By Simon Ponsford BBC News, Amman, Jordan

Across the Arab world, traditional media are under siege as people find new ways of getting their information - with the internet leading the revolution.

BBC NewsMaker brought together 100 young people in the Jordanian capital Amman to debate just how much the web was changing their world.

 Listen to the debate here

Lyse Doucet helped everyone play a full role in the debate.

"My goal is to break down stereotypes about Arabs, about young women, about relations between sexes, the way we live."

Roba Al Assi is a bright, confident 22-year-old blogger who represents a new generation of Jordanians. Some days her blog And Far Away looks at Middle-East politics. Another day, it will be a jokey look at dresses at the Oscars or a sudden snowfall in Amman.

And her views on the web's power to alter images of the Arab world struck a chord with 20-30 year olds at the debate, which was hosted by the BBC's Lyse Doucet.

New world

"The internet's changed everything," Roba Al-Assi told the enthusiastic audience at the Grand Hyatt Hotel.

"It's changed the way we communicate, study, shop, listen to music, watch movies - and I have more choice about the news I want to hear and where I can get my sources from."

Her comments were echoed by Rania Kurdi, singer and presenter of Superstar, the pan-Arab version of Pop Idol.

The internet was a way of "making our youth more involved through culture, through films that reach the world," she said. "It shows how we really live in the Arab world, not just images of wailing women crying over their sons."

Who's in charge?

Most of all, the appeal of the internet in Jordan means a challenge to traditional media - whether state-controlled or private.

The audience closely followed the arguments.

Dana Suyagh is Head of News and Current Affairs at ATV, which is about to launch as Jordan's first private TV station.

"We think of the internet first now," she said. "We think, is this the kind of news they're going to carry? Let's get the bloggers and citizen journalists involved in our newscast!"

It is also about making news more local and more relevant, she told the debate.

"Of course Pan-Arab issues are important," she said, "but I also care about why fuel prices are going up and about the Palestinian-Israeli issues in relation to that, and what the influx of Iraqi refugees here means to my daily life."

Politics overdose

Many people said they were tired of a non-stop diet of heavy politics from traditional media; instead they want news that looks at the same issues in a fresher way.

But there was a warning from one woman in the audience that the internet can allow young people to cocoon themselves from what matters.

"The internet can be negative," she said. "It's very rare that people my age go to the internet daily for political issues.

"Young people may search for fashion, TV series, social interests, giving them the chance to exclude themselves from the problems facing the region."

Talk about it

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This generation believes what a blogger might say, as opposed to big business or government-controlled propaganda. Blogger Naseem Tarawnah

The other big issue was how much you can trust what you find on the web.

News on the internet was "uncensored and more reliable," said one man. "Bloggers represent the Arab street," added panellist and Black Iris blogger, Naseem Tarawnah. "This generation believes what a blogger might say, as opposed to big business or government-controlled propaganda."

But Daoud Kuttab, who runs the internet radio site Ammannet, said people still needed media professionals to sift through sources.

"People want context, they don't want to read a thousand blogs a day. They need an editor who can say, these are the most important things."

They had their say

BBC online users around the world also joined the Jordan debate via the BBC's Have Your Say site. Ayah and Amin, two students in Amman, monitored the site to reflect some of the views coming in.

Ahmad Hmoud, for example, a British Jordanian, cast doubt on the depth of change, saying that the impact of the internet in Jordan was "limited to wealthy young teens interested in western culture".

Audience member Nadine Usta at the Arab Advisors Group, confirmed this; their surveys in Jordan show that far more people owned a satellite dish (90%) and radio (60%) than had internet access (40%).

Across the region, even fewer people were able to go online, and traditional media still play a leading role in deciding what people know, and how it is presented.

As the audience clapped enthusiastically at the end of the debate, host Lyse Doucet summed up the consensus: the internet is changing, the world is changing, and the young generation represented by the audience in Jordan have new demands that will not go away.