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Mass media: Internet
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Mass media: Internet
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Just a short while ago, it would have been impossible to imagine that the Internet, originally the preserve of the military, academics and computer anoraks, could become the global communication network it is today, but that is what the user-friendly interface of the World-Wide Web has achieved since it was released in 1993 by Tim Berners-Lee and his team at CERN.
The Internet might be considered the very embodiment of First Amendment rights. Since it developed a user-friendly interface and now shows every sign of becoming a totally global network, it has naturally also become the channel of choice for those who want their message to reach a global audience. It has been aptly described as
a loose and anarchic confederation of millions of users around the world who communicate in perhaps the freest forum of speech in history
Itzoe (1995)
Inevitably, then, the Internet has developed from anoraks swapping hints and tips on C++ computer code and academics impressing one another with their latest essays on postmodernism to a medium which captures the attention of major corporations. Ever more businesses advertise their goods and services, collect user feedback on products and conduct market research via the World Wide Web. The international media moguls are also tooling up to claim their webspace. They already make their magazines and newspapers available via the Web (mainly free of charge so far) and are jockeying for position as plans are developed to increase the bandwidth of the Internet, which will eventually make broadcast-quality material available in real time.
Just as inevitably, the World Wide Web and the various newsgroups associated with the Internet have become the preferred medium for any individual or fringe group who feel the world would benefit from their message. So we find home pages written by people who seem at least mildly loopy, White power websites overflowing with racist venom (but very well designed!) the notorious Anarchist's Cookbook and Terrorist's Handbook giving advice on bomb-making and the tactics of urban guerrilla warfare.
This total freedom to put anything you like on the net, to publish whatever you want to a worldwide audience is tremendously attractive to some, especially those users who were in at the beginning; to others, the freedom for racists, potential terrorists, revolutionaries, religious fundamentalists seems destined to bring civilization to its knees.
In these sections we will be considering:
Media violence
Pornography
Regulation of the media in the UK
Information society
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