| Summary: | 碩士 === 銘傳大學 === 傳播管理研究所 === 88 === Abstract:
With the rapid development of internet, electronic newspapers have gained more and more attention. The journalists’ choices are no longer limited to two simple alternatives: print or broadcast media. Multimedia environment creates not only a new kind of journalism but also a new species of journalist (Stepp, 1996). These new journalists are online journalists. The research studied the online journalists in Taiwan with an aim to know, from gatekeeper theory, their demographic characteristics, working experiences, and news value judgments.
The study combined quantitative questionnaire survey and qualitative depth interview as methodologies. Electronic newspapers were defined in this research as “ electronic publishing contents which provide news information, and are based on internet word or graphics interface, collected and edited by news or professional organizations, and updated routinely at least once a day.” There were 7 electronic newspapers, totally 47 online journalists surveyed during February 10 to 24, 2000. In person or through e-mail, the researcher interviewed 12 scholars and professionals to interpret the survey results. The study found and discussed:
l.Research question 1: What are the demographic characteristics
of online journalists in Taiwan?
Electronic newspaper organizations in Taiwan are small; there are more female online journalists than male; most online journalists are young, university graduates, majors in journalism and communication.
2.Research question 2: What are the working experiences of
online journalists in Taiwan?
(1)Most online journalists’ working experiences in
journalistic field are under 2 years. This may result in
poor news quality, but these journalists may be free from
traditional media ways of thinking.
(2)Most online journalists’ working experiences in internet
fields are under 2 years. Such internet working experience
so far is not considered important, but it may gain more and
more importance in the future.
3.Research question 3: What are the news value judgments?
(1)The news values considered to be the most important are
timeliness, function, unusualness, change, and prominence;
while the less important are proximity, conflict, interest,
entertainment, and visual availability.
(2)Timeliness is one of the internet media’s unique
characteristics, but overemphasis on it may sacrifice news
depth, accuracy, and profession. The life cycle of scoop may
become shorter.
(3)Function is emphasized due to the many characteristics of
electronic newspaper, such as de-massification,
interactivity, and personalization; readers look for more
information about themselves.
(4)If new internet technology is used properly to improve the
electronic newspaper, the less important news values may
form new reading experiences to attract more subscribers.
(5)Bandwidth problem hinders the importance of visual
availability.
4.Research question 4: What are relations between demographics
and news value judgments?
(1)Journalists of different genders and education level do not
make any difference.
(2)Journalists of different ages show their different news
value judgments in prominence, conflict, entertainment, and
visual availability.
(3)Journalists of different majors show their different news
value judgment in consequence.
5.Research question 5: What are the relations between working
experiences and news value judgments?
(1)Journalists of different titles and working years in
journalistic field do not make any difference.
(2)Journalists in different types of electronic newspapers show
their different news value judgment in change, interest,
entertainment and visual availability.
(3)Journalists with different working years in internet-related
jobs show their different news value judgments in proximity,
conflict and change.
The researcher suggested the following researches can work to collect more credible data, focus on other research levels and topics, use other methodologies, and enlarge the internet news communicators samples in order to analyze other deeper levels, making gatekeeper theory more complete.
The study is an exploratory research on online journalist in Taiwan, thus opening the academic study on online gatekeeper and online journalism; for electronic newspaper professionals, the research could help them to know more about the status quo, and be their reference to deal with the future challenges.
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