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space, because in the net there are not such limitations characteristic of conventional media. On-line ‘streaming media,
globalizes both publishing and programming everybody can be global and everybody has no choice but to be global and
this is one of the main challenges: redefining goals and priorities according to the available options, and the conse-
quences of such decisions might have in terms of local, regional and even national scenarios.

E-mail has also a great influence in newspapers and magazine publishing as well as in radio and television programming.
This simple facility has forced the information establishment to become interactive. Publishers, editors and producers
alike receive more and more comments from readers, viewers, listeners and users; their views have to be taken into ac-
Count and they have more and more influence in editorial policies. The communications establishment understands the im-
plications of such developments and now days they have no choice but to encourage citizen, editorial participation, not
only in the ways in which information is disseminated, but also what the information is about. As far live radio and ty. are
Concerned e-mail, IRC and moderated news groups have become an integral part of every day programming.

Information and communications have obviously been radically changed by digital technology, so it is not a question about
the way in which “main stream communications" will be changing because of the influence of streaming media, it is more
@ question of how to deal and profit from these changes.

Instead of considering the ways citizens can influence the information and communications industries it is more important
to think about what communications can do for them. Instead of wasting time and energy trying to find ways in which read-
ers, listeners viewers and users can penetrate networks and publishing empires, it is more logical to concentrate on what
citizens can achieve independently with on-line distribution of information. Broadcasters, publishers and ordinary citizens
operate with the same basic tools office equipment and electric appliances: a computer, a scanner, a camera, a micro-
phone and a telephone line, so it is no longer necessary for citizens to aim for editorial power within industrialist commu-
nications, the same results, or even better than those achieved by the conventional media, can be achieved by ordinary
citizens with a simple web page, e-mail and moderated news groups and this is what many describe as the emancipatory
role of Citizen Communications. Direct involvement and users participation in on-line streaming media opens the doors to
the user direct participation in the development of the hardware and the technology that is required to continue in the fu-
ture. By not accepting these changes that are already taking place and instead thinking of what to do about what might
occur in the media landscape because of steaming on-line media “one might miss the bus” that is already taking us into
the new information era. It is up to the user, the citizen, to decide the way in which information and communications will
go in the years to come.