IP: a depressing future ? [ I seriously doubt this concluion

[Dave Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

Canada-Quebec Debate: Was The Internet A Balkanising Factor?
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Have media technologies wrecked Canada? Quebec's nationalism was
galvanised in 1952 by the advent of French-language TV, which
brought a sense of collective identity to the Francophone people.
The Internet is the latest such technology. Though global in
nature, the Net is "the ultimate in balkanising technologies."
During Quebec's sovereignty debate, the Internet's role was to
host Web sites reinforcing the positions of sovereigntists and
federalists; discourse in the soc.culture.quebec newsgroup was
often polarising. Globalising technological forces like the
Internet may actually further some forms of fragmentation.
Furthermore, the distinction between TV and the Internet will
slowly disappear as the Net increasingly becomes a video conduit
too - thus, narrowcasting will grow radically narrower.
(San Jose Mercury News; November 5, 1995)