*The Integrated Newsroom - Literature Review*

2.3 Theories relevant to online journalism

Diffusion of Innovation theory

Developed by Everett Rogers (1983 p.163), diffusion of innovation specifically addresses the spread of change through a social system. According to Singer (1998 p.4), innovations likely to gain rapid acceptance are those perceived as having a high relative advantage, (those which are better than the idea they supercede) and which are highly compatible with existing values of potential adopters. Singer highlights research (Garrison 1997a, 1997b) which demonstrates that journalists are beginning to accept new communication technology, and should this diffusion continue, it can be perceived that online innovation do have a perceived advantage, as journalists begin to use technology not only for information gathering but to disseminate information.

Rogers (1983 p.163) indicates that the "innovation-decision process" involves an individual or organisation experiencing a series of steps before the innovation is adopted. These steps include: gaining knowledge of the innovation, forming an attitude, deciding to adopt or reject, implementation of the new idea, and confirmation of this decision. "This behaviour consists essentially of dealing with the uncertainty that is inherently involved in deciding about a new alternative to those previously in existence" (ibid).

Rogers (1983 p.247 - 251) has developed five distinct innovation "adopter categories" to classify individual attitudes towards technology based on observations of reality and designed to make comparisons as summarised here:

Innovators: Venturesome - Innovators are eager to try out new ideas and have the ability to apply, adopt complex technical knowledge and cope with a high degree of uncertainty about an innovation in the early adoption stages. This individual plays an important role in the diffusion process; that of launching the new idea into the social system by importing the idea from outside the systems' boundaries. Thus, the innovator plays a gate-keeping role in the flow of new ideas into a social system.

Early Adopters: Respectable - They have the greatest degrees of opinion leadership in most social systems. Adopters are sought for advice and information about new innovations and serve as role models for many other members of the social system. They are usually sought by change agents to speed up the diffusion process. The role of the adopter is to decrease uncertainty about a new idea by adopting it and conveying subjective evaluations to peers by interpersonal networks.

Early Majority: Deliberate - They frequently interact with their peers but seldom take on leadership roles. Their unique position between the early and relatively late adopters make them an important link in the diffusion process and provide interconnectedness within the systems' networks.

Late Majority: Sceptical - They adopt new ideas just after the average members of a social system. Their adoption may be both an economic necessity and the answer to increasing network pressures. All uncertainty about a new idea needs to be removed before the late majority feels it is safe to adopt.

Laggards: Traditional - Laggards are the last in a social system to adopt a new idea. Decisions are often made in terms of what has been done in previous generations and they have very traditional values. When they finally adopt a new idea, it may be superseded by a recent idea already being used by innovators.

Gate-keeping theory

The gate-keeper concept defines the journalist as one who decides what people need to know and what is worth knowing (Janowitz, 1975 p.627). This deeply ingrained self-perception seems to be threatened by the WWW, since users can access virtually any bit of information that interests them. However Singer (1997) suggests the role is re-invented with journalists seeing their tasks as one of quality control, sense-making and being credible interpreters of huge amounts of information. Schudson (1995) theorises that though users may be elated with extensive information freely available on the WWW, he suggests with this information overload they would prefer services of a journalist who is up to date with information, trustworthy and neutral in their views. Though their role in the news production process may be reinvented in this emerging social network, this theory is still applicable to online journalism.

Sociology of news work

Gaye Tuchman (1978) is one of the most prolific articulators of the sociology of news work. She explores the culture of journalism and proposes that news itself is a social institution, developed and sanctioned to make information available to an audience. For example, Philips (1976) and Tuchman (1978) both describe the existence of an invisible but very real "news net" which emphasises stories that are widely judged to be important. Stories in this case, are placed in time and space resulting in the journalists' understanding of reality in small pieces

Singer (1998, p.6) suggests that this theory is tied to traditional media and may be challenged by new media. She argues that with interactive media this 'news net' diminishes as deadlines become continuous, geographical territory becomes globally expandable, and the move from tangible (city hall or the schools) towards thematic (law, politics, education) news beats is favoured. However, even with the introduction of online news services, the news production process has not changed much at all. "Shovelware", content simply lifted from its print or broadcast counterpart and transferred wholesale onto the Internet, still dominates most web site content (ibidp.7). Singer suggests that online newspapers should be viewed as separate entities, with interactivity as a key element in the production and construction of information. This interactivity may change the way journalists view themselves and their jobs.