#5 State of Your Research Prospectus

As I develop my research project topic, I am keeping in mind the three questions that my project will explore—How is the role of news media changing with the rise of Internet-based publications?, What roles to weblogs and social networks play in spreading news events?, and How would newsrooms be affected if they charged for online content?

I have obtained some articles with a lot of good information about the changes newsrooms have had to make to their publications as using the Internet to obtain news becomes increasingly popular. I would like to find more articles about specific newspapers that publish online versions of their publications and the way in which they were and continue to be affected by the change.

I plan to examine a variety of blogs and the way in which they provide the news opposed to traditional news media.

I have a good article about the “New York Times” plan to charge for online content in January 2011 and the steps they are taking to do so. The article also briefly describes how the “Wall Street Journal” and “Newsday” charge for access to portions of their Web sites. I would like to find articles that concentrate specifically on how these publications have been affected by charging for their Web content.

I’m hoping to find several articles about research projects that are similar to mine. Therefore, I can use that information to support the points of my scholarly paper. Also, I would like to find articles with actual studies done on similar topics for additional important information to add to my research project.

#4 Theory Toolbox

The theory from “The Theory Toolbox” that stood out the most in terms of fitting my research project is media culture. Because the project concentrates on the dissemination of news on the Internet, media organizations play an important role in spreading this news. A small number of media conglomerates are gaining control of the majority of media corporations in the United States, as well as in other countries. But fortunately, the introduction of social networks and weblogs has enabled local news to continue to thrive.

Additionally, postmodernism is another possible theoretical framework for my research project. Internet-based publications, which followed print editions of newspapers and magazines, are the result of post-modern technology. These Web publications are continuing to evolve as even newer technology is introduced to the public.

#3 Reading the Literature Review

The literature review, “Use of Blogs as a Source of News Presents Little Threats to Mainline News Media” from the “Newspaper Research Journal” describes people’s blog use for obtaining news. It explains a few studies pertaining to the topic and the results and statistics found from these studies. The literature review provides information from studies completed by ComScore Networks, the Pew Foundation and UMBC Ebiquity Research, as well as a Gallup poll. The structure of this literature review differs from the article I used for the Anatomy of a Journal Article assignment. While the journal article groups similar information in paragraphs, the literature review uses a cause and effect structure or organization. The literature review lays out the information that is to be explained further in the critical paper of the research project, but the journal article has very detailed information throughout its body. A literature review is different from papers I have written in the past because they analyze and evaluate the information in conjunction with summarizing it. Papers I have written in the past have dealt with a lot of summarizing opposed to analyzing and evaluating the information provided by the sources. A literature review might be useful as support for a project proposal because it lays out the information to be further detailed in the scholarly paper and serves as a place to introduce previous research on the topic.

Hargrove, Thomas, and Guido H. Stempel III, “Use of Blogs as a Source of News Presents Little Threats to Mainline News Media.” Newspaper Research Journal, 28.1 (2007): 99-102. Web. Feb. 2010.