Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Online Journalists: Foundations For Research Into Their Changing Roles, Jane Singer

Jane B. Singer

Interactive media have grabbed the attention of communication researchers in the latter half of the 1990s, but the focus to date has been primarily on media audiences and their use of these new forms. This paper suggests four approaches that may help provide theory-based underpinnings in a different area: the study of journalists and the ways in which their roles and jobs are changing. The approaches are gate-keeping theory; diffusion of innovation theory; sociological perspectives, particularly those involving the sociology of news work; and a somewhat eclectic perspective that explores the idea of journalism as a potential force of cohesion …