Online Journalism - Ayo Menulis FISIP UAJY

The Information Society 27
Within twelve months of Gore’s clarion call new media sites
appeared, first in North America from organisations such as CNN
and the Chicago Tribune, but rapidly expanded through sites around
the world. By the end of 1992, 150 newspapers in North America
offered full-text versions of their print editions through Internet
vendors such as Nexis. In January 1993 the first graphical web
browser, Mosaic, was launched. The launch was a defining moment.
Prior to Mosaic the Internet had to be navigated by a cumbersome
system of keyed command lines that effectively excluded all but
computer professionals and enthusiasts. The graphical browser
brought ‘point and click’ navigation to the Internet. It was followed
with web search engines (the first ones were called Spiders) which
allow users to search the now rapidly growing web for files
containing key words and phrases.
At the beginning of 1994, most web users were academics and
computer enthusiasts but developments such as graphical browsers
and search engines were making the web more user-friendly every
day. The year 1994 saw the first major European newspapers arrive
online with the Daily Telegraph, the Financial Times and the Irish
Times sites. By this time many newspapers and other news providers
such as radio, television and news agencies were developing browsable
websites. While many radio stations offered playlists,
programming and news and weather over their websites it was not
long before radio stations worldwide were also broadcasting over the
Internet in real time. These were rapidly followed by new broadcasting
organisations set up to take advantage of the new carrier,
Internet Television Network and C/net Radio. The same year saw Yahoo!
(Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle!) start life as an Internet
index and the arrival of HotWired, Wired Magazine’s mould-making
website. The development of news publishing on the web – there
were more than a thousand newspaper titles online by early 1996 –
follows the broadening of the medium’s limited constituency to
include, first, corporate and education workers and then, as the web
was rethought as a consumer medium, the general public.
The real potential of the web as a disseminator of news became
apparent in April 1995 with the Oklahoma City bombing. Resources
on the web included statements from the White House, photographs
of the damage, the names of victims, eyewitness accounts and
updated reports about the disaster from local news providers. Very