Summarize this text. Make sure to have at least one compound sentence following a simple sentence.

Twenty-five years ago, the internet was largely the purview of scientists and researchers. Today, along with the more traditional mediasuch as television broadcasting, film, newspaper and book publishing, and sound recording (music)the internet is a key element of our lives. But while some writers argue that new internet-based media are making old media obsolete, the internet isnt so much replacing traditional media industries as it is incorporating them and serving as another vehicle for their distribution. Almost two decades ago, downloading music from sites such as Napster and Pirate Bay was thought to spell the death of the music industry; but that industry adapted, and the popularity and revenues of sites like iTunes indicate the industry is still very much alive. While blogging and citizen journalism were once seen as displacing newspapers and traditional news sources, todays bloggers and people writing about news on social media develop much of the material they publish and circulate from those traditional media. Similarly, as streaming services such as Netflix and Crave illustrate, television programs and networks, once seen as being displaced by internet programming, are finding a new means of distribution online.

The internet, however, does offer much more than traditional media. By joining computing power with transmission capacity, digital media platforms and companies such as Google, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Wikipedia have opened up new ways of seeing and understanding the world, extended personal relationships and social networks, and enabled once-passive consumers of media to become producers of content. Yochai Benkler (2006: 2) points out that this new information environment holds a number of promises as a dimension of individual freedom; as a platform for better democratic participation; as a medium to foster a more critical and self-reflective culture; and, in an increasingly information-dependent global economy, as a mechanism to achieve improvements in human development everywhere. As we shall see, while such promises are a long way from being fulfilled, the struggle to reshape the institutions and organizations that provide form and focus to this information environment, and the media it supports, is ongoing.