The traditional news media are in turmoil.  The old line distribution platforms- print television and radio, are struggling in the business office and in the newsroom.  The people responsible for the bottom-line are desperately trying to recalibrate their business models and the folks in the newsroom are just as desperately trying to remain relevant.

Blame it, of course, on the internet.

The desperation in the business office is having an impact on how you are covered by the media, but we will leave that for another day.  Let’s focus on the struggle in the newsroom.

Print, television and radio are working hard to straddle two platforms; one foot is planted on the newsroom’s traditional form of distribution, the other on the internet.  The first foot is firmly planted and the newsrooms are confident of their footing.  Whatever you might think about their journalistic standards and how they apply them, the fact is that standards exist; reporters, editors and producers can articulate them and those standards are remarkably similar newsroom to newsroom.

That second foot is on shifting sand.  There are no firm, commonly accepted, widely applied principles, yet, about the practice of online journalism.  If they are honest about it, journalists working online will tell you they are experimenting.

As each new medium has appeared, standards and practices applied to that medium evolved as its practitioners explored and exploited the new possibilities it presented. So it is online.

What are the defining characteristics of online journalism?   

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