The early internet , known as ARPANET , was controlled by the U.S. Department of Defense and used mostly by academics . It became available to a wider public with the release of the Netscape browser in 1994 . At first , news websites were mostly archives of print publications . An early online newspaper was the '' Electronic Telegraph '' , published by '' The Daily Telegraph '' . A 1994 earthquake in California was one of the first big stories to be reported online in real time . In 1995 , the release of web browser Netscape made news sites accessible to more people . On the day of the Oklahoma City bombing in April 1995 , people flocked to newsgroups and chatrooms to discuss the situation and share information . The '' Oklahoma City Daily '' posted news to its site within hours . Two of the only news sites capable of hosting images , the '' San Jose Mercury News '' and '' Time '' magazine , posted photographs of the scene
Oklahoma City bombing
Oklahoma City bombing
News