Studies into how users digest content on online journalism sites show that users consume the story in a
completely different way to users of traditional journalism media. In the early stages of online journalism many sites where attached to news outlets who simply posted their print story or the script of the radio story onto the page. This proved to be ineffective as writing for the online world is vastly different from writing for the printed page (DeWolk, 2001: 90). Author Martha Sammons pointed out in her Internet Writer Book that people read off the computer screen thirty percent slower then they read off paper. Also, people do not read carefully online, rather they scan. If they cannot quickly and easily find the information they are after they promptly leave the site (DeWolk, 2001: 90).To complement this, online journalism developed its own style of story construction. Presenting the story in chunks allows the reader to quickly scan the story and single out the passages relevant to them (Ward, 2002: 148). Presenting information in the form of bulleted lists, tables, graphs or other clear graphic elements allow the reader to get the information they want quickly (DeWolk, 2001: 92). The writing towards the end of the page should not conclude the story but rather should compel the user to link onto other pages connected to the story.
In broadcast, print and radio the story is presented to the user in a linear fashion. The journalist decides
how the story should be constructed and it is presented to the audience in the manner chosen by the journalist. The user would then hear, read or view the story from start to finish giving the user the option of either consuming it or not. To a certain extent, the journalist can try to guide the user through the story but ultimately the result rests with the user (Millison, 2004). The hyper textual nature of online journalism allows the user to read the parts of the story they wish to, link onto other pages within the site, play audio grabs or view short video pieces. To encompass this, the journalist must construct the story to be nonlinear, allowing the user to be able to easily follow the story as they want to. Online journalism is the place "where television, radio, and the new media forms of the internet collide" (Hall, 2001: 6). This Convergence within Journalism is likely to change everything journalists think they understand about mass media (DeWolk, 2003: 85)
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