Abstract
According to Harold Innis, each epoch has its own dominant medium. The Internet is growing to be the dominant medium in the information millennium. In fact, online news medium has already become the third major news source following newspaper and TV. Marshall McLuhan points out that, each medium creates an environment which is the message of that medium. Then, what environment is going to be created by the Internet? In Digtial McLuhan, Levinson highlights that the Internet is turning McLuhan’s concept of global village into a full-fledged reality.
This study aims at exploring how online news media change the way a global catastrophe is covered and how people in the world are connected to the tragedy. The tsunami in South Asia during the Christmas of 2004 was selected as a case for study. The tsunami claimed more than 150,000 lives. Although it was a local disaster, it had global impact. Many victims were tourists coming from all over the world. The tsunami involved world citizens and raised global concern.
Findings indicate that the medium characteristics of the Internet media, such as interactivity, connectivity, immediacy and web-delivery, enabled the online news sites to better cover the tsunami and build care/relief network in the global community. The online news media served as “global community bulletin boards.” The “glocal” coverage blurred the boundary of local and global. Participatory journalism (news sites posting e-mails from survivors and global readers) broke the boundary of reporter and reader. The inclusion of blogs on mainstream news sites blurred the boundary of public domain and private domain. A global online tsunami community was formed and its members were reaching out to one another for caring and sharing.
This study aims at exploring how online news media change the way a global catastrophe is covered and how people in the world are connected to the tragedy. The tsunami in South Asia during the Christmas of 2004 was selected as a case for study. The tsunami claimed more than 150,000 lives. Although it was a local disaster, it had global impact. Many victims were tourists coming from all over the world. The tsunami involved world citizens and raised global concern.
Findings indicate that the medium characteristics of the Internet media, such as interactivity, connectivity, immediacy and web-delivery, enabled the online news sites to better cover the tsunami and build care/relief network in the global community. The online news media served as “global community bulletin boards.” The “glocal” coverage blurred the boundary of local and global. Participatory journalism (news sites posting e-mails from survivors and global readers) broke the boundary of reporter and reader. The inclusion of blogs on mainstream news sites blurred the boundary of public domain and private domain. A global online tsunami community was formed and its members were reaching out to one another for caring and sharing.
| Original language | English |
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| Publication status | Published - 22 Jun 2006 |
| Event | 56th Annual International Communication Association Conference, ICA 2006: Networking Communication Research - Dresden, Germany Duration: 19 Jun 2006 → 23 Jun 2006 https://convention2.allacademic.com/one/ica/ica06/ (Link to conference online programme) |
Conference
| Conference | 56th Annual International Communication Association Conference, ICA 2006 |
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| Abbreviated title | ICA2006 |
| Country/Territory | Germany |
| City | Dresden |
| Period | 19/06/06 → 23/06/06 |
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