Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation

5-2010

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.

Department

Communication

Committee Chair

Gregg, Jennifer L.

Committee Co-Chair (if applicable)

Ferre, John

Committee Member

Gainous, Jason

Author's Keywords

Traditional news; Internet news

Subject

News Web sites; Electronic newspapers; Webcasting; Internet radio broadcasting; Internet television

Abstract

The Internet offers a tremendous opportunity for traditional media to expand and/or enhance news stories. This thesis is an exploration of the convergent journalism practices of three news organizations in a medium-sized market. It employed content analysis and in-depth interviews to compare the news stories of a newspaper, television station, and radio station with content on each organization's Internet website. While the three media organizations in this case study had different approaches to convergent journalism, they each utilized some type of multimedia technique on their websites including slideshows, videos, audio, hyperlinks, and reader interactivity. For the most part, however, online news stories were replications of their traditional counterparts. Major factors affecting how traditional media used the Internet to tell news stories included available resources, training, and organizational priorities. Some news stories, such as breaking news topics and sports, appear to be more likely to utilize elements of convergent journalism.

Included in

Communication Commons

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