News as a Service

Abstract

This article presents a longitudinal study of the utilization of Social Web features by the thirteen main Danish online newspapers from 2008-2010. The current shift from mass media and print products to social media and web-services forms the background for the study. The aim of the study is to produce a baseline of information for media professionals and scholars engaged in identifying the added value of Social Web features in online newspapers. The research approach is mainly exploratory and descriptive. The analysis of the empirical material, which consists of content analysis of the websites, is supported by two recently developed theoretical frameworks for studying interactivity (Chung, 2008) and user participation (Domingo et al., 2008) in online newspapers. The empirical data reveal increasing utilization of the Social Web. The analysis indicates that newspaper organizations are primarily interpreting the emerging “media-as-a-service” paradigm as a way to engage news users in the distribution and interpretation of news. The production of news remains controlled by the media. However, recent developments (e.g., Facebook tools, Google ads, mash-ups and mobile apps) indicate that major new changes are indeed on the way.