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Internet,
an evolution or a revolution
Eva-Maria Jacobsson
MA, BA
PhD project
The main question for this doctoral thesis
& project is to evaluate the development of the Internet and to see
whether it can be seen as an evolution or a revolution. To compare the
Internet with more traditional media is a way to try to determine whether
it can be seen as a new medium or not and to evaluate its existence. The
belief is that especially the people working in the field (researchers,
developers etc) will take an interest in the results. For academics as
well as professionals (and everyone else) it is important to better understand
and be able to evaluate the meaning of new media, as well as traditional
media, in order to take full advantage of the possibilities it presents
in a communcative and technological aspect. The inspiration and background
knowledge for this research comes from my time as a student (BA &
MA student in Communication science) and as a professional in the Internet
industry (Working with Telias Internetproject “Passagen”).
The thesis will be divided into four main areas:
1. Could the Internet be seen as a new medium? If so (or not), why? A
comparison will be done between traditional media’s development
and the Internet. The definition of the term media has to be approached
and this area surrounds all of the research.
2. The Gender perspective on the new media. Is gender relevant for the
development and if so, how, and to what extent?
3. Economic development and its relevance for the new media evolution
(and Internet specifically). Is the role of the Internet to be a provider
of free and unbiased information? Does the Internet differ from traditional
media, and if so how?
4. The possibilities and consequences of interactivity.
As can be seen, area 1 is general and important for
all of the research areas. Area two is concerned with how the media evolution
is constructed and whether it is determined due to gender or not. A masters
thesis has been supervised within this area by Eva-Maria and Sören
Lenman at CID, “www - För Kvinnor och Män?” by Lisa
Wiberg. Another masters thesis, “A gender perspective on the media
evolution and production”, is now being authored by Tove Åström
(Umeå Universitet); supervisor is Eva-Maria at CID. The result of
this work intends to investigate the belief that gender is an important
factor in the production as well as the usage of new media. Another important
aspect of the gender issues is represented in the Mitiorproject. The Mitior
project will be examining the working enviroment in IT-companies. The
project is a cooperation between CID & The Natonal Institute for Working
life. How is gender represented in various IT-companies? A research is
being done at present to evaluate recent changes.
Freedom of the press and economic development (area 3) is an ongoing project
with the Department of Economics at Stockholm University. “Freedom
of the Press and economic development” has until now been accepted
and presented at the conferences “Capitalism and communication in
the 21st century”, London, June 2002 and “17th Annual conference
of the European Economic Association”, Venice, August 2002. The
paper and ongoing research has also been presented at seminars at Stockholm
University and CID.
Freedom of the press is one of the cornerstones in a democracy. Much has
been written on the dangers of the commercialisation of the media, and
we
recognise these dangers too, however, we wish to make an argument for
the
benefits of commercialisation, which tend to be forgotten. Empirically,
wealthier countries tend to have more media freedom than do poorer
countries. We provide a theoretic model, which sheds some light on the
connection between economic development in a country and the press freedom
in the same. We use the economics literature by providing a game theoretical
model explaining how a country’s economic wealth (and how this wealth
is
distributed) affects media freedom. We also look at the literature in
media
and communication for theories on the importance economic factors in the
media sector. We investigate the mechanism by which economic wealth attracts
commercial advertising, which in turn makes media financially stronger
and
less dependent on political financing. The commercialisation of the media
thus provides, at least theoretically, means for politically independent
journalistic work. Our theoretical results are thus at odds with the fears
of commercialisation, however, very preliminary data on economic influence
on media (which would constitute the basis of the fears of
commercialisation) tend to support our theory.
The least researched area in this thesis so far is interactivity. The
common perception is that almost everything has to some extent to be interactive
in order to be valid. However, my question is; how do we really use the
term and is interactivity present in the new media? Interactivity is a
well used term and a very frequently used one when we discuss new media.
The issue about interactivity is thus a general and important part of
the thesis/project.
Uppdaterade
2003-03-05
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