The construction of the World Wide Web audience

This article charts two parallel shifts in the phenomenon known as the Inte rnet, and the sometimes contradictory links between the two. One is in the public perception and representation of the Internet as it changes from a t echnology of personal communication to a mass medium along the lines of tel evision. The other shift is in the technology upon which the system as an a rtefact is built, and the kinds of uses it inherently facilitates. The traj ectory of technological production cannot be understood without considerati on of the social and cultural forces shaping both the market and the attitu des of engineers and companies developing technology. Moreover, as users of technology we are implicated in conceiving of ourselves as consumers and a udiences. The relations of power within the World Wide Web medium are in th is respect more a matter of Gramscian hegemony than simple corporate domina tion.