06 - Chapter 2
06 - Chapter 2
06 - Chapter 2
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
theoretical structure and basis for the study as well as to discuss relevant models of
communication and audience research. Besides exploring the more abstract and
presented in this chapter, a set of criteria will be constructed to meet the objectives of the
and the online environment. Online newspapers serve as a global medium to provide
email, news groups and' web services are new authentic sources for newsgathering
have called for an 'interactive journalism'. The Internet has the potential to increase the
terms of the Internet and the World Wide Web has led to the formation of a type of
journalism that is referred to as 'online journalism', a kind of journalism that is
Morris and Ogan's (1996) work as cited by Massey and Levy (1999)
suggests that online journalism can be called 'interactive' when it is put to work to
consumers and producers, and among consimiers. Email links to online journalists,
Though the term interactivity was widely used in various disciplines long
before new media came into being, it is usually agreed that the major difference between
new media and traditional media is interactivity (Pavlik, 1996; Rafaeli & Sudweeks,
1997).
Interactive online journalism has the capability to make the reader a part
of the news experience, to enable readers to actively pursue or seek out news and content
that they want rather than passively being informed (Kenny et al.2000; Deuze 1999). It
has the ability to enable readers to control the information coming at them and to be
active rather than passive recipients (Cuenca 1998). Interactive media can also blur the
lines between the receivers and senders of a mediated message (Singer 1998). Online
journalism provides an environment in which everyone can be his or her own journalist.
19
be functionally distinguished from other kinds of journalism. It utilizes the Internet's
potential by largely facilitating platforms for the exchange of ideas and stories, among
and it does so by using narrative momentum and a strong editorial voice to pull them
through a linear narrative. Online journalism, on the contrary, permits the readers to get
more involved and become participants as they click their way through a hyper linked set
options and hyperlinks encourage the reader to continue to delve into various narrative
threads. It is not only the reader that gains from the interactivity; according to Reddick
and King (1995:236), the World Wide Web allows journalists to combine different kinds
of information in both new and different ways. Interactivity plays a key role in enabling
them to do so.
mass publication or broadcasting. But online journalism caters to the needs of the masses
along with being sensitive to the individual news hunger. So the concept of
'massification' has taken a shift towards 'individuation' of news with the arrival of new
Part of the challenges of the new technologies for journalism is not only a
shift to online journalism but also a shift towards viewing readers more as collaborators
than consumers. Joumalis'ts will also need to enlarge their professional role from arbiters
of reality and truth to include being facilitators of social dialogue (Huesca & Dervin
1999). 5nV77/
20
Hume (1998:4) envisages a new model for news called 'resource
joumalism and one which better serves democracy than today's journalists normally do.
(operational) definition. The online joumalist has to make decisions on which media
formats best tell a certain story (multimediality), has to allow room for options for the
public to respond, interact or even customize certain stories (interactivity) and must
consider ways to connect the story to other stories, archives, resources and so on through
Nearly every major newspaper now has some form of online product or
the other with larger papers having essentially put the entire paper online; even many
smaller newspapers have joined this online bandwagon and are mnning their own
operations with just a few staff (Riley et al. 1998). This is also increasingly the case in
However, Riley et al. (1998) noticed that online newspapers have been
100 online US newspapers that many of them provided only token interactive options.
This indicates that media organizations do not necessarily exploit this opportunity
21
unfulfilled potential in terms of the interactive nature of the use of the new technologies
but he does maintain that along the continuum of interactivity, there are settings that
make it more likely that full interactivity will occur (Schultz 2000).
with the role of traditional mass media in the political process in the United States, the
a point of hope for a better and more meaningful discourse in the public sphere. The
Internet and the role of media on the Internet form just as much a point of hope for India
which is the largest democracy and is viewed as a future economic super power.
The United States has seen the development of a movement for what is
variously called 'public' or 'civic' journalism in recent years, which aims to reflect more
accurately a wider range of public views on specific issues through changes in the
leadership role. The movement especially sees newspapers and their Websites as
problems are found through constructive debates orchestrated and led by editors and
journalists on their pages (Bums, 2004). Notably, then, public or civic journalism could
be hoped to take off in India too with the interactive features underpinning the country's
news-sites (for example by allowing readers to 'have their say' on the news).
world for over two decades. According to Sengupta (2001), Internet journalism, once
22
establishment reportage and gaining an independent identity through irreverent expose of
fact of blogging, with people from all around the country voicing their opinion on varied
issues. During the 2004 tsunami crisis, blogs like tsunamihelp.blogspot.com helped in
Sassi (2000:90) remarks that with every change in the media landscape, as
with for example the emergence and augmentation of information networks today, the
Utopia of the capability of new media for advancing democracy and empowering citizens
surfaces anew.
challenges but it also leads to greater opportunity. The emergence of the World Wide
Web presents journalists with an entirely new medium unfettered by many of the
23
The benefits of interactivity in inducing user participation are evident, but
whether all the claims of the new medium are achieved remains a matter of animated
debate. What is clear, however, is that its interactive potential is significant and holds
promising results for democracy, the role of journalism in this, its audiences and society
interactive communications, the level of their presence and use on online journalism sites
of the two countries, US and India, seems to be a useful contribution to these debates.
The study asks, to what extent, the news-sites of a developed and a developing country
puts it, the tradition of an emancipatory media theory is concerned mostly with the
commercialized content; a problem probably arising in part because "the old mass media
information for society as described through the dominant paradigm for mass
where one producer attempts to reach as many readers or viewers as possible considering
24
Technologically, there are now more possibilities for a dynamic
citizenship and ideally, new media can assist consensus-finding processes that augment
open and free public discourse. The claims of the Internet about its benefits over
traditional media are ample: providing far more interactive opportunities, enhancing
participation of audiences, providing new ways of organizing forums for discussion and
debate, being a technology for the enhancement of democracy and providing far more
information at a greater speed and scale (Lax 2000; Hacker & van Dijk 2000).
interactive and more so than their traditional counterparts. This ultimately provides them
with the potential to foster participation and uphold the ideals of public journalism, the
challenging people to interact with journalists and with each other as concerned citizens"
(Rosen, 1996:16). This approach assumes that there is a connection between the state of
1999).
While citizens can discuss public matters with their family, friends,
colleagues and with members of associations that they have joined, they have relatively
few chances to access public forums and to interact with journalists and with strangers
who read the same newspaper or follow the same news magazine. Here interactivity can
1999).
25
domain, where the news site indeed consists of a range of options for users and producers
o
Open Participatory Communication
Model of Online Journalism adapted from Deuze (2001).
word, moving and still images), produced and/or edited by journalists. Public
communication, to which one might add the notion of 'public' communication without a
formal barrier of entry (such as an editing or moderation process). The vertical axis
represents the level of participatory communication offered through a news site: a site
can be considered to be 'open' when it allows users to share comments, posts, files (i.e.
participatory communication can be defined as a site where user5 may participate but
their communicative acts are subject to strict editorial control. (Extracted from Dueze
2001).
Dueze (2001) explains through his model on online journalism that the
often moderated form of participatory communication (as cited by Schuhz, 1999; Kermey
26
et al 2000). Most online newspapers fall into this category. These types of news-sites
broadcasting media. Dueze determined that 'index and category sites' (like search
engines, some market research firms or agencies) offer links to existing news-sites
elsewhere on the Web, where links are sometimes categorized and even annotated by
editorial teams. Such sites generally do not offer much editorial content of their own, but
do at times offer areas for chat or exchanging news, tips and links by the general public -
for instance maintaining some kind of bulletin board system (BBS). 'Meta and comment
sites', Dueze adds, are news-sites about news media and media issues in general;
well as content found elsewhere on the Internet is discussed in terms of the imderlying
particularly flourishes online. Dueze further goes on to describe 'share and discussion
sites' which primarily facilitate platforms for the exchange of ideas, sometimes centered
around a specific theme (Independent Media Centers, generally known as: Indymedia) or
computer news (Slashdot, featuring a tagline reading: News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters).
This type of online journalism has also been described as 'group weblogs', offering
consolidates the view that for a news-site to become interactive in a participatory way the
27
particular newsroom has to undergo quite a few changes and face some tough choices
about values, goals and standards - let alone dealing with the problematic commercial
aspects of electronic publishing routines and the impact such choices may have on
a developed and a developing nation, the present study intends to assess the ability of
communication. Herein lies the significance and relevance of this study that examines the
just does not correspond with these interactive systems (Kenny et al. 2000). The key
element in media typology developed by Bordewijk and Kaam (1986) and used
28
One dimension of the model is defined by control of information source
and the other by control of time and choice of subject. This control may reside either in a
center simultaneously to many peripheral receivers. The pattern applies to many mass
measure of a medium's potential to let the user choose from a continuous stream of
interactivity is a measure of a medium's potential to let the user choose, by request, from
at the center receives information from a participant at the periphery. This applies when
central records are kept of individuals in a system and it also applies to systems of
29
reference to, or knowledge of the individual. Many communication technologies make
Registration more feasible. The use of 'cookies' to track and customize content for
thereby also adapt and/or respond to, a given user's explicit choice of communication
method.
partners as well as the time, place, and topic of communication (McQuail 2000:130).
potential to let the user produce and input his/her own information in a two-way media
interactivity;' the degree to which content creators empower consumers over content.
Fidler (1997) theorized that the new cyber-media are simply one more
suggested that these forms are likely to resemble Allocution, Consultation, and
Registration while Conversation will remain a separate form in the Interpersonal domain.
30
Both Fidler (1997) and Jensen (1998) emphasized two-way communication in their
basis for studying interactivity of online newspapers. The ritual model is linked to terms
such as sharing and participation and consequently seems more suited than the traditional
(Kenny et al. 2000). Through listening to and involving online readers in the collection of
news, online journalists endeavour not only to increase reader satisfaction but also to
make their readers revisit- their sites. This upholds the ideals of the publicity model and
shows that it can also be applied to online newspapers (Kenny et al. 2000).
circles.
Direction of Communication
One-Way Two-Way
Feedback Mutual Discourse
Level of
User Control
High
Monologue
09
Responsive Dialogue
Low
\V "\^ 0—©
S = Sender, R = Receiver, P = Participant (sender/receiver roles are interchangeable)
31
Monologue, with primarily one-way communication and relatively little
receiver control over the communication process, resembles Allocution. Senders create
brand, or perform some other persuasive communication function. Most corporate Web
mail links allow the receiver to communicate with the sender. However, in this model,
the sender and receiver roles are still very distinct. Even though the receiver may
communicate with the sender, there is no guarantee that the sender will respond to the
Feedback that has been received. In some ways. Feedback resembles both Consultation
and Public Information. The receiver can consult with the provider of information in
terms over which the receiver has some control. In other words, there may be some
retains primary control over communication. This type strongly resembles the Two-Way
Asymmetric model. It may also use techniques typical of the Registration model for
environments such as e»-commerce in which the sender makes goods and services
available, the receiver selects and orders desired goods/services, and the sender
acknowledges receipt of the order. Online customer support sites, and sites that solicit
32
Mutual Discourse enables two-way communication and gives receivers a
great deal of control over the communication experience. This strongly resembles the
Conversation and Two-Way Symmetric models. The sender and receiver roles become
key to Mutual Discourse is that all participants have the opportunity to send and receive
how many and what types of features allow for interactive communication. This aspect is
2.5.01 Definitions
it an exact definition. Being a fairly new concept within the area of communication
studies fiirther contributes to the problem of an accurate definition explicating it. Rafaeli
(1988); calls it an under-defined concept with narrowly based explications while Kenny
et al. (2000) say it is a concept that few have defined. However, this section will draw
attention to some notable definitions and explanations that exist on the subject within the
area of communication studies and research and especially those that will prove
communication, one source sets the agenda, receiving no or (at most) indirect feedback.
33
In two-way and reactive communication, both sides "send" messages. "Two-way
in addition, that later messages refer to (or cohere with) earlier ones" (Rafaeli in Schultz,
1999).
well as a variable, and not just a condition of communication settings. In other words,
interactivity is not just a condition that exists within communication settings of new
media but rather a construct that is related to and achieved through a process or processes
an important point that interactivity does not necessarily just exists or is inherent within
new communication technologies such as the Internet; it is instead something that must
be aimed for and worked at in order for its full potential to be achieved and realized.
environment
participants
34
• communication environment creates a sense of place (Extracted from
(2001) also recognized this separation between the two types of interactivity in her
contemporary and having many positive associations, it still seems rather unclear, by
comparison to their popularity, just what the terms and concepts mean. According to
Jensen (1998:185), "the positiveness surrounding the concepts and the frequency of their
use seem, in a way, to be reversely proportional to their precision and actual content of
meaning."
context in which they are used. Certainly, Jensen (1998:188) and McMillan (2002:163)
go onto say as much by further adding that the concept of interactivity can mean different
things depending on the context within which it is used. Here, it would be appropriate to
study definitions of interactivity from different aspects viz. process, features, control and
perception.
a) Process
35
exchange." Palvik (1996:137) views interactivity as "two-way communication between
source and receiver, or, more broadly multidirectional communication between any
number of sources and receivers". Steuer (1992:84) dwelt upon real time participation in
the process while depicting it as "the extent to which users can participate in modifying
b) Features
(1998:328) contends that interactive media are "technologies that provide person-to-
machine interactions that simulate interpersonal exchange." In the same way, while
discussing website features, McMillan (2000a) identified thirteen features that might
c) Control
both sender and receiver"(As seen in Chung and Zhao, 2004). Similarly, Jensen (1998)
highlights features that enable user control while defining interactivity as "a measure of a
media's potential ability to let the user exert an influence on the content and/or form of
36
d) Perception
(2000b) in whose study individuals rated interactivity of sites on the basis of their
perceptions of two-way communication, level of control, user activity, sense of place and
feedback, responsive dialogue and mutual discourse. Heeter (1989) viewed interactivity
in her effort to combine the wide-ranging definitions of interactivity that have been
Interactivity, Heeter (1989) argues, can occur along six dimensions and
This dimension is, in fact, 'selectivity' and it concerns the extent to which
users are provided choices of available information. So, the more choice the user has or
the more choice the medium provides, the higher the interactivity of the user or the
medium. This, according to Massey and Levy (1999), would empower the site's users
with many choices for exercising control over information. Succinctly, it means
37
facilitating control for the user through multiplicity of choice in selecting hyperlinks, text,
graphics, etc.
the highest level of interactivity, and if media have higher interactivity, they react to a
user like a human. Kenney et al (2000) explain that online newspapers can interpose a
human who responds to user queries or they can use technology to respond. Usually, of
course, reporters or editors simply answer e-mail questions from users of their online site.
when communication roles of human and machine are interchangeable (Rafaeli, 1988).
emails of the staff members, or any option that requires a human or computer generated
that a mass, undifferentiated audience can access. 'Interactive' online journalism, under
Kenney et al (2000) state that with this dimension, the user becomes the reporter-editor,
and the message intentionally is transmitted to a larger audience. If online Web sites
make it easy for users to add information, then they empower users. Some online
newspapers allow users to add the following types of information: Web pages, hobby and
38
special interest pages, announcements of births, marriages and deaths and reviews of
movies, plays and other cultural and entertainment events. Some online newspapers also
conduit through which a reader can carry on a synchronous, one-to-one interaction with
another reader (Massey and Levy 1999). In other words, a high-interactive medium can
user activity to system activity" (In Kenney et al, 2000). At one extreme, users exert no
effort beyond reading the text information which an online newspaper automatically
"pushes" to them based upon information the users provided about themselves. At the
other extreme, users select each "page" or screen to view, sending a message to the
central computer asking to display the requested page. These extremes lead executives of
online newspapers to ask: How much effort do users wish to exert? Some believe that
computers that "push" the news to users will reduce user effort, and that such a reduction
is desirable. Others believe that users like to "work" because they feel in control and
because they can get the precise information they want (Kenney et al, 2000). The more
number of clicks it takes for the user to find information sought, the more effort exerted
by the user. This makes the site less interactive in this regard (Kenney et al, 2000).
39
6. Monitoring Information Use
Unlike the other dimensions, this one derives from the perspective of the
operator can record who has visited the site and/or which part of the site they visited. The
potential for continuous monitoring of system use has implications for billing and for
programming system content to meet user interests. Of course, this information also is a
valuable measure of how the site has attracted and maintained user's attention. Kenney et
registration, visitor counters that display the number of visitors to a site and cookie files.
"Cookies" are packets of data transmitted by a Web server to the hard drive of a user's
computer. They store the user's ID or Internet address when the user logs onto the Web
developing, users have much more control over the information they wish to be exposed
to, which is a form of 'selective exposure'. So, among the six dimensions of interactivity,
40
instantly report an unfolding news event may be the one characteristic of online
journalism that most clearly distinguishes it from traditional journalism. It can be defined
as the extent to which a Web newspaper offers its readers the most immediately available
information.
rather than online newspaper sites, but their study is particularly relevant because they
communication.
dimension of interactivity is within oneself rather than with another person, but because
communicate with oneself rather than with others, they suggested that playfulness should
"choice." This dimension of interactivity has the same meaning as Heeter's "complexity
of choice" dimension. Providing a choice of several options that users can choose can
increase the perceived interactivity between users and the medium, in this case the Web.
The third dimension of interactivity is "connectedness." They suggested that because the
Web can offer diverse connections through hyperlinks, users can have more interaction
the viewpoint of a provider, information about the users is the most important, especially
when the websites are commercial in nature. So, if the user provides the information, he
41
willingly interacts with a website or a medium. The final dimension of interactivity is
"reciprocal communication." The more reciprocal the communication between the site
visitor and the website provider or owner, the more the site can respond to the particular
This research will carry out quantitative content analysis of the US and
Indian news-sites based on the use of content in the broadest sense to encompass
interactive tools and features that have become characteristic of the Internet.
magazines. In this case, this can be extended to include a website or particular features of
a website. The unit of analysis (descriptive content analysis will be used to define each
and examined websites for interactivity based on presence of fimctional features such as
e-mail links, feedback forms, and chat rooms. McMillan (1998) also used Heeter's
conceptual definition of interactivity to test the hypothesis that websites funded by for-
profit companies and advertising have lower levels of interactivity than sites that receive
42
the majority of their funding from volunteer efforts, non-profit organizations,
government/education and mixed funding sources. Her feature list also included many of
those identified by Massey and Levy as well as bulletin boards, search engines, and forms
for registration and online ordering. Ha and James (1998) identified additional
interactive features including curiosity-arousal devices, games, user choice, and surveys.
and will largely be adopted in this study in addition to some more dimensions which were
encompass all new media, it was relatively easy to adapt all her six dimensions of the
concept to news-sites. Hence, this study will break down interactivity into measurable
Each site will be coded for the presence or absence of various types of
content and features that tap into the technology of the Net. A measurement construct of
All the six dimensions from Heeter's definition have been taken into
has been drawn fi-om Massey and Levy (1999) as it has not been included in Heeter's
definition.
'Playfulness' has been derived for Ha and James (1998) since news-sites
are more of an infotainment product. They related playfulness to the entertainment value
43
provided by interactive games and curiosity arousal devices. The other dimensions of Ha
addition to the dimensions already given by the previous researchers. Promotional tools
cannot be divorced from the news as the vehicle of mass media runs on the wheels oiled
classified) or related services. Hence, this dimension has been framed for the present
study.
Another dimension that has been created for the present study is
website may also lead to a more interactive experience (Chung, 2003). Guay (1995)
argues that websites that adapt to the user's behavior display the most sophisticated level
of interactivity. Once certain information is collected, the website can make a fiirther step
by taking the information collected by the user and then tailoring the information to the
user's liking. Websites can tailor the weather or topics to the user for a personalized
news experience and personalized services. This dimension also represents medium-
human interactivity.
44
Therefore, the ten dimensions, which will steer the course of this research
3. Email based electronic forms, facility to post comments, blogs and reader polls on
news topics of the day were coded as examples of the Ease of Adding
5. Efforts Users Must Exert was framed as number of clicks required for
information retrieval and links to most sought after items on a news-site to reduce
6. The option of registration with the news-site, enabling of cookie files and display
of visitor counters were taken into account for Monitoring Information Use.
like clipping facility, news tracking, forming a user defined web page, etc.
45
9. Interactivity in Promotional Tool will encapsulate the types of interactive
10. Playfulness was conceptualized as the types of online games, crossword puzzles,
music downloads,-etc.
dimensions entail are discussed in the Chapter - IV. In the next chapter, an attempt has
been made to review the literature from the perspective of development stages in mass
media research.
46