Caught in the Net
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Caught in the Net An analysis of the Guardian’s first venture into online journalism Simen Hunding Strømme Master Thesis in Modern International and Transnational History Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History UNIVERSITY OF OSLO Spring 2020 Caught in the Net An analysis of the Guardian’s first venture into online journalism i © 2020 Simen Hunding Strømme Caught in the Net An analysis of the Guardian’s first venture into online journalism Simen Hunding Strømme www.duo.uio.no ii Abstract This thesis examines the early period of internet journalism in Britain between 1993 and 2001. By undertaking a qualitative case study of London based newspaper, the Guardian, the thesis explores how newspapers started to consider online journalism as not only a new way of doing business, but as a completely new genre of journalism. In 1998, the Guardian was ranked the ninth biggest among twelve national daily newspapers in terms of circulation, but by 2001 its website was the most popular newspaper website in the country. The Guardian’s venture into online journalism began in 1995, when a team of developer known as the New Media Lab was tasked to develop a strategy for online publishing. Over the next few years, several web projects were launched, with varying level of success before pinnacling in a network of websites, Guardian Unlimited in 1999. The increasingly larger focus on the internet as both a tool and platform for publishing, which did not unfold without discontent and critique from advocates of traditional news making, changed the way the Guardian and other newspapers saw their media product and themselves as a company. In a new millennium news were coming faster, shorter and in larger number. Newspaper also met new competitors in forms of users themselves, who wanted to contribute to journalism to larger extent, and pay for it to less. To the Guardian, the new millennium marked the beginning of a conversion into a transnational news and media organisation. iii Preface The last three months have been a strange time. This spring was supposed to highpoint an eleven-semester education. I was looking forward to late nights at campus, numerous coffee breaks and many pub quizzes with my MITRA friends. Writing this thesis from home has been a challenging and frustrating process. My concentration and my desire to study have been tested. I have missed the library and printing rooms especially. However, the last three months have also been a period which I have learned much from, and I am very proud to have finally reached the end of the trail. The reason for choosing this thesis subject is embedded in my interests in journalism, digital media, and internet culture. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Kim Christian Priemel, who has been very invested in my topic and has provided excellent guidance over the past 18 months. I would also like to thank my exceptional girlfriend, cohabitant and best friend Live Johanna Steinsdatter Øverhaug. She has not only coped with my frustration and occasional self-pity but given me unconditional love and support throughout this master programme. I love her! I thank my uncle Thomas Strømme, and cousin Frederik Strømme Legernæs for helping me with copy-editing. I have always admired them, and since I started my education at 19, they have been my academic role models. Of course, my parents, Vivil Hunding Strømme and Knut Henrik Strømme, and my sister Jenny Hunding Strømme, deserve special thanks for giving me a strong personal foundation and a wonderful childhood. Sincere thanks are also given to my dear friend Håkon Paulsen Torset, the boys of Reading, the Chicken Wing Boys, the Knights and everyone else who have helped and supported me during the writing process. Finally, I must thank a very special individual whom without I am not myself. Mø, I salute you. Simen Hunding Strømme Oslo, June, 2020. iv Table of contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................ iii Preface .................................................................................................................................. iv 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Subject ........................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Theoretical considerations ............................................................................................ 2 1.4 Methodology ................................................................................................................. 5 1.5 State of research ............................................................................................................ 6 1.6 Outline ........................................................................................................................... 8 2. Background ....................................................................................................................... 9 2.1 A brief history of the Guardian, 1819-c.1993 .............................................................. 9 2.2 A brief history of technology in journalism ................................................................ 14 3. A website? ........................................................................................................................ 19 3.1 The year of the internet ............................................................................................... 19 3.2 Changing times and new questions ............................................................................. 23 4. A web in sight .................................................................................................................. 28 4.1 Repurpose, recombine or recreate? ............................................................................. 28 4.2 Citizens and journalism ............................................................................................... 34 4.3 A lesson about demand ............................................................................................... 37 5. A web of sites ................................................................................................................... 43 5.1 Into the great unlimited ............................................................................................... 43 5.2 Comment is free .......................................................................................................... 48 5.3 Global prospects .......................................................................................................... 56 6. Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 60 6.1 All caught in the net .................................................................................................... 60 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................ 63 Primary sources ................................................................................................................. 63 Secondary literature .......................................................................................................... 68 v 1. Introduction “The Internet is rather like teenage sex; everyone is talking about it yet only a few are doing it, and those that are doing it are making a real mess of it.”1 1.1 Subject The above quote is taken from a piece published in the Guardian in June 1996. The writer, Ken Wiwa, was promoting a new website that was launched that year. It was called Eurosoccer.com and was meant to provide online coverage of the 1996 European football championship. The quote is also a perfect exemplification of the contemporary perception of the internet within news media. In 1993, newspapers, TV-stations and other media actors around the world started to move their work into the World Wide Web. The Guardian seriously established itself on the web in early 1999. Shortly after, the readers’ editor of the paper, Ian Mayes shared his excitement over the load of information accessible on the web, and possibilities of online journalism. “All caught in the Net”, the column was titled.2 Over 20 years later, online journalism is widely practised, embedded in virtually all news media. In the mid-1990s, however, the internet was still a very new phenomenon and its potential hard to foresee or to measure. It would take several years before news actors started to publish online like they do today. In this thesis I analyse this early period of internet journalism and its place in media history. The primary objective is to discover when newspapers started to consider online journalism as not only a new way of doing business, but as a completely new genre of journalism. I have chosen to pursue this objective by doing a study of the Guardian. The Guardian is an interesting case. For most its history it was a rather small player among national titles on the British newspaper spectrum. In 1998, it was ranked the ninth biggest among twelve national daily newspapers in terms of circulation.3 By 2001, Guardian Unlimited was the most popular newspaper website in the country. The Guardian is also interesting because it is owned and protected by the non-profit-making Scott Trust. Unlike other newspapers,