Abstract
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
|
National Service
|
USA
Today
http://www.usatoday.com
1,629,665
|
New
York Times
http://www.nytimes.com
1,074,741
|
|
Regional Service
|
Boston
Globe
http://www.bostonglobe.com
476,966
|
Orlando
Sentinel
http://www.orlandosentinel.com
255,037
|
|
Local
Service
|
Naples
Daily News
http://www.naplesnews.com
49,206
|
Macon
Telegraph
http://www.macontelegraph.com
72,218
|
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
|
Technology
|
11-1998
|
7-1999
|
|
Forums
|
31.9%
|
53.0%
|
|
Chat rooms
|
2.3
|
7.6
|
|
Related information
|
53.0
|
65.9
|
|
Video
|
10.6
|
30.3
|
|
Audio
|
12.1
|
27.3
|
|
Flash
|
0.0
|
0.8
|
|
Plug-in
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
|
Java applets
|
15.2
|
0.0
|
|
Other languages
|
6.1
|
10.6
|
|
Electronic mail
|
59.8
|
69.7
|
|
Polls with instantaneous results
|
9.1
|
13.6
|
|
Search
|
79.5
|
88.6
|
|
Consumer services
|
95.5
|
100.0
|
|
Electronic commerce
|
--
|
96.9
|
|
Sign-up for personal delivery
|
2.3
|
25.0
|
|
Instantaneous updates
|
25.8
|
37.9
|
n = 132 pages
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.
TABLE 3 MEAN OCCURRENCES OF TECHNOLOGIES
|
Macon
T1
|
Macon
T2
|
Naples
T1
|
Naples T2
|
Boston
T1
|
Boston
T2
|
Orlando
T1
|
Orlando
T2
|
NYT
T1
|
NYT
T2
|
US
AT
T1
|
US
AT
T2
|
|
Forum |
1.82 |
.91 |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
.32 |
.09 |
3.45
|
3.73
|
1.82 |
.00 |
.27 |
|
Chat rooms |
.00 |
.00 |
.18
|
.00 |
.00 |
.45
|
.00 |
.14 |
.09 |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
|
Related informat. |
7.18 |
2.14 |
3.27 |
6.64 |
8.82 |
10.09
|
15.36
|
6.55 |
1.91 |
6.77 |
3.82 |
2.18 |
|
Audio |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
2.50 |
8.64
|
2.55
|
.55 |
.23 |
.00 |
.45 |
|
Video |
.27 |
.00 |
.00 |
.45 |
.73 |
.09 |
3.55
|
2.23
|
.09 |
.45 |
.00 |
.50 |
|
Flash |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
.05
|
|
Plug-in |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
|
Java applet |
1.82
|
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
|
Other language |
.00 |
.09 |
.27 |
.00 |
.18 |
.09 |
.09 |
.41
|
.00 |
.00 |
.27 |
.05 |
|
E-mail |
3.45 |
1.77 |
4.64
|
3.18 |
.64 |
4.55
|
1.55 |
1.18 |
.55 |
.50 |
1.09 |
1.05 |
|
Instant poll |
.00 |
.09 |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
1.00
|
.50
|
.00 |
.00 |
.09 |
.23 |
|
Search |
.73 |
1.00 |
1.64 |
2.05 |
9.27
|
1.68 |
2.73 |
1.05 |
2.91 |
1.64 |
5.27 |
4.50
|
|
Consumer services |
26.27 |
21.41 |
5.55 |
7.86 |
43.82
|
21.27 |
10.09 |
20.41 |
14.00 |
6.77 |
16.27 |
35.86
|
|
Sign-up delivery |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
.18
|
.05 |
.00 |
.23 |
.09 |
1.00
|
.00 |
.32 |
|
Instant updates |
.00 |
.00 |
.55 |
.23 |
5.27
|
1.18 |
.00 |
.73 |
1.91 |
1.41
|
.91 |
.77 |
n = 11 days
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).
TABLE 4 MEAN OCCURRENCES OF TECHNOLOGIES USED BY WEB SITE TYPE
| |
11-98
|
|
|
|
|
7-99
|
|
|
|
|
|
Technology
|
Natl.
|
Regl.
|
Local
|
F
|
Sig.
|
Natl.
|
Regl.
|
Local
|
F
|
Sig.
|
|
Forums |
.93
|
.02 |
.48 |
16.12 |
.00abc |
1.05 |
1.89
|
.45 |
8.98 |
.00ac |
|
Chat rooms |
.02 |
.00 |
.05 |
1.02 |
.37 |
.00 |
.30
|
.00 |
9.51 |
.00ac |
|
Related inform. |
1.48 |
6.16
|
2.66 |
6.18 |
.00ac |
4.48 |
8.32 |
9.03
|
4.09 |
.02c |
|
Video |
.02 |
1.07
|
.07 |
8.38 |
.00ac |
.34 |
2.52
|
.00 |
25.15 |
.00ac |
|
Audio |
.14 |
2.16
|
.00 |
5.80 |
.00ac |
.48 |
1.16
|
.23 |
5.10 |
.01c |
|
Flash |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
---- |
---- |
.02 |
.00 |
.00 |
1.00 |
.37 |
|
Plug-in |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
---- |
---- |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
---- |
---- |
|
Java applet |
.00 |
.00 |
.45
|
32.68 |
.00bc |
.00 |
.00 |
.00 |
---- |
---- |
|
Other language |
.07 |
.07 |
.07 |
0.00 |
1.00 |
.02 |
.25
|
.05 |
6.77 |
.00ac |
|
Electronic mail |
.43 |
.57 |
2.02
|
64.37 |
.00bc |
.77 |
.61 |
2.48
|
85.16 |
.00bc |
|
Instant polls |
.02 |
.25
|
0.00 |
11.76 |
.00ac |
.11 |
.25
|
.05 |
4.22 |
.02c |
|
Search |
2.05 |
3.00
|
.59 |
30.21 |
.00abc |
3.07
|
1.36 |
1.52 |
21.69 |
.00ab |
|
Consumer serv. |
7.34 |
13.48
|
8.05 |
7.08 |
.00ac |
21.32 |
20.84 |
14.64 |
2.31 |
.10 |
|
Sign-up deliv. |
.02 |
.05 |
.00 |
1.02 |
.37 |
.66
|
.14 |
.00 |
36.03 |
.00ab |
|
Instant updates |
.70 |
1.32
|
.14 |
5.90 |
.00c |
1.09
|
.95 |
.11 |
13.04 |
.00bc |
n = 11 days. Post hoc tests (Scheffe):
a = National-regional difference significant at 0.05
level;
b = National-local difference significant at 0.05
level;
c = Regional-local difference significant at 0.05
level.
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
|
Technology
|
11-98
|
7-99
|
t-value
|
Sig.
(2-tailed)
|
|
Forums
|
.48
|
1.13
|
-4.372
|
.00
|
|
Chat rooms
|
.02
|
.09
|
-2.067
|
.04
|
|
Related information
|
3.42
|
5.73
|
-2.727
|
.01
|
|
Video
|
.39
|
.95
|
-2.819
|
.01
|
|
Audio
|
.77
|
.62
|
.531
|
.60
|
|
Flash
|
.00
|
.08
|
-1.000
|
.32
|
|
Plug-in
|
.00
|
.00
|
----
|
----
|
|
Java applet
|
.14
|
.00
|
4.693
|
.00
|
|
Other language
|
.07
|
.11
|
-.962
|
.34
|
|
Electronic mail
|
1.01
|
1.29
|
-3.570
|
.00
|
|
Instant polls
|
.09
|
.14
|
-2.150
|
.03
|
|
Search
|
1.88
|
1.98
|
-.636
|
.53
|
|
Consumer services
|
9.62
|
18.93
|
-7.200
|
.00
|
|
Sign-up delivery
|
.02
|
.27
|
-5.614
|
.00
|
|
Instant updates
|
.72
|
.72
|
0.00
|
1.00
|
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
| |
11-98
|
7-99
|
|
|
|
|
Technology
|
National
|
National
|
t
|
df
|
Sig.
|
|
Forums
|
.93
|
1.05
|
-1.949
|
43
|
.058
|
|
Chat |