Online journalism can be published in real time, updating breaking news and events as they happen. Just as we gather around the TV or radio, so we can gather and attend real-time events online in chat rooms and auditorium facilities. Online journalism also takes advantage of shifted time. Online publications can publish and archive articles for viewing now or later, just as print, film, or broadcast publications can. WWW articles can be infinitely easier to access, of course.
Online journalism is interactive.
Hyperlinks represent the primary mechanism for this interactivity on the Web, linking the various elements of a lengthy, complex work, introducing multiple points of view, and adding depth and detail. Traditional journalism guides the reader through a linear narrative. The online journalist lets readers become participants, as they click their way through a hyperlinked set of pages. Narrative momentum and a strong editorial voice pull a reader through a linear narrative. Email to the reporter or editor resembles the traditional letter to editor of print publications, but email letters can be published much sooner online than in print.