The first place I usually go to get news is a newspaper. I grew up reading the newspaper at the breakfast table and I know that I can always rely on it to get the important information to me in the morning. But I can't choose what kind of news I want. I read what the editor thinks is important. And as much as I love newspapers, I still log onto the Web in the afternoons to check out msn. On the Web, I have a million different options to satisfy my need for news.
But it's not the internet that is changing the definition of news. News is not changing at all. What the Web is changing is the way news is presented. People shouted out the news from the street corners before we invented the printing press. With newspapers, editors had to decide what was important to the readers, but the news didn't change. The medium only expanded the content. From that came radio and then TV and the news still hasn't changed just because these new media were created. These media changed us. Now, with the Web, I can find out that my new baby cousin was born yesterday. I can read about her birth and I can see photographs of the new family. Although this birth is important to me and close relatives, it's not something that an editor would put on the front page or the splash screen. But it's still news.
The definition of news won't be affected because of the Web. What the audience chooses as its news is what the Web will change.
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