Gunter, Barrie. News and the Net. Mahwah, NJ and London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2003. Pp. x, 218. ISBN 0-8058-4499-6 (hb.) $59.95; 0-8058-4500-3 (pb). $24.50.

During the 2003 basketball season, I stole odd moments during the day to search the Internet to see what national news sources

Each of us exemplifies trends in Internet news consumption highlighted and analyzed in News and the Net by Barrie Gunter. This readable, well-documented book is an outstanding summary of the impact of the Internet on journalism and news consumers. It also is an excellent reference, teaching tool, or source of supplemental readings on Internet journalism for courses in media theory, journalism history, news writing, and public relations. Gunter's 16-page bibliography alone is probably worth the price of the book to scholars. His practical insights and accessible language should recommend this book to publishers and editors trying understand where the convergence of media is taking their field.

News and the Net opens with a mass communications theory analysis of the Internet that provides the base for the book's discussion of the way the Internet is changing journalism. Gunter states that the Internet is a "hybrid communications technology, the use of which can switch between mass communication and one-on-one interpersonal communication," (pp. 14-15). As a result of the Internet's hybrid nature, "there is a need for an evolution in conceptual modeling in which theory grounded in a one-directional flow of information context embraces thinking that can accommodate bidirectional message flows" (p. 15).

According to Gunter, many newspapers began their Internet editions in the 1990s because their competitors were doing so--the bandwagon effect-rather than for journalistic or business purposes (p. 38). Gunter cites extensive studies of media and their users in the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East that document the confusion among editors and publishers about the nature and purpose of Internet journalism and how to profit from it. Many newspapers began by placing their print content online, hoping that consumers might buy online editions and advertisers support such journalism. However, consumers expected to access most Internet content for free and advertisers were unsure what they were buying. A constant theme of this book is that these problems still have not been solved. Indeed, News and the Net concludes by stating that the need to develop an effective business model is one of the most urgent tasks for online journalism (p. 177).

News organizations are only now starting to determine who their online readers are, how their usage of online news information is similar to and different from their print usage, how writing styles need to change, and how journalists can use the Internet to source stories. A great strength of this book is its focus on the concerns of working journalists such as questions about the reliability of much web site information. Gunter notes that newspapers increasingly are expecting reporters to obtain background online that in-house library research staffs formerly obtained--a risky assumption considering the widely varying Internet search skills among reporters. The book's suggestions about effective news writing on the Internet are specific and helpful. Readers seem to like initial summaries of stories and links to sidebars--but these can be too short as well as too long (p. 153). Ease of navigating a news site and the frequency of its updating are other predictors of its popularity with readers (p. 164).

A fascinating chapter, "Readers and Electronic Newspapers" cites studies that found that checking news is the fourth most popular Internet activity after Web surfing, email, and finding hobby information (p. 144). There are surprisingly weak links to education and income levels (p. 149) even though computer access is essential. Many users substitute electronic information for time spent on more traditional forms of media consumption such as television (p. 152). They frequently use online media at work or school instead of at home where they usually read print newspapers. Often they are looking for specific information, like my search for Creighton basketball coverage. Emigrants, like our Nepali student, read online newspapers from home (p. 154).

The Internet also has spawned new forms of news, some of which take advantage of its interactive structure to enable readers like my father to "pull" in selected information services. These formats include user newsgroups, bulletin board newsgroups, web-site based bulletin boards, e-mail lists, online news feeds, ClariNet, and online news services (p. 58). Some of these formats raise questions about whether there is still a distinction between journalists and news consumers if everyone is empowered to put "news" content online. Other concerns include the weakening distinction between news content and advertising, especially with "pushed" technology such as online business news letters, list serves, and the like (pp. 26-27).

Other chapters address important unsettled issues such the upheaval in media law that the Internet has created. Traditional rules about libel, slander, copyright, and privacy must be reconsidered, especially in light of the Internet's global character. There's even a section on the impact of the Internet on the practice of public relations.

The greatest disappointment of this excellent book is its conclusion. The final chapter, "The Future of News Online," offers mostly platitudes about coping with what might be coming next. "To survive, news organizations will need to learn quickly how to operate effectively in this new business environment where consumer expectations are different. Success will depend on a corporate willingness to embrace change" (p. 177). This seems a little lame but may be as far as an honest author can go at this time. Overall, however, anyone seriously interested in understanding Internet journalism will benefit from reading this book.

Eileen Wirth

Creighton University