American Communication Journal Vol. 9, No. 4, Winter 2007 DiffusioŶ of the CoŶĐept that the IŶterŶet is Good ǀia TeleǀisioŶ: Hoǁ CNET TeĐh Briefs Helped “hape AŵeriĐaŶ Vieǁs aďout the Internet Philip J. Auter Keywords: Communication, CNET Tech Brief, diffusion of innovation, internet, technology, television, TV, World Wide Web Diffusion Theory suggests that concepts such as “the Internet is good” are diffused through society by opinion leaders, including local TV news outlets. This study takes a look at an important time in the early adoption of the Internet by U.S. society in general. In the 1990s, the Internet was used heavily by government and universities, but not as much by the public at large. Sixty-eight weeks of content analysis by students in a communication technology course revealed that the overwhelming percentage of stories was perceived as either positive (55.3%) or neutral (31.7%). One way analyses of variance revealed that stories with a negative tone featured significantly more people overall than positively oriented stories – F(3,334) = 3.568, p = .014. This appears to be a clear representation of programming designed to diffuse a concept that “the Internet is good” to the general public and may have been one of the key elements to advancing Internet use. ______________________________________________________________________________ Philip J. Auter is an Associate Professor in the Dept. of Communication at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Correspondence: Dept. of Communication at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Burke-Hawthorne 101, P.O. Box 43650, Lafayette, LA 70504. Email: auter@louisiana.edu Web: http://www.auter.tv/ . Brief history of the Internet: Today, the Internet and the cyber economy in the United States have risen to meteoric heights, blazing through the much lamented but essentially