On-line Journalism

Collaborative authorship may have a very profound effect on the future of on-line journalism. Magazines and newspapers have already created electronic interfaces on the World Wide Web, but this is only the first step toward what I call "hyper-nalism," or journalism that takes full advantage of the multiple authors and resources on the Web.

If individual newspapers can operate electronically, what happens if a service is created that combines news reports from around the world? It's a distinct possibility in the near future, and I refer to it as the World Wide News Source, or WWNS. The idea is that journalists can combine forces in creating articles that can address an event or issue more completely.

What might an article on the WWNS look like? To help explain the capabilities of such a service, I have created a detailed example. Click here.

There are many sources available on the World Wide Web that touch upon the possibilities as on-line journalism continues to expand. While many online newspapers require subscriptions to an online service such as Prodigy, there are a few that are available for free on the Net. You can link to some of these below:

Organizations that examine the future of journalism in the new media:
Sites that are working on a system similar to the WWNS:
- Media Lab at MIT (For a look at their News in the Future research consortium, click here.)
- GMD Digital Media Lab
- The Levels Media Lab (University of South Australia)
Publications that have gone online:
- Time Magazine (and other Time Warner publications)
- Wired
- The Raleigh News and Observer's The San Francisco Chronicle
- The San Jose Mercury News
- The London Telegraph
- Forum Magazine
- The Chronicle, Duke University's student daily
- VOICES, a magazine of the Duke University Women's Center
- College Publications nationwide

What else can I investigate as part of this project?

Hmmm, how about the World Wide Web?

Shared Worlds could be interesting to explore. . .

I could just return to the Main Page and look at that cool picture again.

There's a story breaking somewhere out there in the Collaborative Project, we just know it.

Quick, this man's dying! He needs 50 ccs of Credits!