Computer-Assisted Reporting in Australia: Diffusion of the Internet at Daily Newspapers Stephen Quinn University of Wollongong

University of Wollongong Research Online University of Wollongong Thesis Collection University of Wollongong Thesis Collections 1999 Computer-assisted reporting in Australia: diffusion of the internet at daily newspapers Stephen Quinn University of Wollongong Recommended Citation Quinn, Stephen, Computer-assisted reporting in Australia: diffusion of the internet at daily newspapers, Doctor of Philosophy thesis, Graduate School of Journalism, University of Wollongong, 1999. http://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/3852 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] COMPUTER-ASSISTED REPORTING IN AUSTRÁLIA: Diffusion of the Internet at daily newspapers A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree PhD from the UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG by Stephen Quinn BA, MA in the Graduate School of Journalism, June 1999. Table of contente Page i Table of contents i List of figures iv List of appendices v Acknowledgements vi Notes on style and conventions vii Declaration of authorship viii Abstract ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW 1 A definition of computer-assisted reporting (CAR) 3 Australian adoption of the Internet 9 American journalists' use of the Internet 15 Key research questions 17 Scope of the research 22 Chapter summaries 24 CHAPTER 2: THE THEORY BASE 27 Theoretical summary 27 Diffusion of innovation theory 31 Role of change agents and opinion leaders 34 The role of perception in adoption 36 Who makes the adoption decision? 39 Personality of adopters 40 Communication technologies 41 Methodology 46 Data sources 48 Issues of reliability 51 Limitations of the research 52 Why deep CAR has not evolved in Austrália 54 Summary 66 CHAPTER 3: NEWSGATHERING TECHNOLOGIES 67 The telegraph and the railway 67 The telegraph in Austrália 71 Cable links from England 72 Reporting Parliament in London 76 The evolution of news agencies in Europe and England 78 The evolution of US news agencies 80 Table of contente Page ii CHAPTER 3 (continued) News agency reporting and news as commodity 82 The typewriter and reporting 83 Shorthand and reporting 84 The telephone and reporting 85 The development of the facsimile 88 The facsimile and reporting 89 The early history of the computer 90 The first example of computer-assisted reporting 95 War and reporting 97 Technology's influence on newsgathering 99 Summary 102 CHAPTER 4: COMPUTER-ASSISTED REPORTING IN THE UNITED STATES 103 The development of the Internet 103 The development of email 105 Data transmission 107 The information highway and Web browsers 108 Development of personal computers 110 Computers in newsrooms in the USA 111 The development of deep CAR 113 The Internet and American journalism 118 Summary 124 CHAPTER 5: AUSTRALIAN JOURNALISTS AND THE 127 INTERNET: A MACRO VIEW Austrália'snational dailies 129 Metropolitan dailies 132 Capital-city versus regional dailies 144 Austrália's regional dailies 145 Australian Provincial Newspapers (APN) 149 Rural Press 158 Fairfax regional dailies 165 News Ltd regional dailies 166 Independem Newspapers Limited 168 Western Australian Newspapers 172 Barrier Trades Council 172 The Independents 173 Australian Associated Press 178 Re-invention and actual use of the Internet 180 Degree of actual use of an innovation 181 Summary 181 Table of contente Page iii CHAPTER 6: AGE JOURNALISTS AND THE 186 INTERNET: A MICRO VIEW Information sources at The Age 187 Journalists' Internet links with the world 190 Journalists' information-seeking habits 193 Diffusion theory tested at The Age 198 Journalists and information overload 215 Actual use of technology? 219 Personality f actors/profile of Age Internet users 221 Staff attitudes to technology training at The Age 225 Category of journalists: the 'wait-and-see' type 228 Category of journalists: the 'pro-active' type 230 Summary 233 CHAPTER 7: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN 236 TRAINING & EDUCATION, AND INTERNET DIFFUSION CAR training at American newspapers 236 CAR education at American universities 241 CAR training at Australian daily newspapers 249 Training at Australian newspapers 253 Internet training at metropolitan dailies 254 Internet training at regional dailies 255 The Internet at Austrália's journalism programs 256 Educators' attitudes to CAR from 1996 survey 259 Educators' attitudes to CAR from 1998 survey 262 Development of CAR in Austrália 266 Summary 269 CHAPTER 8: CONCLUSION 271 Improved technology and the millennium bug 273 Indirect access to the Internet 274 Increased public awareness of the Internet 275 Recruitment of Internet-aware graduates 276 Issues for further research 278 Summary 280 References 281 Books and book chapters 281 Journal and magazine articles 285 PhDs and MAs cited 289 Newspaper articles, letters and published reports 290 Articles found on the World Wide Web 291 Interviews: email, fax, personal and telephone 293 Appendices 300 List of figures Page iv LIST OF FIGURES Chapter 1 Figure 1: Leveis of computer-assisted reporting 2 Figure 2: Top 15 Internet users in 1997 11 Figure 3: Internet use in 1997, expressed in terms of population 12 Chapter 2 Figure 4: Moore's technology adoption life cycle 44 Figure 5: Moore's revised technology adoption life cycle 45 Figure 6: Variables that determine an innovation's adoption rate 47 Figure 7: Number of metropolitan dailies and owners, 1903-98 66 Chapter 4 Figure 8: Growth of servers on the Internet, 1969-98 106 Figure 9: Four generations of computer technology 110 Figure 10: CAR desks reported at US daily newspapers, 1994-97 117 Figure 11: Mention of the word Internet in NewsLink, 1986-1998 125 Chapter 5 Figure 12: Internet use at metropolitan dailies in June-July 1997 128 Figure 13: Internet use at metropolitan dailies in April 1999 129 Figure 14: Regional papers' Internet use at three largest states 177 Figure 15: Internet connections at daily papers from 1997 to 1999 183 Figure 16: Internet use at regional dailies in June-July 1997 184 Figure 17: Internet use at regional dailies in April 1999 185 Chapter 6 Figure 18: Editorial staff numbers at The Age 193 Figure 19: Information requests March-August 1998 196 Figure 20: Information requests journalists could have done 198 Figure 21: Age journalists' attitudes to the Web as newsgathering tool 200 Figure 22: Age journalists' attitudes to email as newsgathering tool 201 Figure 23: Age journalists' discussions with colleagues 209 Figure 24: Reporters' thoughts on amount of information received 216 Figure 25: Number of emails sent and minutes of Web usage 220 Chapter 7 Figure 26: Comparison of data between 1996 and 1998 surveys 262 Figure 27: Comparison of educators' responses 1996 and 1998 263 Appendices Page v LIST OF APPENDICES Ala: Phone study of daily newspapers, 1997 and 1999 300 Alb: Questions used for qualitative interviews at The Age 302 Ale: Quantitative survey used at The Age, September 1998 303 A2: Definitions of terms 305 A3: Facsimile study of Australian daily newspaper, 1998 311 A4a: Technology used at Austrália's daily papers 313 A4b: Email addresses of regional daily newspapers 314 A5a: Chiefs of staff at Australian daily newspapers 1997 315 A5b: Chiefs of staff at Australian daily newspapers 1999 316 A6: Internet guidelines for (the US) Associated Press 317 A7: Follow-up questions used in 1998-99 study 319 A8: Publications available on the NewsLink text archive 320 A9: Email survey sent to journalism programs, 1996 and 1998 321 Acknowledgemente Page vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many people helped me with this dissertation. It would be impossible to thank ali of them, but I am especially keen to acknowledge some people. Major thanks go to my wife, Deirdre Quinn-Allan, who gave me the space and time to complete a huge task. For two years she took responsibility for our children, Tobi and Félix, when I carne home from work in the evening, and at weekends. Thank you, my love. I dedicate this thesis to you. My parents, Ron and Betty Quinn, left school when they were 14. Yet they have always emphasised the importance of education. I am the first — and to date only — member of my family to go to university. I probably would not have started had it not been for my parents' support and encouragement. Thank you. I also thank the journalists and my journalism educator colleagues who contributed suggestions to my research. In particular I acknowledge John Tidey for his continuous generosity of spirit. Finally, my thanks go to my supervisor, Professor Ciem Lloyd. He is the very epitome of erudition. Ciem was a major source of wisdom during the time we worked together. Conventions Pagevii NOTES ON STYLE AND CONVENTIONS Note the conventions used in referencing this thesis: E refers to an email interview. For example: (Ryan 1998 E). F refers to a facsimile interview. For example: (Rehbein 1999 F). P refers to a phone interview. For example: (Pollock 1998 P). TS refers to an unpaginated transcript of a personal interview. For example: (Forbes 1998 TS). U refers to a URL or uniform resource locator — that is a document from the World Wide Web. For example: (Reavy 1996 U). World Wide Web and electronic mail To save words, ali references to the World Wide Web have been contracted to the Web, and ali references to electronic mail use the term email, without the hyphen. Abstract Page ix ABSTRACT Australian journalists have been using computers to produce news bulletins since the early 1980s and some research on computers as production tools has appeared. Almost no research has been conducted on computer-assisted reporting (CAR) in the context of the Internet's influence on newsgathering. This thesis contributes to new knowledge by presenting the first comparative national studies of the adoption of email and the Web at Australian daily newspapers. Dailies are the country's largest single group of newsgatherers, and they are analysed as two distinct groups: metropolitan and regional dailies.

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