In 1979, a group of students developed a system to exchange a newsletter via the computer, which allowed readers to add their own articles. Picture an office bulletin board.
Someone posts a letter.
Someone else pins up a letter in reply. A weak analogy, but it's about the best there is. The network of computers which shuffles the bulk of news back and forth is called Usenet. From the Internet Explorer Browser click on the Mail icon on the menu bar. From the pull down menu click on Read News .