This book explores the growing phenomenon of online news from a variety of perspectives, identifying trends in online news and presenting a collection of original research investigations about the newest medium of mass communication.

This volume offers unique and timely insights on the state of online news, exploring the issues surrounding this convergence of print and electronic platforms, and the public's response to it. It provides an overview of online newspapers, including current trends and legal issues and covering issues of credibility and perceptions by online news users. The heart of the book is formed by empirical studies-mostly social surveys-coming out of the media effects and uses traditions. The chapters are grounded in theoretical frameworks and bring much-needed theory to the study of online news. The frameworks guiding these studies include media credibility, the third-person effect, media displacement, and uses and gratifications. The book ends with a section devoted to research on online news postings. This book is appropriate for scholars, researchers, and students in journalism, mass communication, new media, and related areas, and will be of interest to anyone examining how people use the web as a source for news.

" 'Online News and the Public' is an excellent foundation for building further research into the fast evolving world of online news and information. References appear at the end of each chapter, with author and subject indices at the end of the volume."—Communication Research Trends