Halavais, Alex

The Web as News?

Abstract

In the days and weeks following the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., the traditional press made much of the role the Web played in providing news and information to a troubled nation. The most often cited examples-- overloaded servers of major news distributors and Web sites created to help put people in touch with lost loved ones-- represent two very different ways of using the Web. The issue is more complex than whether September 11 marked some sort of symbolic turning point in the way people gather news. Rather, the question is how the different uses of the Web might affect the range and tenor of news available to the public. This paper attempts to map the appearance of information in various categories of Web sites during the weeks following the attacks. Through a content analysis of related key words, and a mapping of hyperlinks among pages, the spread of ideas and information may be mapped over time. Of particular interest is the degree to which the traditional news media acted as both a source of otherwise unavailable information, and as a kind of attenuator of information that might have been found earlier in other parts of the Web. Also of significance is the degree to which the information on the Web might have echoed the agenda set by American media, or instead reflected a more global set of concerns.