On Tuesday, Ken Sands, innovation editor of Congressional Quarterly, was kind enough to speak to the students of George Mason University about the changing face of web journalism.

Sands spoke about early innovations in news-gathering techniques from the web, including those he pioneered himself. Working at the Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Washington, Sands used a database of reader information to target readers for emails requesting comments and reactions. This feedback allowed the Spokesman-Review to better serve their audience.

Sands moved on to describe the most important aspects of online journalism:

- Immediacy -- The internet allows news to be as timely as possible, but Sands warns us to "publish for the moment, but also on a longer timeframe." The immediate value of news comes from its timeliness, but its long term value is in the commentary.

- Interactivity -- Allowing readers to participate in a site's content makes them returning customers, because once they give their own opinion, they will keep coming back to see what others have to say.

- Multimedia -- The internet allows a journalist to add depth to a story via video, slideshows, etc. As Sands puts it, "You can do better journalism on the web. It's not just a different platform."

- Database Utility -- User interaction with things such as online poll boxes can prove quite valuable to a website. These interactions give the publication an eye into what's important to their readers, and can be used to create charts and graphs to illustrate the data.

- Transparency -- When a publication tells its readers what it is doing, and how it is doing it. This openness can help to establish trust between a publication and its readers. "If newspapers would be less arrogant, readers would be more trusting."