Dec. 18, 2002

CyberJournalist.net’s
Top Online Journalism Stories of 2002

1. Weblogging Goes Mainstream
The phenomenon of do-it-yourself journalism, from eyewitness accounts to analysis from amateurs, gained new prominence in the past year, according to a Pew Internet & American Life Project study. Growing numbers of Americans seem to want to use the Internet to supplement the information they get from traditional media, and Weblogging has had the most noticeable impact. A slew of journalists are now sharing their thoughts on their own personal Weblogs ­— but that’s old news. The biggest news was the widespread extent to which mainstream media organizations jumped on the blogging bandwagon – everyone from MSNBC.com to Salon joined the game. Here’s a rundown of all the major media blogs, plus a look at the journalists blogging on their own. And a look back at reports on Weblogging as journalism in The Weblog Blog. 

2. Charging for Content Makes a Comeback
AOL Time Warner announced plans to bring Time, Inc. content behind its subscription wall, CNN.com and ABCNEWS.com started charging for streaming video, and dozens of other sites started charging for access -- while a new study finds that 70 percent of Internet-using adults "can't understand why anyone would pay for content." Look back on the year’s stories on charging for content in CyberJournalist.net's Digital Media Business News Round-Up.

3. Deep-Linking Drama
The issue of whether it's OK to deep link directly to a news story on a site -- as opposed to the cover -- has resurfaced, even though a judge ruled it legal in the Ticketmaster vs. Tickets.com case two years ago.

In a landmark decision on Web site deep linking, a Danish court ruled that news aggregator Newsbooster cannot link to Web pages other than a site's home page without the permission of publishers. The decision only prevents Newsbooster from deep linking to the Danish Newspaper Publishers Association's 28 sites, but it could pave the way for more lawsuits and rulings on deep linking around the world.

Meanwhile, both The Dallas Morning News and NPR got criticized for trying to restrict deep linking to stories on their sites. The Belo media corporation, owner of The Dallas Morning News, asked political news site BarkingDogs.org to remove all "deep links" to the DallasNews.com site and only link to the cover. Belo argued that deep linking "can result in a viewer not understanding that the content is on our client's site" and "allows the viewer to avoid the advertising, etc., on the homepage." Well, if that's what Belo is concerned about, then maybe a redesign is in order.

NPR.org, on the other hand, changed its linking policy after bloggers protested its silly stance prohibiting "linking to or framing of any material on this site without the prior written consent" and asking people to fill out a form to request permission. NPR.org's new policy no longer requires sites to fill out a form before linking to NPR.org, and even "encourages and permits links to content on NPR Web sites." In a reasonable compromise, the new policy does warn that links to NPR's site "should not (a) suggest that NPR promotes or endorses any third party's causes, ideas, websites, products or services, or (b) use NPR content for inappropriate commercial purposes."

New sites should welcome such links -- they help spread the news, which is our business, and they are free promotion.