Mailing Lists and Newsgroups

Mailing lists and news groups are generally called discussion groups, and they exist for different reasons. Sometimes, an organization finds a discussion group is the most efficient way for its members to communicate quickly. At other times, the online group forms so that people with similar interests can exchange ideas, no matter how far apart they live.

Reporters use mailing lists and news groups for a variety of reasons. They identify experts within discussion groups who can speak on a specialized subject. They also find people who have had interesting experiences that add “human interest” to news stories. Reporters obtain story ideas from discussion groups by reading what others are interested in. Also, reporters use discussion groups to keep up with their own profession. They find out what is happening in their field or ask professional questions to other reporters across the globe when they need help with a story.

Although mailing lists and newsgroups both are ongoing discussions, mailing lists resemble magazine subscriptions, while news groups are more like bulletin boards in local coin operated laundries.

Mailing Lists: Generally, information in mailing lists is more reliable than that in newsgroups because subscriptions are accepted by individuals or computers and take time to process. Newsgroup participants, however, simply respond-sometimes on the spur of the moment-to anyone who posts a public message.

When someone sends a message to a mailing list, it is duplicated and appears in the mailboxes of all subscribing members. Reporters use lists to ask general questions about sources, current events or help with researching their stories. They usually receive a variety of responses. Sometimes these public responses turn into a “thread” of conversation (many messages on the same topic). Often, instead of continuing a public conversation with one person in the mailing list, two members exchange a more private conversation through their personal e- mails. For example, once a reporter identifies an expert with a public question to members of the mailing list, the reporter may follow up with questions to the expert in private e-mail.

Four major types of mailing list systems are Listserv, Listproc, Majordomo and Lyris. When journalists sign up to a mailing list, they send e-mail to the system’s host computer, asking to subscribe. An e-mail request to join the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) mailing list, for example, looks like the following: TO: [email protected]

FROM: (leave blank because the address is automated) SUBJECT: (leave blank) BODY OF MESSAGE: Subscribe spj

A subscriber receives a message from the host computer, requesting confirmation of the request to subscribe. Once the host computer confirms the subscription, it usually sends a message indicating the application is complete and noting important information about the mailing list and answers to frequently asked questions. Subscribers can then address their messages to the mailing list, not the host computer. Messages to the SPJ mailing list members resemble the following: TO: spj @lists.uoregon.edu FROM: (leave blank because the address is automated) SUBJECT: Online Interviews

BODY OF MESSAGE: I am considering the ethical issues that might occur when interviewing someone online. Can anyone tell me if he or she has had problems doing online interviews? Thank you.

The following directories register mailing lists:

• http://www.lisztcom (about 90,000 mailing lists)
• http://www.lsoftcomllists/listref.html (about 28,000 mailing
• lists)
• Reporters often go to the following Web sites to find more
• information on subscribing to mailing lists:
• Listserv instructions: http://www.lsoftcorn/lists/listref.html
• Listproc instructions: http://www.listproc.net/docs/
• html
• Majordomo instructions: http://www.visi.com/~barr/
• majordomo-faq.html
• Lyris instructions: http://www.lyris.comlhelp/
• html
• Newsgroups
• Whereas messages in mailing list

Newsgroups: Whereas messages in mailing lists are somewhat private and appear in a subscriber’s e-mail, messages in newsgroups are public and open to anyone who stops to read them. Anyone can post messages. Reporters need to verify fully any information from newsgroups.

Newsgroups are on Usenet, a system of discussion groups. Similar to the World Wide Web, Usenet is a component of the Internet Reading and responding to news group messages require software usually imbedded in the browser, such as Netscape and Explorer, or provided by the Internet service provider (lSP), such as a college or university.

Newsgroups are categorized according to their subject The type of news group is indicated with a prefix to its name. For example, biz. soccer might be a news group talking about the economics of managing a soccer team, and rec.soccer might be a news group discussing the rules of soccer or the best type of playing field. The following are some general newsgroup categories:

• Alt-alternative topics news groups
• -business news groups
• -computers and computer science newsgroups
• -news groups with topics not falling into stipulated
• Categories
• -Internet and Usenet information newsgroups
• -hobbies and recreation newsgroups
• scierice newsgroups
• Three online directories that list newsgroups are:
• http://liszt.lisztcorn/news
• http://tile.net/news
• http://www.cyberfiber.com

These directories not only list newsgroups, but also search for news groups. For example, if a student keyed in journalism” to look for news groups with discussions about journalism, then www.lizstcorn/news responds with 19 newsgroups; www.tile.net/news 19; and www. cyberfiber.com, 15. All these news groups have “journalism” in their address or title. As indicated by this example, newsgroup search engines look at keywords differently. Information about their search strategies is found at their Web sites.

Whereas the search engines named above look for news groups having the keyword in their titles, the following search engines look for messages (within different newsgroups) with the keyword in them: http://www.deja.com

http://www.infoseek.com (click on “message boards”)