While the statistics vary starkly by region and country, it is undeniable that Internet use is rising. Further, several studies show the number of internet users obtaining their news online is increasing. This is the impetus for the inclusion of ’online news sources’ as a medium to be monitored on a pilot basis, during the Fourth Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP 2009/2010).

A number of considerations arose when attempting to develop guidelines for monitoring internet news.  What criteria could be applied to determine which countries could participate in the pilot monitoring? How were internet sites to be selected and how many could monitors in participating countries include? How many stories could be coded and how were these to be selected? Questions like these opened up a veritable floodgate of uncertainties. After all, in the world of online journalism, the line between article and blog is sometimes faint, duplicated content is often hard to avoid and practically anyone can be a ‘reporter’.

After extensive consultation and research, a pioneering methodology has been established for the first ever GMMP internet monitoring. The methodology will be distributed along with the materials for monitoring print, radio and television news. 

While almost every country has a local major online news source, structural barriers make such sources less important than traditional media news sources for the larger percentage of the population. Notwithstanding,  it is important that internet news sources not be left out of gender media monitoring, however complex this may be, as such sources also contain gender dimensions that need closer attention in the current era of rapid globalisation.