Sunshine Skyways

Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel. I come from cyberspace ... We are entering a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth. We are creating a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity. Your legal concepts of property, expression, identity, movement, and context do not apply to us. They are based on matter, and there is no matter here... Your increasingly obsolete information industries would perpetuate themselves by proposing laws ... that claim to own speech itself through the world. These laws would declare ideas to be another industrial product, no more than pig iron. In our world, whatever the human mind may create can be reproduced and distributed infinitely at no cost. The global conveyance of thought no longer requires your factories to accomplish. A Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace, John Perry Barlow, February 8, 1996

Introduction:
As stated in my December 11th post, during a month in 1998, an independent online news operation, the Drudge Report, was in competition with and beat established media giants. Matt Drudge's one-man tablog beat newspapers and broadcast news outlets to three of the biggest stories of the 1990s in one week. The success of his Web site supported the hopes and dreams of those that believed the Internet would revolutionize societies by creating bottom-up political-economic structures, which would include legions of global citizen reporters.[1]

Advantages of Online News:
Drudge's scoops made it very clear that a Web site had many advantages over print and broadcast news sources. First, the speed with which he could publish and distribute a story in his Drudge Report was immediate and instantaneous. After a source gave him the information for a story, he was able to put the story out on the Web immediately and distribute it instantaneously through cyberspace. Second, Drudge could publish and distribute a story at any time of the day or week; his was a 24-hour production cycle, unlike newspapers that published once a day, news magazines that published once a week, or radio and television news broadcasts that occurred at prescheduled hours each day. Third, unlike the traditional news business, which had substantial barriers to entry, there were almost no barriers to entry into online news. All Drudge needed to create the Drudge Report was a computer, modem, Web publishing software, and online access. Fourth, he could link his story to other stories within his Web site or other Web sites, thereby adding details that newspaper, magazine, and broadcasting outlets could not. Fifth, Drudge's Web site could be interactive, inviting readers to comment on posts and supply new information, unlike newspapers, magazines, and radio and television broadcasts, which limited reader and audience participation to "letters to the editor" and call-in talk shows. Sixth, the Drudge Report was available on demand, and he could email readers on his mailing list whenever a new story broke. Seventh, Drudge's Web site was a very inexpensive way to publish and distribute stories. Eight, and finally, stories in the Drudge Report were infotainment -- a mix of a few facts with a lot of attitude and gossip, which seemed to have entertainment value, and which was much cheaper to produce than news stories based on standard journalistic practices, which involved fact checking and investigative reporting.

The Internet as a source of news (or gossip) did not begin with the creation of the Drudge Report in 1995. Online news sites started in July 1980 when The Columbus Dispatch in Ohio offered an electronic edition via CompuServe (Carlson), and by 1982, the number grew to 11 newspapers with electronic editions online, also via CompuServe (ibid). By the end of the 1980s a "handful of [established] papers and broadcasters [had] started dial-up bulletin board systems" that were plain text and included classified advertisements, business and entertainment listings, and some news headlines; and most were affiliated with dial-up platforms, such as CompuServe (Palser). In 1992, the Tribune Company launched Chicago Online on AOL, and a year later Chicago Online began publishing the entire newspaper online (Palser, Carlson). In April 1993, there were only 12 North American dailies on line according to the Newspaper Association of America (Palser); however, after the release of the Web browsers Mosaic in 1993 and Netscape 1.0 in 1994, the numbers changed significantly to 20 in April 1994 and 60 in 1995 (ibid). In 1995 the Boston Globe and Raleigh, North Carolina's, News & Observer were among a group of newspapers that debuted their sites on the open Internet. Up until then newspapers' online editions were limited to people who used a particular dial-up service, such as AOL (ibid). In August 1995, CNN launched its news site, CNN.com, and in July 1996, MSNBC went online; and both quickly became the U.S.'s top online news sites (Palser, Carlson). By 1996, most of the national news organizations, print and broadcast, in the U.S. had gone online and established separate online newsrooms and business units (Palser). Online editors quickly realized and acted on the advantages of the 24-hour news cycle that the Internet made possible, which caused them to scoop their slower print and broadcast counterparts (Scott 2005). By the late 1990s, local newspapers and broadcasters had moved into cyberspace as well, so that by 2000, "there was scarely a newsroom in the [U.S.] that didn't have a Web presence" (Palser).

Web sites of national and local print and broadcast news organizations were not the only online news sites. Portals, such as Yahoo! and AOL, created news sites that collected and presented links to other organizations' stories. Also, Web-only, independent, for-profit news sources emerged, such as Salon.com in 1995, Cnet in 1995, Slate in 1996, and APB News in 1998. These Web-only news operations attracted many talented journalists away from the traditional media. Unfortunately, for these independent operations, "it was almost as expensive to produce high quality journalism online as it was in the [material] world -- except no was willing to pay for content on the Web", unless it was the "most exclusive" and could be sold to subscribers (Scott).

Dot Com Bust:
Generating online revenues was a BIG problem. Studies in 2000 showed that the percentage of Web users that were clicking on banner and button ads had fallen to 0.1 percent (Carlson). The lack of advertising and subscription revenues experienced by both established and independent for-profit news organizations led to many cuts in online news staffs during the dot com bust. In June 2000, APBNews, which had received awards for superior journalism, was $7 million in debt and had only $50,000 in the bank. All of its staff was cut, and the APBNews.com name, Web site, domain names, and other assets were sold in September of that year. Three months later, Salon.com cut 20 percent of its staff. Among the established media giants, in 2000, CBS cut almost 25 percent of its Internet staff in June; NBC Internet cut 20 percent of its staff in August, and the Tribune Company laid off 34 employees from its Interactive department in October, of which 20 of the employees were from LATimes.com. And in 2001, 130 employees of CNN's interactive operation were laid off in January, and that same month, the New York Times cut 17 percent of its Internet staff.

Not all online news sites were damaged by the dot com crash. In fact, during the crash, "most of the nonprofit sites, institutional zines, and blogs not only survived, but flourished," in part, because of their unique content, and also because of either volunteer labor or user support (Scott).

Emails, Blogs, and Other Online News Sources of News After September 11th
Just as stories in and about Drudge's tablog boosted the use of Internet news sites during coverage of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, the attacks on September 11, 2001, also increased traffic on the Internet. Emails were a major communication tool after the planes hit the World Trade Center towers in New York City and the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. According to a study conducted by the UCLA Internet Project, 57.1 percent of email users -- more than 100 million Americans -- received or sent messages of emotional support, messages of concern, or questions about victims of the attacks. Although blogs and other Web sites were considered to be a minor source of news about the attacks, they were more useful in coordinating efforts after the attacks, and are and will be useful in analyzing that moment in history. The U.S. Library of Congress has a September 11, 2001, Web Archive. In the archive are Web sites produced by individuals/volunteers, public interest/advocacy groups, and others. For examples,some of the archived Web sites produced by an "individual/volunteer" are: How to Find Your Loved Ones, Shoulder to Shoulder, The City Stories Project, Alternative Asian Voices WTC Trajedy Page, Michael Moore, Kottke.org and Wrongwaygoback: World Trade Center Sequence of Events. And some of the archived Web sites produced by "public interest/advocacy groups" are: Amnesty International USA, Index on Censorship, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Blogs and Journalism:
One of the Web sites listed above, Kottke.org, is a well known blog created by Jason Kottke, and because of its success, Kottke is now a professional blogger. The posts from Kottke's site that are archived in the September 11, 2001, Web Archive are a mix of news and comments regarding the 9-11 attacks and other social events, combined with personal stories and observations. Kottke.org is both an informing and entertaining blog; however, one could argue that, although it is a fine example of personal publishing, it is not an example of internet journalism. According to Rebecca Blood, blogs and journalism are "fundamentally different." Blogs that link to and comment about news reported by journalists are examples of "participatory media," whereas journalism is "characterized by strict adherence to accepted practices and standards" (ibid).[2] Journalists speak directly to witnesses and use multiple sources to fact-check a story, whereas bloggers do not. Nonetheless, blogs, such as Kottke.org and Atrios' Eshaton, give us insights into how the various media report on and analyze events, and the blogs can add to the analysis.[3]

Two Iraqis' blogs, The Baghdad Blog and Baghdad Burning, and two embedded reporters' blogs, Baghdad Blog and Back to Iraq blur the line between mainstream reporting and blogging. All 4 bloggers describe their lives in Iraq during the war. If descriptions and analysis of one's personal experiences and observations of war or other social events are not journalism, then none of the blogs are examples of journalism. Nonetheless, they are sources of news and analysis that compete against and complement each other.[4]

Conclusion:
Over time the utopian hopes of the technological determinists have faded. The Internet has and will not eliminate the media giants, and, in fact, Scott argues that they are creating new business models to make their Web sites more lucrative, which include future subscription fees and more infotainment. Nonetheless, there will also be independent online news outlets, such as OnMyNews, and blogs that report local, regional, and national news stories that compete against and complement the established media.




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FOOTNOTES:
[1] A poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that the public turned to Internet sites in large numbes as a news source during the Clinton-Lewinksy scandal, and "online users gravitated to the major national news sites: MSNBC, CNN Interactive, USAToday Online, nytimes.com, and washingtonpost.com" (Lasica 2000).
[2] In the article, "Weblogs and Journalism in the Age of Participatory Media," which is linked to above, it seems Blood accepts a positivist's notion of journalism, that a journalist can report on an event that is value-free.
[3] Atrios is credited for being the first to analyze comments made by Senator Trent Lott and posted on ABCNews.com that alluded favorably to the Jim Crow south. Eventually, more damaging information came out and Lott resigned. The Lott resignation put another blogger into the national spotlight.
[4] In his blog, Allbritton describes himself as the "first fully reader-funded journalist-blogger."


**Subtitles added December 20, 2005