UNIT 11 BASICS ELEMENTS OF ONLINE

JOURNALISM
Structure
11.0 Introduction

11.1 Learning Outcomes

11.2 Understanding Online Journalism

11.3 Characteristics of Online Journalism

11.4 Reporting for Online News Media

11.4.1 Traditional Reporting
11.4.2 Open Source Reporting
11.4.3 Distributive Reporting

11.5 Profile of Online Journalists

11.5.1 Integrated Production
11.5.2 Multi-Platform Delivery
11.5.3 Multi Skilled Professionals

11.6 Trends in Online Journalism

11.6.1 Time Shift Journalism
11.6.2 Emergence of New Digital Platforms
11.6.3 Web 2.0 is Taking Lead
11.6.4 Publishing Online has Become Easy

11.7 Online Journalism in India

11.7.1 News Websites in India

11.8 Social Media for Online Journalism

11.8.1 Some Important Social Networking Sites
11.8.2 Blogs and Citizen Journalism Websites
11.8.3 Business Concern
11.8.4 Prospect of Online Journalism in India

11.9 Let Us Sum Up

11.10 Keywords
11.11 Further Readings
11.12 Check Your Progress: Possible Answers

11.0 INTRODUCTION
Online journalism refers to content created and distributed online. In other words,
this is a type of journalism which operates via internet. Online journalism should
not be confused with ‘citizen journalism’. Online journalism is publishing of
information that is equivalent to that of its print and broadcast counterparts (such
as newspapers, magazines, radio and television). It follows the professional code 139
Online Journalism of conduct similar to traditional journalism. This is how it differs from citizen
journalism, which is not bound by any ethical and professional code of conduct.

Digital media is a technology-driven and evolving medium. New innovations,

new ideas and concepts are added to it more frequently than in any other
traditional media. The introduction of mobile telephony has made access to news
a universal phenomenon. In India, there are more than a billion mobile phone
users with over 389 million having access to internet on their handsets. According
to a report by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI, 2017), the
number of internet mobile users is expected to double in the coming years.
These days, more and more people are using mobile phones to access news
and multimedia content. For a better user experience, most media organizations
are making their websites responsive.

A responsive website is one which appears the same on all devices including
the desktop, tablets and mobile handsets irrespective of their operating system.
The mobile has assumed such a central stage in digital communication that
organizations have now adopted ‘mobile-first’ concept. It means a website is
designed and developed keeping in mind the mobile handset users instead of
the earlier priority which was given to the desktop.

11.1 LEARNING OUTCOMES

After working through this Unit, you will be able to:

understand the characteristics and features of online journalism;

know about the works of online journalists and prevailing trends in

online journalism;

comprehend the status of online journalism in India, and

gain an insight into social networking sites for online journalism.

11.2 UNDERSTANDING ONLINE JOURNALISM

With a few clicks, you can now access almost the entire world of journalism
and its vast variety of sources along with multimedia materials. Before we delve
deeper into multimedia or online journalism, let us understand a few definitions
and keywords. Holly defines online journalism as original writing and reporting
that are delivered via the World Wide Web.

Today as we are witnessing that all types of work is getting transferred onto
the online mode, the media industry has also not lagged behind but has ventured
deeper into it and is exploring new opportunities of online news delivery and
related online news businesses. In the prevailing atmosphere of cut-throat
competition in the news industry, those news organizations who are not adapting
the online medium are expected to lose their competitive edge and may be
unable to sustain for long.

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 Basics Elements of Online
Journalism

You must have experienced that while trying to search for any reading material,
picture or video on internet, as you write certain keywords in the search engine
you get results running into several hundreds of web pages. Sometimes these
links get you on to a blog, many times on to a news website and occasionally
to government websites. All these links do not belong to online journalism. Only,
websites belonging to media houses or blogs created by professional journalists
for providing authentic information to their readers can be categorized as online
journalism. Actually, in recent times you might have noticed that the line between
professional and personal journalistic writings are blurring significantly, mainly
due to proliferation of social media and its popularity.
The online medium provides journalists with a vast range of options to gather
information in an interesting and entertaining way. The internet provides
opportunity for instant publishing, archiving, linking, use of audio and video with
greater interactivity and also provides instantaneous feedback. All these features
give online journalism an upper hand over other media. These key features
of online news medium has a great impact on conventional media e.g. newspaper,
radio, and television. Online medium is not only posing a challenge to the 141
Online Journalism conventional media but is also forcing them to adopt changes in their newsroom
operations and news delivery platforms.
The impact of this can be seen in most daily newspapers as they have begun
to use more box items and bulleted information. This is only to make the
newspapers easy to browse. Renowned page designer Mario Garcia was
engaged to re-launch one of the prominent newspapers in India in the recent
past. In a briefing, Gracia suggested that page should be designed in such a
way that it should be easy to browse. The broadcast medium also tends to
use the interactive and feedback features of online medium. If you listen to
radio you will find that the radio jockey asks you to make your song choice
online. And TV news channels are using online poll, and particularly many prime
time discussion shows are incorporating feeds from live discussion on social
media.
This raises an important question - whether the new media can be seen as
a threat to conventional media or not? This is a point of debate among scholars.
Some believe that online medium will replace conventional media as it has all
the qualities of traditional news media. Here in online medium, you can read
text, listen to audio and watch video at your convenient time and pace. But
others believe that various types of media will continue to co-exist and the online
medium will complement all others. Even at present different types of media
exist together. However, there are growing examples from the west where print
editions are getting significantly reduced in size while correspondingly their digital
media presence is growing. In India, the current scenario is quite different. We
are witnessing a unique scenario where on the one hand, print editions are
growing in the regional languages and equally online journalism outlets are
expanding.

11.3 CHARACTERISTICS OF ONLINE

JOURNALISM
You have learnt the key features of online journalism; now let us understand
the important characteristics of online journalism.
Online: As the word suggests, it operates on a online platform which can be
seen or updated in real time. Here breaking news and events can be updated
as it happens - like live telecast in television news channels, live updates in
news websites are quite common nowadays. While we have had this facility
in Radio and TV also where we gather around and take updated information,
the difference here is that it can be seen on your computing devices and even
hand-held gadgets like mobile with some added features.
Shifted time: Online journalism also takes advantage of shifted time. Online
publications can archive stories for now or later. Users can read those stories
at any time of their choice. In other medium this facility is not available easily.
In the conventional print media, if you want to read any previous day’s or month’s
newspaper you have to get access to the news organization library or one should
collect newspapers on daily basis and archive it periodically – which can be
quite a tedious task.
Multimedia: Online journalism can include multimedia elements: text and
graphics (newspaper and books), sound, music, motion elements and animation
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(broadcast medium), 3D, etc. One of the greatest opportunity of multimedia Basic Elements of Online
journalism is the ability to combine various media elements for a news story. Journalism
At present, most media organizations provide derivatives of their ‘parent’
products. Newspapers are providing digital text, radio organizations are providing
audio clips and TV channels are providing streamed video links. But multi media
is providing to these news entities an opportunity to adapt other designs also.
There are number of sites where we can see this adaptation. Now radio channels
are not only providing audio files but also complementing them with images and
texts - the All India Radio (AIR) and the Voice of America (VoA) websites
are testimony to this.

Newspaper organizations are not only providing digital text but also audio clips
and motion pictures - almost all major dailies are practicing this method. TV
channels are also complementing their video files with text – similar to newspapers
all leading news channels are running their news portals. Seizing this opportunity,
online sites are now trying to take full advantage of the array of media formats
available. Websites are now complementing a story with flash animation, photo
gallery, video and audio clips.
Interactivity: Online journalism is interactive. Hyperlinks are primary mechanism
for this interactivity on the web. Through hyperlinks different types of media
options are added to a news package to bring more in-depth analysis. Through
hyperlinking various elements of lengthy and complex works are added together
in a story. Work of an online journalist consists of hyperlinking of own web
pages or at times links to other websites.
Interactivity also provides users options to comment and add some information
to the existing content. Online sites also conduct online poll to bring in more 143
Online Journalism interactivity. This feature of online journalism is helpful in several ways:
It makes users’ spend more time on the web page.
It makes the users’ experience more enjoyable.
It helps users to gain more information.
Users perceive the site navigation easily.
Immediacy: As per Encyclopaedia of Journalism, ‘News is like bread-it is
best served fresh as it goes stale quickly.’ This statement points to the fact
that immediacy is a key component of journalism. Journalists have responsibility
to provide information as quickly as they can and what better way to do it
than through the internet. It is the fastest medium and through this information
can be disseminated from personal computer to mobile. With the ability to
upload content anytime through a basic internet connection, online media is as
immediate as we can get.
But then the question arises-whether immediacy wins accuracy. What can be
the priority? As we know on the internet, information can be uploaded by any
individual on any social networking site or a blog. Individuals cannot be expected
to be guided by professional ethics and code of conduct applicable to
organizations. In this scenario, any wrong information uploaded can create a
chaotic situation. Hence, it is important for online users to know how to find
reliable information.
Hyper-textuality: Hyper-textuality is a prime ‘tool’ used to introduce interactivity
in a web page. Hypertext is a web link which can be used to provide variety
of information in one page. These links carry a variety of media content (audio,
video, graphics, animation , etc.) in a story. Through hypertext, journalists enrich
their content. So, this being a distinctive unique characteristic of online journalism,
it helps differentiate online media differently from other forms of media. Traditional
journalism provides for linear presentation of a story while online media brings
multi-linearity to the story. It also enables users to be participants when they
click their way through hyperlinked set of pages.
Check Your Progress: 1
Note : 1) Use the space provided below for your Answers.
2) Compare your answers with those given at the end of this Unit.
1. List three usages of hypertext in a news story?
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 Basic Elements of Online
11.4 REPORTING FOR ONLINE NEWS MEDIA Journalism

The impact of online media has been so huge that even reporters of conventional
media have begun to use online tools for reporting. Journalists take news lead
from social media pages and uncover the story. For this purpose, they keep
following various personality profiles on the social networking and micro-blogging
sites.
We now come to another platform - a citizen blog. People from diverse
backgrounds have their own personal blog. They keep writing on a variety of
issues. Some blogs carry people’s comments on an issue which is popular in
mainstream media but some are really important from the reporting point of
view. For example, many known personalities keep sharing their experiences
on blog and even their viewpoints on certain subjects which also carries news
value. Journalists keep following their blogs in order to get lead from there.
There are also examples where journalists are referring to blogs for news
coverage. The importance of blog was understood during the Iraq war, when
journalists were denied open access to most parts of that country with a camera.
Even at that time some journalists managed to send real time information from
the war torn zone. Another interesting case is from the USA. The news stories
on Monica Lewinsky were first exposed in a blog named drudgepost.com. This
was a blog of a journalist who, upon his organization declining to take up that
story in print, was forced to post it on his blog and the rest, as they say, is
history. The point here is that the enormous potential reach of such social
networking sites can be tapped as a good resource for reporting which the
journalists are doing regularly these days. Online reporters have yet another
challenge in that they have to involve readers in the reporting also. Here journalists
do not have any other option. Interactive features of the internet has inherent
potential to involve the readers and it becomes the responsibility of an online
journalist to facilitate their desire. There are three ways of online reporting.

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Online Journalism 11.4.1 Traditional Reporting
In the traditional reporting method, the online reporter uses online tools in
traditional ways like interviews, observation, looking through documents, reading
online and aggregate opinion. The only difference here is that all these news
collection activities are carried out through online. By using e-mail or chat they
take interviews, journalists keep browsing different websites and make observations,
they read online documents and finally create a story by aggregating opinion.

11.4.2 Open Source Reporting

Traditionally reporters do not share the story idea with their readers while
investigating and finding facts in the field. Reporters do not want to lose a
potential scoop to their competitors. But reporters in the open source reporting
take the opposite route. They share their story idea beforehand and ask users
to share their opinion, information and source. After getting information, reporters
go through all information provided and come up with a final story. However,
it is not mandatory that all the information provided by readers will be used
in the final story. It is up to the reporter to use his/her discretion and judgement
regarding the information provided/collected.

The open source reporting is based on participatory theory of communication,

which is based on the belief that the group knows more than an individual.
Open source reporting suggests opening up the reporting process to engage
a community of readers in making a report, which will give more information,
more analysis than a single reporter. This type of reporting is best suited for
small media organizations with limited resources.

11.4.3 Distributive Reporting

Distributive reporting takes open source reporting one step further by relying
on readers to submit information. Here, the community itself adds the multi-
faceted body of work, often covering all angles of the story. It is done especially
in stories which affect a large population. For example, the US geological survey’s
“did you feel it?” earthquake shake maps, where people posted their personal
experiences. Another example is the Flickr collections of readers’ photographs
having same tags.

This type of reporting is helpful in covering a story which has a huge impact
and which affects a large population. In such a case, the possibility of readers
having first-hand information is more likely and through distributive reporting all
possible information can be tapped easily.

As distributive reporting involves readers in story formation it increases the

responsibility of a journalist. If it is not handled properly it would turn into
anonymity, with fake reports and defamation. But keeping the participation theory
in mind, this can turn into the best way of reporting if the readers’ identities
are checked properly. Journalists have to design this kind of reporting effectively.
Distributive reporting can generate a large volume of information in a fraction
of the time.

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Check Your Progress 2 Basic Elements of Online
Journalism
Note : 1) Use the space provided below for your Answers.

2) Compare your answers with those given at the end of this Unit.

1. How is reporting for online news medium different from reporting for
conventional media?
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2. Compare and contrast the open source reporting and distributive reporting.
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11.5 PROFILE OF ONLINE JOURNALISTS

Many people consider online journalism as their dream job, but to become an
online journalist you need to have skills of a reporter, editor, designer and other
skills which are related to the internet medium. Prior to understanding the profile
of an online journalist, it is necessary to understand the various dimensions of
online journalism. Online journalism broadly covers three dimensions: integrated
production, multi-platform delivery and multi skilled professionals.
11.5.1 Integrated Production
Online contents are created in multimedia format, that contains the combination
of any one or more of the following media elements - text, graphics, pictures,
audio and video with interactive features. This is carried out by different
departments. It also covers video editing, audio editing, designing and text editing.
All these departments work together to come up with a final product. Integration
between all these departments is very necessary for quality work. Whereas in
the print media, all departments work independently and the level of integration
is pretty low.
11.5.2 Multi-Platform Delivery
Online contents are delivered through different platforms. Online readers may
access contents on personal computer and mobile also. Sometimes they subscribe
to social networking platforms to get regular updates. Online journalists need
to be ready for multi-platform delivery. Contents created for personal computer
would be different from contents created for mobile. Updating social networking
page is equally important. While digital technology has made multi-platform
delivery much easier but it is important to note that regular human intervention
is needed to improve the quality of content. In integrated production every story
can be originally produced to fit different platforms at the same time. 147
Online Journalism

11.5.3 Multi Skilled Professionals

To undertake multi-faceted work, the online medium needs multi skilled
professionals. The work of an online journalist can be broadly divided into six
parts:

Provide quality work: Internet has made working easy for the journalists. Here
everyone can do it. It is a challenge for good online journalists to perform well
and provide quality work with the help of various internet tools.

Showcase work: After coming up with a quality work, the next challenge
is to showcase the work to potential readers. There are several ways in which
journalist work can be disseminated. Through the choice of right method to
showcase the journalist can greatly enhance the readers experience. Work
can be shown through written text, multimedia, using picture galleries and
graphics.

Interact with readers: Online medium offers great potential for interactivity.
Here journalists can talk to their readers in real time. As an online journalist,
one should ask the readers what they do not know and after assessing their
need should work accordingly. Online journalist should always try to engage
the readers on their turf, never try to preach to them and also help the readers
to engage meaningfully amongst themselves. They should let the readers reach
a journalist when they wish and also facilitate interpersonal communication by
providing contact email or social media ID to the readers.

Help readers to get the complete picture: In online medium, there is always
a possibility that users may not be able to assess the desired information or
they may get one sided information or incomplete information due to lack of
background information. An online journalist should always try to practice
responsible sustainable journalism. It can be done by recycling and reusing of
the background information. Make sure to provide relevant background
information through a hyperlink and also make it easily searchable.

Plan well for story: Make a list of story assets. Then make a list of descriptions
148 of the types of readers who will be interested in the story. Then try to find
a path which will suit every reader. Storyboarding is important as it helps to Basic Elements of Online
frame the story efficiently. Journalism

Be poised at the time of breaking news: At the time of breaking news try
to be the first but never forget to cross check the information from different
sources. Always remember, giving no information is better than providing wrong
information. At the time of breaking news, journalist should be ready to take
information from the readers. Tell the readers what the journalist know so far
and allow them to give the some more information related to the story if possible.
To complete such a diversity of work in the online field requires multitasking
professionals in the newsroom. In other words, more number of professionals
in the newsroom who can do more than their normal share of work. A multimedia
journalist would develop editing, reporting, design and other skills. Hence, three
levels of multi-skilling is required of an online media professional:
Media multi-skilling - it means the journalists capable of producing
content for different media;
Issue multi-skilling – they need to report on news related to different
thematic areas. It means a journalist covering crime should also feel
comfortable covering politics also.
Technical multi-skilling - they are responsible for performing most of
the production task. For example, reporters may need to do editing work
and if needed work as multimedia professionals also.
Check Your Progress: 3
Note : 1) Use the space provided below for your Answers.
2) Compare your answers with those given at the end of this Unit.
1. State the qualities of multi-skilled professionals in online journalism.
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11.6 TRENDS IN ONLINE JOURNALISM

With new technologies in the digital world cropping up every day along with
the changing desires of users it is creating new trends in online journalism. These
trends are not only helpful in tapping more users but also in providing new
experiences to users.
11.6.1 Time Shift Journalism
The days when we waited for re-telecast of a programme on television are
over. Similarly, we do not have to make arrangements for individual recording
of some popular show. Because now in the age of internet, all we need to
do is to search the internet for the content and watch it at our convenience.
The reason is simple, now it is time for time shift journalism or time shift content.
Also the time when we first encounter an information and finally the time we
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Online Journalism consume it can be different. That is why the tab like ‘read later’ or ‘watch
later’ have become quite common.
11.6.2 Emergence of New Digital Platforms
In order to meet the consumers demand, new technologies are emerging and
giving opportunities of new experience of news. Emergence of several new
devices like tablets and smartphones are becoming very challenging for online
journalism. Compounded with this challenge is the increasing number of operating
systems, for example, there are two major types: iOS, and Android in the mobile
market. Basically, these new devices are changing the way that we consume
news. Online media houses have to be compatible with these changing
technologies. Many media houses are coming up with new applications to meet
these challenges. But as the product life cycles are getting shorter and shorter
in this digital age it is finally up to different news organizations and other online
entities to try and figure out how they can produce the kind of product that
will fit into these sorts of niches.

11.6.3 Web 2.0 is Taking Lead

Web 2.0 is the new talking point in online media. It enables users to play an
active role in content creation. In the world of web 2.0, content power is not
with media but with the masses. Web 2.0 provides the basic structure of
participation, such as:
Architecture of participation: these are online facilities for user generated
content such as .blogs, and wikis. The popular website based on web 2.0 is
Wikipedia, where every registered user can contribute/edit/delete the content
as per the existing Wiki community norms.
Crowd sourcing: this is a collaborative form of reporting where with the help
of web 2.0 a group of people work together to gather information. Each
contributor researches on a part of the overall piece.
By using these facilities websites following web 2.0 are trying to elicit more
participation from its readers. These websites focus on submission of users, rather
than staff reporters or editors. Such contents are gathered from a variety of
150 online options: blogs, photos, podcast, video sharing, reviews, forums , etc.
The premise is that the group knows more than an individual at any point of Basic Elements of Online
Journalism
time and new technologies are enabling such an effective form of collective
and collaborative action. This is encouraging citizens to take active part in this
new form of journalism. Besides, this will strengthen the democratic process
as Beth Simone Novech argues that the way people are coming together, not
just to create content, but also to create power.
11.6.4 Publishing Online has Become Easy
Publishing online has become easy with the advent of many online platforms
and new technologies. Publishing content on blogs and social networking sites
has become very common and popular among youth. On social networking sites
too, the youth are dominating. Another new thing which is becoming common
among youth is ‘mobile phone blogging’. This is location based instant blogging.
They use their camera to shoot or click a photograph and post it instantly.
It has made online journalism more competitive. Now the success of a website
does not only depend on the quality of its own content but also on the gathering
content online by following online platforms like blogs, micro blogging websites
and social networking websites.

11.7 ONLINE JOURNALISM IN INDIA

The history of the internet is very short in India. It started in 1995 when Videsh
Sanchar Niger Ltd (VSNL) introduced internet in six cities in India. The first
cyber cafe in India was launched in 1996 in Mumbai and in the same year
rediff.com was launched. The first Hindi web portal in India named Webdunia
was launched in 1999.
As of December 2018, India had 566 million internet users, which is about
40% of internet penetration (Kantar IMRB, 2018). Out of these users, 493
million were active internet users. If we further bifurcate the data, 293 million
users were from urban and 200 million from rural areas. And as we all are
aware that the Indian government has been trying to push internet access to
the Panchayat level and has been also promoting computer literacy in the rural
areas to implement the e-panchayats programme. In such a scenario, it is
obvious that the number of internet users in rural India will go up manyfold
in the coming years.
Hence, the future of internet journalism looks bright in India. More penetration
of internet is bound to bring more users. So internet journalism in the country
should be well prepared to serve the needs of people from different classes.
Looking at the current situation however, it seems that internet has to cover
a long way.
11.7.1 News Websites in India
Many news websites in India seem to be mere extensions of the prime media
product (Newspapers or News channels) itself. Websites are created to carry
detailed stories of a wide range filed by the reporters and editors of the
newspaper. Quite a few independent sites are also operating, but their economic
base is not very strong. Because of that limitation, they are unable to hire trained
online journalists. They are still fully dependent on agency feeds and newspapers 151
Online Journalism reporters. Many news channels have also their websites. Courses related to
online journalism are not taught in various institutions.

11.7.2 Blogs and Citizen Journalism Websites

Blog is an area with a separate identity. In India, the news value of blogs is
very limited. Here, a majority of blogs are expression of personal opinion by
the blogger or commentary on a certain issue, which can be highly subjective
and biased.

Citizen journalism is an area where a person works on a report and puts it

on the public domain. But in India this area in a very nascent form and has
a long way ahead. At present various news sites give them a separate specific
designated space named citizen journalists.

11.7.3 Business Concern

It is also a well known fact that globally online journalism has created its own
niche space and it has made advertisements switch over. During the recent global
melt down, while many newspapers in western countries got badly affected,
the internet remained unaffected. Publishers in developed countries are debating
over the adverse effects of internet over print business. But in India the scenario
is quite different. Here, the circulation of some newspapers is increasing. Print
managers are exploiting the new information and communication technologies
and expanding their businesses. Many leading newspapers have come up with
their local editions like Hindustan, Amar Ujala, Dainik Jagaran (Hindi newspapers),
Hindustan Times, Times of India, the Telegraph (English newspapers) and so
on. More and more readers are showing interest in local editions.

Print editions are also adopting new marketing techniques to tap more readers.
Among the new marketing techniques are organising events and exhibitions for
readers and offering gifts and discounts to subscribers. Such techniques seem
to be increasing the visibility and circulation figures of the dailies. Hence, the
print medium seems to have responded well to the changed circumstances. It
has adopted the new technologies and increased its circulation. Statistics has
shown that more and more readers are now preferring regional language
newspapers (IRS, 2018 ) and that may be one of the driving factors for many
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local edition of several newspapers coming up. Yet another factor could be the Basic Elements of Online
growing literacy rate among rural population. Journalism

11.7.4 Prospect of Online Journalism in India

Under these circumstances there is tussle between print and electronic media
for greater portion of the advertisement pie. The online medium has not received
priority yet. Advisers are willing to consider web edition to insert advertisements
just as add-on in some of the websites of leading newspapers. This means that
the web edition does not make substantial revenue to run a successful website.
Check Your Progress: 4
Note : 1) Use the space provided below for your Answers.
2) Compare your answers with those given at the end of this Unit.
1. What is the present status of online journalism in India?
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11.8 SOCIAL MEDIA FOR ONLINE JOURNALISM

Social networking sites provide online space where people can create their online
profiles and update it with their activities. While doing so they can keep track
of updates of their friends and family.
People can also engage in group activities and display feeds information to their
home page. These feeds range from personal to news stories.

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Online Journalism For journalists and news organizations it is a platform which can be used to
connect with people to share and receive as much information as they can.
Journalists can use this platform in the following ways:
a. Online journalists can showcase their stories here. It is a platform where
journalists can develop personal brands of themselves.
b. Online websites can create their own page on social networking sites to
share some of the important stories there. With help of this, a website
can increase its traffic.
c. Social networking sites can develop widgets and applications to give
important news feeds customised to individual needs and demand. For
example, hindustantimes.com has developed a special page named ‘I love
my Delhi’ where they keep posting important news and activities in Delhi.
d. Journalists can develop their own network to get information and some
lead to an incident and make a comprehensive story. There are several
examples where the news organizations received the first information
through social media.
e. Online news websites should not always try to post links only, they should
also try to share something as small write-ups. This will be helpful in brand
building.
11.8.1 Some Important Social Networking Sites
According to Alexa ranking (a popular online website ranking website) the top
three social networking sites are listed below:
Facebook: Facebook founded in 2004, initially started as a service for college
students but soon opened for everyone. As on June 2019, worldwide it had
2.4 billion monthly users (Facebook Newsroom, 2019).
Twitter: Twitter was launched in July 2006. It has become synonymous with
social movements in many countries. Public figures seem to prefer this medium
as it helps them in keeping in touch with their audience directly. In 2018, globally
there were 321 million monthly users in Twitter (Washington Post, 2019).
LinkedIn: It was launched in 2003. It is a network site which targets
professionals and promotes itself as a platform where one can make business
contacts and find jobs. In October 2019, globally there were 645 million users
in Linked In (Linkedin Newsroom, 2019).

11.9 LET US SUM UP

In this Unit, we have discussed the key features of online journalism and its
characteristics. We discussed the reporting format for online news media and
methods for online story construction.
We came to know about the profiles of online journalists and trends in online
journalism. Also, we discussed online journalism in the Indian context and the
way of using social networking sites for online journalism.

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 Basic Elements of Online
11.10 KEYWORDS Journalism

Interactivity : is a kind of communication process that occurs

between human being and computer systems. Based
on a user’s engagement, the computer respond to his/
her demands, usually online media content is displayed
based on a click/tap.
Scanability : the level ability or skill for a person to read a
portion of text. In online media, it refers to user’s
glancing through web content simultaneously scrolling
the webpage.
WEB 2.0 : it refers to second stage of development in internet,
mainly it denotes the changes in users’ engagement
with the internet (user generated content) and
emergence of social media.

11.11 FURTHER READINGS

1. About Us. (2019). Retrieved 13 October 2019, from https://
news.linkedin.com/about-us#statistics
2. Barbie Zelizer (2019) Why Journalism Is About More Than Digital
Technology, Digital Journalism, 7:3, 343-350, https://doi.org/10.1080/
21670811.2019.1571932
3. Bob Franklin (2014) The Future Of Journalism, Digital Journalism, 2:3,
254-272, https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2014.930253
4. Bradshaw, P. (2013). The online journalism handbook: skills to survive and
thrive in digital age. Routledge.
5. Company Info | Facebook Newsroom. (2019). Retrieved 13 October
2019, from https://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/
6. Eldridge, S., & Franklin, B. (2018). The Routledge Handbook of
Developments in Digital Journalism Studies. Retrieved 13 October 2019,
from http://bit.ly/ojunit11a6
7. Grabowicz, P. (2014). The Transition to Digital Journalism - Berkeley
Advanced Media Institute. Retrieved 10 October 2019, from http://bit.ly/
ojunit17a4
8. IMRB, K. (2019). Internet in India. Retrieved 13 October 2019, from
http://bit.ly/ojunit11a2
9. John, N. (2019). Indian Readership Survey 2019: India Today is the largest
and fastest growing magazine. Retrieved 13 October 2019, from http://
bit.ly/ojunit11a1
10. Parthasarathi, V., & Srinivas, A. (2013). Mapping Digital Media: India.
Retrieved 13 October 2019, from http://bit.ly/ojunit11a5
11. Sen, A., & Kleis Nielsen, R. (2016). Digital Journalism Start-Ups in India.
Retrieved 13 October 2019, from http://bit.ly/ojunit11a4
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Online Journalism 12. Shaban, H. (2019). Twitter reveals its daily active user numbers for the
first time. Retrieved 13 October 2019, from http://bit.ly/ojuni11a3
13. Siapera, E., & Veglis, A. (2012). Introduction: The Evolution of Online
Journalism. Retrieved 13 October 2019, from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/
doi/pdf/10.1002/9781118313978.ch1
14. Vi òovský, J., & Rado inská, J. (2017). Online Journalism: Current Trends
and Challenges. Retrieved 13 October 2019, from http://dx.doi.org/
10.5772/68086

11.12 CHECK YOUR PROGRESS: POSSIBLE

ANSWERS
Check Your Progress 1
1. It is available online and can be archived for easy access with added features
of multimedia, immediacy and hyper textuality.
Check Your Progress 2
1. While creating online story one should try to make readers feel more
informed, entertained and engaged. For that scanability and compact pages
for online story should be ensured. Also, the story should have multimedia,
tags/keywords, hyperlink based structure and interactive features.
2. Here in online news media all reporting processes are done online e.g.
by using email and chats, interview is done, different websites are browsed
to make observations. Open source reporting and distributive reporting are
the main features of reporting for online news media.
Check Your Progress 3
1. Multi skilled professionals in online journalism provide quality work,
showcase work in right way so that readers gain great experience, interacts
with readers, help them to get complete picture of the story, plan ahead
for the story and are poised during breaking news online.
Check Your Progress 4
1. Many news websites are mere extensions of the prime media product
(Newspapers or News channels) itself. Websites are created to carry
detailed stories on a wide range of issues filed by reporters and editors
of the newspapers. Many independent sites are also operating, but their
economic base is not very strong. Because of that they are unable to hire
trained online journalists. They are still fully dependent on agency feeds
and newspapers reporters. Many news channels have also their websites.
But that is also to carry popular video clips on the websites.

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