Impact of Converging New lVledia in Journalism: A new tool to foster information in Egypt

Today, online journalism offers a new interesting spectrum of communication capabilities going beyond linear writing. Video and audio streaming, graphic animations, hyperlinks, as well as interactive communication and customization are only a few examples of the interesting features offered by on line newspapers. In the past few years, Egyptian newspapers launched news sites designed for the convergence of traditional media into the new on line environment. Multimedia storytelling intended to be used to produce omni-directional coverage of the news that would foster more precise and free journalism. Statistics based on a content evaluation of the on line editions of the two main Egyptian newspapers in English language (Cairo Times and Al-Ahram Weekly) and the daily Egyptian newspaper in Arabic (Al-Abram Daily) revealed that the country is not producing original content for online publications. And multimedia storytelling is a matter of concern in many cases. Thanks to a methodology that combined content evaluation with in-depth interviews to web editors, the webmasters and journalists, this study describes the evolving world of converging on line journalism in Egypt. The study also unveils important aspects on the impact that the converging local and global online environment had on the Internet in Egypt. Editors, journalists as well as webmasters, in fact, should always foster the democratization process to provide a reliable image of the country to the international community