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MAC 111

INTRODUCTION TO MASS COMMUNICATION

adding more interesting features for the viewers to use leading to more interest and more advert opportunities.[2] As distinctions between modes of communication become blurred, and as mass communication transforms itself every day with innovation, anyone who has a cellphone on a hike in the woods may now be in instant contact with news and events worldwide.

Online newspapers are not precisely like blogs or forum sites; however, it is not unusual for newspaper reporters and editors to maintain blogs, or for newspapers to add forums to their websites, for easy response from readers. Online newspapers must abide by the same legalities as do their sister publications. Professional journalists have some advantages, as editors are normally aware of the potential for legal problems. The big difference over blog and forum sites as to online newspaper and news sites is that blog and forum sites are not media based websites.

As bloggers and independent citizen-journalists become more prevalent on the web, the potential for an explosion in lawsuits looms as they are not regulated in the same way as it is down to the public and none professional reporters to post stories in most cases. Blog sites can contain misleading information that could be seen as libel, questions regarding negligence or actual malice, or suits regarding invasion. These problems of blog as well as privacy torts such as appropriation, intrusion, private facts and false light were brought up in November 2006 when it hit national headlines in the UK.

3.4.1 Online-only Newspapers

Most existing newspaper organizations with printed/hard copy version of their newspaper also try to have the online version. In other words, they are not purely online, but mixed. With the introduction of the internet, web based newspapers have also started to be produced as online only publications. To be a "Web-Only Newspaper" they must not be part of or have any connection to hard copy formats. To be classed an "Online-Only Newspaper" the paper must also be regularly updated at a regular time and keep to a fixed news format, like a hardcopy newspaper. They must only be published by professional media companies, and fall under national and international press rules and regulations and have 80% or above news content. For example, in 2000 an independent web only newspaper was introduced in the UK called the Southport Reporter. It is a weekly regional newspaper that is not produced or run in any format other than soft-copy on the internet by its publishers PCBT Photography.

Unlike blog sites and other news websites it is run as a newspaper and is recognized by media groups in the UK, like the NUJ and/or the IFJ.

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Also they fall under the UK's PCC rules. In the US, online-only news sources, such as the Los Gatos Observer and Redding News Review, are not required to update at a regular time or keep to a fixed news format. The difference between a blog and an online newspaper is that the latter is run as a newspaper. One publication, theissue.com, may be seen as a hybrid. TheIssue.com is not a formal newspaper, but also not a blog. The daily publication culls news analysis from across the blogosphere to provide readers with a diversity of opinions and analysis on current events (Wikipedia).

SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 3

Mention and describe online-only newspapers known to you

3.5Online Magazine

Online magazine is also known as Webzines. This is the soft copy/online version of magazine. In the developed world, webzines have really been adopted, although they started with the production of online editions of their hard copies. Among them are Time and Mother Jones magazines which offer special interactive features not available to their hard copy readers. Production of exclusively online magazines (that is, online magazine that are only available in soft copy) was not in circulation. Until recently, purely online magazines like Slate, Salon and Onion came to being, available at http: //www.slate.com, www.salon.com, http: //www.theonion.com.

Cult of the Dead Cow claims to have published the first ezine, starting in 1984, with its ezine still in production more than 20 years later. While this claim is hotly debated, ezines certainly began in the BBS days of the 1980s. Phrack began publication in 1985 and, unlike Cult of the Dead Cow which publishes articles individually, Phrack published collections of articles in a manner more similar to a print magazine (Wikipedia).

Nigeria has not witnessed a purely online news magazine. What we have at present is the online version of hard copy version of magazines. Examples are online version of TELL and The News magazines.

One major challenge against online media (online magazines and newspapers) is the struggle to succeed financially such that print media organizations use the hard copy version to cushion the financial burden. Exclusively online magazines have yet to produce a profit, and many industry specialists think it will be a long time before they do. There are special hurdles specific to purely online magazines. First, because web users have become accustomed to free access of sites, webzines have yet

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to find a successful means of charging for subscriptions. Slate dropped its plan to do so when faced with a 1997 reader revolt, Salon has instituted a two-tier, both free and subscription, model. Second, as opposed to webzines produced by paper magazines, purely online magazines must generate original content, an expensive undertaking, yet they compose online for readers and advertisers as equals with webzines subsidized by paper magazines (Baron 2004:146)

It must be pointed out that little or no commercial support is available to sustain purely online magazines. Advertisers still prefer paper version to online version. Of the estimated total annual U.S expenditure on advertising ($200 billion), only $154 million is spent on online magazine advertising (McNamara, 2000).

SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 4

Mention and describe online-only magazines known to you

4.0CONCLUSION

Unlike the hard copy magazines, online magazine is delivered in an electronic form. An online magazine may be online-only, or may be the online version of an otherwise print-published magazine. Today, most online magazines Internet websites.

An online magazine that caters to a niche or special interest subject matter, i.e. azine, is referred to as an ezine (usually pronounced "e- zeen"). An ezine that appears on the World Wide Web is called a webzine, although webzine may also refer to all online magazines. Other names include cyberzine and hyperzine. For websites that represent an existing print magazine, the web site is usually referred to as "<publication title> Online", whereas an online only magazine is often titled "<publication title> Online Magazine".

5.0SUMMARY

This unit has tried to examine the New media, as a new branch of mass communication powered by the new information and communication technologies. Specifically, the Internet, Internet Radio, Online Newspaper and Online Magazine are examined in appreciable details.

The unit established the fact that all these new forms of the media are based on computer and not paper at all. They are manifestation of the prediction of the literary Canadian Scholar Marshall McLuhan.

6.0TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT

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