The Internet, Journalism and Public Communication Policies

Abstract

The use of news and journalistic information on the Internet is still modest, although much higher among the young, but it raises the question — after the hype — how relevant the network is as a vehicle for journalism and public communication. Drawing mainly from the Dutch experience, the author first looks at the actual journalistic practices on the Internet and notices that network media begin to overcome the stage of `shovelware'. A fourth form of journalism is taking shape: `network' or `online journalism'. In the second part the author tackles the question of what relevance the Internet has in relation to public communication as a whole and which communication policies are and should be developed in order to stimulate journalistic production on the Internet.