Journalism is different than it was during and before the summer of 2001. A string of significant events, beginning with the terrorist attacks of 9/11, have brought stimulated three main trends in journalism. First, there as a been a clear shift in what news is told. Three main areas of news are getting significantly more coverage than they were six years ago: happenings in Iraq, commentary, and shocking or attention grabbing news. The second major trend is how the advancement of technology and development of the Internet have altered news presentation. Present day ABC’s use of blogs and podcasts are completely new additions relative to the 2001 version, and the use of videos and photos has definitely increased drastically.

Last, as one would expect, there has been a significant change in the appearance of the ABC News website. It looks more professional, more polished. It’s interesting to see how these fundamental changes in the site interact with one another. For example, the development of technology clearly fuels the change in appearance, while it also gives news reporters a wide array of ways to cover major focal areas such as Iraq and the White House. Furthermore, the increased coverage of war news changes the look of the site. Each of these three major trends comment on how journalism itself has changed in the last several years, and how major events such as September 11th, the war in Iraq, and Hurricane Katrina have brought about these shifts.

I chose to compare today’s abcnews.com to that of a month or so before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 because those attacks were the first of many momentous events that have occurred over the past five or six years; the war in Iraq, the close presidential race of 2004, and the Hurricane Katrina were among the others. Each of these events helped shape how media function today. The attacks on the World Trade Center, and the ensuing war in Iraq, have certainly left their mark on the abcnews.com. As one would expect, post-9/11 America discusses Iraq more than any other foreign nation. So much so that Iraq news commands its own section of ABC’s international news page (ABC News, 2007).

The site’s “Iraq In-Depth” component is a new addition relative to it’s 2001 embodiment. Likewise, stories about Iraq are more predominant on both the home page and world news page today than they were in the summer of 2001 (ABC News, 2001). This is important to note because an increase in Iraq news results in a decrease in other global news, which means our knowledge of other nations declines. This is something newsreaders must be aware of. To think that the U.S. and Iraq are the only important nations on the globe is a very narrow perspective. Such an approach blinds us to important issues in the world such as genocide in Sudan.

While the number of stories about Iraq has certainly spiked, certain genres of writing, regardless of specific content, have also emerged. The government’s responses to the string of crises that have hit America leave plenty of room for the recent surge in opinion pieces in the news. Such pieces are far more prevalent on today’s site than they were just before September 11th(ABC News, 2001). The current ABC News website has an entire section called “Blogs and Opinion” (ABC News, 2007). The significant events of the past five or six years, both positive and negative, were all dealt with, at least in part, by President Bush and his administration. The more the government has on its plate, the more chances it has to garner praise or condemnation.

Thus, with so much going on, the press has had many big opportunities to opine. Furthermore, the media have had more chances to report on how the American people feel, and then give its two cents about that. Additionally, this has caused certain members of the media to voice their opinions of their colleagues. Liberals will criticize conservatives and vice versa (Hargittai et al.). This has all come together to generate a considerable change in what proportion of the news is opinion and what proportion is fact. This increase in the level of opinion reporting is another element of modern news that media consumers must be aware of. Newsreaders separate what is fact and what is opinion or their view of the world will be skewed. Since the days before September 11th, the amount of opinion has definitely increased.

Another type of writing that has increasingly made its mark on abcnews.com is attention-getting sensationalism. The “It’s Outrageous!” section of the ABC News front page provides evidence for ABC’s recent affinity for sensational news that captivates readers. Headlines such as “Rapping Squirrel Takes on Poetry” (ABC News, 2007) show just how far they will go to command attention. In 2001, there were very few unbelievable stories like this. In a world where fewer and fewer people are reading the news, even a major news organization like ABC will spice up their content to attract readers. Nowadays, when the news has to compete with shows such as “Fear Factor” and “Survivor,” the most recent debate in Congress will not have readers on the edge of their seats. A story about a man with a twin living in side of him just might do the trick.

As always, however, the motivation for such stories can also be traced back to the big happenings of the last half dozen years. The never ending barrage of war stories, bombings, and political feuds has newsreaders wanting a change of pace. Enter sensationalism. The increase in all of these types of content – Iraq, opinion, and shocking news – comment on what journalism has become, and what it might be in the future. Journalism has become more about commentary and entertainment than about straight facts and news. Whether this trend grows or declines is important because it influences the news we receive. Newsreaders must be aware that some topics will get a larger chunk of a news organization’s attention and coverage, that some of what we read is opinion, and that some news is more for entertainment value. If we do not keep these concepts in mind, the value of reading the news diminishes and we are less knowledgeable about the world we live in.

The change in content has been espoused by a change in media tools. Podcasts, enhanced video technology, blogs, and other developments have changed the way news is recorded and delivered. News reporters jumped on the new technology of podcasts to bring news to people in a new way. People can download or stream audio files of news reports and listen to them at home or on the go. Not everybody has the time or the will to sit down at his or her computer and read a full article. Listening to the podcast of your favorite writer while you get ready for the day or while you take care of some household chores helps save time. The advancement in digital video and photo technology has made the Internet a great place to get news stories told completely by video footage or by photos (Abrams et al., 1995). ABC News’s story about “x-ray oddities” (ABC News, 2007) is much more informative and compelling told by photos of the x-rays than by a writer. The ability to scroll through pictures at your own pace and jump back to one you liked is a feature of the internet that cannot be matched by print news or television broadcasts.

Blogging is another recent Internet trend that has changed news distribution. The increase in opinion oriented news pieces goes hand in hand with this surge in the use of weblogs, or blogs. With new software that makes blogs easier to update, archive, and change (Hargittai et al.), news organizations have adopted this new gimmick very enthusiastically. It is important to note this idea of certain changes in the news telling process driving or supporting others. Realizing this conept allows us to recognize new trends and be aware of changes in how news gatherers deliver the day’s stories. Being aware of the trends and changes that shape the news media environment will help us get the most out of our news.

News blogs are also a symbol for another very important trend in Internet news: interactivity. Looking at the front page of abcnews.com from July 20th, 2001, there is a little section in the bottom left hand corner titled “Interact” (ABC News, 2001). Flash forward to today’s incarnation of abcnews.com and words like “vote,” “message board,” and “discuss” are everywhere, in every section of the page (ABC News, 2007). Additionally, readers can post comments after reading each article and the comments all appear at the bottom of the article. This feature is not available in the 2001 version. Today’s ABC News website also offers a chance to subscribe to emails and breaking news alerts. Nothing of the sort was available in 2001. In its 2001 form, abcnews.com did not come anywhere close to the level of interactivity that its 2007 counterpart boasts. Interactivity has become a large part of American and world media (Garfield, 2006). The combination of new Internet technology and the significance of individual opinion have fueled the population to become hungry for interactivity. Newsreaders crave the ability to present their thoughts, and hear those of others.

Finally, the refining of media technology and a change in the concept of important or newsworthy content have led to a radical change in the physical appearance of the ABC News website. The look of the site is more professional and polished. The colors are not as bright and alarming, the graphics are not as angular, and the links look like plain text instead of the typical bright blue underlined font. Furthermore, stories are neatly categorized, for easier navigation. One last trend in physical appearance of the site is a change in the nature of advertisements. Due more to media consumers’ tireless avoidance of advertising than to changes in content or technology, the new look of ads on abcnews.com is still important to look at because it affects our news experience. The ads on today’s ABC News site are bigger, appear more frequently, and blend in much better with the actual news. Many of the advertisements look like pictures of, or links to, other stories. This is a function of marketing schemes that try to catch the reader off guard (Croteau & Hoynes, 2003). While surface differences in ABC’s web site seem to have little to do with content and other more significant elements of news, they are still pertinent because what our eyes see as they scan a web page, and the ratio of news to advertising can effect what web sites we frequent and, therefore, what side of the story we get. If a bombardment of ads on one site sends us to a competing organization’s site, we might read news slanted a slightly different way.

It is clear that the changes in the ABC News web site – in content, in technology, and in appearance – interact with and drive each other. The emergence of blogs has fed the growth of opinion related news, which in turn has increased the popularity of blogs. News stories of government action toward crises like 9/11, and political happenings such as elections, elicit floods of opinion, further adding to the blog fad. The increase in the frequency of such stories also affects the look of the site; it changes what pictures are shown and how stories are organized. All the elements of Internet news intermingle and spark change in other components. The face of internet news, as evidenced in the change in abcnews.com between July 20th, 2001 and the present, will continue to chang as significant events in the world, such as the terrorist attacks of September 11th, change what we talk about, how we talk about it, and, thus, what tools we use to present the news.