Journalism and the Web: An Analysis of Skills and Standards in an Online Environment

The Internet is changing the profession of journalism in a number of ways, which this article looks at in terms of so-called digital, or rather online journalism. This article focuses in par- ticular on the question of if, to what extent and in what respects online journalism differs from tra- ditional journalism. The developments on the Internet in terms of journalism and, more specifically, news on the World Wide Web are presented, leading to a discussion of the three characteristic key- words: interactivity, personalization and convergence. This in itself leads to an analysis of the stan- dards and skills of journalism and journalists online. In conclusion, it is argued that these keywords and journalistic skills and standards closely reflect a contemporary global trend towards community journalism – also known as civic journalism or public journalism – which is an area deserving more study in any analysis of journalism and the Internet.