1What is online journalism? - Ayo Menulis FISIP UAJY

3 Online
research and
reporting
‘Just what do you think you’re doing Dave? . . . I really think
I’m entitled to an answer to that question.’
HAL the shipboard computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey 1
Imagine you’re climbing a mountain and getting instructions from
someone who’s reached the top. The top of the mountain is their
perspective. So their advice and guidance uses references and
terms which might be invaluable half-way up the cliff face. But
they’re less helpful when you are still huddled in your tent at base
camp, staring at your feet.
There have been numerous attempts to define how journalists
use online resources to assist their research and reporting. But
they usually start from the top of the mountain, listing devices
such as search engines, subject directories and Boolean logic
before explaining what they can do. Many find the language
alone deeply discouraging and retreat to their tents.
This chapter – in particular the way it is structured – is
dedicated to the online tent dwellers, wherever you are, and so
it will be ‘bottom up’ in its approach. It will consider how
journalists implement the newsgathering process detailed in
Chapter 2 and then it will explain some of the online tools that
can help them to do it.
Online research and reporting is already a well-established
journalistic discipline. People have written excellent books about
1 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Directed by Stanley Kubrick.