"More than half of U.S. Internet users went online for news and information about Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the vast majority having visited the websites of traditional news organizations such as CNN and MSNBC, a study finds. Of the Americans who went online for news, 14% went to an international news source such as the BBC's website.

"The fact that you had this U.S. domestic crisis and people turning to international news sources is interesting," said John Horrigan, associate director for research at the Pew Internet and American Life Project, which released the survey findings Thursday.

"There were certainly commentators worldwide shocked that this sort of thing was going on in America, and I would imagine some people decided to see firsthand what commentators and news sites overseas were saying," he said."


Many news sites move articles into data bases after a period of time and then offer them for sale, in the process changing the URLs that link to them. Or they require registration. Thus, we provide a link to the front page of the news website and the information necessary to find the story on that site, rather than a direct link to the article.

Read More