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We live today in an ever-increasingly hyper-interconnected world, a global society of communicative interactions and exchanges that stimulates profound cultural transformations and realignments – a society epitomised by the advent of globalisation paralleled by the arrival of the Internet (Hannerz, 1996: 7).
“The Internet has been celebrated as being both a democratic and empowering medium of mass communication: it enables individuals and small groups to deliver their message to large numbers of people, without having to contend with restrictive policies and regulations or prohibitively expensive equipment and production costs.�? (Mackay et al, 1999: 227).
The ‘global village’, coined in the 1960’s (Breit, 2001: 214), has come to represent and perhaps link technological progress with better global human relations which in turn has unearthed a communication medium in which media's (as a whole) evolving culture can operate: the Internet. Appropriation of the Internet for commercial use has become an increasingly aggressive strategy – a powerful form of communication – which many corporations are exploiting on a constant basis. Essentially, the Internet is characterised by its ability to avoid being defined by geographies: the Internet is global – a virtual world where notions of identity, gender, human interaction and communication are limitless.
“One of the reasons the Internet has become so ubiquitous is not because it is an impressive piece of technology, but because of its potential for big business ... with more and more companies relocating to cyberspace�? (King in Gorman et al, 2003: 200).
The relationship between the communicator and reader (or audience) on the Internet is fundamentally different from that of conventional mass media. The Internet is more truly global (the World Wide Web) than any other media or form of communication – due to its instantaneous and accessible supply of information. In essence, the level of possible interactivity on the Internet is high in comparison with other media forms. While the Internet has undoubtedly provided unparalleled ‘access’ (Rifkin, 2001) to information, the argument is made, that just with every other form of media, the Internet has fallen subject to commercialisation. As Gorman argues:
“The Internet is predominantly a vehicle to strengthen existing patterns of conglomeration in the global communications industry and to emphasise the values of consumer societies rather than providing a means of freedom of expression and debate. The Internet has become a commodified medium, generating billions of dollars of revenue annually, and attracting large amounts for advertising�? (et al, 2003: 199).
With more media outlets branching into new and rapidly developing technologies, media communication is becoming increasingly attuned to the rise of new technologies, specifically the information superhighway. Evidently, the Internet and the the World Wide Web have, in many ways, united the many forms of mass media (convergence): books, magazines, newspapers, music, film and television continue to evolve on the Internet, and are easily accessible to a global audience. Ultimately, this has created a networked industry whereby all sectors of the media have become tightly linked and accessible to each other as a direct result of technological advancement.
“The most important development in the beginning of the 21st century affecting global media systems is that information technologies are expanding access to information and entertainment to people all over the world" (Merrill, 1995: 19).
--Paul Fitzpatrick 17:50, 27 Oct 2005 (EST)
