This article is an extensive exploration of how the World Wide Web functions as a new global news medium. Using Hong Kong's handover to China as a focal point, it analyzed 663 English-language news web sites from 58 countries/territories. The study found that this historic event received a great deal of attention from the web; traditional news organizations are, by far, the major players of the global English-language news game on the web; news sites are highly concentrated in media-rich countries; and traditional news media have brought many of their `traditions' onto news web sites while experimenting with new formats for news presentation.
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