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Internet Newspapers' Public Forum and User Involvement




by



Sandy Ye and Xigen Li





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Xigen Li
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A paper submitted to
Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
for consideration for presentation


Xigen Li is an assistant professor at Arkansas State University
Sandy Ye was a Master's student at Louisiana State University





March 2004
 Abstract

This study looked at public forums of the Internet newspapers and user
involvement in public forums. A content analysis of 120 U.S. Internet
newspapers found 39.2% of the Internet newspapers offered public forums. A
majority of newspapers (70.2%) with public forums had less than 15
discussion forums. Newspaper size had a significant effect on diversity of
public forums. The findings suggest that the forums of the Internet
newspapers have yet to be developed as an effective tool to advance public
discourse and democracy deliberation. There was a relatively low user
involvement in the public forums regardless of newspaper size. While the
topics on public affairs dominated public forums of the Internet
newspapers, they attracted only a limited number of users. Smaller
newspapers tended to fall behind the larger ones in establishing public
forums. The larger newspapers, usually offering more forum topics, did not
attain a significantly higher level in diversity of forum topics.


 Internet Newspapers' Public Forum
2


Internet Newspapers' Public Forum and User Involvement



Internet is a new medium that has the potential to improve communication
between journalists and audience, thus advocate democracy through user
participation. However, media organizations do not necessarily exploit this
opportunity effectively. Based on the assumption that there is a connection
between state of democracy and interactive communications stimulated by
media organizations, examination of channels that may foster interactive
communications appear to be imminent. The goal of this study is to
investigate online newspapers' public forum as a tool to engage audience in
public discourse.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Public journalism advocate Merritt (1998) says, telling the news is not
enough to ensure democracy. The idea of a deliberative democracy requires
active citizens and intense political dialogues (Barber, 1984). Public
journalists suggest public dialogue is helpful to maintain a healthy civic
climate and such climate gives politics a chance to do its work (Rosen,
1996). But in large-scale societies, it is inevitable that producers and
receivers of widely disseminated messages are separated (Schultz, 1999).
Therefore, in recent year, scholars called for an "interactive journalism"
that emphasizes audience participation and encourage and solicit feedback
(Lawrence, 1993). People in the modern democratic societies should not be
treated as passive consumers of mass media's manipulated, or at least
commercialized, content (Schultz, 1999). Instead, they should have the same
chances to participate in public discourse as the information providers do.
The concept of participation denotes the sharing of decision-making among
all those involved in or affected by the area in which decisions are made
(Picard, 1985). The sharing of thoughts turns people who live near one
another into neighbors, and occupants into citizens (Yelvington, 1998).
The Internet allows people to disseminate information and participate in
discussion without regard to their background and their location. Online
newspapers are able to provide more flexible products that offer both
information sources and interaction within and between users (Light &
Rogers, 1999). Thus, the use of Internet obviously involves not only active
participation in selecting and processing media messages, but also active
participation in creating them as well (Singer, 1998). Journalists gain the
opportunity to move away from just presenting material towards a situation
where content can be negotiated with their audience (Light & Rogers, 1999).
Meanwhile, audience gains the opportunity to involve in the creation of
news content. Through Web-based discussions, people connect with one
another without regard to age, gender, economic status, and geography. Due
to these characteristics, the Internet was described as a "democratic
cyberspace," the ideal place of virtual democratic community building and
maintaining (Riley & Keough, 1998).
Internet's Impact on Newspapers
Technological development offers new possibilities of interactive media use
and decentralization (Schultz, 1998). Because of the democratic nature of
the Web, now, anyone, from the "mightiest media conglomerate" to the "lone
geek," can put up a home page and publish the "unfiltered" information
(Rieder, 1997). Therefore, the Internet creates a new space of information
and a new platform of discussion, where the participants take part in the
public discourse that is free from money and power (Schultz, 1998).
Unlike traditional mass media with which people frequently act as a passive
audience, the Internet returns various factors of control on communication
back to the users involved (Plummer, 1997). The Internet changes
"I-will-publish, you-will-accept" pattern of news reporting ("A Two-Way
Window," 2000). An online newspaper has a virtually unlimited newshole,
which allows online stories to be electronically linked to archived,
background stories. Moreover, audience can further discuss the issue with
reporters or columnists through e-mail or live communication.  With the
comments and feedback from readers, journalists develop follow-up stories.
Thus, online news publications have distinct advantages over hard copy
versions (Henderson & Fernback, 1998). In the Internet environment, the
most powerful attribute of user control is in reducing the effects of
subjecting the audience to manipulation associated with issue framing,
propaganda and agenda setting by third parties so commonly evident in other
mass media forms (Plummer, 1997).
Participation is the most crucial component in the process of decision
making. The stage of democracy can be determined by the amount of
participation of citizens, the scope of activities in which participation
is permitted, and the constraints on how participation is exercised
(Picard, 1985). Internet offers the opportunity for involving audience in
discussion with its interactive features. The public discussion on the
Internet could significantly expand citizen participation and free people
from many of the constrains they have endure in civic participation through
other venues. Online newspapers, therefore, have great potential in
maintaining and improving the stage of democracy. Internet, as a new era in
which people will have power to express themselves and to be heard
(Grossman, 1997), is potential to free the press from interior and exterior
influence. Some observers argue that the Internet will bring far greater
interest in government and move society toward being a huge, participatory
democracy (Davis, 1999).
Interactive Forums of Online Newspapers
New technologies, such as the Internet, have changed the relationship
between newspaper readers and journalists, making the relationship more
mutually interactive (Wanta & Upshaw, 1996). While the unsynchronized email
has the potential to overwhelm reporters and editors, the synchronized
online forum offers a better platform for user involvement with a
relatively low demand for journalist response. Online forum is increasingly
seen on the Web sites of the Internet newspapers.
Online newspapers provide live forum for discussion, where people can click
into a conversation and participate by typing their comments and watching
as they appear instantly on screen (Henderson & Fernback, 1998). According
to Notess (1999), forums are powerful interactive tools that can manage
discussion on multiple topics and subtopics. They especially widen
opportunities for reader-to-reader communication. It's an excellent place
for different groups to discuss their feelings and not to have them
explained by the media (Oppenheimer, 1996). On the other hand, online
newspapers can announce topics for discussion related to the current
events. The discussion can be related to the content of the newspaper by
offering links to news articles for discussion. Therefore, forums can
ensure that people share some basic knowledge and background, and the
online discussions have a better chance to achieve certain coherence. Some
of the comments can be edited and used in the either print or online
publication (Henderson & Fernback, 1998).
Although forums offer ample opportunities for active participation,
encourage a dialogue with the readers and help the paper deliver news of
genuine interest to readers (Noth, 1996b), studies on the forums provided
by the Internet newspapers are scarce. Some earlier studies examining the
status of the Internet newspapers discovered that most sites were failing
to provide online discussion forum (Gubman & Greer, 1997). Schultz (1999)
observed only one third of online newspapers ran discussion forums. He also
found that journalists seldom visited their newspaper's forums (Schultz,
1998). The scope of these studies was quite limited. Online forums were
only a part of the Internet newspaper operations that these studies looked
into, and no studies looked further into the Internet tool that has the
important implications for audience participation and public discourse. For
example, Schultz's study only look at the use of forum from journalists'
perspectives but failed to examine the state of audience participation and
the diversity of discussed issues in online forums, which are two key
factors that determine the quality of forums. From a technology
perspective, studying forums provided by the Internet newspapers is also a
challenge. Online forum users are mobile and it is difficult to track
actual user participation. Access to a broad range of the content of online
forums on a continuous basis will require working closely with media
organizations.
        This study will try to explore forums of the Internet newspapers and user
involvement from an empirical approach. It will investigate diversity of
the public forums of online newspapers, the topics that attract user
participation, to what degree the forums engage readers and journalists,
and how newspaper size affects diversity of public forums and user
involvement. In the light of the previous discussion, this study attempts
to answer the following research questions:
Q1: How diverse are the public forums of online newspapers?
        Diversity of the public forums of online newspapers refers to the extent
that topics of the forums cover and the amount of users participated in the
forums. A wider range of topics and more people participate in a specific
forums denote a higher level of diversity.
Q2: What forum topics are the most popular in attracting readers'
participation?
        Forum is a powerful tool that allows message exchange among
participants. It is expected that the topics that attract most reader
participation are those related to social events, prominent social issues
and the areas that users have an embedded personal interest.
Q3: Do journalists take an active part in the forums of online newspapers?
        Journalists won't benefit from the forums if they don't participate in the
discussion. Without participation of journalists, the information or
opinions flow only among readers and hardly influence the content of news
stories or in-depth columns. Journalists participation in the forums will
make a significant difference in how the public forums play a role in
public discourse facilitated by media.
Q4: Is there a difference in level of user involvement in public forums
among online newspapers of different sizes?
Newspaper size is a factor that affects various aspects of operation. It is
expected that large newspapers are more likely to offer more diversified
public forums. But it is unknown whether the newspaper size affects user
involvement in public forums. The answer to the question will provide
understanding on the factors that affect user involvement.

METHOD
Sampling
        To answer the above research questions, a content analysis of U.S. online
newspapers was conducted in August 2003. The population of the study is all
U.S. daily newspapers published on the Internet. A daily newspaper with
full online services is defined as a general circulation, mass-market
newspaper that publishes a full range of regularly updated general news
content online and in print at least four days a week. A list of online
newspapers from the Web sites of American Journalism Review
(http://newslink.org/daynews.htm) was used as the sampling frame. It is one
of the most reliable and up-to-date lists of online newspapers (Schultz,
1999). The 1126 online newspapers listed as U.S. general-circulation
dailies with full online service were grouped according to their
circulation in four categories. Circulation was measured by weekday
circulation of the print edition, as reported in the Editor & Publisher
International Yearbook 2000. The following circulation categories were
used: less than 25,000; 25,001 to 50,000; 50,001 to 100,000; and more than
100,000. Thirty online newspapers were selected from each category. A total
of 120 online newspapers were selected through stratified sampling.
The categories used to select the sample for this study were different from
the commonly used circulation categories defined by Newspaper Association
of America (under 50,000; 50,001 to 100,000; 100,001 to 250,000; and more
than 250,000). The newspapers with a circulation less than 50,000 were
oversampled for two reasons. First, if using NAA categories, 75% of samples
would fall into the circulation category greater than 50,001 and 25% of
samples were newspapers with circulation less than 50,000. Using NAA
circulation categories will result in imbalanced distribution of newspaper
sizes. In addition, the smaller newspapers are suspected to lack resources
to explore interactive options effectively (Caruso, 1997; Tankard & Ban,
1998; Schultz, 1999). To include more small newspapers will give a more
accurate account on how newspaper size affects use of interactive forums.
Key Concepts and Operational Definitions
The measurement of key concepts in this study is based on several former
studies using the similar measure instrument. They are Gubman and Greer's
analysis of online sites of U.S. newspapers in 1997, Massey and Levy's
study of English-language Asian Web newspaper in 1999, Schultz's
examination of U.S. online newspapers in 1999.
Public forum. A platform provided by the Internet newspapers for posting
messages and opinions on a variety of topics. Forums vary in their breadth
of topics and complexity of operation. In a typical discussion forum, the
main topics are listed along with the date of the last message posted in
that topic. Choosing one of the topics will either open a list of subtopics
or go directly to the discussions (Notess, 1999). The readers read the
postings that are publicly displayed on the Web site and add their own
statements as well.
Forum diversity. The study used the number of forum topics available and
the number of participants in the forum as two components to measure forum
diversity. The forum categories include:
a.      General: No specific topic. This might happen especially when only one
forum is offered overall. This type often has names such as "guestbook,"
"readers forum," or "opinion."
b.      Media performance: The forums that are open for general comments or
suggestions on the online newspaper that provides the forums.
c.      Public affairs: The forum that discusses current news issues, politics,
law/crime, religion, values/norms and education. Examples are presidential
campaign 2000, state election, gun control, Congress members and their
action, etc.
d.      Economy/business: This category includes all economic issues, such as
stock market, job market, business strategies, etc.
e.      Science/technology/computer: All matters of technology and natural
sciences. This category also includes medicine and health issues. If the
discussions are from a political angle, they belong to public affairs. If
the discussions are from economic angle, they fall into economy/business forum.
f.      Culture: Forums that deal with "popular" culture, including discussions
about form of arts such as books, music, TV-shows, movies, theater, arts,
and architecture and cultural issues.
g.      Sports: Forums that discuss professional and popular sports.
h.      Hobbies/travel/leisure-time/weather: Forums that deal with leisure time
activities, including fashion, cosmetics, cooking, games, traveling and
those that do not belong to culture or sports forums.
i.      Others: All topics that do not belong to any of the above forums.
Participant: Refers to the readers who join and post their message on the
online newspaper forums. Each of them has a pen name. Although a person can
post message by using different pen names, due to difficulty of
identification, one pen name is considered as one participant.
Journalist: Refers to the staff working in the newsroom, such as reporters,
editors, and columnists. The clerks in newsroom and the staff in
advertising, distribution service departments are not considered journalists.
        The unit of study of the content analysis is one day's publication of an
Internet newspaper. Through an observation of a week's publications of
randomly selected 20 online newspapers one month before the coding period,
the researcher found that forums provided by Internet newspapers tended to
be relatively stable in terms of quantity and format. While emphasis in
discussion forums change often, the categories of topics do not. Therefore,
only one day's content of a selected newspaper site was coded. After the
coding period, 20 sites were double-checked and no significant changes were
found in format and operation of the online forums.
Two coders performed the coding procedures. An intercoder reliability test
for the variables was conducted with ten percent of the sample, which was
randomly selected. Holsti's r was used to calculate the intercoder
reliability of the nominal variables. Pearson's correlation was used to
calculate the intercoder reliability of the ratio variables. The value of r
varied from 75% to 100% among the variables. The intercoder agreement
averaged 90.63%, which is higher than the 90% standard for content analysis
(Wimmer & Dominick, 1997).

FINDINGS
        This study found that 47 out of 120 online newspapers (39.2%) ran
discussion forums. Compared with the forum numbers in Gubman and Greer's
(1997) research (40%) and the figure in Schultz's (1999) study (33%), there
was no significant change in the number of newspapers offering forums.
Among those providing forums, 19 out of 47 (40.4%) were newspapers with a
circulation of 100,001 or more. Other three circulation categories did not
vary much in the number of forums. (Table 1)
Q1: How diverse are the public forums of online newspapers?
        Although a few sites provided a variety of forums, a majority of
newspapers (70.2%) had less than 15 discussion forums. Newspaper size had a
significant effect on diversity of public forums (F = 9.34, df = 3, 116, p
< .01). The newspapers with circulation more than 100,000 provided an
average of 12 forums while the average of all four circulation categories
was 5.59 (table 2). Of the 14 newspapers that had 16 or more forums, nine
of them were from the largest circulation. (Table 1)

Table 1. Forum number by circulation size
Circulation
1-15
16-30
31 or more
Row total
25,000 or less
9
27.3%
1
11.1%
0
0%
10
21.3%
25,001 – 50,000
5
15.1%
1
11.1%
1
20.0%
7
14.9%
50,001 – 100,000
9
27.3%
1
11.1%
1
20.0%
11
23.4%
100,001 or more
10
30.3%
6
66.7%
3
60.0%
19
40.4%
Column total
33
70.2%
9
19.2%
5
10.6%
47
100.0%



Table 2. Forum diversity by circulation size
Circulation
Mean Diversity score
n
25,000 or less
2.30
30
25,001 – 50,000
3.23
30
50,001 – 100,000
4.83
30
100,001 or more
12.00
30
Total
5.59
120

ANOVA: F = 9.48, df = 3, 116, p < .01
Measure of Association: Eta = .44, Eta2 = .20

Q2: What forum topics are the most popular in attracting readers'
participation?
  The online newspapers contained forums that covered a wide range of
topics. These topics fell into nine categories, from public affairs,
economic issues to sports, gardening, and movies. Among these topics,
"Public affairs" and "Sports" were the most frequently discussed subjects.
Of the 671 forums identified in this study, 214 forums (31.9%) were about
"Public affairs," and 174 forums (25.9%) were about "Sports." The rest of
forum topics had no more than 80 forums, with the least frequently
discussed topic "Media performance" (1.8%) and the most frequently
discussed topic "Hobbies/travel/leisure-time" (11.9%). (Table 3)
Table 3. User participants by forum topics

Forum topic
Number of forums
Number of participants
Participants per forum
Media performance
12
1.8%
4
0.2%
0.3
Economy/business
17
2.5%
22
1.0%
1.3
General
22
3.3%
99
4.3%
4.5
Science/technology/computer
42
6.3%
28
1.2%
0.67
Culture
52
7.7%
30
1.3%
0.6
Others
58
8.7%
157
6.9%
2.7
Hobbies/travel/leisure-time
80
11.9%
217
9.5%
2.7
Sports
174
25.9%
1114
48.8%
6.4
Public affairs
214
31.9%
613
26.8%
2.9
Total
671
100%
2284
100%
3.4

While the online newspapers offer various forums, the readers didn't
actually participate in the discussion actively. The study revealed that,
on the specific day that data were collected, the average number of
participants per forum was less than four (3.4). Two types of forums had
participants more than the average: "Sports" (6.4) and "General forums"
(4.5). The category "Public affairs" was on the third place with 2.9 people
participating in the discussion. Among all the participants, almost half of
them (48.8%) showed up in the "Sports" forums and about a quarter (26.8%)
in the "Public affairs" forums. (Table 3)
"Media performance" was the least interesting discussion topic for the
readers. Similar to the number of forums, this topic again had the smallest
number of participants (0.3) and only 0.2 percent of the forum participants
posted messages in this category. "Science/technology/computer,"
"Economy/business" and "Culture" were not popular topics either.
"Science/technology/computer" had 0.67 participants and occupied 1.2
percent of participants. The figures of "Economy/business" were 1.3
participants (1.0%). As for "Culture," they were 0.6 participants (1.3%).
Q3: Do journalists take an active part in the forums of online newspapers?
Of 47 newspapers that offered forums, only six sites had their reporters or
editors participating in discussion. Rarely (two sites) did the online
newspapers monitor their forums. For the other four sites, journalists
participated only in the forums in one or two topic categories. The Mercury
News (San Jose, California) featured several forums with an online
columnist, discussing news issues. The Tribune (Fort Piece, Florida) and
the Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky) indicated that some of the
forums on leisure-time/hobbies/life-style were hosted. The Star (Kansas
City, Missouri) advertised that journalists participated in some of the
discussion about sports. The Sun (Baltimore, Maryland) and the Christian
Science Monitor (Boston, Massachusetts) clearly indicated that the forum
section was moderated.
Q4: Is there a difference in level of user involvement in public forums
among online newspapers of different sizes?
There was no difference in level of user involvement in public forums among
online newspapers of different sizes (F = 2.52. df = 3, 116, p > .05).
Means of user involvement of newspapers varied by sizes. The forums at Web
sites of the newspapers with a circulation over 100,000 had the highest
level of user involvement. However, newspapers with a circulation between
25,000 to 50,000 had higher user involvement than newspapers with a
circulation between 50,000 to 100,000. Higher newspaper size did not
necessarily lead to higher user involvement.

DISCUSSION
This study found about 40% of the online newspapers offered forums. Most of
the forums remained inactive, with relatively few readers participating in
the discussion. There was a relatively low user involvement in forums on
public affairs, and few of the forums engaged journalists. There was a lack
of discussion forums among smaller newspaper Web sites. Even many large
newspapers rely primarily on a few simple feedback devices, such as e-mail,
while they rarely develop advanced interactive forums. Although forums are
widely accepted as the most meaningful form of user involvement, online
media that offered public forums did not necessarily facilitate the
discussion of public issues.
        A few factors may contribute to the inactive public forums of online
newspapers. First the limitation in topics of the forums that newspapers
can offer. The topics of forums are normally associated with the scope and
coverage of the newspapers. National newspapers with a large circulation
can afford to offer a wide range of forum topics. Readers are more likely
to go to the Web sites of large national newspapers to engage in the forums
with a national scope and diversity of topics. Diversity of forum topics
may not be a uniform standard for all Internet newspapers. It would be a
waste of resource for small newspapers to launch a large number of forums
with few participants. Small newspapers could achieve diversity of forum
topics differently from the large newspapers by offering a variety of
forums about local matters.
Forum is a device that requires high user involvement. Schultz (1998)
observed that the greater the number of communicators, the less time
everyone has to listen to others. A large number of forums may result in
insufficient participation as the number of users is relatively constant.
Diversity of forum topics also calls for efficient organization of the
messages and easy participation of users. Readers often get frustrated by
the thousands of unorganized message on the forums. The online newspapers
have to provide an efficient platform to engage users in public forums.
The findings indicate that few forum topics dominate online forums of
online newspapers. "Public affairs" is one of them. In this topic group,
participants have opportunities to speak out their political stance, their
concerns about legislation and crime, their opinions on issues in the news
and their worries on educational system. Some Web sites had their news
articles directly linked to the forum area and thus enabled readers to
develop more serious dialogues with certain background information. Local
matters were heavily discussed under "Public affairs" topic. However, the
average number of participants in public affairs per forum is lower than
the overall average. This result suggests that although online newspapers
usually offer forums on topic of "Public affairs," readers are not as
actively participating in the discussion of this topic as expected.
  "Sports" was the second most popular forums. The average number of
participants in the forum topic almost doubled that of the overall average.
The finding indicates people prefer to talk about something relaxing
(sports) than something serious (public affairs) in public forums.
Oppernheimer (1996) suggests, in order to bring in more readers in the
discussion, the media organizations should frame their materials in a way
that can entertain audience, and encourage them to entertain, inform, and
help each other, then media can hold a crowd on the sidewalks of
cyberspace. However, if the density of communication is growing from
prattle, it is certainly a harmful factor to the serious public discourse.
Based on the findings, it's too early to say that forums are more
egalitarian and democratic than traditional mass communication. The number
of available forums and participants were low. The postings are sometimes
trivial and repeated. The topic about "Public affairs" is not yet a
readers' first preference. Therefore, the value of forum message is fairly
limited, if measured by high standards of democratic deliberation.
The findings showed that forums were mostly unmoderated and that
journalists rarely participated in the discussion. Online newspapers might
view interactive forums merely as "reader playgrounds." Even when forums
were hosted, these hosts were not the core staff of the media organization
in many cases. Online staff usually are organizationally and often
spatially separated from the newsrooms, which makes it even more unlikely
that reporters, columnists, and editors will notice what is going on online
(Noack, 1998). In fact, some journalists appeared horrified at the idea
that readers want to engage in a discussion with them (Riley & Keough,
1998). Many traditional journalists see the online world as a place filled
with unverified rumors, a place where traditional journalism standards
count for nothing (Rieder, 1997).
Lack of journalists' participation may contribute to low user involvement
in public discourse. While forums offered a platform for the public to
express opinions and concerns at their will, journalists' participation
will help build the virtual community, keep discussion focused and raise
the level of quality discussion. The successful public discourse could
never be achieved without the participation of the journalists. The public
forums offered by online newspapers is not just a platform to gather
newspaper readers, but also a field for the journalists to get ideas from
readers and stimulate public discourse as the newspapers have been doing in
the real world. A more active role of journalists in the public forums will
benefit both journalism practice and public discourse.
The finding regarding the relationship between newspaper size and user
involvement indicates public forums of large newspapers do not necessary
attract more readers than those of smaller newspapers. The finding asks for
further investigation into the phenomenon. Large newspapers usually have
forums with more diversified topics. But other factors such as what forums
that the newspapers actually offer, the way that users are allowed to
participate in the forums and the formation of a virtual community may also
play a important role in user involvement. While small newspapers may have
less diversified forum topics, the more devoted readers may engage
themselves more closely with the newspapers and participate more
enthusiastically in the discussion of local issues that concern their
immediate interest.
Further research can focus on both participants and platforms of forums.
Studies that look at different aspects of forums could be conducted to
discover how many forums are appropriate for an online newspaper, how to
engage reader to participate in discussions, and in what format the public
forums can be operated most efficiently.

CONCLUSION
This study looked at public forums of the Internet newspapers and to what
degree the forums engaged readers and journalists. A content analysis of
120 U.S. Internet newspapers found 39.2% of the Internet newspapers offered
discussion forums. A majority of newspapers (70.2%) with public forums had
less than 15 discussion forums. Newspaper size had significant effect on
diversity of public forums. The findings suggest that the forums of the
Internet newspapers have yet to be developed as an effective tool to
advance public discourse and democracy deliberation. There was a relatively
low user involvement in the public forums regardless of newspaper size.
While the topics on public affairs dominated public forums of the Internet
newspapers, they attracted only a limited number of users. Smaller
newspapers tended to fall behind the larger ones in establishing public
forums. The larger newspapers, usually offering more forum topics, did not
attain a significantly higher level in diversity of forum topics.
The Internet has the potential to be the greatest First Amendment tool in
history. Public forums of the Internet newspapers, one of the innovative
devices to get audience and journalists involved in public discourse, have
attracted a number of users. However, it will take more time for both
readers and journalists to adapt to the Internet forums, which might help
promote discussion on issues of public concerns and allow newspapers to
play a more effective role in advancing democracy. Today's online
newspapers are merely at the starting point of pursuing this goal. The
Internet newspapers are under the influence of many factors on which way to
go to serve the public interest and advance democracy. The challenge of the
future is to preserve the mass media as institutions of integration and
public discourse and combine them with a new culture of interaction.
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