A comprehensive look at the news landscape that positions digital as the new hope for mainstream media prestige

The news media in the late twentieth century has become increasingly sensational and irrelevant to the lives of the American public. Network news shows frequently resemble entertainment programs, and major newspapers often fail to serve the interests of their communities. Young people in particular are casting aside newspapers and television news for computerized information and entertainment. In the wake of this shift, the convergence of digital technology, computing, and telecommunications has given rise to a new form of journalism: digital news.

And That's The Way It Will Be argues convincingly that digital journalism has the potential to reverse the decline in prestige of the mainstream media. Focusing on the public's dissatisfaction with traditional communication sources, seasoned journalist Christopher Harper evaluates computers as a means of providing and receiving news and information.

Harper profiles some of the key players in the world of digital journalism including Microsoft, America Online, The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, and Time Warner. He assesses the impact of digital news in poor neighborhoods and the developing world and explores the issues of pornography, privacy, and government regulation of the Internet's news and information system. The volume closes with predictions about the future by presidents of communications organizations, computer experts, network news anchors, software developers, columnists, on-line editors, and Web designers.

The first book to focus exclusively on the nature and future of journalism in an electronic age, And That's The Way It Will Be provides a comprehensive look at the emergence, challenges, and promise of digital news.