Keywords
professional standards of journalism
exclusivity
news quality
hard news
How to Cite
Abstract
In the new media era all over the world local mass media are facing financial problems, staff reduction, circulation as well as advertisement market decline. Herewith content quality became questionable, and the number of exclusive news declines. However, such news is important, because the public have the opportunity to get wider background for information on local authorities, police etc. In order to understand a character of «hard news» on the local sites, the ratio of exclusive, breaking and planned news, news texts of two oldest Odessa news sites were analyzed. Content-analysis as a method was used. On the example of two oldest Odessa news sites («Reporter» and «Dumskaya») for 2005–2014 the low level of news exclusivity on local news sites is demonstrated (the average number of exclusive news is 7–12%). Additionally journalists rarely check information on the scene. Internet mass media give preference to texts, which are convenient for the fast processing. Press-releases, social network posts and information about scheduled events (press conferences, briefings etc.) are among them. The percent of such texts increases accordingly to the everyday norms of news on the news feed. During the research period the percent of exclusive news fluctuated, however the number of such news was always less than the number of breaking news (20–25%) and the number of news about scheduled events (57–58 %).
This situation rise questions about the role of news sites in the system of local mass media. If internet journalists can’t meet the needs of communities with exclusive, verified information, print or electronic mass media should fill this lacuna. However, the processes of digitalization, convergence and conglomeration force «the old mass media» to use the rules of WWW. So the percent of exclusive information declines here as well. And for all types of local mass media such social functions as criticism and control of local authorities are hard to achieve. Political (the lack of editorial independence), commercial (weak advertising market and decline in news consumption) as well as technological factors change the nature of «hard news», thus the questions about future of democracy, political engagement and community integration remains open.
References
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