The Internet and the Changing Information Environment

Citation

Chawner, B. (2002), "The Internet and the Changing Information Environment", Online Information Review, Vol. 26 No. 6, pp. 426-427. https://doi.org/10.1108/oir.2002.26.6.426.3

How has the Internet changed the ways in which people access and use information? In this book Williams and Nicholas draw on a range of research studies investigating different aspects of Internet development and use, done mainly by researchers from the Internet Studies Research Group, City University, London, to answer the questions, “what are the problems and benefits associated with [the Internet’s] use, and what does it displace, if anything?” In‐depth interviews with Internet users and information professionals were the main data collection techniques, but Web log analysis, observation, questionnaires and Web site evaluation were also used where appropriate. Though research‐based, the book focuses on results, with no discussion of population, sampling, reliability or validity. Much of the material is about the Internet and the media; two of the reasons given for this are that the field is likely to include a high proportion of early adopters, and that it covers a wide range of subjects and will involve people from a wide range of backgrounds. The material is arranged into four sections: Internet statistics, Internet features, Internet users, and conclusion.

Each section includes a number of subtopics; for example, the section on Internet statistics includes a brief discussion of the difficulty of measuring the Internet’s size, before summarising existing data on number of hosts, number of Web sites or pages, number of users and volume of use. It also includes material in demographic factors, patterns of use and user characteristics and use of specific sites. The chapter on Internet users contains a suggested categorisation of Internet users as: Net worshippers; the economically‐driven (meaning an appreciation of the “wealth of free information” rather than e‐business opportunities); pragmatists; occasional dippers; enthusiastic novices; and non‐believers (presumably based on data from interviews and questionnaires, though this is not specified). The conclusions are brief and mention the potential impact of WAP‐enabled mobile phones (largely unrealised at the time of writing this review), and the displacement of traditional print sources (but “evolution” might be a better term for the example given of the British Medical Journal). The writing style is primarily narrative, with frequent examples to illustrate the points being made; there are few tables and no illustrations. There is an extensive bibliography and an index.

The book’s strength is the breadth of the issues it covers, and it provides a useful overview of and introduction to the issues associated with Internet use. Clearly, some of the material will date quickly, given the rate of change associated with the Internet, but many of the issues from the mid‐1990s are still relevant (for example, the Shetland Times/Shetland News case). This is recommended for people new to Internet‐related issues, and useful for library and information studies collections at either undergraduate or graduate level.