My blog

Industry:

Online journalism industry

This industry is important as more and more people choose news sites for their daily news as opposed to print newspapers. This is a concern for many that feel that it mean the end of print newspapers.

Question:

Why are established Australian print newspapers shifting their content online, and what are the benefits/disadvantages of this??

I think that this is mainly because people – especially the young and computer literate people – find online news sites a great way of getting information quickly and easily without having to pay. Also the majority of news sites (especially the ones I am focusing on) are very easy to navigate and allow for interaction and feedback between readers and the site. Therefore to ensure they still maintain their proportion of their readers popular newspapers are going online as well. However, there are those who say that the expected online news revolution has not and will not ever occur.

Resources:

I have explored various online search engines, the university data bases, online news sites, newspapers and the ACMA website to find information that answers this question. I have found multiple articles about why newspapers are suffering with the online competition, which should provide me with many reasons as to why established newspapers in Australia are creating ‘sister’ sites. However, I have also found many articles that state that by going online newspapers will actually be affected negatively.

Examples I will be focusing on:

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/
http://www.smh.com.au/

and compare them with their paper counterparts, especially in terms of content (i.e. media content).

Problems/Issues:

One problem I encountered was that at first I considered using international print and online newspapers for this assignment as well, but then decided that by having only Australian print and online newspapers there would be less difference in the way they were run (e.g. regulations and code of ethics) and thus would simplify the research. Otherwise, I would have to consider all the different available laws and regulations from each company, which would make the question too complex to properly answer in 700-1000 words.

I also have found that many of my sources contradict themselves, especially when it comes to what bloggers argue and what academics claim in their journal articles