| The Internet enables journalists to track what people are reading and permits readers to customize their news consumption using search engines. New technologies also allow news organizations to interact with readers and engage them in different ways. As newspapers include more content online and competitors with limited print offerings emerge, has the shift from print to websites changed how these organizations define news?;The theory of the firm assumes companies will act in their own financial best interests, potentially leading news organizations to include more topics and news values that appeal to their readers when defining news. Research indicates online readers favor different topics and values and expect interactivity and new forms of engagement, potentially leading to differences in how journalists define news, compile sources, and what tools they employ to tell stories.;A quantitative content analysis was used to analyze two constructed five-day weeks' worth of items (n=1,965) in the print and online editions of newspaper organizations and those in web-only organizations. Four cities -- each containing an organization producing items in print four or more days a week and another producing online content only -- were selected for the study, for a total of eight organizations. Coders examined items for the presence of breaking news, topics, news values, source types, and storytelling features.;While some differences were revealed, the data indicate web-only and newspaper organizations define news nearly identically. Although the web-only publications vary in their origin, with some having evolved from the remains of now non-existent newspapers and others having started from scratch, they appear to be largely replicating the definitions and values traditionally embraced by their newspaper counterparts. Socialization theory and journalism structures may help explain the similarities, as many web-only news organizations are staffed and managed by former print journalists who would have learned what topics, values, and sources to favor from previous newspaper employers. |
