Journalism by demand: The changing role of online journalists as agenda setters. A case study of the Internet Chicago Tribune

Sung Hee Park, Purdue University

Abstract

This study is an examination of the changing role of online journalists as agenda setters and uses a case study of the Internet Chicago Tribune. By focusing on the interplay between the degree of interactivity and the agenda setting function of the online journalists, this study delineates the changing patterns in news selection procedures in the online newsroom. In the process, the roles of online journalists as agenda setters, gatekeepers, and conversationalists are identified. The study results indicate that the audience plays a part in newsroom by voicing their opinions and wishes as customers through various interactive channels. The degree of interactivity between the audience and online journalists, however, was found to be low, and the quality, insubstantial. Thus the audience only exerted its influence upon presentation of news, leaving most of the agenda setting functions to the professional journalists. One reason for this was that the online journalists in this study were not overwhelmed by the interactive nature of the Internet, and made conscious efforts to keep their judgments of what constituted news independent of readers' opinions on that subject. Despite the interactivity of the Internet, online journalists carried out traditional journalism activities, and the readers remained customers, not collaborators. Several interpretations can be drawn from the above. First, the Internet Chicago Tribune is fundamentally a mainstream newspaper company, where traditional journalism practices are still tenable. Second, there is a segregation of the audience and journalists, the latter attempting to maintain journalistic integrity regardless of the medium. Third, the primary concern of online audience is acquiring necessary information, and interactivity is only secondary. Finally, both media reporters and their readers need time to adjust to and fully exploit the technological advances that are characteristic of the Internet.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Webb, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Mass media|Journalism|Information Systems

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