Hyperlinks are the basis of the web, but are they problematic for journalists?
Introduction
Today with the Internet readers have access to the largest database ever assembled. Hyperlinks not only help to provide context to information within a story but also keep a story alive long after its original publication. It can be an excellent way to add more to a story, serving readers by showing them the connections from the data journalists collect to other related information that exists on the Web. However, what are the implications for journalists? Can this access undermine their traditional role as gatekeeper to information?
Hyperlinking is no longer a one-way street. It establishes a common relationship between publisher and online entities. This seminar report shows how an overload of information can cause the reader to lose interest in the journalist’s article. In other words, this bombardment of news and information online provided by hypertext has the ability to allow journalists to hide behind references and links rather than encourage basic investigative journalism. The seminar was based on three core readings, ‘Online journalism Ethics’ by Friend, C. & Singer and two articles by John V Pavlik and Dan Gillmore, in conjunction with references from other relative texts.
Hyperlinks in news
Friend and Singer (2007) warned how expanding technology has ‘led to the paradox of more news outlets covering fewer stories’. This point is relevant to hyperlinks as they could potentially grip a reader on just one story to various links for an extended amount of time. As a result the reader unconsciously doesn’t have the time to view other stories that may have captured them otherwise. This could prove fatal for many news stories that do not attract instant attention.
However the ability of links to heighten content was summarised by Paul Bradshaw. Although he was addressing the potential of blogs, his point is extremely applicable to hyperlinks. He expressed how;
Perhaps the most significant change is the way that blogs (or hyperlinks) provided a platform for stories or detail that would otherwise not make the print or broadcast version at all. (Bradshaw, 2008,)
This coincides with the use of hyperlinks in news stories, although when examined The Irish Independent and The Sun sites use a lot of hyperlinks in news just to link the viewer to material that already exists in the papers archives. This raises the question of how much new material is actually present that deals with more intricate details of stories? Or is it rather a case of rehashing stale news in an effort to have links and appear to be embracing new technologies?
Hyperlinks and Gate-keeping
Gatekeepers are ‘those in control of the flow of information.’ They have the power ‘to make available or withhold information for public consumption.’ (Western Reserve). Gatekeepers in online journalism can be editors or journalists. (Shoemaker; 1991)
Singer (2001) drew a comparison between Gate-keeping and Hyperlinking, in the article, ‘The Metro Wide Web: Changes in Newspapers’. Hyperlinks can be important to Web users because they increase the user’s ability to control the information-seeking process. Hyperlinks, by allowing access through endless doorways of information, give readers control over the information only they want to see. The role of the gatekeeper is in the hands of the reader, who can produce individual narratives from these successions of hyperlinks, which can enhance the experience received by the primary text.
However, it can be argued that readers must still succumb to information restrains. This is due to online news editors making conscious gate-keeping decisions to limit information on stories to what is available on their own website. The decision concerning which hyperlinks to include and which not to include gives news editors an additional role. They can still control what their audience reads by giving them the hyperlinks they consider suitable for the story, which will still maintain the same angle, but will just offer more background.
The Hyperlink Effect
An article by Luzer (2008) explains an experiment in which he spent a day following the news through hyperlinks, following every link he could find. His experiment showed that all the links made it hard to actually finish an article. Although he was on top of every new development, he didn’t feel any better informed.
Luzer discovered that hyperlinks often didn’t go in new directions. Instead, they continually returned to the big articles within the same publication. The issue of objectivity also came into question in relation to hyperlinking. It was noted that the content of a linked article could be seen to represent the opinion of the journalist of the original piece. This can be brought back to the role of the news editor, discussed by Singer. It is their job to decide what should and should not be linked to the article and they must be careful about what they choose.
Luzer found that hyperlinks have the power to expand an article to what he describes as a “staging point for informational content of infinite length and ambiguous validity.” He called this an “information overload; too much information and too little verification” which can be very problematic for journalists. They are competing against people who may have no authenticity in their stories yet they are out there for the public to see. Hyperlinks mean that a journalist’s work could be linked to something completely unknown to them which may reflect badly on their own work.
Conclusion
Hyperlinks are the foundation on which the Internet is built; they allow us to reach related and popular stories quickly and easily. Although they play a significant function in loosening the control over information and despite the online newspaper struggling to limit the links from one page to another, the audience can choose what information they want to read.
When the topic was opened up to the class there was a general agreement that there are some valuable uses to hyperlinks. This included information being published that would not have featured otherwise and allows journalists to direct the reader to additional content. However, it was recognized that they can also be very problematic for journalists. Hyperlinks can be seen to compromise the objectivity of journalists as well as potentially allowing readers to close themselves off from other stories as they continue to link to what interests them.
It was found that although more information is available through hypertext, it is all vetted and controlled by the author. Regardless of links to other pages, journalists still direct their audience to information by giving them the hyperlinks they consider suitable for the story. Taking all the findings from the seminar into consideration, it could be argued that hyperlinks can be problematic for journalists.
Reference List
Bradshaw, P. 2008. I think in hyperlinks even when working in print. [Online]. Available from: http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2008/10/17/blogging-journalists-pt-4-blogs-and-news-production-i-think-in-hyperlinks-even-when-working-in-print/ [Accessed 10 May 2009]
Friend, C. and Singer, J.B. 2007, Online journalism Ethics: traditions and transitions, M.E. Sharpe: Armonk, N.Y.
Gillmor, D. 2006. We the media: grassroots journalism by the people, for the people. O’Reilly.
Luzer, D. 2008. Linked Out. [Online]. Available from:
http://www.cjr.org/overload/linked_out.php?page=all [Accessed 18 May 2009]
Niles, P. 2008. How, and where, to hyperlink within a news story. [Online]. Available from: http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/080215niles/ [Accessed 20 May 2009]
Pavlik, J.V. 2001. Journalism and New Media. New York: Columbia University Press.
Western Reserve Public media. (Homepage). [Online]. Available from: http://westernreservepublicmedia.org/media/glossary.htm [Accessed 18 May 2009]
Shoemaker, P.J. 1991. Gatekeeping. Newbury Park: Sage Publications.
Singer, J.B. –2001. The Metro Wide Web: Changes in Newspapers Gate-keeping Role Online IN: Singer, J.B. – Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly.
White, D.M. (1950) The Gatekeeper: A case study in the selection of News’ Journalism Quarterly.
