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See Also

See Also in This Set

Marv Albert

Peter Arnett

Blogs

Cable television

CNN coverage of the Gulf War

Matt Drudge

Internet

Rush Limbaugh

Bill O’Reilly

Talk radio

Telecommunications Act of 1996

Television

World Wide Web

The 1990s in America

Journalism

by Eddith A. Dashiell

Definition The gathering and disseminating of news and information via print, radio, television, and the Internet

During the 1990’s, the boundaries separating radio, network television, and newspapers began to blur as traditional journalism began to merge with new technologies such as cable television and the Internet.

By the 1990’s, consumers of news were no longer content to passively wait for the evening network news programs in order to get updated information. They wanted current news on demand, and that need was met through the growing popularity of twenty-four-hour, real-time news coverage on cable television and the Internet, both of which provided foreign and national stories hours ahead of the evening network news programs that originated in New York. The national news networks faced stiff competition from a number of news-and-information cable networks such as the Cable News Network (CNN), the Cable Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN), Fox News (owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation), and MSNBC, a joint venture by the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) and Microsoft. People also began to get their information from the Internet, which had become a strong competitor to traditional news organizations and transformed not only how news was gathered but also who reported it.

News on the Internet

In order to compete effectively with the rapidly growing, interactive communication technology, the news media rapidly became involved with the Internet by developing their own Web sites. In 1994, there were twenty newspapers online. By mid-1999, there were more than four thousand online newspapers worldwide, the majority of them in the United States. In 1995, the subscription news service the Associated Press (AP) began distributing its news articles and photographs over the Internet. In late 1999, the most popular Web sites for news included sites such as msnbc.com, cnn.com, abcnews.com, usatoday.com, and nytimes .com. Other tools for online journalism included Internet forums, discussion boards, and chat rooms. Internet radio also emerged as an independent media source.

Many people who were not considered professional journalists now had the technology to report and respond to news events. People began to write and post their own stories—known as Web logs or blogs—on the Internet. One of the more popular news-based blogs was the Drudge Report, a conservative, U.S.-based news Web site created by Matt Drudge around 1994. The Drudge Report received worldwide attention on January 17, 1998, when it was the first news source to break the story of White House intern Monica Lewinsky’s affair with President Bill Clinton after the mainstream media reportedly had decided not to publish the story.

Media critics warned that Internet news blogs were chipping away at the credibility of the mainstream media and negatively influencing the way in which news was being reported. Mainstream journalists often did not consider bloggers to be professionals because bloggers were not bound by journalistic standards and ethical practices. Online journalists argued, however, that news reported via the Internet was often less biased and more informative than that reported by official media because online journalists were volunteer or freelance reporters and their reporting was free from economic or political influence.

After a slow start, blogging rapidly gained in popularity. Some independent Internet forums and discussion boards began to achieve a level of popularity comparable to mainstream news agencies such as television stations and newspapers. Blog usage spread during 1999, and with the development of blog software programs and services, any individual could become a publisher on a global scale. By the end of the decade, the Internet blogs had evolved from being online diaries, where people would keep running accounts of their personal lives or post links to their favorite Web sites, into a distinct class of online publishing and Web journalism.

Media Convergence

Media mergers and technological innovations gave birth to convergence journalism. Print, broadcast, and online news staffs began to forge partnerships in which journalists often worked and distributed news content across several platforms such as newspaper, radio, television, and the Internet. For example, one reporter could be assigned to cover and produce several versions of the same story—one version for newspaper, another version for television, and a third version for the Internet (online journalism). Supporters of media convergence believed that it would deliver stronger local journalism by sharing news gathering and reporting resources.

Throughout the history of journalism, it was common for journalists to study one medium, such as traditional print or television broadcasting, and to work only in their chosen field. By the end of the 1990’s, however, journalists were expected to have the skills to write and deliver news content in a variety of formats. To meet this expectation, more and more journalism programs began offering majors in online or convergence journalism.

Impact

The Internet and media convergence were significant developments in journalism during the 1990’s. By the end of the decade, the merger of traditional media with the rapidly developing Internet and its blogs had transformed the way in which news organizations operated and had blurred the distinctions between advertising, news, entertainment, and editorial content.

Further Reading

1 

Barkin, Steve M. American Television News: The Media Marketplace and the Public Interest. Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 2003. A social and cultural history of television news during the 1980’s and 1990’s.

2 

Conboy, Martin. Journalism: A Critical History. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, 2004. A history of the development of newspapers, periodicals, and broadcast journalism in which the author demonstrates that concerns about political and economic influence, the impact of advertising, and sensational news coverage are themes that have emerged repeatedly throughout the history of journalism.

3 

Hachten, William A. The Troubles of Journalism: A Critical Look at What’s Right and Wrong with the Press. 2d ed. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2001. A historical critique of journalism and mass communication, including the influence of the Internet on news coverage.

4 

Koldozy, Janet. Convergence Journalism: Writing and Reporting Across the News Media. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006. An introductory text on how to think, report, write, and present news across various media such as newspapers, television, and the Internet to prepare journalism students for the future of news reporting.

5 

Sterling, Christopher H., and John Michael Kittross. Stay Tuned: A History of American Broadcasting. 3d ed. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2001. A thorough review of broadcasting history in the United States from radio to cable television and the Internet.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Dashiell, Eddith A. "Journalism." The 1990s in America, edited by Milton Berman, Salem Press, 2009. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=1990_1296.
APA 7th
Dashiell, E. A. (2009). Journalism. In M. Berman (Ed.), The 1990s in America. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Dashiell, Eddith A. "Journalism." Edited by Milton Berman. The 1990s in America. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2009. Accessed October 22, 2025. online.salempress.com.