JD Lasica Archives: October 1997
Ratings for news sites?
The Clinton administration and the Internet industry have joined forces to champion voluntary ratings for Web sites. But would that create a “family-friendly” Web — or one that blocks out quirky, controversial, vibrant voices?
This in-depth look at the controversy over PICS labels appeared in the October 1997 issue of The American Journalism Review.
By J.D. Lasica
When President Clinton challenged the high-tech industry this summer to create a “family-friendly Internet” by cleaning up cyber-smut and other offensive content, newspaper editorials applauded the president’s decision to forgo government regulation and let private industry police the Net.
Few realized that the White House’s “parental empowerment intitiative” would plunge online news publications headlong into the thorniest thicket of free-speech issues in the history of cyberspace — and lead to the news media’s rejection of the president’s proposal when it comes to their own Web sites.
The fate of an Internet self-rating system, however, remains far from settled. And the online news media’s actions in recent weeks have been riddled with more intrigue than a John Le Carre thriller — with the final chapters still not written.
Consider the questions the online news world took up after the president’s call for an Internet ratings system:
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Speeding the news on the Internet
As Web publications evolve into true news channels, Ted Koppel and the Mercury News’ Bruce Koon have some advice on the dangers online journalists face if they want to trade accuracy for immediacy
This column appeared in the October 1997 issue of The American Journalism Review.
By J.D. Lasica
As online news matures, we’re beginning to see Web publications evolve into true news channels rather than warmed-over digital versions of their pulp parents.
While that term “channels” may seem strange when applied to an online newspaper, a year from now millions of us will be getting the news from channels we’ve chosen on our personal computers. Already, the New York Times and ABC News are the premium news channels on America Online. In August, Netscape released its new Netcaster browser, which will “push,” or “Webcast,” more than 700 channels of information from such sources as USA Today, CNNfn and CBS SportsLine. Microsoft, which will release its new browser this fall, has signed up the Web editions of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.
As the online news world begins to cover news as it happens rather than once a day, are there risks that journalists with ink-stained backgrounds face in moving toward a broadcast model of Net news? Ted Koppel, anchor of ABC’s “Nightline,” thinks so. In his first interview on the subject of the Internet, Koppel has some words of warning for online reporters eager to reinvent the wheel of journalism.
“Reporting is not really about, ‘Let’s see who can get the first information to the public as quickly as possible,’ ” Koppel says. “It’s about: ‘Let’s see who can get the information to the public — as soon as we have had a chance to make sure the information is accurate, to weigh it against what we know, to put it in some sort of context.’ Only when you’re satisfied as a professional journalist that you’ve got the story and the facts have been verified, only then can you go with it.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.
