Interactive Features of Online Newspapers And News Portals in Turkey

Abstract

The Internet has been affeciing the profession of journalism in a number of ways. Interactivity is one of the important aspects of the Intemet that can allow active paticipation of the user/audience. Interactivity can be conceptualized as the process by which the reader can exercise control over the form and content of the mediated setting through some potential inshuments that the new media allow. The L:rternet has a capacity for interactivity that allows for multi-direciional rather than iust two-way, as in the form of e-mail sent by a reader/participant, flow of information. The literature on interactivity provides many definitions and some operational tools that make it possible to analyze interactive options in computer-mediated communication. The descriptive analysis of 28 online newspapers and 12 news portals in Turkey discusses the use of interactive options in online news sites. The websites were analyzed with respect to four dimensions: user control, exchange, information collection and personalization. E-mail functions, search options, counter, bulletin boardg chat rooms, polls/surveys and log-in options were among the operational tools of interactivity used in this study. The study tries to show the extent these interactive options of new forms of mediation are used in online newspapers. The findings reveal the lack of interactive features in practice. Moreover, the few available interactive options are used by the user/audience less than is commonly emphasized in the literature.