The Internet may be a technological innovation, but the ways people use it are deep rooted and time tested.
How pleasingly romantic that one of the Internet’s most revolutionary qualities is the same as that of wheat pasting, pamphleteering and pirate radio! It is massively democratizing. It radically opens channels of discourse.
And how instructive to observe that the Internet remains as vulnerable as traditional media to profiteering, monopolization, censorship, gossip, propaganda and demagoguery.
If you’re looking for insight into “new media,” start with how and why people use the old.
You’ll find the media revolution of the 21st century has been going on for rather a long time.