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Digital dilemmas: the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and interactive multimedia publishing, 1992 – 2002Martin, Fiona R Unknown Date (has links)
From the 1990s onwards the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) adopted a range of interactive multimedia activities: CD-ROM, web publishing, datacasting and interactive television. Drawing on extensive primary research, this thesis explores why the ABC pursued an interactive multimedia program under a neo-liberal rationality and how online publishing in particular has impacted on its role as a public service broadcaster. Drawing on neo-Foucauldian governmentality theory and Scott Lash’s critique of information, the thesis examines how the ABC operates as a technology of government in the transition to an informational society. While it considers the ABC as a localised, specific form of public service broadcasting, many of the findings have importance for analysis within the broader field of state intervention in media markets. It demonstrates that networked interactive multimedia are a communications strategy appropriate to the governance of a globally implicated market-state during a period of informationalisation – characterised by increased symbolic flows, spatial and temporal compression, decontextualised and disorderly relations of information. Public service media will transition this period, characterised by rapid social change and institutional upheaval, where they can incorporate and exploit the informational relations that threaten to diminish their utility as governmental assemblage. It finds that while ABC executives used technological change to adapt to the enterprise focus of neo-liberal government, the corporation was simultaneously transformed by disorganisational influences pursuing an ethics of internetworking. Contrary to Lash’s ideal schema of institutional decline, disorganisation – embodied in the ad hoc, program-maker led push for internet access and publishing – can become a force for organisational renewal. This is observable in the development of ABC Online, a public access web service. The conclusion drawn from ABC Online’s emergence is that the era of digitalisation exposes the ABC as a mutable object, a flexible strategy of national communications governance. It is not exclusively tied to a technical system, such as radio or television, or a practice such as broadcasting. Interactive multimedia such as ABC Online may help the ABC to readdress its contradictory political rationale – the call to represent a coherent national identity in the face of infinite lived diversity – and play a new role in connecting and engaging its users.This thesis re-examines that role in light of Lash’s observations about the nature of informational power. It explores at length the response to a new self-governing, performative subject, the user of interactive multimedia technology. The user, unlike the audience, is visible, often vocal and social. She negotiates both the space of a multimedia object and dialogic interactions within that space. Her exemplary expertise may rival that of the ABC’s program-makers. This analysis indicates that in response to informational phenomena, the ABC has reconceived its space of government, its pedagogy and its production of citizenship in order to remain an effective expression of governmentality. An online ABC may act as a mediatory, contextualising strategy that helps users negotiate the construction and function of difference. It may also be altered by user knowledge. These relations are possible, although preliminary in this research, while the ABC remains wedded to the more disciplinary relations of broadcasting. The implication is that a digitally networked ABC should not be a self-enclosed institution. It is part of an informational network: a multi-sector innovation system. It should not be divorced from its public or the market except in its ethics of exchange. It is a technology that through its technocultural relations socialises, is shaped by and melds with its sometimes unruly user/citizens. It influences, is influenced by and is part of a volatile mediascape. The ABC is organisation and disorganisation, the rigidity of the one generating the other and then being reincorporated, in a cycle of institutional and industrial change.
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Desirability, Values and Ideology in CNN Travel -- Discourse Analysis on Travel StoriesLaine, Emmi January 2013 (has links)
Title: Values, Desirability and Ideology in CNN Travel -- a Discourse Analysis on Travel Stories Author: Emmi Laine Course: Journalistikvetenskap, Kandidatkurs, H13 J Kand (Bachelor of Journalism, Fall 2013), JMK, Stockholm University, Sweden Aim: The aim is to examine which values and ideologies CNN Travel fulfills in their stories. Method: Qualitative discourse analysis. Summary: This Bachelor ́s thesis asks what is desirable, which are the values of CNN Travel, the major U.S. news corporation CNN ́s online travel site. The question has been answered through a qualitative discourse analysis on 20 chosen travel stories, picked by their relevancy, diversity, and their expressive tone. Due to the limited space and the specific textual method, the analysis was restricted to the editorial texts of these stories. The chosen method was discourse analyst Norman Fairclough ́s model of evaluation, which revealed the explicit and implicit ways the media texts suggest desired characteristics. These linguistic devices took the readers ́ agreement for granted, as they imposed a shared cultural ground with common values, which is a base for a mutual understanding. After identifying the explicit and implicit evaluations, they were organized according to some major discursive themes found in the texts, and finally analyzed in order to expose their underlying values. The results showed how these certain values brought forth certain ideologies, to some extent in keeping with recent research of tourism and travel journalism. As the study has been put into a larger context of related research, the following pages will first explain some larger concepts of discourse analysis, such as representation, cultural stereotypes, ideology and power. A cross-section from older to more contemporary theories in culture studies has been utilized; moving from Edward Said ́s postcolonial classic Orientalism, an example of cultural stereotyping, to the more recent topics of ‘promotion culture’ and consumerism, and tourism researcher John Urry ́s ideas about the consumption of places and the ‘tourist gaze.’ In the end, the study considers what kind of power does travel journalism possess over the represented tourism destinations. Finally, when questioning the travel journalists ́ legitimacy and power to represent the travel destinations, poststructuralist Michel Foucault ́s theory about the ‘regime of truth,’ as well as Antonio Gramsci ́s ideas of ‘hegemony,’ theory of dominance through consent, were discussed and confirmed.
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Digital dilemmas: the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and interactive multimedia publishing, 1992 – 2002Martin, Fiona R Unknown Date (has links)
From the 1990s onwards the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) adopted a range of interactive multimedia activities: CD-ROM, web publishing, datacasting and interactive television. Drawing on extensive primary research, this thesis explores why the ABC pursued an interactive multimedia program under a neo-liberal rationality and how online publishing in particular has impacted on its role as a public service broadcaster. Drawing on neo-Foucauldian governmentality theory and Scott Lash’s critique of information, the thesis examines how the ABC operates as a technology of government in the transition to an informational society. While it considers the ABC as a localised, specific form of public service broadcasting, many of the findings have importance for analysis within the broader field of state intervention in media markets. It demonstrates that networked interactive multimedia are a communications strategy appropriate to the governance of a globally implicated market-state during a period of informationalisation – characterised by increased symbolic flows, spatial and temporal compression, decontextualised and disorderly relations of information. Public service media will transition this period, characterised by rapid social change and institutional upheaval, where they can incorporate and exploit the informational relations that threaten to diminish their utility as governmental assemblage. It finds that while ABC executives used technological change to adapt to the enterprise focus of neo-liberal government, the corporation was simultaneously transformed by disorganisational influences pursuing an ethics of internetworking. Contrary to Lash’s ideal schema of institutional decline, disorganisation – embodied in the ad hoc, program-maker led push for internet access and publishing – can become a force for organisational renewal. This is observable in the development of ABC Online, a public access web service. The conclusion drawn from ABC Online’s emergence is that the era of digitalisation exposes the ABC as a mutable object, a flexible strategy of national communications governance. It is not exclusively tied to a technical system, such as radio or television, or a practice such as broadcasting. Interactive multimedia such as ABC Online may help the ABC to readdress its contradictory political rationale – the call to represent a coherent national identity in the face of infinite lived diversity – and play a new role in connecting and engaging its users.This thesis re-examines that role in light of Lash’s observations about the nature of informational power. It explores at length the response to a new self-governing, performative subject, the user of interactive multimedia technology. The user, unlike the audience, is visible, often vocal and social. She negotiates both the space of a multimedia object and dialogic interactions within that space. Her exemplary expertise may rival that of the ABC’s program-makers. This analysis indicates that in response to informational phenomena, the ABC has reconceived its space of government, its pedagogy and its production of citizenship in order to remain an effective expression of governmentality. An online ABC may act as a mediatory, contextualising strategy that helps users negotiate the construction and function of difference. It may also be altered by user knowledge. These relations are possible, although preliminary in this research, while the ABC remains wedded to the more disciplinary relations of broadcasting. The implication is that a digitally networked ABC should not be a self-enclosed institution. It is part of an informational network: a multi-sector innovation system. It should not be divorced from its public or the market except in its ethics of exchange. It is a technology that through its technocultural relations socialises, is shaped by and melds with its sometimes unruly user/citizens. It influences, is influenced by and is part of a volatile mediascape. The ABC is organisation and disorganisation, the rigidity of the one generating the other and then being reincorporated, in a cycle of institutional and industrial change.
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Digital dilemmas: the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and interactive multimedia publishing, 1992 – 2002Martin, Fiona R Unknown Date (has links)
From the 1990s onwards the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) adopted a range of interactive multimedia activities: CD-ROM, web publishing, datacasting and interactive television. Drawing on extensive primary research, this thesis explores why the ABC pursued an interactive multimedia program under a neo-liberal rationality and how online publishing in particular has impacted on its role as a public service broadcaster. Drawing on neo-Foucauldian governmentality theory and Scott Lash’s critique of information, the thesis examines how the ABC operates as a technology of government in the transition to an informational society. While it considers the ABC as a localised, specific form of public service broadcasting, many of the findings have importance for analysis within the broader field of state intervention in media markets. It demonstrates that networked interactive multimedia are a communications strategy appropriate to the governance of a globally implicated market-state during a period of informationalisation – characterised by increased symbolic flows, spatial and temporal compression, decontextualised and disorderly relations of information. Public service media will transition this period, characterised by rapid social change and institutional upheaval, where they can incorporate and exploit the informational relations that threaten to diminish their utility as governmental assemblage. It finds that while ABC executives used technological change to adapt to the enterprise focus of neo-liberal government, the corporation was simultaneously transformed by disorganisational influences pursuing an ethics of internetworking. Contrary to Lash’s ideal schema of institutional decline, disorganisation – embodied in the ad hoc, program-maker led push for internet access and publishing – can become a force for organisational renewal. This is observable in the development of ABC Online, a public access web service. The conclusion drawn from ABC Online’s emergence is that the era of digitalisation exposes the ABC as a mutable object, a flexible strategy of national communications governance. It is not exclusively tied to a technical system, such as radio or television, or a practice such as broadcasting. Interactive multimedia such as ABC Online may help the ABC to readdress its contradictory political rationale – the call to represent a coherent national identity in the face of infinite lived diversity – and play a new role in connecting and engaging its users.This thesis re-examines that role in light of Lash’s observations about the nature of informational power. It explores at length the response to a new self-governing, performative subject, the user of interactive multimedia technology. The user, unlike the audience, is visible, often vocal and social. She negotiates both the space of a multimedia object and dialogic interactions within that space. Her exemplary expertise may rival that of the ABC’s program-makers. This analysis indicates that in response to informational phenomena, the ABC has reconceived its space of government, its pedagogy and its production of citizenship in order to remain an effective expression of governmentality. An online ABC may act as a mediatory, contextualising strategy that helps users negotiate the construction and function of difference. It may also be altered by user knowledge. These relations are possible, although preliminary in this research, while the ABC remains wedded to the more disciplinary relations of broadcasting. The implication is that a digitally networked ABC should not be a self-enclosed institution. It is part of an informational network: a multi-sector innovation system. It should not be divorced from its public or the market except in its ethics of exchange. It is a technology that through its technocultural relations socialises, is shaped by and melds with its sometimes unruly user/citizens. It influences, is influenced by and is part of a volatile mediascape. The ABC is organisation and disorganisation, the rigidity of the one generating the other and then being reincorporated, in a cycle of institutional and industrial change.
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Die rol en regulering van internetdiskoerse op die NG Kerk se webplatforms in die daarstelling van ʼn publieke sfeerVan Niekerk, Francine 03 1900 (has links)
Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / Bibliography / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study investigates if and how the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) uses its websites to create a public sphere. Since the end of apartheid this church and its media had to adapt to the changing environment in South Africa, particularly in its increasing use of the new media to involve believers and non-believers.
Because of the internet’s potential to connect people from all over the world and its interactivity, scholars assert that the internet can create a public sphere. Habermas’ idea of the public sphere, a conceptual space where critical public discourse takes place and anyone can participate, forms the theoretical underpinning for this study. This theory, however, is slightly adapted by arguing that conflict – within bounds – is also part of the communication process within the public sphere.
This study focuses on seven active websites of the DRC in order to examine its relation to public theology from a critical cultural perspective. The ideals of public theology closely relates to that of the public sphere. These ideals are a public debate on issues relating to the common good, which are discussed from a religious stance. A central view is that regulation can hinder the forming of a public sphere. Thus the nature and level of regulation on the church’s websites are examined. The nature of interaction between users and content on websites is also studied. This study combines qualitative and quantitative methods, including semi structured interviews, questionnaires, content analysis and systematic observation.
The study found that Kerkbode’s Facebookpage facilitates a lively forum for debate on issues that advances the public sphere. The Facebookpage of the DRC has the potential to create such debates. On both these websites and Kerkbode-online and NG Kerk-online, regulation on midlevel curbs this potential. Other obstacles for creating a public sphere that was identified on the DRC’s websites, were personal insults, too narrow focus on internal church affairs and low participation in topics that could advance the public sphere. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie ondersoek die vraag of die NG Kerk se webwerwe dit regkry om ʼn publieke sfeer te skep. Sedert die einde van apartheid het die kerk en sy media hom op verskeie maniere in die veranderende Suid-Afrika aangepas, onder meer deur die toenemende gebruik van nuwe media om gelowiges en nie-gelowiges te betrek.
As gevolg van die internet se vermoë om mense van regoor die wêreld te verbind en die interaktiewe aard van die medium, meen kenners dat die internet ʼn publieke sfeer kan skep. Habermas se idee van ʼn publieke sfeer, wat ʼn konseptuele ruimte is waar kritiese, openbare diskoers gevoer word wat vir enigeen toeganklik is, vorm die onderbou van hierdie studie. Dié teorie word hier aangepas deur aan te voer dat konflik en meningsverskil – binne perke – ook deel van kommunikasieprosesse binne die publieke sfeer is.
Hierdie studie fokus op die sewe aktiewe webwerwe van die NG Kerk om hul verbintenis tot publieke teologie binne ʼn krities-kulturele paradigma te ondersoek. Die ideale van publieke teologie hang nou saam met dié van die publieke sfeer, naamlik ʼn openbare gesprek oor sake van openbare belang wat vanuit godsdienstige oortuigings gevoer word. ʼn Sentrale vertrekpunt van die studie is dat ʼn ideale publieke sfeer deur regulering aan bande gelê kan word. Dus word die aard en vlak van regulering op die kerk se webwerwe ook nagevors. Die tipe interaksie tussen gebruikers en die inhoud van die webwerwe is ook bestudeer. Die studie gebruik ʼn kombinasie van kwalitatiewe en kwantitatiewe metodes, insluitend semi-gestruktureerde onderhoude, vraelyste, inhoudsanalise en sistematiese observasie.
Die studie het bevind dat Kerkbode se Facebookblad ʼn lewendige forum bied vir debat oor sake wat die publieke sfeer bevorder. Ook die NG Kerk se Facebookblad het die potensiaal om sulke debatte te skep. Op albei hierdie webwerwe, asook Kerkbode-aanlyn en NG Kerk-aanlyn, het regulering op mesovlak dié potensiaal egter ingeperk. Ander hindernisse vir die skep van ʼn ideale publieke sfeer wat op die NG Kerk se webwerwe geïdentifiseer is, is beledigings, ʼn te noue fokus op interne kerksake en lae deelname aan debatte oor sake wat die publieke sfeer kan bevorder.
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Newsroom convergence at the Mail & Guardian: a case studyVan Noort, Elvira Esmeralda January 2008 (has links)
This case study researches newsroom convergence as a process at the Mail & Guardian newspaper and their online edition the Mail & Guardian Online. It focuses on the reporters’ and editors’ attitudes towards newsroom convergence and on cultural resistance against change; one of the major challenges in the process. With structured interviews, observations and questionnaires it was analysed that communication problems between the newsrooms, different production cycles and time management issues are other prominent difficulties. The case study furthermore provides a snapshot of the convergence phenomenon as a process in a particular South African news organisation. The outcomes could not only assist other news companies with convergence plans but also be used as a pilot study for further research on converged newsrooms in South Africa.
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Framing the foreigner : a close reading of readers' comments on Thought leader blogs on xenophobia published between May and June, 2008Mwilu, Lwanga Racheal January 2010 (has links)
This study was conducted to identify and analyse Mail and Guardian Online moderation outputs which contradicted the platform‟s own stated policy on hate speech and other forms of problematic speech. The moderation outputs considered were a battery of readers‟ comments that were posted in response to Thought Leader blogs on xenophobia published between May and June, 2008. This was the same period a series of xenophobic attacks was taking place in some parts of South Africa, leaving an estimated 62 people dead, more than 30,000 displaced, and countless victims injured and robbed of their property. The attacks were a catalytic moment that enabled a whole range of discursive positions to be articulated, defended, contested and given form in the media. They also made visible the potential tensions between free speech on the one hand, and hate and other problematic speech on the other. Using qualitative methods of thematic content analysis, document review, individual interviews, and an eclectic approach of framing analysis and rhetorical argumentation, this study found instances of divergence between the M&G policy and practice on User Generated Content. It found that some moderator-approved content advocated hate, hatred, hostility, incitement to violence and/or harm, and unfair discrimination against foreign residents, contrary to the M&G policy which is informed by the constitutional provisions in both section 16 of the Bill of Rights and section 10 of the Equality Act. Based on examples in the readers‟ comments of how „the foreigner‟ was made to signify unemployment, poverty, disease, unfair competition, and all manner of deprivation, and bearing in mind how such individuals have also become a site for the violent convergence of different unresolved tensions in the country, the study‟s findings argue that the M&G – a progressive paper dealing with a potentially xenophobic readership (at least a portion of it) – should have implemented its policy on acceptable speech more effectively. The study also argues that the unjustifiable reference to foreigners as makwerekwere, illegals, illegal aliens, parasites, invaders and border jumpers, among other terms, assigned them a diminished place – that of unwanted foreigner – thereby reproducing the order of discourse that utilises nationality as a space for the expurgation of the „other‟. The study argues that the use of bogus (inflated) immigration statistics and repeated reference to the foreigners‟ supposedly parasitic relationship to the country‟s resources also unfairly constructed them as the „threatening other‟ and potentially justified action against them.
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Vliv webové analytiky na novinářskou práci / The Influence of Web Analytics on JournalismJílková, Veronika January 2020 (has links)
This Master's thesis entitled "The Influence of Web Analytics on Journalism" examines the impact of web analytics on journalistic routines in the Czech Republic. The theoretical frame focuses on history of origin and development of czech online news media as well as the change of journalistic work in the environment of online media. An inseparable part of the theoretical section is also an introduction to the topic of editorial analytics. The theory of gatekeeping frames our research and helps us define specific research questions. Qualitative research was conducted using semi-structured in-depth interviews with ten journalists to answer the research questions. Results showed who is in charge of editorial analytics in newsrooms and how often are analytical tools used. Then the purpose of usage of editorial analytics was found and described in the interpretative part. In conclusion the results provided us with detailed information about the specific impact of analytics on journalistic routines including appearance of home pages, headlines and photos, selection of topics, links to other articles etc. The key findigs of this research were enriched by conclusions of similar foreign studies.
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Hudební online žurnalismus: weby iReport a Musicserver a uplatňování teoretických konceptů žurnalistiky / Music online journalism: iReport and Musicserver websites and application of theoretical concepts of journalismŠindlauerová, Marta January 2019 (has links)
The diploma thesis describes the application of theoretical concepts of journalism into the environemnt of two most popular music websites Musicserver and iREPORT. In the theoretical basis for the topic are featured the basic characteristics of online journalism and the problematic nature of the term "ideal critic". Furthermore, there are at first theoretically established and afterwards analyzed the concepts of agenda-setting, gatekeeping, objectivity and bias, participative journalism, user generatec content, professionalism, hypertextuality and intertextuality, the usage of social networks, tabloidization and the analysis will also touch upon the issue of name transformation to fit the Czech language. There is also a semiotic and visual analysis of chosen samples performed. On the basis of concepts, the paper intends to explain the functioning of the websites, the aspects that are influencing their content, the factors that have an effect on the selection of the content, the means of working with the audience, the problems in terms of objectivity in the art criticism, the requirements laid upon the editorial staff members and the level of influence upon the readers. Keywords online journalism, theoretical concepts, Musicserver, iREPORT, music, agenda-setting, gatekeeping, objectivity,...
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Pluralism, Australian newspaper diversity and the promise of the InternetLewis, Kieran Joseph January 2004 (has links)
In this thesis I address the research question: 'How has the Internet delivered pluralism by promoting structural diversity and/or content diversity in Australia's newspaper industry?' Structural diversity is defined here as diversity in newspaper ownership and content diversity as the diversity of views published by individual newspapers. Central to the thesis is the notion of pluralism, the belief that the news media should provide a range of views and opinions, contradictory as well as complementary, to allow informed citizens to effectively take part in the democratic process. The newspaper industry in this country, however, is controlled by a powerful press oligopoly across a range of markets, a situation believed to greatly limit pluralism. A review of newspaper ownership and circulation from 1986 to 2002 shows that, as at 2002, four newspaper owners are the sole occupants of Australia's national and capital city newspaper market. Seven owners are predominant in Australia's regional daily newspaper market, although just three owners controlled 69 per cent of the market's circulation in 2002. Two owners controlled 69 per cent of Australia's suburban newspaper market in 2002. Similar trends were seen in the country's Saturday newspaper and Sunday newspaper markets. In all markets except the regional daily newspaper market, News Limited is the dominant newspaper owner. Australian Provincial News and Media is the dominant owner in the regional daily newspaper market with a 27 per cent share of circulation in 2002. Australia's concentrated newspaper ownership structure has led to a number of formal inquiries into diversity in the industry since 1980. In this thesis I review two of these inquiries, the 1991-92 House of Representatives Select Committee on the Print Media (the Print Media Inquiry) and the 2000 Productivity Commission Inquiry into Broadcasting, to determine (among other things) the nature of and the relationship between structural and content diversity as they apply to Australia's newspapers. (By virtue of major media groups' involvement in the Productivity Commission's inquiry - particularly News Limited, Publishing and Broadcasting Limited and, to a lesser extent, Rural Press - this inquiry, although broadcast-oriented, considered Australia's newspaper industry at length.) This review shows both inquiries were clear on how they saw this relationship - structural diversity is necessary for content diversity. However, the Print Media Inquiry suggested it was almost impossible to guarantee structural diversity in the nation's newspaper industry. The Productivity Commission, meanwhile, said that while it accepted content diversity was not inconsistent with media ownership concentration, it was more likely to be achieved where there was diverse ownership. With the relationship between structural and content diversity in mind, and the Print Media Inquiry's and the Productivity Commission's beliefs that new entrants in the newspaper industry were unlikely in the short term, I examine the suggestion that the Internet has the potential to increase structural diversity in Australia's newspaper industry by allowing new players to efficiently enter the industry via the World Wide Web. The extent to which this might occur is determined by a study of 18 Australian newspaper websites with one argument being that if established newspapers find the transition online relatively easy, then independent online-only news sites might be similarly established. Mings and White's four online news business models - a subscription model, advertising model, e commerce-based transactional model and partnership-based model - are used as a framework to examine the study's results. The study shows Australia's experience mirrors international experience in terms of the growth of newspapers online and in terms of their lack of profitability. It shows that 28 per cent of the newspapers surveyed maintained their circulation while offering free online news content, while a further 33 per cent registered circulation increases. Advertising revenue increased for seven of the nine newspaper websites containing advertising, suggesting that, for some Australian newspapers at least, gaining online advertising (as opposed to gaining overall profitability) has proved successful. And while the survey shows little evidence of Australian newspapers using the transactional model in any real sense, it does show that Australian newspapers are forming local online partnerships with other media and non-media businesses to facilitate their online activities. The study's key finding is that of the 18 newspapers surveyed, just two websites were profitable. This finding is consistent with literature that highlights a lack of commercially viable independent online news ventures both in Australia and internationally. While considerable hopes were held that the Internet would introduce more structural diversity into Australia's newspaper industry, I argue that the Internet's commercial imperatives, as they apply to newspapers, have to a large extent precluded it from adding structural diversity in the industry. In these circumstances, it may be that the only viable way of increasing content diversity in the nation's newspaper industry is to increase the availability of diverse information sources to journalists. I propose that one way to do this is via the Internet. The extent to which this is occurring is determined by a survey of Australian journalists' Internet use, the survey results showing that 97.4 per cent of the journalists who responded now use the Internet regularly, including 97.5 per cent of newspaper journalists. But most journalists who responded use the Internet as a preliminary research tool and as a way to check facts rather than as a means of accessing diverse news sources. The respondents' top five Internet uses, for example, are to e-mail work colleagues, to undertake preliminary research, to access media releases from websites, to verify facts and to search other news organisations' websites. They access major news organisation websites most frequently, followed by government websites, university/research institution websites and corporate/company websites. The least frequently accessed websites are those that could conceivably provide the alternate views demanded by pluralism: online news and current affairs discussion groups and websites set up by private individuals. The survey shows the types of websites Australian journalists most frequently access are linked to the credibility they give to information contained on those websites. Major news organisation websites are seen as providing the most credible information, followed by university/research institution websites and government websites. Websites perceived as providing the least credible information were those that host online news and current affairs discussion groups and websites set up by private individuals. The survey also shows Australian journalists have not embraced online reader interaction to any extent, lessening the likelihood that readers will be able to provide journalists with more diverse news sources. Less than 20 per cent of journalists interact with readers via the Internet and less than 10 per cent use this interaction to create or follow up news stories. The survey does provide results that support source diversity, however. It shows that almost a third of Australian journalists have obtained additional news sources via the Internet. The Internet has also allowed more than 40 per cent of journalists to access individuals or groups that they would not otherwise have accessed. The survey also shows that journalists who have had experience working in the online media environment consistently use the Internet more productively, in terms of diversity, than other journalists. It is these journalists that interact online with readers more, that participate in online discussion groups more and that appear more willing to seek online information from non-traditional sources such as independent news websites and the websites of private individuals or groups. Journalists with online media experience also represent the group that has most sought training in online journalism and online media practice and that most believes the Internet will play an increasingly important role for journalists and news consumers in the future. At present, the survey suggests, journalists with this online media experience comprise just 19 per cent of Australian journalists. But as the number of journalists with online media experience increases in the workforce, these journalists' greater acceptance of the Internet may then assist in greater source diversity leading to greater content diversity in Australia's news media. The studies of newspaper websites and journalists' Internet use suggest and support differing diversity models. In this thesis I propose two models for diversity, the first drawn from views espoused by the Print Media Inquiry and the Productivity Commission's Inquiry into Broadcasting. This model (below) sees a one-to-one correspondence between structural and content diversity and assumes that to increase the diversity of views available to the public, the number of media outlets must similarly be increased. The argument that the Internet can provide media pluralism by permitting new players to enter the media market relatively easily, an argument tested by my study of Australian newspaper websites, is commensurate with this model. The second model is based on my inquiries into journalists' Internet use and proposes a method of increasing content diversity within a fixed media ownership structure. This model (below) acknowledges that journalists produce content mostly via traditional news sources, but proposes this content can be increased and/or changed, with an emphasis on more diverse information, via non-traditional news sources obtained via the Internet. The success of this model, however, is predicated on journalists' acceptance of online information as a viable news source. The implication for journalism is that established journalistic norms and practices, which can limit online-supported content diversity, need to be overcome. Overall, the results of my inquiries suggest the answer to the research question is that the Internet has so far delivered little in terms of structural and content diversity in Australia's newspaper industry. However, the Internet's potential to do so remains, particularly if independent online-based media ventures find ways to become commercially viable and if journalists adopt the technology as a means of finding more diverse news sources.
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