The Internet Is Not the Antidote

Abstract

This article historicizes journalism's present crisis of credibility as rooted in the criticisms of partisanship and commercialization that continually arose throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It then explores how the Internet, as the most compelling solution to this crisis, developed to meet very different needs than those of mainstream journalism organizations. Following this Internet analysis and Discussion is an investigation of the invasion and gradual acceptance of nonprofessional online content from the 1990s to today. The article concludes by asserting that the Internet cannot be heralded as the solution to the crisis of credibility, largely because the crisis is not a technical one of information delivery, but an epistemological conflict at the heart of journalism practice, a conflict between the irreconcilable values of deliberation and verification.

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Kristen Heflin

KRISTEN HEFLIN is an assistant professor of communication at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Georgia. Her research interests include historical analyses of new media technologies and the democratic implications of new media practices. She earned a master's degree in journalism and mass communication and Ph.D. in mass communication, both at the University of Georgia.