Have new media editors abandoned the old media ideals? The journalistic values of online newspaper editors

Abstract

This study employed an online survey of 187 editors of online versions of traditional newspapers to investigate their journalistic values. It examined whether those values were predicted by age, gender, education, major, years of journalism experience, circulation of the traditional newspaper, political interest and political ideology, and the degree to which online newspaper editors believe they control the content of their Web site. The findings suggest that the values of online newspaper editors more closely mirrored traditional newspaper journalists than online journalists in terms of their news values. As in previous studies, few variables predicted news values. None predicted the disseminator/investigative value, although the two political measures, political interest and ideology, did explain adversarial attitudes even after controlling for the demographics, experience levels, and newspaper size. Liberals and those most politically interested were more likely to believe in an adversarial role for the press.