The Internet — On the Verge of a Modem Society?

Abstract

Market research and marketing, the predominant rulers of today’s media productions not only turned recipients into target groups and programming into a science of audience or listener flows, but gave new power to the consumer. TV and radio were among the first in an ongoing and sweeping change in the power structure of demand and supply in the media field. Our hypothesis is that the media themselves are undergoing a process of ”privatisation” in terms of their content production. From TV talk shows and ”video diaries” to call-in talk radio or even on-line chat groups: the professional use (and sometimes exploitation) of content provided by private people not only led to a wider appeal of distributed content in terms of a broader scope of topics, but also to a more banal range of subjects. Although generally appealing to recipients and relatively low in production costs, the distracting and quite often trivial media clutter increased.

“Many conceptions about the potential of the Internet are frequently discussed while the problems are underestimated. …The Internet… should find the right balance of international, regional and local network performance. …The future of the Internet lies in its disappearance.“

“The only thing that cheers me up is the Internet. My speeches are on the net and a lot of citizens retrieve them from there. So I don’t have to rely on the accentuation of journalists.”

German Federal President Roman Herzog, October, 1996