Websites and Blogs

Triggered by the seminal contributions by Vance Packard (1957) and John Kenneth Galbraith (1958), the shift of sovereignty from consumers to producers has been attributed to the producers' domination of mass communication channels. However, modern digital media are not dominated by a few key communicators, and thus enable a voice for the people again. With increasing attention devoted to these media, consumers recover part of their sovereignty by gaining both “share of voice” and “share of attention.” Websites and blogs are the main instruments for consumers to strengthen their communication abilities.

According to Ralf Wagner (2009), Websites are defined as representations of individuals, groups, or organizations within the World Wide Web that are accessible by a uniform resource locator (or URL), using a browser. The Websites ...