1What is online journalism? - Ayo Menulis FISIP UAJY

94 Journalism Online
issues. It is better to be ahead of the game than reacting to
coverage in other media.
Internet applications have the potential to revolutionize this
area of research and reporting. Previously, the journalist would
have to subscribe to specialist printed journals and then write, fax
or phone the authors of articles. Now they can monitor a constant
stream of debate and discussion within specialist online communities.
They can also contribute to the debate and contact other
contributors by e-mail for further research and interviews.
There are two main meeting places for such online communities.
They are:
mailing lists (also known as listservs); and
newsgroups (a confusing title as often they do not deal in news
in the traditional sense).
Mailing lists
These are probably more productive than newsgroups for most
journalists. Their content is often of a higher standard and more
focused. They operate on an e-mail system. Groups of people with
a similar academic or professional interest will form an e-mail
mailing list. Each day, everyone on the list receives messages
from anyone in the group who makes a contribution. Such
messages usually stay within the e-mail system and are not posted
on the web. However, some can be archived there and so are not
always as private as you might imagine. 7
To join a group, where you can ‘lurk’ (read without making a
contribution) or post material yourself, you must send a carefully
worded message to the mailing list’s host computer. If accepted,
you will be warned about the two different ways of messaging –
one way is to the host computer, for example to cancel your
subscription to the list; the other is for posting actual messages
on the list. For some reason, to get them the wrong way round
(i.e. send a service message to the other subscribers) is
7 You can see the mailing list in action via the web, if you visit Steve Outing’s site
(www.planetarynews.com). You can use this as a gateway to access mailing lists
for online news and online newspapers. The site is a valuable all-round resource,
thinktank, discussion point and watering hole for content providers.