Miani, Mattia
Surveying the Internet, a critcal review of current literature on Internet effects
Abstract
In recent years, surveys of Internet usage, undertaken by academic as well as by private organizations, have been multiplying. Most of these surveys make claims about who is on-line in society and Internet effects upon usersı social involvement and psychological wellness. This phenomenon is not completely new: the Homenet Study began gauging Internet effects upon individuals in early 90s.
This paper aims at exploring the nature of this surveys and their implication at the policy-making level. In particular, I am going to review their methodological characteristics, their assumptions about the nature of the medium, their policy recommendations and their theoretical claims about the relationships between usage, the medium, and society. I am going to deal with studies such as The Pew Internet Life Project, The Standford Internet Project, The UCLA Internet Project (and its international ramifications), NTIAıs Falling Through the Net, and others. I am also taking in account research projects carried out in Europe.
I am going to trace a parallelism between early television and radio studies and the state of Internet research. In particular, I am going to tackle the problem of theoretical assumptions of these studies and their policy implications.