news year: 2005

UT Grad Students Survey Online Journalism

Taking charge of the second half of the panel on Issues in Online Journalism at the 2005 International Symposium on Online Journalism, graduate students Sonia Huang and Tania Cantrell gave in-depth analysis of who is using online news sources and how their experiences affect what they read. Following Thomas Terry’s presentation on independent journalism and …  Read More

Researcher Defends Student First Amendment Rights

Thomas Terry kicked-off his presentation at the 6th International Symposium on Online Journalism with a statement that was anything but subtle: “I think that everyone needs to be spanked with a little media law every now and then to keep them honest.” His presentation “Tinkering with Cyberspace: On-Campus punishment for Off-Campus Expression,” expressed a need …  Read More

Women Missing In Upper-Level Positions

“I am not being extremely conceited by focusing only on my study,” said Shayla Thiel Ph.D. from DePaul University. “It’s just that there is nothing else out there,” she continued, opening the third and final panel of the International Symposium on Online Journalism. Exploring the state of women in online journalism positions, Thiel found that …  Read More

Newspaper’s Online Forums Go Unused

At a panel Saturday about blogging and online forums, Young-Gil Chae, a doctoral student in Radio-TV-Film at the University of Texas, showed contrasting panoramas. On the one hand, he showed the audience at the International Online Journalism Symposium a Korean website where news and user reactions shared privileged front-page space. On the other, Chae displayed …  Read More

Blogs: Cheerleading or a Democratic Force?

The influence of bloggers in exposing the flawed story about the military service of George W. Bush raised questions about the power of this media in relation to mainstream news organizations. Bloggers made CBS News retract its story, and the episode ultimately led to Dan Rather’s resignation. Was this combined with a few more publicized …  Read More

Online News Firms Ask “Where’s the Money?”

Advertising income dominates most online newspaper profits, making them vulnerable as classified advertising migrates to non-news sites. “Seventy-nine percent of respondents said in 2005 ‘classifieds are very important to us’,” said Donica Mensing, assistant professor and director of the graduate program at the Reynolds School of Journalism, University of Nevada, Reno. “If classifieds turn out …  Read More

Increased Internet Access Leads to Quick Global Change

Five years ago people devastated by a tsunami would not have received as much aid as quickly as they did in December, 2004. Without the invention of blogging and other modern forms of information dissemination, many victims might still be helpless. So says Gary Chapman, director of the 21st Century Project at the Lyndon B. …  Read More

Online Journalism Must Evolve

What business are we in? This was the question Steve Yelvington, Internet strategist for Morris Digital Works, asked at the 6th International Symposium on Online Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. Yelvington was referring to the present state of journalism. “Economics in journalism have changed from a scarcity of news to a surplus,” …  Read More

Paying the Online Rent

During the 6th International Symposium on Online Symposium, beautiful pictures of new innovative ways of conveying information through attractive images, dynamic graphics and interactive packages flashed the projection screen in a room full of hopes for the new future. But Jim Debth, the internet general manager for the Austin American Statesman, brought a reality check …  Read More