Information trumps interation in local papers' online caucus coverage

Newspaper Research Journal, Fall 2002 by Singer, Jane B

Not all the users were Iowans. Online, the local audience can go elsewhere - and a national audience can materialize. "We entered Caucus 2000 with the assumption that the Iowa caucus was the possession of Iowa, or that it was local or state news. And it wasn't. It was a national story," said the Cedar Rapids editor. "What we did provide is a local context, through our political reporters and our columnists with whom our audience is familiar. That's something the networks or any other medium could not do." Conversely, the Register's editor, who saw his site as a "one-stop shop for anything you wanted to know about the candidates while in Iowa," saw significant usage from outside the state, including from national news organizations.

Most of the online editors perceived of their sites as a way of enhancing the print product, where both ideas and content originated. But the IowaPulse editor saw the site's role as different from the newspaper's. His goal, he said, was to "create an arena of interactivity within Iowa - Iowans talking with Iowans." The next step was "to fill the stands with a national audience." He saw the medium's interactive capabilities not as an add-on to the print product but as a good starting point. The goal is the same: produce better voters. But while print is mainly about providing information, the Internet opens other doors. "You're a better voter if you have a chance to hear what other people are thinking and how they're processing it," he said. Providing an opportunity for such discourse connects ordinary voters and gives them authority.

Perceived needs for information and interaction are not mutually exclusive. Other editors also echoed hopes expressed by those who see the Internet as central to a reinvigorated democracy. "We were actually serving as the medium between two readers, something the newspaper can't do," the Gazette's online editor said. "There can be enormous entree into the marketplace of ideas." And strong information was important at IowaPulse, whose editor wished more enterprise pieces would be: "sad or wildly celebratory or emotional stories from the campaign." One of his goals was to use the caucus site as a learning experience for print reporters about what sorts of journalism works online and what synergies can be nurtured. Another was to find out what users liked in order to create relevant content in both formats. The relatively low use of interactive features designed for expression of political opinion disappointed him.

Discussion

These Iowa newspaper editors' conceptualizations of and experiences with the relationship between the online and print products indicate many questions remain unanswered about how the two can or should work together. The medium's capability to connect people and to provide a forum for discourse holds great promise, editors agree. But the reality hasn't caught up, at least at a local level. What people mostly seemed to want was information. If the Register's site, for instance, generated 16 million hits in January, then 71 new political forum postings is a meager showing indeed.