1What is online journalism? - Ayo Menulis FISIP UAJY

20 Journalism Online
previously would never have seen the light of day. Journalists can
also reach out and ask for information.
Such researching power is appreciated by those who were
unable to enjoy its benefits, because they conducted their
landmark journalism in a pre-digital age. Harold Evans made his
name as editor of the Sunday Times in the 1970s with campaigning
journalism such as the Thalidomide compensation story. Evans
acknowledges the value of the Internet for today’s journalists. He
told the UK Press Gazette:
If we’d had the Web back then and could flash forward to a
time when most of the population have computers, we could
go on the web and say, ‘Anyone who took the drug
Thalidomide between these dates, please get in touch with
us.’ Or instead we’d have an interactive chat line . . . we could
(also) have saved a lot of time by researching the scientific
data electronically. 10
The analysis of large amounts of data for trends, discrepancies or
other results is a powerful new tool for the online journalist. Why
should your readers be interested in data? Data is dull, surely? Well
perhaps not if it sheds light on the people who spend your readers’
taxes and how well they are doing it or if it exposes the levels of
crime in your readers’ neighbourhoods and how well the police are
coping.
Such data analysis lies at the heart of the Computer Assisted
Reporting movement, which is now established in the United
States, but has yet to take a hold in other countries such as the UK.
There have been fewer impediments to new practice in the other
area of journalism – story construction and publication.
Online as a publishing medium
Having gathered and selected their information, journalists want to
share it with their readers. That is, after all, what it’s all about.
The publication processes of the ‘old’ media are quite complex.
Publishing a high-volume daily newspaper is an intricate business,
10 Interview in UK Press Gazette. 3rd March, 2000.