Television Web Sites and Changes in the Nature of Storytelling

Abstract

The study performs a content analysis of news pages from television station web sites in the United States. Internet users have little reason to seek out a television web site for more information about stories because, in many cases, the web site provides less information than the on-air story. Text-only stories are the most common. Only 36.5% of sites used video. Almost 55% of the television stations did not have additional information about on-air stories on their site. Links to different resources that would add to on-air news information were found on 43% of sampled sites. Network affiliation was a factor in the type of information included online. CBS affiliates were more likely to provide more information on their web sites than other affiliates. Market size had little impact on the type of information found on television station web sites.