1What is online journalism? - Ayo Menulis FISIP UAJY

174 Journalism Online
As Jakob Nielsen (1999) points out, ‘the web is not good for
very long documents that need to present a steadily progressing
argument’. Books are better for this.
For some people, the new media versus old media debate has
degenerated into trench warfare, particularly in the field of
newspaper journalism. ‘Dead Tree Dailies’ or traditional newspapers
have either absolutely no future or a noble, glorious one,
depending on whom you listen to. Online versus traditional. Note
the ‘versus’ again.
This debate is not helpful because, once again, it polarizes
positions and closes minds. Thankfully, it is not within the scope of
this book, but it can serve one useful purpose. It should remind you
there are alternatives to the online medium and you should
consider using these as well as, or even instead of, going online.
The important thing is to ask that first question. Pause for
thought.
So how do you decide? Well, by asking more questions; in fact,
the same questions that will shape your online content, should you
choose to go down that road. In particular,
who am I trying to communicate with?
what message am I trying to communicate?
These questions sound simplistic, but the answers can be
complex. For example, considerations of ‘who’ should include not
only the specific interests and information needs of your users,
but also their technical capacity to receive your message.
So let us consider what you are communicating and with whom.
We must ‘define it, then design it’.
Who am I trying to communicate with?
Radio journalists are often told to ‘think of an individual, someone
you know’ when presenting the news or a programme. It is meant
to personalize or naturalize the delivery. With the web, it is a bit
more complicated.
For a start, the users come to you, accessing many different
parts of your output in many different ways. This can make it