Online journalism is reporting and other journalism produced or distributed via the Internet.
An early leader was The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., USA.
Many news organizations based in other media also distribute news online. How much they take advantage of the medium varies. Some news organizations use the Web only or primarily.
The Internet challenges traditional news organizations in several ways. They may be losing classified ads to Web sites, which are often targeted by interest instead of geography. The advertising on news Web sites is sometimes insufficient to support the investment.
Even before the Internet, technology and perhaps other factors were dividing people's attention, leading to more but narrower media outlets.
The Internet has also given rise to more participation by people who aren't normally journalists, such as with Indy Media.
Bloggers write on Web logs or blogs. Traditional journalists often do not consider bloggers to automatically be journalists. This has more to do with standards and professional practices than the medium. But as of 2005, blogging has generally gained at least more attention and has led to some effects on mainstream journalism, such as exposing problems related to a television piece about President Bush's National Guard Service.
Other significant tool of on-line journalism are Internet forums, discussion boards and chats especcialy those representing net version of offical media. The widespread of Internet all over the World created a unique opportunity to create a meeting place for both sides in many conflicts: Israeli-Paletinian or Russian-Chechenian war being worth mentioning. Often this gives a unique chance to find new, alternative solutions to the conflict but often the message boards are turn into the battlefield by contradicting parties creating endless
Most Internet users agree that on-line sourse is often less biased and more informative then the official media. This claim is often backed with the belief that on-line journalists are merely a volonteers and free-lancers who are not payd for their activity, and therefore are free from corporate ethics. But recently many internet forums began to moderate their boards because of threat of vandalism, which is seen as an attempt of censorship by many users. Most important forums based on official or corporate media sourse are BBC message boards and Slate by [1]
Some Online journalists having an ambition to replace the mainstream media in the long run. Some independent forums and discussion boards have allready acheived a level of popularity comparable to the mainstream TV or new agencies. Particularly interesting are http://www.about.com in USA, http://www.expatica.com in Western Eupope and some others. Best sourse of information about growing and emerging Internet news agencies is a printed version of "Rough guide to Internet" which is published every year by [www.roughguides.com "Rough group"]
Internet radio, based on the development of home PC based radio station is another growing internet based independent media.
Among most interesting web-journalists worth mentioning is an Amsterdam based public artist ad Online Jornalist Nick Gabrichidze. His strategy is based on the attempt to change public opinion through active participation on internet forums and message boards, while inviting a top ranking politicians to join the discussion via an email. Gabrichidze was particularly interested in analyzing and criticizing growing nationalist and neo-Nazi movements. In 2002-2003 his thesis that Russian skinhead and neo-Nazi movement are in fact supported and sponsored by Western and particularly American right-wing blasted it’s way into the mainstream media and is still the mater of political controversy
See also
The Internet also offers options such as personalized newsfeeds and aggregators such as Google News. As of March 2005, Wikinews rewrites articles from other news organization.
Some people see too much personalization as detrimental -- for example, that people will have narrower exposure.