A. Book Ouline - Outline of the Network Society

Outline of
THE NETWORK SOCIETY
social aspects of new media

Jan van Dijk,

Sage Publications
London, New Delhi, Thousand Oaks,
1999, 267 pages, hard and paperback

CONTENTS

1. Introduction

A new infrastructure for society
A second communications revolution?
Communication capacities of the new media
New media and modernisation
From mass society to network society
The nature and the design of this book

2. Technology

Introduction
Networks of telecommunication
Networks of data-communication
Networks of mass communication
Integrated networks
Integrated equipment: multimedia

3. Economy

The present communications revolution
A flow economy
Producers: privatisation, concentration and reregulation
Consumers: pushers and pulled

4. Politics and Power

Networks and power

The vulnerability of networks

The spread and concentration of politics
Applications of the new media in the political system
Power in the organisation
Privacy and personal autonomy

5. Law

The law undermined by networks
Government regulation
Information and communication freedom
Intellectual and material property rights
Privacy laws and regulations

6. Social structure

Networks and social equality
The social infrastructure of the network society
Unity and fragmentation of the public sphere

7. Culture

The end of mass communication?
The blurring spheres of living
Living in a digital culture

8. Psychology

Perception and the new media
Mental processing and the new media
Learning with the new media
Social-psychological aspects of the new media
Changes in human personality?

9. Conclusions and Policy Perspectives

Conclusions
The information superhighway in America, Europe, Eastern Asia and the Third World
Social values and policy perspectives

Annex 1 The new media in 2000
Annex 2 Glossary
References

Index

CHAPTER OUTLINES

Introduction

A conceptual and historical introduction. Main conceptual tools and the problems or questions dealed with in the book. The main concept of the book is network society: a general type of (modern) society increasingly organised by media networks gradually replacing and supplementing social networks of face to face communication. Therefore the general theme of the book is the relationship of mediated and face to face communication. The most general thesis of the book, developed in subsequent chapters is that modern society is characterised by a combination of simultaneous scale extensions and scale reductions in all aspects of society and that networks of information and communication are the necessary means and media of this combination.

A definition of the new media (the media of converging tele, data and mass communication characterised by integration and interactivity). à alternative words: multimedia and interactive media.

The concepts of integration and interactivity. Information and communication patterns. Communication revolutions in history. Exposition of the first and second communication revolutions of the modern age (around the former and the present turns of the century). The evolution from mass society to network society.

The next concept, communication capacity of media (old and new), is very central to the book. It is about the enabling and defining technical properties of old and new media in social contexts.. The capacities are: speed, reach (geographical and social), storage capacity, precision and control, selectivity, interactivity, stimulus richness, complexity and protection of privacy and personal autonomy. A central theme of the book is that the new media are strong in the first five capacities mentioned, except for social reach, and (still) weak in the last four.

Introduction of the nature and design of the book: a bold interdisciplinary analysis of all relevant social aspects op the new media which have effects on the most basic values of western societies: welfare, democracy, personal autonomy, (legal) security, social justice and quality of communication or social relationships.

Technology

A non-technical description of the converging techniques of tele-, data-, and mass communications, written for lay people. Attempt to make clear distinctions of the relevant new media in these three area’s of communication means: on-line as well as off-line new media. The summary list of Annex 1 explained. The concept of multimedia (which is likely to replace the concept of new media).

Economy

First, a historical analysis of a second ‘control revolution’ as a continuation of the first control revolution (19th century) analysed and described by James Beniger.

Second, networks as the central, necessary means of a flow economy, first of all characterised by all kinds of process innovations in corporations. The development of a network structure between and within corporations and organisations generally.

A systematic treatment of the producing actors in the networked economy: infrastructure, construction and maintenance, transport and operation, services (content). These are the rows to be matched by the columns of telephony networks, computer networks and (interactive) broadcasting entering a process of convergence.

Main trends in the (new) media industry: privatisation, concentration (actually a combination of integration and differentiation), deregulation and (coming) reregulation of the media sector as a whole (convergence).

The comsumer actors: the large corporations and public administrations as first users and pushers of the new media development and the small corporations and individual households as the actors lagging behind, not meeting the strong appeal of the evident technology push of information and communication technology yet.

Politics and power

The central concept in this chapter is power. The new media will change the relationships of power between government, public administration and citizens, between managers and workers and between producers and consumers. They might empower the ones using them, but they are making them weak as well, as they come to be dependant upon a very vulnerable technology.

First the effects on our political system are described. ICT helps to spread politics from the (national) state into society and across the borders. At the same time it helps to concentrate politics into the state: the possibility of states striking back, counteracting the centrifugal tendencies just described producing first signs of a surveillance state.

The use of new media in politics, which is concisely described in fifteen applications, is guided by different conceptions or models of democracy. The special preferences of five conceptions of democracy in using ICT are explained.

In the next section the shift is made to the meso-level of organisations. The rise of an infocracy as the successor of traditional bureaucracy is explained. This section contains a critique of the popular management philosophy of so-called ‘flat organisations’. This philosophy is only partially correct.

In the last section we arrive at the micro level of the individual who’s privacy and personal autonomy are at stake. There are risks and new opportunities. The section contains numerous conceptual clarifications of the rather vague concepts of privacy and personal autonomy. It is explained how the informational, relational and physical privacy of individuals and the personal autonomy of citizens, workers and consumers are threatened. To be followed by a treatment of the opportunities to counteract these risks: laws and regulations, self organisation, safety measures and privacy-enhancing technologies.

Law

The first section explains why a large number of laws and regulations of our society are undermined by the introduction of new media networks. The law lags behind. Convergence and internationalisation necessitate new, integrated and international laws, regulations and treaties. The most important challenges and changes of parts of the law are analysed. First it is asked what the role of the law maker, the government, actually is in the new media environment. The evolution of information and communication freedoms in this environment is described first. It is about all kinds of attempts to control, f.i. Internet communication, dealing with criminal communication, racism, pornograpy etc. on ‘the Net. Freedoms are confronted with rights of self determination of communicating individuals (f.i. publicity versus privacy) and less developed countries (overwhelmed by the strong networks of the super powers, the IMF and international finance and large media enterprises). The means to solve the problems are treated in a systematic way in this and all succeeding sections of this chapter: 1) changes in the law and regulations 2) self organisation and self regulation, 3) technological solutions (encryption, filters etc.).

These are the solutions for the fundamental problems in safeguarding material and, even more, intellectual property rights in the borderless digital new media. The (un)successful attempts are described and the evolution towards self organisation (on the market) and technological solutions is explained.

The same solutions come forward in privacy laws and regulations, which are continuously out of date. The present text contains a long analysis of the strong and weak points of Dutch and European privacy law. It will be supplanted by an international analysis, especially about European and Northern American privacy law with regard to ICT.

Social structure

This chapter contains an analysis of the developing social (infra)structure of network society. First of all it stresses that the new media both support a further individualisation and fragmentation of society or social relationships and a societalisation of formerly separated communities and individuals (the global spread of information and communication and the strengthening of societies, corporations and media of central control). Further, it clarifies the differences and similarities of so-called virtual and organic social life. What is the reality of virtual community? Can virtual communities (re)invigorate traditional organic communities?

However, the first section is dedicated to the so-called gap between information rich and poor, within countries and between countries, the social classes, the sexes, the ages and the educational levels. The two-tiered information society is a much too simple notion. Still there is a risk of a growth of structural information inequality at all levels. The (further) rise of an information elite (5-10%) taking all relevant decisions in our societies using ICT and the exclusion of marginal groups (the digital illiterates) of about 20-30% of the western populations at the other side with differentiating positions of the majority of the populations in between, is a situation which is likely, but might be prevented if one understands the major barriers for people trying to enter the information or network society. These barriers are described in detail: lacking ‘digital’ skills and computer fear, no access to computers or networks, insufficient user-friendliness and many usage opportunities which are still lacking and unequally distributed anyway.

In the last section the problematic of virtual and organic community is extended to deal with the social cohesion offered by the infrastructure of network society. Many observers have referred to the fragmentation of this infrastructure (on-line communities communicating separately as new subcultures). The opposing tendency of growing unification via global communication networks is often neglected. In this section some preliminary ideas about a potential reconstruction of the public sphere along the metaphorical lines of the hyperlink between and within old and new media are worked out.

Culture

The chapter continues the last-called problematic with the question whether the rise of the new media will usher in the end of mass communications. This is strongly denied, but a much more differentiated and modern concept of mass is needed and supplied in this chapter.

In all chapters dealing with the different spheres of society and the subject concerned the exposition is analytically divided in social aspects of new media at the macro, meso and micro level. Now the reason for this distinction is supplied: traditional dividing lines between these spheres are blurred in network society. Perhaps this is even the most important social effect of the new media. Opportunities are offered by all kinds of tele-activities. However, there are important social, cultural and mental barriers to the development of these activities (telework, telestudy, teleshopping etc). The second section in this chapter deals with the pro’s and con’s of these activities and what can be expected from them.

The long last section of this chapter explains what it means or will mean to live in a ‘digital culture’. A number of fundamental or epochal trends accompanying digitisation are described: the uniformity and differentiation of culture (preprogramming and individual selection or manipulation), the fragmentation of culture, culture as a multimedia collage, the speed-up of culture, the visualisation of culture (the centrality of the screen and the audio-visual), the quantification of culture. Following the last trend it is asked whether this means a better quality of information and communication as well? Problems like information and communication overload are discussed. The well-known pyramid of knowledge with bits and bytes at the bottom and wisdom at the top is the guiding line.

Psychology

With the last-called items we have entered the field of the mental, the ultimate micro level. The most important psychological issues connected to the new media are analysed. First of all the psychology of perception. The following trends are discussed: from direct experience to mediated perception, from learning trough action to learning from symbol systems and visual models, a shift in the ways of symbolic communication and related mental skills. The next section is about mental information processing. It deals with very fundamental issues like the differences between the information processing of computers and humans. Classical views of cognitive psychology and artificial intelligence on this score are criticised. In stead the latest results of neuro- and bio-psychological research are taken to argue that the processing of humans and computers is completely different (selection versus instruction) and what this means for the interaction of man with the new media. This section is followed by a short one about the splendid opportunities of the new (multi) media to improve learning in the long term (next generations).

The fourth section is a summary of the social-psychological research for channels of communication in old and new media of the last twenty years. The limits and new opportunities of new media channels for social communication (in groups) are discussed.

The last section is much more speculative than the rest of the book: it is asked whether computers as a Second Self (Turkle) are able to change human personality in the long run. The antropomorfisation in the interaction with new media, the experiments with multiple personalities on networks like the Internet and the possibility of people becoming some kind of cyborg in virtual reality are discussed.

9Conclusions and policy objectives

In the last chapter the balance is made of this extremely wide-ranging exposition. First, the main conclusions are supplied. To mention them shortly: 1. social and media networks should be considered in their interconnection; generally, new media networks will not supplant social networks of face-to-face communications but be added to them, hopefully in fruitful combinations; 2. media networks are both enabling and defining (both against technological determinism and unrestrained social constructivism); 3. the new media networks will not revolutionise society; rather they will be evolutionary, re-enforcing existing tendencies in society and history; 4. the sharp rise new media networks in the last decades is explained by their ‘function’ of enabling the combination of all kinds of scale extensions and scale reductions in modern society.

After this balance the chapter switches to policy perspectives. First, the similarities and differences between policies to construct or connect to information super highways in North America, Europe, Eastern Asia and the Third World are described and explained. Then the analysis is bridged to the question what it means for the basic values of our (Western) societies mentioned in the introduction. General policy perspectives which are presumed to be valid for at least 5-10 years are described on the following values: material welfare and employment, safety, (political, economic, social and cultural) democracy, personal autonomy, equality, legal and social justice, quality and quantity of communication and richness of the human mind. They are crystallised in (mainly) general American and European policy perspectives.

NATURE AND DESIGN OF THE BOOK

This book is very pretentious and encompassing in its design. It is produced after extensive literature research in the eighties and nineties and empirical research of the author himself. He was able to put this broad inventory of the social aspects and effects of the new media into a conceptual and analytical framework. This framework consists of several background theories: a modernisation theory, economic and organisational theory, political theory, theories from information and communication science, neuro-psychological theory, to mention just the most important ones. The exposition is extremely analytic in style and content and conceptual clarifications are made all of the time using definitions, schemes etc. Still, all the book reviews of the two first editions of this books in journals, magazines and papers have praised the readability and accessibility of this book, even for lay people having no or few experiences with the new media. This book was written for the following groups in order of importance:

students of higher education (universities and professional schools) in social and communication science, journalism, (socal) informatics and computer science, political science professionals in the media of tele- data and mass communication and policy makers the informed public opinion.Most praised by the reviewers was the didactic design of the book with its margin texts, schemes, figures, lists and definitions.

	Home > ... > Network Society Picture Links > A. Book Ouline - Outline of the Network Society
Home News About Me Publications Research Courses Advise Sitemap Search	A. Book Ouline - Outline of the Network Society Outline of THE NETWORK SOCIETY social aspects of new media Jan van Dijk, Sage Publications London, New Delhi, Thousand Oaks, 1999, 267 pages, hard and paperback CONTENTS 1. Introduction A new infrastructure for society A second communications revolution? Communication capacities of the new media New media and modernisation From mass society to network society The nature and the design of this book 2. Technology Introduction Networks of telecommunication Networks of data-communication Networks of mass communication Integrated networks Integrated equipment: multimedia 3. Economy The present communications revolution A flow economy Producers: privatisation, concentration and reregulation Consumers: pushers and pulled 4. Politics and Power Networks and power The vulnerability of networks The spread and concentration of politics Applications of the new media in the political system Power in the organisation Privacy and personal autonomy 5. Law The law undermined by networks Government regulation Information and communication freedom Intellectual and material property rights Privacy laws and regulations 6. Social structure Networks and social equality The social infrastructure of the network society Unity and fragmentation of the public sphere 7. Culture The end of mass communication? The blurring spheres of living Living in a digital culture 8. Psychology Perception and the new media Mental processing and the new media Learning with the new media Social-psychological aspects of the new media Changes in human personality? 9. Conclusions and Policy Perspectives Conclusions The information superhighway in America, Europe, Eastern Asia and the Third World Social values and policy perspectives Annex 1 The new media in 2000 Annex 2 Glossary References Index CHAPTER OUTLINES Introduction A conceptual and historical introduction. Main conceptual tools and the problems or questions dealed with in the book. The main concept of the book is network society: a general type of (modern) society increasingly organised by media networks gradually replacing and supplementing social networks of face to face communication. Therefore the general theme of the book is the relationship of mediated and face to face communication. The most general thesis of the book, developed in subsequent chapters is that modern society is characterised by a combination of simultaneous scale extensions and scale reductions in all aspects of society and that networks of information and communication are the necessary means and media of this combination. A definition of the new media (the media of converging tele, data and mass communication characterised by integration and interactivity). à alternative words: multimedia and interactive media. The concepts of integration and interactivity. Information and communication patterns. Communication revolutions in history. Exposition of the first and second communication revolutions of the modern age (around the former and the present turns of the century). The evolution from mass society to network society. The next concept, communication capacity of media (old and new), is very central to the book. It is about the enabling and defining technical properties of old and new media in social contexts.. The capacities are: speed, reach (geographical and social), storage capacity, precision and control, selectivity, interactivity, stimulus richness, complexity and protection of privacy and personal autonomy. A central theme of the book is that the new media are strong in the first five capacities mentioned, except for social reach, and (still) weak in the last four. Introduction of the nature and design of the book: a bold interdisciplinary analysis of all relevant social aspects op the new media which have effects on the most basic values of western societies: welfare, democracy, personal autonomy, (legal) security, social justice and quality of communication or social relationships. Technology A non-technical description of the converging techniques of tele-, data-, and mass communications, written for lay people. Attempt to make clear distinctions of the relevant new media in these three area’s of communication means: on-line as well as off-line new media. The summary list of Annex 1 explained. The concept of multimedia (which is likely to replace the concept of new media). Economy First, a historical analysis of a second ‘control revolution’ as a continuation of the first control revolution (19th century) analysed and described by James Beniger. Second, networks as the central, necessary means of a flow economy, first of all characterised by all kinds of process innovations in corporations. The development of a network structure between and within corporations and organisations generally. A systematic treatment of the producing actors in the networked economy: infrastructure, construction and maintenance, transport and operation, services (content). These are the rows to be matched by the columns of telephony networks, computer networks and (interactive) broadcasting entering a process of convergence. Main trends in the (new) media industry: privatisation, concentration (actually a combination of integration and differentiation), deregulation and (coming) reregulation of the media sector as a whole (convergence). The comsumer actors: the large corporations and public administrations as first users and pushers of the new media development and the small corporations and individual households as the actors lagging behind, not meeting the strong appeal of the evident technology push of information and communication technology yet. Politics and power The central concept in this chapter is power. The new media will change the relationships of power between government, public administration and citizens, between managers and workers and between producers and consumers. They might empower the ones using them, but they are making them weak as well, as they come to be dependant upon a very vulnerable technology. First the effects on our political system are described. ICT helps to spread politics from the (national) state into society and across the borders. At the same time it helps to concentrate politics into the state: the possibility of states striking back, counteracting the centrifugal tendencies just described producing first signs of a surveillance state. The use of new media in politics, which is concisely described in fifteen applications, is guided by different conceptions or models of democracy. The special preferences of five conceptions of democracy in using ICT are explained. In the next section the shift is made to the meso-level of organisations. The rise of an infocracy as the successor of traditional bureaucracy is explained. This section contains a critique of the popular management philosophy of so-called ‘flat organisations’. This philosophy is only partially correct. In the last section we arrive at the micro level of the individual who’s privacy and personal autonomy are at stake. There are risks and new opportunities. The section contains numerous conceptual clarifications of the rather vague concepts of privacy and personal autonomy. It is explained how the informational, relational and physical privacy of individuals and the personal autonomy of citizens, workers and consumers are threatened. To be followed by a treatment of the opportunities to counteract these risks: laws and regulations, self organisation, safety measures and privacy-enhancing technologies. Law The first section explains why a large number of laws and regulations of our society are undermined by the introduction of new media networks. The law lags behind. Convergence and internationalisation necessitate new, integrated and international laws, regulations and treaties. The most important challenges and changes of parts of the law are analysed. First it is asked what the role of the law maker, the government, actually is in the new media environment. The evolution of information and communication freedoms in this environment is described first. It is about all kinds of attempts to control, f.i. Internet communication, dealing with criminal communication, racism, pornograpy etc. on ‘the Net. Freedoms are confronted with rights of self determination of communicating individuals (f.i. publicity versus privacy) and less developed countries (overwhelmed by the strong networks of the super powers, the IMF and international finance and large media enterprises). The means to solve the problems are treated in a systematic way in this and all succeeding sections of this chapter: 1) changes in the law and regulations 2) self organisation and self regulation, 3) technological solutions (encryption, filters etc.). These are the solutions for the fundamental problems in safeguarding material and, even more, intellectual property rights in the borderless digital new media. The (un)successful attempts are described and the evolution towards self organisation (on the market) and technological solutions is explained. The same solutions come forward in privacy laws and regulations, which are continuously out of date. The present text contains a long analysis of the strong and weak points of Dutch and European privacy law. It will be supplanted by an international analysis, especially about European and Northern American privacy law with regard to ICT. Social structure This chapter contains an analysis of the developing social (infra)structure of network society. First of all it stresses that the new media both support a further individualisation and fragmentation of society or social relationships and a societalisation of formerly separated communities and individuals (the global spread of information and communication and the strengthening of societies, corporations and media of central control). Further, it clarifies the differences and similarities of so-called virtual and organic social life. What is the reality of virtual community? Can virtual communities (re)invigorate traditional organic communities? However, the first section is dedicated to the so-called gap between information rich and poor, within countries and between countries, the social classes, the sexes, the ages and the educational levels. The two-tiered information society is a much too simple notion. Still there is a risk of a growth of structural information inequality at all levels. The (further) rise of an information elite (5-10%) taking all relevant decisions in our societies using ICT and the exclusion of marginal groups (the digital illiterates) of about 20-30% of the western populations at the other side with differentiating positions of the majority of the populations in between, is a situation which is likely, but might be prevented if one understands the major barriers for people trying to enter the information or network society. These barriers are described in detail: lacking ‘digital’ skills and computer fear, no access to computers or networks, insufficient user-friendliness and many usage opportunities which are still lacking and unequally distributed anyway. In the last section the problematic of virtual and organic community is extended to deal with the social cohesion offered by the infrastructure of network society. Many observers have referred to the fragmentation of this infrastructure (on-line communities communicating separately as new subcultures). The opposing tendency of growing unification via global communication networks is often neglected. In this section some preliminary ideas about a potential reconstruction of the public sphere along the metaphorical lines of the hyperlink between and within old and new media are worked out. Culture The chapter continues the last-called problematic with the question whether the rise of the new media will usher in the end of mass communications. This is strongly denied, but a much more differentiated and modern concept of mass is needed and supplied in this chapter. In all chapters dealing with the different spheres of society and the subject concerned the exposition is analytically divided in social aspects of new media at the macro, meso and micro level. Now the reason for this distinction is supplied: traditional dividing lines between these spheres are blurred in network society. Perhaps this is even the most important social effect of the new media. Opportunities are offered by all kinds of tele-activities. However, there are important social, cultural and mental barriers to the development of these activities (telework, telestudy, teleshopping etc). The second section in this chapter deals with the pro’s and con’s of these activities and what can be expected from them. The long last section of this chapter explains what it means or will mean to live in a ‘digital culture’. A number of fundamental or epochal trends accompanying digitisation are described: the uniformity and differentiation of culture (preprogramming and individual selection or manipulation), the fragmentation of culture, culture as a multimedia collage, the speed-up of culture, the visualisation of culture (the centrality of the screen and the audio-visual), the quantification of culture. Following the last trend it is asked whether this means a better quality of information and communication as well? Problems like information and communication overload are discussed. The well-known pyramid of knowledge with bits and bytes at the bottom and wisdom at the top is the guiding line. Psychology With the last-called items we have entered the field of the mental, the ultimate micro level. The most important psychological issues connected to the new media are analysed. First of all the psychology of perception. The following trends are discussed: from direct experience to mediated perception, from learning trough action to learning from symbol systems and visual models, a shift in the ways of symbolic communication and related mental skills. The next section is about mental information processing. It deals with very fundamental issues like the differences between the information processing of computers and humans. Classical views of cognitive psychology and artificial intelligence on this score are criticised. In stead the latest results of neuro- and bio-psychological research are taken to argue that the processing of humans and computers is completely different (selection versus instruction) and what this means for the interaction of man with the new media. This section is followed by a short one about the splendid opportunities of the new (multi) media to improve learning in the long term (next generations). The fourth section is a summary of the social-psychological research for channels of communication in old and new media of the last twenty years. The limits and new opportunities of new media channels for social communication (in groups) are discussed. The last section is much more speculative than the rest of the book: it is asked whether computers as a Second Self (Turkle) are able to change human personality in the long run. The antropomorfisation in the interaction with new media, the experiments with multiple personalities on networks like the Internet and the possibility of people becoming some kind of cyborg in virtual reality are discussed. 9Conclusions and policy objectives In the last chapter the balance is made of this extremely wide-ranging exposition. First, the main conclusions are supplied. To mention them shortly: 1. social and media networks should be considered in their interconnection; generally, new media networks will not supplant social networks of face-to-face communications but be added to them, hopefully in fruitful combinations; 2. media networks are both enabling and defining (both against technological determinism and unrestrained social constructivism); 3. the new media networks will not revolutionise society; rather they will be evolutionary, re-enforcing existing tendencies in society and history; 4. the sharp rise new media networks in the last decades is explained by their ‘function’ of enabling the combination of all kinds of scale extensions and scale reductions in modern society. After this balance the chapter switches to policy perspectives. First, the similarities and differences between policies to construct or connect to information super highways in North America, Europe, Eastern Asia and the Third World are described and explained. Then the analysis is bridged to the question what it means for the basic values of our (Western) societies mentioned in the introduction. General policy perspectives which are presumed to be valid for at least 5-10 years are described on the following values: material welfare and employment, safety, (political, economic, social and cultural) democracy, personal autonomy, equality, legal and social justice, quality and quantity of communication and richness of the human mind. They are crystallised in (mainly) general American and European policy perspectives. NATURE AND DESIGN OF THE BOOK This book is very pretentious and encompassing in its design. It is produced after extensive literature research in the eighties and nineties and empirical research of the author himself. He was able to put this broad inventory of the social aspects and effects of the new media into a conceptual and analytical framework. This framework consists of several background theories: a modernisation theory, economic and organisational theory, political theory, theories from information and communication science, neuro-psychological theory, to mention just the most important ones. The exposition is extremely analytic in style and content and conceptual clarifications are made all of the time using definitions, schemes etc. Still, all the book reviews of the two first editions of this books in journals, magazines and papers have praised the readability and accessibility of this book, even for lay people having no or few experiences with the new media. This book was written for the following groups in order of importance: students of higher education (universities and professional schools) in social and communication science, journalism, (socal) informatics and computer science, political science professionals in the media of tele- data and mass communication and policy makers the informed public opinion.Most praised by the reviewers was the didactic design of the book with its margin texts, schemes, figures, lists and definitions.