Albanian online media and its patterns of functioning

Abstract

The establishment of the first informative websites in Albania has a relatively short history that goes somewhat more than a decade. Currently, online media in Albania is an undeniable reality, which have brought many positive innovations in the media industry, consequently they are also accompanied by some problems. The nature of these information portals or various blogs of journalists, which run toward last-minute news, is also driven by the existing great competition between them and somehow has brought a difficult relation with their credence regarding the information they publish. Being suspicious on the authenticity of the information, the audience often tends to read the same information in several different pages. Online media, as the entire media market, needs financial income to survive and continue the activity. But, how can these online medias provide financial income? What are their relationships with the advertisers and how has changed the behavior of the last ones in the distribution of advertising budgets. On the other hand, these new media have created an additional market for young journalists or reporters, who now constitute a significant community. Even though during the first few years of the last decade there was a community of journalists only working in a television, newspapers or radio, now there is already a large number of reporters engaged full-time or part-time only in online media. looking at this new media reality, it arises the need to study about the status of journalists employed in these portals. How are they treated financially? Does their professional commitment differ as they are employed only in an online media? How does their status change in relation to the source of information compared to their peers in traditional media? This study aims precisely to seek answers to questions raised about management models of online media in Albania, its relationship with the credibility and status of journalists employed in these medias. This study will be based on analyzing the operating models and conditions of the following informative websites: balkanweb.com, albeu.com, gazetastart.com, noa.al and lapsi.al