2 Blast from the Past

When considering the most recent developments in online journalism, we must bear in mind how fresh the field is. Being 22 years-old (so a member of the generation which was pretty much growing up with the Internet technology), I definitely do remember the times when I got my share of daily news from the TV, radio and print press solely. Even once the Web became popular, the hype was all about e-mails, IRC (communication software) and kazaa (file-sharing software). It even took a while until it became evident to me that I didn’t have to learn the URL addresses by heart, as a search engine could do the trick for me. Those times seem like ages ago.

A recent (2008) survey conducted by We Media/Zogby Interactive has shown that Internet is the primary source of news for 50% of respondents, followed by television (33%), radio (11%) and print newspapers (10%). Those findings suggest that the stakes in the information superhighway are rather high (Reuters, 2008). The ones able to use the platform in the most optimal way will end up with a pretty big audience. And a big audience translates to “big bucks” from advertisers.

The beginnings weren’t that promising, however. It’s interesting to think that when newspapers first started publishing content electronically in the mid-1980s (not online yet!), after loosing several hundred billion dollars, they predicted that electronic publishing has no chances of becoming economically viable until well into the next century (Fidler, 1997). It only took slightly over a decade for the Internet hype to burst and for the newspapers and other media outlets to realise the potential offered by the new platform.

This article deals with the historical developments of online journalism. First, teletext will be mentioned. Then I will explain why the newspapers lost so much money in the mid-80s due to videotex. At the next stage the more recent developments will be discussed (such as the World Wide Web, Web 1.0 and 2.0). I will also look into the future developments promised by the emerging Web 3.0.

When we think of news online, it might seem that their history was as follows: first the news were printed on paper (or broadcasted on radio/TV). When the Internet was made accessible to individuals in the early 90s, slowly but surly everybody started adapting to the global trend of going online. Voila!

Not so fast! The roots of online journalism lie in the 1970s when teletext and videotex emerged. When “[computers] were seen as giant, all-knowing devices that could handle such incredible amounts of information and calculations that IBM itself once forecast that the total, worldwide demand for computers would be five” (Carlson, 2003, p. 31) the inventors of the earliest systems expected people to view their information on much cheaper television sets, not computers. The latter were used for creating and storing the information, but the display was made available on the TV sets thanks to decoder boxes. Computers were extremely expensive and not affordable for most households, unlike television sets which were very common. In the following sections I will discuss the developments which led newspapers and magazines from the humble electronic beginnings to the current state of affairs.

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