ABSTRACT

A vast amount of material is available to users of the World Wide Web. Search engines index the contents of billions of pages-by last reports one of the most widely used search engines, Google, claims to index over 8 billion-yet they admittedly only cover a fraction of all available content (Sullivan, 2005). Unlike with other media, once content on the Web is publicly available, anyone with knowledge of its Web address can access it. This has led to much enthusiasm regarding the medium, including justif ication for media deregulation by former Federal Communications Commission Chair Michael Powell (Manjoo, 2003). But does the Web really offer a panacea to concerns about diversity in the media landscape? In addition to looking at what is theoretically available to users, I argue that we must also consider what is realistically within their reach (Hargittai, 2000). To understand realistic accessibility as opposed to mere availability, we must consider what factors influence the types of material that people are most likely to retrieve online. In this chapter, I argue that the way content is organized on Web sites and users’ ability to navigate the Web both influence what material is most easily accessible.