Human Capital in Information Economies

What is new about new media? Its development and use is more influenced by economic factors than the old media. And the new media is more central to the new economy. Indeed, an ever more popular theme in the scientific literature, government policy documents and the popular press, is that technologically advanced economies are in the process of moving beyond industrial capitalism to information-based economies. This transformation is expected to bring profound changes in the form and structure of economic, social, cultural and political systems. European Union integration is just one aspect of this restructuring of economies and societies (see Bell 1973; Melody 1985; Soete 1997).