance, would be one way to increase use. Further study should be conducted to measure this change. Also, other online newspapers should be studied to further test the differences in the market types. National sites may have been slow to get into the technologies of the Web with their sites, but they seem to be making up for lost time in 1999. The most change that occurred at the national, regional, or local levels was within the national sites. Of the 15 categories of technology, more than half (eight) increased in a statistically significant manner. In comparison, regional sites experienced five statistically significant technology category increases and one statistically significant decrease (search tools). And for local sites, there was less change. Local sites experienced only four statistically significant increases in technology use categories and one significant decline (Java applets). There are numerous reasons for this- such as increased staff talent on staff for production, budget increases, shifts in management priorities, changing perceptions of audiences and their needs- but the data do not point to any specific one. The study revealed that the most widely used technology categories must be studied beyond the limits of this project. In a follow-up study, it appears one approach would be to further divide categories such as consumer services, electronic mail, and related information into subdivisions. This was done, in part, when electronic commerce was split from consumer services for the second stage of this study and suggests considerable growth in use of electronic commerce. There are also different applications of electronic mail and use of related information devices such as pop-up boxes, for example, that require further investigation. As new technologies are developed, these will also require study for understanding of their contributions to the uses and effects of online news.
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