sand online newspapers worldwide, the majority of
them in the United States. In 1995, the subscription
news service the Associated Press (AP) began dis-
tributing 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 In-
ternet forums, discussion boards, and chat rooms.
Internet radio also emerged as an independent me-
dia source.
Many people who were not considered profes-
sional 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 conser-
vative, 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 Presi-
dent Bill Clinton after the mainstream media report-
edly 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 journal-
ists were volunteer or freelance reporters and their
reporting was free from economic or political influ-
ence.
After a slow start, blogging rapidly gained in pop-
ularity. Some independent Internet forums and dis-
cussion 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 on-
line publishing and Web journalism.
Media Convergence Media mergers and techno-
logical innovations gave birth to convergence jour-
nalism. Print, broadcast, and online news staffs be-
gan 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 as-
signed to cover and produce several versions of the
same story—one version for newspaper, another ver-
sion for television, and a third version for the Inter-
net (online journalism). Supporters of media con-
vergence believed that it would deliver stronger
local journalism by sharing news gathering and re-
porting resources.
Throughout the history of journalism, it was com-
mon 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 vari-
ety 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 tradi-
tional media with the rapidly developing Internet
and its blogs had transformed the way in which news
organizations operated and had blurred the distinc-
tions between advertising, news, entertainment, and
editorial content.
Further Reading
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.
Conboy, Martin.Journalism: A Critical Histor y. Thou-
sand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, 2004. A his-
tory of the development of newspapers, periodi-
cals, and broadcast journalism in which the
author demonstrates that concerns about politi-
cal and economic influence, the impact of adver-
tising, and sensational news coverage are themes
that have emerged repeatedly throughout the
history of journalism.
Hachten, William A.The Troubles of Journalism: A Crit-
ical Look at What’s Right and Wrong with the Press.2d
ed. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates,- A historical critique of journalism and mass
474 Journalism The Nineties in America