The Internet overtook print media as a primary source of information for national and international news in the United States in 2008. Television was still far in the lead, but especially among younger demographics, the Internet and social media are primary ways to learn about the day’s news. With 40 percent of the public receiving their news from the Internet, media outlets had to shift focus to make their presence known on the web. One of the most remarkable shifts out of that rush was the establishment of online-only news sources.
The conventional argument claims that the anonymity and the echo chamber of the Internet undermine worthwhile news reporting, especially for topics that are expensive to report on. The ability of large news organizations to put reporters in the field is one of their most important contributions and (because of its cost) is often one of the first things to be cut back during times of budget problems. However, as the Internet has become a primary news source for more and more people, new media outlets—publications existing entirely online—have begun to appear.
In 2006, two reporters for the Washington Post, John F. Harris and Jim VandeHei, left the newspaper to start a politically centered website called POLITICO. Rather than simply repeating the day’s news in a blog, they were determined to start a journalistically viable news organization on the web. The different ways that POLITICO reaches out to its supporters—blogs, Twitter feeds, regular news articles, and now even a print edition—show how media convergence has even occurred within the Internet itself. The interactive nature of its services and the active comment boards on the site also show how the media have become a two-way street: more of a public forum than a straight news service.
https://boisestate.pressbooks.pub/soc122/Van Ry, Veronica. Sociological Communication. Pressbooks, 2023. Adaptado.