Standards of Digital Journalism - New User Patterns and Challenges in the Journalist Role? 2009

New digital media sets prevailing journalistic norms and conventions in front of major challenges and affects relationships with users. A media development characterized by increased monopolization and concentration of ownership makes digitalization an important tool in the development of shared services and rationalization within the groups. The conditions within the newsrooms will change, and new editorial procedures will occur as a result of a much closer relationship with users. At the same time the danger is that journalism's integrity is threatened by the Internet technology and hypertext weakens the traditional distinctions between the editorial board and the marketing department. We can already see that young media users have new user habits, where the interactive component of media use plays a major role in the form of SMS, email and interactive television. This has also become an important commercial market where consumer technology has become a part of modern mass media market.

The project aims to generate new knowledge and theory of the new editorial standards in the digital media development. It should be assessed how work practices, use of sources and to the readers changing role of the journalist. One project will study how youth from multicultural backgrounds use the Internet as a link between their country of origin and new Norwegian reality. Another subproject will see the change of foreign journalism.