Draft of Research Problem Statement

· Introduce the issue to be studied: Online Journalism

· Introduce the background of the research area: As obtaining news on the Internet becomes increasingly popular and more accessible, significant changes have been made to newsrooms throughout the world. New technologies, such as weblogs and social networks, have allowed the public to find information about news events as they are occurring. Online content can be published and updated within seconds, eliminating the need to wait until the day’s paper version is printed on the printing press and transported to homes.

· State the key issue, the overall research problem, specific research question/s. There may be 1-3 separate questions connected to research problem area. Should be formulated in a very clear language in a form of a question: The rise of online Journalism has posed several questions pertaining to the changes in the ways in which people obtain their news. The following questions are being examined by researchers and newsrooms in order to better understand the current influence of online Journalism. (1) How is the role of news media changing with the creation of Internet-based publications? (2) What roles do weblogs and social media tools play in spreading news events? (3) How would newsrooms be affected if they charged for access to articles on their Web sites?

· Statement of relevance to the field. Define your audience of experts: These questions are of utmost relevance to the field of Journalism because their answers will enable news organizations to provide fast, up-to-date news to the public, while bringing in revenue to support the operations. Journalists, which include reporters and editors for print, online and broadcast media outlets, compose the audience of experts for this research project.

· Justify the research problem area with references to journal articles (and in some cases also popular articles) pinpointing the importance of the research area: As Internet-based publications are becoming increasingly popular, newsrooms must rethink the way they spread the news to the public. It is no longer acceptable for news organizations to simply republish the exact stories that are written for print editions at the last minute. Stories need to be completely reformatted using Web-friendly techniques, such as short paragraphs, bullet points and hyperlinks. Social media tools and weblogs currently play an important role in the lives of people worldwide. But instead of simply acting as a way to connect to family and friends, they are now serving as a method for individuals to obtain the most up-to-date news available. Social networks, especially Twitter and Facebook, enable users to instantly post information. This also allows for the dissemination of highly localized news (Miller 5). Therefore people are able to obtain important information in their area that may have been overlooked by large, daily newspapers. According to Paul Steiger of the “Columbia Journalism Review,” 58 percent of executives for newspaper organizations said their newsrooms have considered charging a fee for their Internet-based publication (11). The “New York Times” plans to charge for access to its Web site starting in January 2011, which will directly test how charging for online content will affect a well-known news organization. Additionally, “Newsday” and the “Wall Street Journal” currently charge for access to certain parts of their Web sites and have been successful at maintaining their readers (Perez-Pena 10-12).

· Introduce your proposed methods of study, in brief, if you can at this time: I plan to use the theoretical framework of media culture to explore the questions posed by research project. Utilizing the framework of media culture will enable this research project to examine how the media is affected by the rise of Internet-based publications, while keeping in mind the possible agenda of some publications.

· Introduce limitations of the study, if you can at this time: A limitation to this research project is the fact that the “New York Times” will begin to charge for online content after the project is completed. Therefore, it will not be able to examine whether the “New York Times” is actually able to maintain their readers when charging a fee for access to their Web site.

· Include bibliography of sources. Provide in-text citations where appropriate:

“Corporate News: Two Papers End Print Versions.” Wall Street Journal 16 May 2009: B5. Web.

Dolliver, Mark, “Pay for Online Newspaper? Hah!” Mediaweek, 20.2 (2010): 17. Web. Feb 2010.

Fink, Sherry, and Paul Steiger, “Hard Numbers.” Columbia Journalism Review, 48.4 (2009): 11. Web. Feb. 2010.

Kinsley, Michael, “Cut This Story!” Atlantic Monthly, 305.1 (2010): 35-37. Web. Feb. 2010.

Miller, Claire Cain, “Using Twitter for Work, Not Diversion.” New York Times 4 March 2010: 5. Web.

Perez-Pena, Richard, “The Times to Set Fee for Some on Web Site.” New York Times 21 January 2010: 1. Web.

Picard, Robert G., “Blogs, Tweets, Social Media, and the News Business,” Niemen Reports, 63.3 (2009): 10-12. Web. Feb. 2010.

Scott, David Meerman, “Who Says the News Business is Dead?” EContent, Vol. 33.1 (2010): 40. Web. Feb. 2010.

· Note scholarly publications (1-3 publications, by title) where you might be able to publish the resulting paper you would write: “American Journalism Review,” “Columbian Journalism Review” and “Newspaper Research Journal”