Analysis of the Internet's Potential to Reduce Our Dependence on Today's Media

Emerging technologies may alter the power equation on which today's cognitive order is based.

Technology now provides some substantial new opportunities for citizens to become re-involved in setting the public agenda, especially in the form of the Internet.

Already, online discussion forums capture opinion and insight from citizens in a wide variety of subject areas. Although initially these tended to be frequented mainly by devotees of computers, as more and more people of divergent backgrounds come online, a more representative balance is beginning to be struck.

An atmosphere of participation and engagement can also be expected to grow as Net-based communication forms evolve.

And what has been done to date to disseminate information and analysis on the Internet is probably only a pale shadow of what the medium is structurally capable of.

(c) COPYRIGHT 1998 ROBERT WINTER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

More Specifics


	Internet-originated forms of communication could displace many periodicals--even books.
	Internet-originated forms of communication can remove the caste distinction between writer/producer and reader/consumer.
	Internet-originated forms of communication could re-enfranchise knowledge and policy sources now elbowed aside by celebrity mega-media.