The ability to build community has been one of the biggest selling points for local news media. When circulation numbers began declining and audience numbers dropped, local news media increased ad rates, because they argued there were still highly relevant to their local community. As a new report indicates, the Internet may be challenging that.

The Pew Internet & American Life Project has a new study on the growing role the Internet plays in building community. According to the Pew study, about 60 million Americans said the Internet had played an important or crucial role in helping them with at least one major life decision in the past two years. While the report does not indicate what sites and sources users are turning to, it does tell us that the Internet is quickly becoming one of the most relevant aspects of everyday life.

The report dispels the notion that Internet users are some how less connected or more aloof, living in a virtual world where Web surfers never interact with real people. To the contrary, the report shows how Internet users often have stronger and deeper ties to their respective social networks. The Internet: It isn't just for geeks!

If you want to understand the power of online communities, look no further than the growing phenomenon of social network sites, such as MySpace, Facebook and Xanga. MySpace.com is fueled by hundreds of thousands of young people around the globe, though not exclusively teenagers, who build online communities around groups of people with whom they share similar interests and passions, regardless of where they live. For years, local news has relied on geography as being the most important factor in determining one's community and social networks. Sites like MySpace show how that is no longer the case.