1What is online journalism? - Ayo Menulis FISIP UAJY

90 Journalism Online
Electronic mail
domains describing organizations such as .org or even those
that combine country and organization such as .ac.uk.
6 Know when to stop looking. There is a limit to how much time
you should spend on any individual search or story.
So now you’ve stopped looking for information, let’s look for
people.
You will find millions of people while you are searching for
information. Virtually every web site will have an e-mail contact
who can give you more information, expertise, etc. Electronic mail
(e-mail) is the most frequently used application of the Internet.
Current estimates put the number of users at over a hundred
million and growing every day.
E-mail is a great tool for researchers and reporters (see Chapter
1 for distinctive features of e-mail), but it can have the following
drawbacks.
You can spend hours looking for a person’s e-mail address
when two phone calls might put you in touch more quickly –
one to check his or her company’s phone number, the second
to make the call. Do not become e-mail obsessed.
Busy people are snowed under with e-mails. The committed will
take the trouble to respond, but some do not have time to read
them right away.
Treat e-mail with caution. The name on the screen may not be
the person who sent the message. Double check and source
material independently, particularly if you want to quote
something from an e-mail. As Nora Paul put it, ‘I imagine when
those new-fangled telephones first started being used in
newsrooms, the old timers said, ‘How can you believe you’re
really talking to the person they say they are, you can’t see
them!’ A similar healthy scepticism is being voiced about using
e-mail as a way to contact and interview people.’ 6
6 www.poynter.org/car/cg-caremail.htm