Abstract
As in many other areas of social science media research, the studies and theories of new media and internet communication have had to struggle with problems of one-sidedness and foreshortening: On the one hand, there is a rapid development of ever new possibilities of computer-mediated communication that are closely linked to new technological achievements and new media forms. The buzzword Web 2.0, which describes a new quality of participation in and design of internet offers for users, has recently stood for this dimension of new media. On the other hand, there is a growing awareness in many social science studies on internet communication that media participation and design possibilities are by no means to be equated with their realisation and utilisation by the users, but that there is a more or less large gap here. The central concept of media competence stands for the dimension of the ability and willingness to actually use new possibilities opened up by the media, which in turn is to be seen as the basis for processes of mobile learning in the context of new media. When approaching questions of media competences and so-called "e-learning" in the context of new media, one will first have to generally illuminate the connection between media competences and new media and here above all the relationship between the possibilities opened up in principle by new media and the potentials realised in practical use of new media.
