Citizen Perceptions of The European Union: The Impact of the EU W ...

Chapter 2

The Internet
as an Object of Study

2.1. Characteristics of the Internet

In the following, the characteristics of the Internet and the typical features of communication via new media are examined.¹² The main questions to be answered in this section include: What is the difference between online and offline mass media? Which qualities are specific to the Internet? Which applications are used most frequently? What do users think of the Internet? In answer to the first question, several differences can already be identified at this point. In what is by now a classic definition, Maletzke (1976) described mass communication as a process where messages are distributed publicly, using technical means, indirectly, one-sided, and to a dispersed public. Thus, in comparison to interpersonal communication, mass communication lacks the direct interaction that would allow for a change of communicative roles. Communication via new media, however, can be located somewhere in between mass and