抄録
The most significant media changes of the last decade were in the appearance and popularization of the Internet and in the extension of cellular phone functions. In this paper, I will firstly indicate how telecommunication and broadcast has been theoretically positioned in the process of their convergence and then touch upon the fact that media theorists saw the maturation of web communication and the development of print journalism to BBS and then blogging, accompanied also by the enlargement of conventional mass media such as TV-broadcasting to enable active participation by the viewer, as coterminous events. I will then argue that under the spread of cellular phones and the innovation of their handsets and services, a fulltime intimate community has been constructed as a deeply intimate area neither restrained by place nor physical space. It is likely that various media communication services will soon be offered targeting this intimate sphere and the small public sphere it provides on the web. SNS (social networking service) which has seen increasing popularity in recent years is one such example, and apprehending this phenomenon is one of the most important issues which media theories must address.
