Online News and the Public

This book explores the growing phenomenon of online news from a variety of perspectives, identifying trends in online news and presenting a collection of original research investigations about the newest medium of mass communication.

This volume offers unique and timely insights on the state of online news, exploring the issues surrounding this convergence of print and electronic platforms, and the public's response to it. It provides an overview of online newspapers, including current trends and legal issues and covering issues of credibility and perceptions by online news users.The heart of the book is formed by empirical studies-mostly social surveys-coming out of the media effects and uses traditions. The chapters are grounded in theoretical frameworks and bring much-needed theory to the study of online news. The frameworks guiding these studies include media credibility, the third-person effect, media displacement, and uses and gratifications. The book ends with a section devoted to research on online news postings.This book is appropriate for scholars, researchers, and students in journalism, mass communication, new media, and related areas, and will be of interest to anyone examining how people use the web as a source for news.

Contents: Preface. Part I: Overview. B. Garrison, Online Newspapers. M.B. Salwen, Online News Trends. P.D. Driscoll, Legal Issues and Online Journalism. Part II: Studies of Online News Audiences and Content. M.B. Salwen, B. Garrison, P.D. Driscoll, The Baseline Survey Projects: Exploring Questions. R.A. Abdulla, B. Garrison, M.B. Salwen, P.D. Driscoll, D. Casey, Online News Credibility. R.D. Driscoll, M.B. Salwen, B. Garrison, Public Fear of Terrorism and the News Media. M.B. Salwen, P.D. Driscoll, B. Garrison, Third-Person Perceptions of Fear During the War on Terrorism: Perceptions of Online News Users. C. Imfeld, G.W. Scott, Under Construction: Measures of Community Building at Newspaper Web Sites. C. Lin, M.B. Salwen, R.A. Abdulla, Uses and Gratifications of Online and Offline News: New Wine in an Old Bottle? C. Lin, M.B. Salwen, B. Garrison, P.D. Driscoll, Online News as a Functional Substitute for Offline News. W. Dibean, B. Garrison, Online Newspaper Market Size and the Use of World Wide Web Technologies. Part III: Online News Posters. R.A. Abdulla, What They Post: Arabic-Language Message Boards After the September 11 Attacks. D.J. Atkin, L. Jeffres, K. Neuendorf, R. Lange, P. Skalski, Why They Chat: Predicting Adoption and Use of Chat Rooms. Appendix: National Telephone Survey Questionnaires, 2001-2002.

Michael B. Salwen, Bruce Garrison, Paul D. Driscoll