In the course of the year 2000, ICANN has developed from an organisation known only to few specialised journalists to an institution whose decisions are mentioned in the European mainstream media. Two main events contributed to this development: The election of five ICANN At Large directors in a process which began in February and ended in October 2000, and the decision to introduce new generic Top Level Domains (TLDs) at the ICANN meetings in July and November 2000.

In the beginning of 2001, an At Large Membership Study Committee (ALSC) was set up to study the At Large membership concept, structure and processes. So far, only a minute fraction of the 158,000 persons registered as At Large members have participated in the ALSC online forum. The importance of the study process should however not be underestimated, since the possible recommendations to the ICANN board range from another online vote for the four not yet elected At Large directors to an abolishment of the At Large directors' seats.

24.8% of the European At Large members have stated that they first heard about the elections directly via "Newspaper/Magazine" or "Print Media"; this does not even include the members which were reached indirectly by the media coverage -- 13.3% heard about ICANN's election from friends or acquaintances, 21.6% via e-mail (ICANN ALSC 2001a). The role of the media has been viewed critically. According to the German news magazine Der Spiegel, ICANN's Chief Policy Officer Andrew McLaughlin has called the media reporting "irresponsible" and claimed that thousands have been misled (31 July). ICANN press spokesperson Pamela Brewster explained the surprisingly high number of registrations by saying: "In Europe they think ICANN is the U.N. of the Internet" (ZDNet 2000).

Studying the European media coverage shall therefore contribute information about the perception of ICANN and the At Large elections in Europe. The study is based on the print media coverage: The special significance of the mass media lies in its reach and the mass impact of its perceptions and interpretations on the general public. The choice of print media as opposed to radio and television is due to the fact that print media coverage is more readily and completely available. The study comprises all articles from a range of high-circulation newspapers and magazines in the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Spain and Portugal which contain the phrase "ICANN". The articles were obtained from Web archives and, in some cases, media databases; a total of 310 articles from January to December 2000 was analysed for the study.