ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the debates and discussions surrounding the Internet that were apparent in printed news media in Wales between the start of 1990 and the end of 1996. It investigates the early social imaginary of the medium: the ways in which the Internet was imagined and conceived within society’s structures during an early stage in its adoption. Very little material about the Internet, or connected computing in general, was found in the periodicals published up until autumn 1994. However, other complementary technologies gained widespread attention in the newspapers of the time. Much of the early reporting about the Internet focuses on the content accessible through the medium: in particular, and as seen in earlier reports about satellite television, the ease of access to pornography was highlighted as problematic. There is little or no speculation, in any report, that the Internet might eventually become a home to news-breaking, fact-checking citizen journalists.
