New Media: Internet and the Change in Mass Communication

The traditional mass media follow a “one to many” model of communication. In other words, one source speaks at one time to many people who constitute a mass audience. Everyone who is tuned to a particular radio station will hear the same commercial and movie goers see the same version of film. The mass media communicate with the public as a mass audience rather than an individual human being. Internet has given rise to a hybrid model communication. A many to one is a cross between mass broadcasting and interpersonal communication. Large amounts of information are entered into the computer by many different sources and are stored until retrieved by individuals who select only the information they want or need. In fact, the Internet has incorporated a three dimensional form of information: mass (one to many) interpersonal (one to one) and computing (many to one). But more significant is the emergence of the fourth mode of communication. Just as you have information being entered from many different sources, many individuals too are selecting this information as required or needed by them. So we have the many to many mode of communication.

Internet Radio vs Over-The-Air-Radio: Benefits of Internet Radio

1. Web audio files can be listened to at anytime regardless of when they were first “aired”. 2. Netcasts can be listened to from anywhere in the world regardless of the place of origin. 3. Online users can both listen to radio and watch visuals too. Songs, lyrics, news can be seen via text, graphics or video etc. 4. Net casts can be listened to while doing other things. It allows multitasking.

Online Newspapers 

The phenomenon and features of online newspaper are quite similar to that of webzine. Bittner (1989: 277) explains using a home computer and a modem to couple the telephone to the computer and by dialing the access number, the subscriber is linked with the database, which provides a ‘menu’ of available information, including the list of electronic newspaper. After selecting the newspaper, the subscriber searches an index of categories such as front page, sports, weather and leisure. From these categories, the subscriber selects a given story from coded headlines, and the story then appears in textual form on the video display terminal or home television set. In a similar manner, the financial implication of running online newspaper is burdensome because of the low commercial patronage. It must be pointed that the first newspaper to go online was the “Columbus Dispatch” on 1st July, 1980. It was powered by CompuServe. Another name for online newspaper is web newspaper. This is because it is newspaper that exists on the World Wide Web or Internet. Modern printed newspapers all over the world are developing and running web newspapers. Going online created more opportunities for newspapers for instance, it allows newspapers to effectively compete with broadcast journalism in presenting breaking news online in a more timely manner than printing allows. The credibility and strong brand recognition of well-established newspapers, and the close relationships they have with advertisers (particularly in the case of local newspapers), are also seen by many in the newspaper industry as strengthening their chances of survival.[1] The movement away from the printing process can also help decrease costs. Not only do they allow for instant updating of news stories in text but also allow equal opportunities for access for disabled groups as well as adding more interesting features for the viewers to use leading to more interest and more advert opportunities.[2] As distinctions between modes of communication become blurred, and as mass communication transforms itself every day with innovation, anyone who has a cellphone on a hike in the woods may now be in instant contact with news and events worldwide. Online newspapers are not precisely like blogs or forum sites; however, it is not unusual for newspaper reporters and editors to maintain blogs, or for newspapers to add forums to their websites, for easy response from readers. Online newspapers must abide by the same legalities as do their sister publications. Professional journalists have some advantages, as editors are normally aware of the potential for legal problems. The big difference over blog and forum sites as to online newspaper and news sites is that blog and forum sites are not media based websites. As bloggers and independent citizen-journalists become more prevalent on the web, the potential for an explosion in lawsuits looms as they are not regulated in the same way as it is down to the public and none professional reporters to post stories in most cases. Blog sites can contain misleading information that could be seen as libel, questions regarding negligence or actual malice, or suits regarding invasion. These problems of blog as well as privacy torts such as appropriation, intrusion, private facts and false light were brought up in November 2006 when it hit national headlines in the UK. Online Magazine Online magazine is also known as Webzines. This is the soft copy/online version of magazine. In the developed world, webzines have really been adopted, although they started with the production of online editions of their hard copies. Among them are Time and Mother Jones magazines which offer special interactive features not available to their hard copy readers. Production of exclusively online magazines (that is, online magazine that are only available in soft copy) was not in circulation. Until recently, purely online magazines like Slate, Salon and Onion came to being, available at http: //www.slate.com, www.salon.com, http: //www.theonion.com. Cult of the Dead Cow claims to have published the first ezine, starting in 1984, with its ezine still in production more than 20 years later. While this claim is hotly debated, ezines certainly began in the BBS days of the 1980s. Phrack began publication in 1985 and, unlike Cult of the Dead Cow which publishes articles individually, Phrack published collections of articles in a manner more similar to a print magazine (Wikipedia). Nigeria has not witnessed a purely online news magazine. What we have at present is the online version of hard copy version of magazines. Examples are online version of TELL and The News magazines. One major challenge against online media (online magazines and newspapers) is the struggle to succeed financially such that print media organizations use the hard copy version to cushion the financial burden. Exclusively online magazines have yet to produce a profit, and many industry specialists think it will be a long time before they do. There are special hurdles specific to purely online magazines. First, because web users have become accustomed to free access of sites, webzines have yet to find a successful means of charging for subscriptions. Slate dropped its plan to do so when faced with a 1997 reader revolt, Salon has instituted a two-tier, both free and subscription, model. Second, as opposed to webzines produced by paper magazines, purely online magazines must generate original content, an expensive undertaking, yet they compose online for readers and advertisers as equals with webzines subsidized by paper magazines (Baron 2004:146) It must be pointed out that little or no commercial support is available to sustain purely online magazines. Advertisers still prefer paper version to online version. Of the estimated total annual U.S expenditure on advertising ($200 billion), only $154 million is spent on online magazine advertising (McNamara, 2000).