Dear jcs2000-ga;
Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to answer your very
interesting question. I don’t believe, however, that you will be able
to prove your point by indicating how many “offline” news stories make
the internet press ALONE, but for the sake of your question I’ll
address this to some extent first.
Long ago news agencies discovered that they could not only communicate
effectively and economically with their far scattered field reporters
but they could also “broadcast” news to millions of people around the
globe literally for pennies. This was a lucrative prospect indeed and
the Internet, as a means of information dissemination, has been used
this way virtually from day one. In fact, it has become so prolific
that many agencies (radio, newspaper, television broadcasts, etc.)
actually depend on breaking news providers in order to get the news
that they are in turn using in their broadcasts. Here are some
examples of news providers from which stories are often gleaned and
selected for broadcast:
NEWSDAY
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/
REUTERS
http://www.reuters.com/newsChannel.jhtml?type=topNews
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (AP NEWSWIRE)
http://www.ap.org/
AP NEWSWIRE – STATE NEWS
http://customwire.ap.org/specials/bluepage.html
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL (UPI NEWSWIRE)
http://www.upi.com/
YAHOO BASED AP/REUTERS PHOTO WIRE
http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news?p=a&c=news_photos
(Which even offers photos that can be purchased by the press and
re-broadcast)
And these are only a few in the enormous list of breaking news sources
*. As you can see, (especially in the case of NEWSDAY) some news
events are actually released on the internet that don’t even get a
mention in broadcast news. This is because agencies chose not to air
those stories either because there isn’t any local interest in it or
it is unrelated to the region that the broadcast reaches (or both).
Case in point:
“Boston Celebrates Big Dig Tunnel Opening”
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-big-dig0117jan17,0,2612391.story?coll=sns%2Dap%2Dnationworld%2Dheadlines
This story appears in today’s ASSOCIATED PRESS offering and details a
local Boston news event. While this may be of interest to people in
Boston, frankly, no one in Tulsa, Oklahoma probably cares much about
it, therefore the news agencies in Tulsa can decide whether or not to
air the story or ignore it altogether.
It would be impossible to say what percentage of offline news make the
Internet since much of it goes unread. Suffice it to say that if it’s
been broadcast on TV, radio, etc., that it’s probably been on the
internet somewhere and, in fact, may very well have originated there.
On the other hand, there are stories that are broadcast which may or
may not be consider newsworthy at all. One of the greatest sources for
this are the Internet tabloids:
DRUDGE REPORT
http://www.drudgereport.com/
THE SMOKING GUN
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/
Now, having said that, lets talk statistics. (And here’s where you can
easily make your case). As I said, there is no real way to determine
how many (i.e., percentage of) offline news stories make it onto the
Internet, because logically, once it makes it to the Internet, its
Internet news isn’t it? Also, as I mentioned above, some news stories
in print and media actually originate from the Internet; so who’s to
say that it didn’t show up here first and then become “offline” news?
There’s really no way to know for sure. What IS certain, is that the
Internet is such a prolific provider of news that it would be foolish
to assume that “online” news events is all that it broadcasts.
Let’s talk for a moment about the prevalence of news on the Internet
and perhaps get a clearer picture of how people use it as a means of
reading “the news”:
The bottom line is that if news weren’t here, people would never come
here for news. It’s as simple as that. INDICATORS 2002 reports that
the Internet ranks third as a primary source for news. (Press agencies
would undoubtedly rank it as their highest source for news, via email,
newsgroups, online news providers like Reiters, AP, UPI, etc.). While
this source is certainly growing each and every day, a survey in 2000
revealed that 7% of home viewers (non-press) depended on the Internet
as their primary source of news, as opposed to 53% who preferred the
television. As you can see by this graph
http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind02/c7/fig07-18.htm the number of
Internet news viewers is growing rapidly and will soon surpass that of
both television and radio becoming the number one source for news in
much the same way as it provide the press with news for re-broadcast.
It is obviously a clearinghouse of topics to select from. This alone
indicates that not only is the Internet providing great coverage of
news events, it is quite comprehensive as well.
This graph http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind02/c7/fig07-19.htm clearly
shows the difference in source preference depending on what kind of
news the “news” is. This only adds to the confusion when trying to
determine which offline events make the Internet news and which do
not, since stories that are considered newsworthy or considered “news”
at all is subject to interpretation.
One could easily argue that the Internet is the chief cause of
newspaper failure. Why? Because news that used to be offline is being
“scooped” and ruining the newspaper industry. This graph
http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind02/c7/fig07-20.htm depicts the rapid
decline of newspaper readership in the last two decades. As people
become more technologically advanced, so too does their ability to
find what they are looking for using a computer. This stands as yet
another indicator that the Internet is a primary source for news. What
was once “offline” news is now “online”, and in fact, may well be a
source for offline reporting. That is to say that much of the news
that one may receive offline may have been taken directly from an
online news source, similar to the way newspaper, television and radio
broadcasts once used the old ticker tape wire for its breaking news
stories.
In summary, let me say this: as a researcher, I do go to the library
for information, but only rarely. I primarily depend on the Internet
for my information. If its been said or done, especially in the recent
past, its likely to be found on the internet somewhere or I can find
someone who knows more about it who is wiling to discuss it. I could
never begin to defend the concept that everything that happens is
published on the Internet, because this statement would be absurd. But
true news – important events that warrant public attention – can
generally be found here and as time goes by, I suspect that the
Internet will become the primary source of news. Whether it is
actually read here first, well, that’s for a future survey to
determine. It will be interesting to see those results. When that news
becomes available “offline” you can bet it will make its way to the
World Wide Web. If your client is arguing that offline news stays
largely offline, in my opinion, he is sorely mistaken. You may not be
able to present a specific percentage to our client but your position
is easily a supportable one.
Below you will find that I have carefully defined my search strategy
for you in the event that you need to search for more information. By
following the same type of searches that I did you may be able to
enhance the research I have provided even further. I hope you find
that that my research exceeds your expectations. If you have any
questions about my research please post a clarification request prior
to rating the answer. Otherwise, I welcome your rating and your final
comments and I look forward to working with you again in the near
future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.
Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga
INFORMATION SOURCES
INDICATORS 2002
“Science and Technology: Public Attitudes and Public Understanding
Where Americans Get Information About S&T”
http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind02/c7/c7s4.htm
NEWSDAY
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/
REUTERS
http://www.reuters.com/newsChannel.jhtml?type=topNews
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (AP NEWSWIRE)
http://www.ap.org/
AP NEWSWIRE – STATE NEWS
http://customwire.ap.org/specials/bluepage.html
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL (UPI NEWSWIRE)
http://www.upi.com/
YAHOO BASED AP/REUTERS PHOTO WIRE
http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news?p=a&c=news_photos
DRUDGE REPORT
http://www.drudgereport.com/
THE SMOKING GUN
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/
OTHER UNQUOTED SOURCES FOR BREAKING NEWS (Places where offline news
makes it way to the internet)
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
AFP INTERNATIONAL
AFP NEWS WRAP
AFX
UPI WIRE
UPI NATIONAL
UPI WORLD
REUTERS ROUNDUP
REUTERS SPOTLIGHT
REUTERS WORLD
REUTERS POLITICS
REUTERS ODD
ABC NEWS
ABCNEWS NOTE
AD AGE DEADLINE
AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE
BBC
BBC AUDIO
BILLBOARD
BOSTON GLOBE
BROADCASTING & CABLE
CBS NEWS
C-SPAN SCHEDULE
CHICAGO TRIB
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE
CNN
CNN TRANSCRIPTS
DAILY VARIETY
D.C. DAYBOOK
E!
ELECTRONIC MEDIA
EMERGENCY NET
ENT WEEKLY
FINANCIAL TIMES
FORBES MAG
FOX NEWS
INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIB
HILL
H'WOOD REPORTER
HUMAN EVENTS
INSIGHT MAG
INVEST BUS DAILY
JERUSALEM POST
JEWISH WORLD REVIEW
LA DAILY NEWS
LA TIMES
LUCIANNE.COM
MEDIA CHECK
MEDIA LIFE
MSNBC
MUCHMUSIC
NATION
NATIONAL ENQUIRER
NATIONAL REVIEW
NEW REPUBLIC
NY DAILY NEWS
NY OBSERVER
NY POST
NY TIMES
NEW YORKER
NEWSBYTES
NEWSWEEK
N. KOREAN NEWS
PEOPLE MAG
R & R
REASON MAG
ROLL CALL
SKY NEWS
SLATE: PAPERS
STAR
TIME MAG
TV SHOPTALK
[U.K.] DAILY MIRROR
DAILY RECORD
[U.K.] EVENING STANDARD
[U.K.] EXPRESS
[U.K.] GUARDIAN
[U.K.] INDEPENDENT
[U.K.] NEWS OF THE WORLD
[U.K.] PEOPLENEWS
[U.K.] STAR
[U.K.] SUN
U.K. TABLOIDS
[U.K.] TELEGRAPH
[U.K.] TIMES
US NEWS
USA TODAY
VILLAGE VOICE
WASH POST
WASH TIMES
WEEKLY STANDARD
WORLDNETDAILY
SEARCH STRATEGY
SEARCH ENGINE USED:
Google ://www.google.com
SEARCH TERMS USED:
Percentage of news on the Internet
Breaking news sources
Trends in Internet news |
