WEBJOURNALISM AND CHALLENGES OF EDITORIAL FUNCTIONS:THE CASE FOR NIGERIA

Abstract

Web-journalism connotes the use of the Cyberspace gather, process, store, exchange ordistribute information. This development, like other previous forms of communication technology is bound to have tremendous effect on the prevailing media of mass communication. Much of the commentaries and research reports have concentrated on how to manage a news websites in terms of design and layouting as well as the business dimension and influences on the survival of the traditional organs of mass communication. However, the cyberspace as a news medium tends to demand an integrated approach to news production that combines the elements of both the print and electronic media. Not much if anything has been done on the criteria for news types or styles required for a more effective web-journalism. This paper, however, aspires to provide a theoretical analysis of content selectivity in a multi-media editorial environment. The web is a medium with a global audienceand the format is multi media. This situation is bound to pose some challenges to the choice of news that would satisfy a multi-media audience with its unique characteristics. The value of thisarticle is the attempt to find the possibility of accommodating the craft and postulations of scholars and practitioners of Web-journalism in the mainstream of mass communication theories using McLuhan's Media is the Message as a platform.