Online News and the Public

This volume offers unique and timely insights on the state of online news, exploring the issues surrounding this convergence of print and electronic platforms, and the public''s response to it. It provides an overview of online newspapers, including current trends and legal issues and covering issues of credibility and perceptions by online news users.

The heart of the book is formed by empirical studies-mostly social surveys-coming out of the media effects and uses traditions. The chapters are grounded in theoretical frameworks and bring much-needed theory to the study of online news. The frameworks guiding these studies include media credibility, the third-person effect, media displacement, and uses and gratifications. The book ends with a section devoted to research on online news postings.

This book is appropriate for scholars, researchers, and students in journalism, mass communication, new media, and related areas, and will be of interest to anyone examining how people use the web as a source for news.