Changes in the media landscape present new challenges for scholars interested in the relationship between the mass media and civil society. Notably, the explosion of the Internet in advanced industrial democracies and its more limited introduction in other types of regimes has provided new pathways for communication.

This volume explores the nature of the Internet's impact on civil society, addressing the following central questions:
? Is the Internet qualitatively different from the more traditional forms of the media?
? Has the Internet demonstrated real potential to improve civil society through a wider provision of information, an enhancement of communication between government and citizen or via better state transparency?
? Alternatively, does the Internet pose a threat to the coherence of civil society as people are encouraged to abandon shared media experiences and pursue narrow interests?
? In authoritarian states, does the Internet function as a beacon for freespeech or another tool for propaganda?

This book will be of interest to students and scholars of the Internet and civil society.