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Mapping the Web: A Media Typology for Information Traffic Patterns on
the Internet Highway
Jens F. Jensen
Assistant professor
Aalborg University, Department of Communication, Denmark
e-mail: jensf@hum.auc.dk
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to describe and discuss computer networks as media,
with special reference to the Internet and various Internet services. The paper starts with a
short introduction to the computer and computer networks seen from a media perspective.
This is followed by the presentation of a new typology for information trafic patterns.
Finally, the Internet and various Internet services will be examined and discussed within the
framework of the established typology.
Theory: The ‘Media Turn’
Computer technology does not lend itself readily to definition. It is made up of many strands and trends, like a
puzzle picture that changes shape according to the point of view adopted. During its short but turbulent history
of only 50 years, the computer has been conceptualized and theorized about from a series of very different metaphors
and concepts. These range from a machine, a system, a tool, a calculator, a typewriter, and a dialog
partner–to an artificial intelligence, a brain and an expert.
The central idea of this paper is to explore computers and computer networks from quite another point of
view–from a media perspective, i.e. as intermediate technological agencies that permit communication by
transmitting signs from human senders to human receivers and as such are used for the transmission of
information, conversations, requests, entertainment, education, expression of emotional experiences, and so on.
Therefore, in this case, the analogies and metaphors that will be used to describe and come to terms with
computers and networks are not drawn from the domains of machines, tools, human brains etc., but from the
realm of media, e.g. newspapers, books, telephones, television and radio [see Andersen, Holmqvist & Jensen
1993].
There are several reasons why the media perspective has become more and more relevant, even urgent, in
relation to computers and computer networks. Only the most important of these reasons will be suggested in
the following. First, computer technology and the way that computers are used has changed from a primary
function as a machine which processes data, toward a primary function as a machine which disseminates
information, i.e. from tool to media. This shift in emphasis is significantly reflected by concepts such as:
multimedia, hypermedia, computer media, computer mediated communication, computer networks, etc., all of
which have, during a very brief time, won wide acceptance within the field of computing, the world of
advertising, everyday usage and in scientific discussions. Second–and as a related development–more and more
computers are being connected to networks which emphasize the communicative aspects, just as computers are
taking over a long list of communicative functions previously performed by other media, and in that way are
beginning to play an increasingly important role in human communication. Third, a long list of older media
(TV, radio, telephone, fax etc.) are now being digitized, so that their technical architecture, for all practical
purposes, becomes similar to the computer. The result is that these media are converging with each other–and
all of them are converging with the computer. And fourth, the ever increasing complexity of our society necessitates
more flexible and intelligent ways of dealing with information and communication, where today
computers offer the most advanced techniques for handling information. Computer technology is thus on the
way to establishing itself as the dominating social technology for communication, storage, processing and
production of data, information, and meaning. This has already happened to such a degree that the computer
has been dubbed ‘the fourth media’, i.e. the new media which will take over the position of, respectively,
newspapers, radio and TV as the socially dominant media. Taken as a whole, these developments indicate the
necessity for scientific research on the computer as media, so that we may speak of a ‘media turn’ in
informatics and computer science [see Jensen 1993].
The extensive penetration of computer and network technology in human information and
communication systems and the extreme complexity of computers as media necessitates, among other things, a
typology or classification of information services and communication, that can provide us with a general view
of the field of computer mediated communication. There have been numerous attempts to categorize and