Magazine

SPECIAL FOCUS: DIGITAL JOURNALISM

EDITOR'S PAGE

New Media, New Practices, New Journalism

by Christopher Harper

Now that online publications are off the drawing boards and into the newsroom and boardrooms, what are the issues facing digital journalism? Will online publications be different from their counterparts in print and broadcast journalism? What methods will digital journalists use to communicate with readers and viewers? How will these publications pay their way?

This issue of CMC Magazine continues the discussion of news and information in a digital age. Sue Mings, of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, analyzes why and how readers use online newspapers. Flora Garcia of Time Online assesses the content of the front page, or first screen, of online publications, and how it will be different from its printed cousin. I-chin Chang of New York University has spoken with a number of online journalists about how electronic interviewing and other forms of computer-mediated communication can be used in the gathering of news and information. Finally, Ann Auman of the University of Hawaii looks at the business alliances being formed now that large media companies have discovered the World Wide Web.

Christopher Harper (harperc@is.nyu.edu) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Journalism at New York University in New York City. He has been a producer for the ABC News program "20/20," a Rome and Cairo Bureau Chief for ABC News, and reporter for Newsweek and the Associated Press.

Copyright © 1997 by Christopher Harper. All Rights Reserved.