Moreover, these two sources are more alike than different, so, in effect, two sources effectively become one on many stories. He cites the BBC as an exception. And it is, as I discovered during a recent visit there. Why this matters, especially in the case of international news, is that other studies have shown that online-news consumers tend to follow overseas news more via their computers than by national or local news outlets. This does not mean there is no other or independent content, but only that most offerings are similar if not the same, relying on the same sources and even using the same language.
Sites run by broadcasters offer on-line content closely tied to their television content.
In this respect, the Web is becoming an echo chamber and, occasionally, an expansion or distribution platform for what broadcasters are offering TV viewers. CNN is said to have more readers on-line than television viewers, with online content closely mirroring TV content. In the newspaper world, hyper competition between sites has led to constant updating as stories break. But even there, as one daily media reporter told me, that often means that a newspaper story that appears on the Web in the morning will be supplanted by an updated version drawn from wire-service copy in the afternoon. The time stamp on the report is everything to them.