The impact of the Internet on media content

In this chapter, we first consider the economic reasons why the Internet increased the availability of existing content rather than adding new content and new content formats. We then discuss the role of the Internet as platform for social communications and user generated content. Next, we look more specifically at content that is offered on the Internet. We try to estimate how much content is available, discuss the different types of content offered and highlight the role of search engines to make all this content accessible. Special attention is paid to the availability of news on the Net. The chapter ends with conclusions and a brief outlook into the future.