Hyperlinking and the forces of "massification"

The role of hyperlinking in the development of the Internet warrants investigation for a number of reasons. First, along with the Internet's inherently global reach and its virtually unlimited content capacity, hyperlinking is one of the key factors that distinguishes the Internet from traditional media. Second, the dynamics of hyperlinking have evolved in a number of interesting and unexpected ways, particularly as a result of the mechanisms by which search engines choose to generate and display links. Finally, the underlying choices and dynamics of hyperlinking are, of course, central to the distribution of audience attention (and, consequently, dollars) online and can therefore exert considerable influence over how the Internet evolves as a medium. An important component of the study of new media involves the investigation of the relationship between old and new media. Exploring how new media can either disrupt or become integrated into the existing media system offers valuable insights that can guide policy makers, industry decision makers, and scholars seeking to understand the organizational ecology of media, the evolution of media systems and media technologies, and the dynamics of media usage. Scholars from a wide range of disciplines have sought to understand the push and pull between the Internet's undeniable revolutionary potential as demonstrated by links and the various influences and constraints imposed by the existing media system that it has entered. In my own efforts to address this issue in the Internet's early stages of development, I focused on the then unclear question of the extent to which the Internet would ultimately demonstrate the characteristics of more traditional mass media and on the reasons the Internet might be likely to adopt many of the characteristics of traditional mass media rather than evolve as the entirely unique and revolutionary medium that many were hoping for and anticipating in those heady early days.1 I dubbed the pressures compelling the Internet down more traditional media evolutionary paths the forces of "massification"-a term that referenced the then-common argument that the Internet represented the end (or at least the beginning of the end) of traditional mass media. Developed when the medium essentially was in its infancy, this analysis of the Internet and the predictive propositions it entailed managed to hold some water in the ensuing decade. The Internet has indeed come to serve many of the functions, feature many of the same institutions, exhibit many of the same audience behavior patterns, and provide much of the same content as many of the mass media that preceded it. The present essay revisits some of these claims in light of the current status of the Internet and enlarges the analytical frame with an eye toward teasing out exactly how the process of linking online may or may not factor into the massification of the Internet. The first section of this essay provides an overview of the forces of massification that have traditionally influenced all new media (including the Internet); this section also considers recent developments online through this analytical lens. The next section looks specifically at the act of hyperlinking, asking whether it reinforces or undermines these forces of massification; this section draws on the growing body of literature analyzing the patterns of hyperlinking online as well as recent developments involving the process of hyperlink selection and generation. The concluding section assesses the implications of the dynamics of hyperlinking for the evolution of the Internet, considers policy implications, and offers suggestions for future research. © 2008 by University of Michigan Press. All rights reserved.

Duke Scholars

Author Philip Michael Napoli Sanford School of Public Policy