A história não se repete?

(será um erro entender a Internet como uma espécie de meio que vem concorrer com os clássicos; a Internet não concorre com um, mas com todos. Mas a Internet concorre, integrando os anteriores, juntando-os, convergindo, criando algo de novo, fazendo coexistir os antigos mas de forma diferente, alterando-os; se a Internet fosse um meio concorrente, a história poderia repetir-se; assim, do que estamos a falar é de uma nova categoria, de uma nova ideia de comunicação)

«The history and evolution of media resemble that of species in nature: The introduction of a new medium (species) typically changes the uses and interactions among the existing media. This is not surprising given that the system consisting of media and ecological systems are both based on very similar principles (e.g., the survival of the fittest). (...) This is, in fact, how media have evolved as well Following the introduction of movies over a short span of time, they enjoyed their golden age, accompanied by relatively little change, until radio came along. The evolution of radio, television, and interactive media has followed the same general pattern. (...).

To survive radio’s challenge, the motion picture industry was forced to move to sound and later to color films. More direct and compelling challenges to movies came from television. Television provided the same entertainment function that movies provided but with the added convenience of delivering programs directly to homes. To survive this threat, the movie industry had to cooperate with television by providing materials for broadcasting. As for radio, it had to reinvent itself to survive the television challenge. Radio was forced to move from being a staple at the center of the living room to becoming portable and physically going to where television could not. The television industry, in an effort to survive with multimedia, introduced high-definition television, a breakthrough toward the computerization of home television sets. This digital technology is expected to provide multimedia Internet services for the television networks and local stations. Radio, too, has taken the step toward digital broadcasting in what is referred to as digital audio broadcasting. (PAIK, 2001: 24-25)