Network Journalism: Converging Competences of Media Professionals and Professionalism

Abstract

The impact of the Internet and other new information- and communication technologies on the profession of journalism should not be underestimated. The Internet is changing the profession of journalism in at least three ways: it has the potential to make the journalist as an intermediary force in democracy superfluous (Bardoel, 1996); it offers the media professional a vast array of resources and sheer endless technological possibilities to work with (Quinn, 1998; Pavlik, 1999); and it creates its own type of journalism on the Net: so-called digital or rather: online journalism (Singer, 1998; Deuze, 1999). This paper will take the developments in journalism on the Internet as the starting point for a discussion about the changing face of journalism in general. The key characteristics of journalism on the Net - convergence, interactivity, customisation of content and hypertextuality - put together with the widespread use and availability of new technological ‘tools of the trade’ are putting all genres and types of journalism to the test. The outcome seems to suggest a turn towards what the authors of this article call 'network journalism’; the convergence between the core competences and functions of journalists and the civic potential of online journalism.