munication, that is an egalitarian, democratic, and all-encompassing view of people and information sharing. However, like other mass communications before the Internet, it is not readily apparent if the government’s increasing and inevitable regulation of the new form of mass communications will enable it to continue in this light. We can see how similar developments occur with historical forms of mass communications like radio and television. Yet, perhaps the Internet with its democratic and decentralized communication technology most closely resembles radio of all other forms of mass communication because of the individual’s ability to own the means of communication and control its use at will without preventative costs involved. We see this relationship between radio and the Internet if we examine the following quote: “It was not at all clear how, or even if, corporations could own or manage it. It seemed that this medium might be the truly democratic, decentralized communication technology people had yearned for, a device each individual would control and use whenever he or she wanted, without tolls” (Hargittai, 2000, 1).
Now if we were to take a poll and ask people whether the above quote was describing radio or the Internet, it is likely people would have a difficult time choosing between the two because both radio and the Internet possess characteristics that are identical to the above quote. Actually, the quote was written about radio in 1899 by historian Susan Douglas. However, it is difficult to argue that the Internet does not rightly belong among the pantheon of mass communications sector components when it is identical to them in many aspects. For example, the radio, television, and
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