Internet News Effects

Much attention has been given to the arrival of the Internet as a new medium of news, although we are hardly past the point of formulating hypotheses about possible effects of the innovation. These include the idea that we will have more diverse and personally relevant sources of news; that we will have access to global news; and that we can interrogate the news sources ourselves and learn more through interaction. In short, there is a potential for those who are so motivated to be better and more quickly informed. The evidence so far gathered leads to less optimism, although these and other advantages exist and benefit a minority of Internet devotees. First, use of the Internet for news is still fairly limited, even in circumstances where it might seem to have advantages. For instance, Greenberg's (2002) (small) survey of media use after the 9/11 attack in New York showed little immediate use of the Internet. In the month following, only 22% made any use of the Internet as a source.

It is still very uncertain what information needs are met by the Internet (Tewkesbury, 2003) and it suffers from uncertainty concerning reliability and lack of trust (Schweiger, 2000; Metzger et al., 2003). The presentation of news on the Internet may be less effective in communication terms than the typically ordered presentation in print and television news (Tewkesbury and Althaus, 2000).

Scheufele and Nisbet (2002) concluded that at the present stage of its development 'the role of the Internet in promoting active and informed citizenship is minimal'. Some critics even fear the success of the Internet, since it will fragment the public sphere and the common basis of public knowledge on which democracy depends (Sunstein, 2001). An indication of support for this view was found by Althaus and Tewkesbury (2002). They tested the possibility that newspaper readers and online news users might derive different agendas by comparing readers of The New York Times with readers of the online version of the same paper. They found that the former had a broader exposure to public affairs and came away with systematically different perceptions of the problems facing the country, especially in relation to international issues. Nevertheless, it remains the case that the Internet does bring new voices into the public arena (Stromer-Galley, 2002) and the established media have often acted to narrow the range of public debate.

Conclusion

Our discussion of media effects, starting in Chapter 17, has stressed the continuing uncertainty that exists about their nature and degree, especially when it comes to predicting outcomes or establishing causal responsibility for effects with any certainty. Our exploration of the topic has proceeded mainly by way of dividing it up according to different types and conditions of effect. The reader will have come away with the view that there are rarely, if ever, any simple black and white answers about causality in the matter of media effect. However it is likely he or she will also be left in no doubt that it is highly plausible that effects do occur and occur with some regularity in important as well as trivial cases. These are not incompatible conclusions. There are quite a lot of occasions, especially in respect of learning and opinion forming, when it is hard to see what else other than the mass media could have caused the effects that are at issue. The search for evidence will continue, based on improving theories, concepts and models, and it is hard to envisage a time when interest in the topic will fade.