Ball State | journalist | Steve Bell | live satellite report

"They are so engrossed in all this," she says. "They have totally different flight patterns surrounding digital usage. We're the immigrants who are popping into the digital world midway through life. When we make judgments of what will be appealing to these populations, we're wrong most of the time. They're working at the ground level. They know what they want, where it's going. They know the ticker thing was bothering them. And they were going to find the solution."

Of course, not everyone is so sure that the solution of interactivity is better, even right here at Ball State. While Steve Bell, a professor at Ball State and the longtime ABC anchor who filed the first live satellite report from Vietnam, applauds interactivity ("It's just another media revolution I'll have to live through," he quips), he has his concerns.

"If you're not careful, the audience will set the whole agenda," he warns. "People are only getting what they want. Well, you don't go to the doctor to only hear what you want. You don't go to a lawyer to only hear what you want. The role of the journalist has always been to not only provide people what they want and need but provide people with what they didn't know they wanted. But you, as the professional, determine they do need to know about it. And if you present it in the right way, they will come to know and appreciate this editorial service you're providing for them."

To others, like Mark Glaser, who writes extensively about how the Internet affects media, the biggest shift can be seen in the mind-set of the journalist.