Online use and end‐users in media and advertising: an overview

The established areas of online activity: finance, science, and now law, are characterised by the high value which they attach to information and their ability to pay for it. Outwardly this would seem to be true for the media and we would be rather surprised at their omission from this list. Indeed, one might expect that, given their close and heavy commitment to information research, information processing and packaging, and dissemination, they would make ready converts to online. Yet despite the considerable efforts expended by database vendors, who long ago targeted this potentially huge and lucrative market, they have gained little more than a foothold. Market penetration is weak, very patchy, with the case for online still, in many instances, unproven. This paper reports on initial research into online use in the media, and provides early findings from which general lessons may be learnt about the use, value, and impact of online information retrieval.