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Preface
In the numerous articles and books about the impact of emerging new communication technologies, one thing is certain: the conventional divisions of communication are under severe attack. The boundaries between mass-mediated and interpersonal communication, advertising and public relations, and mass marketing and direct marketing are getting more and more blurred, and existing terms are losing their concrete meanings. If a person posts a message to recommend a product to many others, is this interpersonal or mass communication? If a company organizes a virtual community for promoting its brand/product, is this advertising or something else? Obviously, it is becoming more difficult to describe and cope with what is happening, let alone to explain why all of these things happen.