In the words of the San Jose Mercury News, the series has taken "on a life of its own." (Carey, Pete, "Analyzing Criticism of the Drug Series," SJ Mercury News, Oct. 13, 1996) Most people have concluded that the Dark Alliance series proves the CIA sold cocaine in the United States to fund the Contras, a CIA-organized guerrilla army in Latin America. The strength of the reaction by the African-American community, which has been hardest hit by the spread of crack cocaine, has instigated several investigations by the federal government in Washington, D.C. However, the series never reported direct CIA involvement. Despite this very crucial, but little reported fact, the effect of the Dark Alliance series continues to be felt, with no end in sight.
Dark Alliance has also caused a lot of controversy in journalism circles. Some have hailed the Mercury News' use of the world wide web to "publish" this story as a revolution in the way "news" is distributed. Others have criticized the series for overreaching or misrepresenting the content of the series, and blame the Internet for the spread of an unsupported conspiracy theory. The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and the Washington Post all have investigated the series' claims and criticised it.
Traditional print and broadcast mediums are not immune to the spread of misinformation. In this case, radio talk shows and newspapers helped spread the idea that Dark Alliance proved the CIA ran drug rings that were instrumental in spreading crack cocaine in urban America. However, the linear, "here-today-gone-tomorrow" nature of print and broadcast restricts the ability of misinformation to persist to the degree that it does on the Internet.
After much criticism from other newspapers, the Mercury News changed their introductory paragraph on the index page of the series to say in part: "...The series never reported direct CIA involvement, although many readers drew that conclusion..." However, it is unlikely that someone who had already visited the site would return and see this disclaimer.
GRAPHICS
The Mercury News tries to absolve itself of responsibility for the
conclusions their readers drew, but many of their actions were
responsible for encouraging people to conclude that the series proved
"direct CIA involvement" in the spread of crack cocaine in the US. The
original graphic that was prominently displayed in the web site was a
picture of a man smoking crack superimposed on the seal of the CIA. This
image clearly impies a direct connection between crack cocaine and the
CIA. While the Mercury News would like to believe people simply came to
the wrong conclusion after reading the article, it is more likely that
people saw the graphic and didn't read the articles or read the articles
with that image coloring their interpretation. The influence of images
in web content can undermine the message of the text, therefore images
must be used responsibly with this understanding. Examining research into
the effects of visual imagery in television news would be a potential way
of understanding the impact of images in web content.
OPENESS TO PREFERRED READINGS
Many research studies have shown that television viewers interpret
program content differently. Despite the one-way flow of information and
the fixed structure of the program, audience members are able to conduct
different "readings" of the programs. Web content, with its interactive
flow of information and multi-pathway structure is even more open to
individualized readings by viewers. While this may be considered
individually empowering since the viewer gets what he wants out of it,
the overall impact may be socially divisive. Each group of people with
common special interests can look at the same site and attach differing
meanings. Therefore, there is a danger that electronic publishing will
be splintering rather than community-building. In the case of Dark
Alliance, the great majority of the people who have posted to the
reader forum believe the series proves direct CIA involvement in the
crack cocaine trade. It is likely that most of these people already held
a strong distrust of government and were sympathetic to conspiracy
theories. They viewed the site through their own set of lenses and were
able to see a story that fit within their interpretive framework.
The typical modern newspaper is a commercial enterprise that depends largely on advertising sales for revenue. It was the advent of the penny press in the 1830's that created newspapers as we know them today. Newspapers gradually went from small-circulation, subscription-based businesses to mass-circulation, advertising-based businesses. This change in where revenue was coming from changed the content of newspapers. Newspapers had previously been very narrowly focused, having a small readership that directly payed for a significant portion of the costs of production. With the arrival of the penny press, newspapers were now selling their readership to advertisers. "The success of newspapers ... therefore did not lie in primarily persuading readers to believe what they read, but in convincing them to read in the first place." (Schudson, page 166)
The unique structure of web-based delivery of news content places an even greater burden on the newspaper to persuade readers "to read in the first place." A printed paper requires less effort in " the purchase" on the part of the reader. They see it on newstands in the street and people come to their door trying to give them free samples. Readers often have already seen the printed paper before they commit to reading it. The structure of the WWW requires the reader to actively request the content and the reader must have some desire to read this content without having seen it. (This is not to say that everyone who goes to a site will read the text, but that there must be some initial desire to read it in order for the reader to request the document.) On the web, distribution depends on demand, and supply does not in itself generate demand. (Lacy/Simon, page 176)
Credibility Heightens Value of the 'Product'
The Mercury News was able to generate a lot of interest in their site by
promoting it. Mercury Center staffers posted messages on several
Internet news groups alerting them to the series. (These news groups
have allegedly been centered on such topics as drugs and conspiracies.)
Gary Webb, the reporter who wrote the story, went on radio talk shows and
did television interviews where he publicized the series' site on Mercury
Center. These promotional tactics were instrumental in generating hits
for the Dark Alliance site, but have affected the credibility of
the San Jose Mercury News. In their promotions, it was not clear that
they were not reporting direct CIA connection in the spread of crack
cocaine. The nation's leading newspapers have criticized the way the
Mercury News handled the story, and by prevailing standards of
journalistic objectivity, the series was handled in a sensationalistic
manner - particularly the use of the image of a crack smoker superimposed
on the seal of the CIA. This graphic caused such controversy that, weeks
after the site premiered, it was eventually removed and the editor
admitted regretting its usage. (Carey) The San Jose Mercury News
is a regional paper with a good reputation, but it's handling of the drug
series, particularly the online component, has damaged its credibility
for some portion of the news-consuming public.
To attract a mass audience, a newspaper must "satisfy public standards of truth." (Schudson, page 166) Given the demographics of the Internet, these standards will be those of an educated middle and upper-middle class. This readership is consistent with that of most mass circulation metropolitan daily newspapers. These newspapers have developed a tone of content that reflects and resonates with this readership. Therefore, it is likely that these standards of journalistic objectivity will continue to prevail in advertising-based news publishing on the WWW. A newspaper's credibility is a key component in the value of its 'product' as demand may decline if readers become too doubtful of the accuracy of a newspaper's content. (Lacy/Simon, page 174)
Current Impact of Off-Line Actions
Currently, what happens in traditional media greatly affects usage of
sites on the WWW. 'Hits' on the Dark Alliance site went up after
reporter Gary Webb went on radio and television talk shows. Many people
would not have seen the site if they hadn't heard about it and gotten the
url through traditional media. Most of the sites that receive heavy
amounts of traffic are those whose reputations were developed in the
off-line world - through affiliation with magazines, newspapers, or
businesses. The influence of the off-line world on web site usage will
probably continue since it requires a certain amount of effort to reach a
site if you don't already have the url.
Need for Standards of Conduct
Like all other mass mediums, the Internet will also need to institute
some measure of self-censorship. Standards of conduct can limit
expression, but can establish the necessary credibility a web-based
newspaper industry will need. The structure of the Internet makes it
difficult to police, and there will always be sites that violate many
people's conceptions of decency, truth, and necessity. However,
organizations that hope to attract the mass readership that is necessary
for advertising-supported publication must exercise some measure of
self-restraint in order to remain viable. The history of mass
circulation, advertising-based newspapers points to the need for web
publications to also adopt measures that will enhance their credibility.
Critical Mass
Critical mass is the size of the audience needed for a new technology to
be considered successful. (Morris/Ogan, page 45) This concept is
important in evaluating when advertising in web publications becomes
economically viable to advertisers. While this concept is important in
evaluating the success of the Internet, it is particularly difficult to
apply in this area. Critical mass can differ with the type of usage and
the costs of production. Critical mass for a newsgroup or other forum
where participants generate content will not be as large as that for a
publication which contains a lot of costly original content and depends
on ad revenue. But, in some sense there is an overall critical mass for
the Internet as "interactive media only become more useful as more and
more people adopt it." (Ibid)