Electronic News Content and Civic Journalism

Introduction

Media content has been changing under the influence of technological advances. As Theodore Peterson (1981) pointed out, the technological revolution that occurred during the 1880s and 1890s revolutionized the mass media.

Electronic publishing consultant Bart Preecs cited, for instance, former NBC news president Larry Grossman that newspaper histories tell how the introduction of steam power presses in the 1830s and the growth of the telegraph in the 1850s changed the way news was gathered and distributed. Newspapers turned away from partisan influence and moved toward objectivity to appeal to large audiences.

According to Editor and Publisher's statistics, there are about 2,000 online newspapers stampeding on the Web. The number of daily newspapers online has tripled in a year, about 175 nowadays. Competition for online audiences becomes the focus of cyber journalism.

Some newspapers have introduced customized news services, which are designed to provide specific news and information with reference to customers' preferences. Some scholars suggest a return to civic journalism that news should be relevant to the community concern.

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