Article New technology, old practices: Examining news websites from a professional perspective Itai Himelboim and Steve McCreery University of Georgia, USA Abstract This study takes a journalistic professional approach to examine integration patterns of interactive features in news media websites. It draws from two aspects of journalistic work – the relationship with audiences and medium-related practices. Consequently, two frameworks are proposed for categorizing interactive features: the first is based on the relationships news media allow their audi- ences to have with news content – consuming content, influencing content, or passing it beyond the news site; the second is based on the characteristics of features – textual or visual. Findings from 100 news organizations show that, overall, news media preferred applying features that allow users to interact with content, but without the ability to influence it. In addition, the use of features was tightly related to the technology associated with a news organization; newspapers’ websites were more likely to use text-based features and vice versa. Keywords Interactive features, news websites, professionalism, social networking sites, news content, journalism and newspapers More than a decade ago, Bardoel (1996: 283) suggested ‘ ... the traditional task of journalism will shift from collecting information to directing the social flow of information and public debate.’ The internet allows news organizations to overcome major drawbacks of traditional media, including the primarily one-way flow of information of news and views from media to audiences and technological restrictions of space and time. Integrating new technologies and applications, new media can serve the news media’s social role of providing information on a wide range of issues, and from a variety of perspectives. News media can now present information in new ways, giving visitors more control to personalize their news consumption. They can also open their web- sites to contributions from users, including via blogs and video or discussion forums, and can allow information to disseminate in new ways, such as via social networking sites and emailing articles. Corresponding author: Itai Himelboim, University of Georgia, Department of Telecommunications, Grady College, University of Georgia 101 L Journalism Building, Athens, GA 30601, USA Email: itai@uga.edu Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 18(4) 427-444 ª The Author(s) 2012 Reprints and permission: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1354856511429648 con.sagepub.com