Does the Internet Fundamentally Change Anything?: European Research and the COST A20 Action on the Impact of the Internet on Mass Media (Television, Newspapers and Radio)

The subject of this paper represents one attempt at a more balanced approach and consists of the research undertaken under the COST A20 action, ‘The Impact of the Internet on Mass Media’. The paper presents a brief overview of some of the principal themes under discussion in relation to radio, television and newspapers as well as offering some reflections on the emerging issues for communications research at a cross media level. The central theme is whether there the Internet (with a capital ‘I’) has had the transformative effect its proponents might once have claimed or whether there has been a somewhat different process of incorporation of the net (with a small ‘n’).