ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that if mass communications researchers continue to largely disregard the research potential of the Internet, their theories about communication will become less useful. It offers a conceptualization of the Internet as a mass medium, based on revised ideas of what constitutes a mass audience and a mediating technology. The uses-and-gratifications approach presupposes a degree of audience activity, whether instrumental or ritualized. The chapter looks at the Internet, rather than computer-mediated communication as a whole, in order to place the new medium within the context of other mass media. The Internet was developed in bits and pieces by hobbyists, students, and academics. For any medium to be considered a mass medium, and therefore economically viable to advertisers, a critical mass of adopters must be achieved. Studying the network of users of any given Internet service can incorporate the concept of interactivity and the interchangeability of message producers and receivers.
