The second area of possible resistance to mass-media assimilation that could be looked at, are the cultural and multicultural policies of the Canadian state.

Various levels of Canadian government offer considerable support to what could be considered the quote-unquote “Canadian” part of culture, especially the area of Canadian literature or so-called CanLit. They also offer considerable support to the cultural activities of various ethnic groups and organizations.

It could also be argued that one of the general effects of the Internet is the tendency to accentuate a “hyper-fragmentation” of social, cultural, and political interests, which means that broadly-based public and political debate becomes ever more difficult.

Also, in the case of a very large number of people, the Internet is used simply for access to various entertainment and pop-culture imageries and “news,” existing in various subgenres like “porn”, celebrity-cults, rock- and rap-music, and sports, movie, and television show fandom.

Can the Internet challenge today’s informational and cultural monopoly? Can the Internet generate real resistance to current-day trends, or does it mainly just accentuate them?

The Internet arose as a truly mass phenomenon in the mid-to-late 1990s. In more recent years, we have moved into the so-called Internet Two – characterized by Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google, and smartphones. The Internet had arrived, however, after three to four decades of some of the most intense, unidirectional mass media and mass educational conditioning in human history.

Z Krzysztofem Jaœśkielewiczem, właœścicielem firmy internetowej TritonPro, rozmawia Andrzej Kumor.

Andrzej Kumor: Mieliœśmy różne rewolucje telekomunikacyjne. Radio, potem telewizja i wszyscy myœśleli, że jak będzie telewizja, nie będzie radia. Teraz mamy Internet, z którego wszyscy w jakiœ sposób korzystamy, każdy ma przynajmniej pocztę e-mailową. Coraz częœciej ludzie chcą "być" w Internecie, kupować, sprzedawać itd. Co zrobić, żeby zaistnieć w sieci? Chciałbym np. coœ promować, coœ sprzedawać i robić to z głową. Jak to zrobić?

Krzysiek Jaśœkielewicz: Wierzę w siłę Internetu. Znam wiele przypadków sukcesów w sieci, gdzie ludzie zarobili olbrzymie pieniądze, mając dobry pomysł na stronę internetową. Można też czekać na sukces internetowy przez wiele lat i w końcu nic z tego nie wyjdzie. Nie wyobrażam sobie jednak biznesu bez strony w Internecie.