World Wide Internet: Changing Societies, Economies and Cultures
World Wide Internet: Changing Societies, Economies and Cultures Editor-in-chief Cover Designer Coordinator Publisher
Printer Print-run Date of publication
Gustavo Cardoso, Angus Cheong and Jeffrey Cole Casber U Publications Centre, University of Macau University of Macau Avenida Padre Tomás Pereira, Taipa, Macau, China Tel: (853) 28831622 Fax: (853) 28831694 Website: www.umac.mo Email:
[email protected] Tipografia Futat 500 July 2009
Published and printed in Macao.
© University of Macau / Universidade de Macau / 2009 All rights reserved. ISBN 978-99937-986-4-4
Contents
List of figures List of tables List of contributors Acknowledgments
page vii xvi xxii xxvii
Introduction: From World Internet Project to World Wide Internet
1
Gustavo Cardoso, Angus Cheong, Jeffrey Cole
I The Internet as a Media: from digital ecologies to networked communication 1 Out of Information and into Communication. Networked Communication and Internet Usage 23 Gustavo Cardoso and Vera Araújo
2 The Internet as a Complement to Traditional Media: A Cross Country Comparison 51 Olle Findahl
3 Understanding the New Digital Ecology in Mexico: The Organization and Arrangement of Complex Media Environments
75
4 The Internet under a Changing Media Environment: Japan
93
Fernando Gutiérrez and Octavio Islas
Shunji Mikami
iii
Contents
iv
5 A Longitudinal Examination of Internet Diffusion, Adopter Categories, and Ramifications of Internet Usage on the Importance of Newspapers Robert Lunn and Michael Suman
110
II To Use or Not to Use the Internet: from digital exclusion to social inclusion 6 The Evolving Pattern of Digital divide: An Investigation of Individual Level of Divides 129 Angus Cheong and Jianbin Jin
7 Understanding the Links between Social and Digital Exclusion in Europe ELLEN J. HELSPER AND ANNA GALÁCZ
8 Internet access and Test Scores in Argentina: Exploring the Evidence
Marcela Cristini and Guillermo BermÚdez
146
179
9 Users, Non-users, and Internet Connectedness: The case of Cyprus 201 Nicolas Demertzis and Vassilis Gialamas
10 Social Inclusion Through ICT La Boquilla Colombia
Alejandro Gutierrez and Ana Maria TrimmiÑo
228
11 Opportunity and Digital Literacy: Media Consumption and Digital Tool Usage Status Groups in Hungary 241 Anikó Bernát, Zoltán Fábián, Anna Galácz and Bence Ságvári
III The Cultures of Internet: producing for new screens 12 Creative Dynamics of the Broadband Internet: Australian Production and Consumption of Cultural Content 268 Scott Ewing and Julian Thomas
Contents
v
13 New Screens and Young People’s Appropriation of Entertainment Content
296
14 Media Practices, Connected Lives
331
André H. Caron and Letizia Caronia
Carlos Tabernero, Jordi Sánchez-Navarro, Daniel Aranda and Imma Tubella
IV The Politics of Internet: political expectations and elections 15 Internet Usage, the Media, and Political Expectations: Results from WIP Chile 2003-2008
359
Sergio Godoy-Etcheverry
16 The Internet and The 2007 French Presidential Election Still The Time of Old Media? 388 Thierry Vedel
V The Internet in Daily Life: we are all consumers and patients 17 “Consumers Involvement in Organizations in the Era of Social Media: Open Research Questions”
413
18 Health and the Internet: Autonomy of the User
434
Andreina Mandelli and Silvia Vianello
Rita Espanha and Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva
VI The Internet and Social Life: from sociability’s to social behaviour 19 Internet Use, Family Relations and Conflict Resolution 463 Alfred Choi
20 ICT’s for Interpersonal Communications in China
Guo Liang and Gai Bo
504
Contents
vi
21 Effects of the Internet on Our Social Lives
526
22 Comparing Addictive Behavior on the Internet in the Czech Republic, Chile and Sweden
544
Yair Amichai-Hamburger
DAVID ŠMAHEL, PETRA VONDRACKOVA, LUKAS BLINKA AND SERGIO GODOY-ETCHVERRY
VII The Internet and Social Change: from the global to the local 23 From “Locals” to “Expats”: Patterns of Internet usage in UAE, a Multi-Group Society
583
24 From nowhere to somewhere? – The Development of the Information Society in Hungary
601
25 Internet Use in New Zealand: Implications for Social Change
624
Index
656
Ilhem Allagui and Tim Walters
Tibor Dessewffy and Anna Galácz
Ian Goodwin, Nigel Smith, Kevin Sherman, Charles Crothers, Jennie Billot, and Philippa Smith.
Figures
1.1
1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 3.1
Broadband impact on selected Internet activities, selected OECD countries (Difference, in percentage points, between broadband and narrowband users, 2006). page 31 Gender differences for selected Internet activities in selected OECD countries (2005). 33 Selected online activities by level of education in Sweden (2003-2006). 34 Evolution of Internet penetration, by level of education in Portugal (2003-2008). 36 Selected daily uses of the Internet in Portugal per age group – 2008. 39 Selected daily uses of the Internet in Portugal, by gender – 2008. 40 Internet Usages around the Globe. 44 Daily use (9-79 years) in minutes of Internet and Morning + Evening Newspapers 1996-2006. 57 Daily use (9-79 years) in minutes of Morning Newspapers and Internet 1996-2006. 57 Daily use (9-79 years) in minutes of Internet and Television 1996-2006. 60 Proportion of the population using Internet for traditional media. 62 Television viewing: Daily reach 1996-2006 (share of population, per cent) 63 Television viewing: Total daily viewing time 19962007 (minutes). 63 Newspaper readership: Daily reach 1996-2006. 64 Media Consumption In Mexico (2008). 77
vii
viii
3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8
List of figures
Media As Extensions Of Other Media. Internet Extends Media Reach In Mexico (2006). Internet Penetration In Mexico (2008). Internet Use By Age Ranges (2008). Internet Use By Socioeconomic Level (2008). Reasons For Not Going Online (2008). Favorite Places For Internet Connections And Tim Spent Online (2008). 3.9 Popular Internet Activities In Mexico (2008). 3.10 Internet As A Source Of Information (2008). 3.11 Places Where Users Access The Internet In Mexico. (2006). 3.12 Internet As A Source Of Entertainment (2008). 3.13 Internet Accounts (2006-2008). 3.14 Distribution Of Advertising Investment In Mexico (2007). 4.1 Number of Subscribers to Wired Broadband Services in Japan (in millions). 4.2 Internet Usage Rate by Terminal Type (JWIP surveys:2000-2008). 4.3 Importance of Media as Information Sources Internet Users Aged 18 or Older Ranking the Media as “Important” or “Very Important”. 4.4 How Much of the Information on the Internet is Reliable? Internet Users Age 18 and Higher. 5.1 United States Internet Diffusion Over time. 5.2 Patterns of Internet Use Diffusion by Year. 5.3 S-Shapes Curves Fitted To Average Hours Per Week By Four Adopter Groups. 5.4 Rate of Change of Hours of Internet Use by Time For Two Adopter Groups. 5.5 Percentage Age Groups by Adoption Groups. 5.6 Percent Income Less Than 50K by Adopter Groups. 5.7 Percent Four or More Years of College by Adopter Groups. 5.8 Stated Reason for Not Using the Internet or For
78 79 81 82 83 83 85 85 86 87 88 89 90 95 97 104 106 113 115 116 117 119 119 119
List of figures
Dropping Internet Usage. Average Rate of Decrease (slope) in Dependence on Newspapers as a Source of Information by Internet Diffusion Groups (Average Months Online). 6.1 The Key Components in the Conceptualization of Digital divide. 6.2 Internet Divides in Macau between 2002 and 2008. 7.1 Relationship between the percentage of broadband subscribers in a country and the Gini coefficient (Highlighting Sweden, the Czech Republic, Hungary and the UK). 7.2 Age distribution in EU WIP countries (in 2007). 7.3 Gini and digital divide distribution (use high income/ use low Income) for WIP 2007 countries. 7.4 Principal component analysis of the links between use, access and social inclusion in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Sweden and Britain. 7.5 Principal component analysis of the links between digital engagement and social inclusion in Czech Republic, Hungary, Sweden and Britain. 8.1 Math Test Scores, Difference to average score, Selected Characteristics – ONE 2000. 8.2 Language Test Scores, Difference to average score, Selected Characteristics – ONE 2000. 8.3 Computer and Internet Access Math and Language Test Scores, Difference to average score – ONE 2000. 8.4 Math and Language Test Scores, Difference to average scores, Selected Characteristics – ONE 2000. 8.5 Math and Language Test Scores, Difference to average scores Internet Access at School, Selected Characteristics – ONE 2000. 9.1 Users and non-users of the Internet. 9.2 Current Internet use by Age. 9.3 Self-rating of ability to use the Internet N-475. 5.9
ix
121 122 131 142
151 155 156 161 167 185 186 187 189 190 210 211 225
x
9.4 9.5 9.6 9.7 9.8 10.1
List of figures
IT involvement in 2 levels by Age. IT involvment in 2 levels by Income. Frequency of usage by Gender. Internet use history by Area. Current Internet use by Education. Percentage of household with products. Urban vs. Rural 2008. 10.2 Evolution of members the “No más FARC!” group. 10.3 PC uses. 2008. La Boquilla – Colombia. 10.4 Internet usage. 2008. La Boquilla – Colombia. 11.1 The proportion of groups by digital literacy (ABC), 200. 11.2 The averages of the financial status, the household ICT infrastructure and mobile phone usage in the ABC groups of digital literacy, 200. 11.3 The averages of cultural capital, TV and radio, print media and sociability-network indexes in the ABC groups of digital literacy, 2006. 11.4 The composition of the clusters according to the ABC groups of digital literacy. 11.5 The individual digital opportunity in the ABC groupsof digital literacy: the average points of the IDO index by groups. 12.1 Importance of Internet to current way of life, by access type, Australia 2007. 12.2 Impact of the Internet on related activities, by access type, Australia 2007. 12.3 Importance of various media for entertainment, by access type, Australia 2007. 12.4 Impact of Internet access on creative endeavours, by access type, Australia 2007. 12.5 Importance of the Internet for the current way of life, by gender and access type, Australia 2007. 12.6 Importance of the Internet for entertainment, by gender and access type, Australia 2007. 12.7 The Internet enables me to share creative work I
225 226 226 227 227 232 234 238 239 245 248 249 252 259 273 274 275 277 278 280
List of figures
12.8 12.9 12.10 12.11 12.12 12.13 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4. 15.5 15.6 15.7 15.8 15.9 15.10
like with others, by gender and access type, Australia 2007. The Internet enables me to share my creative work with others, by gender and access type, Australia 2007. The Internet has encouraged me to produce my own creative work and share it with others, by gender and access type , Australia 2007. Importance of the Internet for entertainment, by age and access type, Australia 2007. The Internet enables me to share creative work I like with others, by age and access type , Australia 2007. The Internet enables me to share my creative work with others, by age and access type, Australia 2007. The Internet has encouraged me to produce my own creative work and share it with others, by gender and access type, Australia 2007. The Information Economy in Chile, the US, and South Korea. Web users in Chile according to age (2006). Percentage of web users in Chile according to income quintiles 2000-2006. Users and non-users in Santiago, 2003-2008. Hours per week of TV viewing in selected WIP countries, 2007/2008 (users and non-users). Hours per week dedicated to offline media by web users, 2003-2008. Hours per week dedicated to offline media by web non-users, 2003-2008. Hours per week dedicated to offline media and the Internet by users and non-users, 2008. Weekly hours of TV viewing by web users and non-users 2008, according to age. Weekly hours of radio usage by web users and
xi
282 283 284 286 290 291 292 364 365 366 367 368 369 369 370 371
xii
List of figures
non-users 2008, according to age. 15.11 Weekly hours of newspaper reading by web users and non-users 2008, according to age. 15.12 Percentage of users and non-users who consider different media as ‘important/very important’ sources of information, 2006-2008. 15.13 Percentage of users and non-users who consider the Internet as an ‘important/very important’ source of information, 2003-2008 (with log scale). 15.14 Percentage of users and non-users who consider different media as “important/very important” sources of entertainment, 2006-2008. 15.15 Percentage of users and non-users who consider the Internet as an “important/very important” source of entertainment, 2003-2008 (with log scale). 15.16 Percentage of users who believe most/all contents from different online sources, 2006-2008. 15.17 Percentage of users who have suspended regular subscription to a newspaper or magazine because of the availability of the same contents online, 2008. 15.18 Percentage of users/non-users who agree/agree strongly with different statements about political empowerment due to the use of Internet, 2006/08. 15.19 Percentage of users in selected WIP countries who agree/agree strongly with different statements about political empowerment due to Internet use, 2006/08. 17.1 Top Social Networking Sites by Unique Visitors February 2009. 17.2 World Internet Penetration Rates by Geographic Regions. 19.1 Conceptual Model of Internet Use, Family Conflict and Conflict Resolution. 20.1 Usage of various communication tools among Internet/mobile phone users. (Internet users N=1309, Mobile phone users N=1756) 20.2 Proportion of heavy use of mobile voice calls by
371 372 373 375 376 377 378 379 381 382 414 414 491 507
List of figures
20.3 20.4 20.5 20.6 20.7 20.8 20.9 20.10 20.11 20.12 20.13 20.14 20.15 20.16 20.17
relationship. Proportion of heavy use of mobile text message (6 average message sent/receive per day) by relationship. Proportion of email users who frequently use email to communicate with different social relations. Proportion of MSN users who frequently use MSN to communicate with different social relations QQ (ICQ). Proportion of Internet users who frequently use QQ to communicate by social relationship. The scope of MSN communications and QQ communications (NQQ=912, NMSN=407) Communications with different groups of people. Heavy use of different tools for communicating with parents. Heavy use of different tools to communicate with children. Heavy use of different communication tools to communicate with cohabitant spouse or boyfriend/ girlfriend in a stable relationship. Heavy use of different tools to communicate with siblings. Heavy use of different tools to communicate with relatives. Heavy use of different tools to communicate with current colleagues, classmates, people within the same profession and business connections. Heavy use of different tools to communicate with non-cohabiting lovers or boyfriends/girlfriends. Heavy use of different communication tools to communicate with close friends. Heavy use of different tools to communicate with casual friends. Heavy use of different communication tools to communicate with neighbors.
xiii
509 509 511 511 513 513 514 515 516 517 517 518 519 520 521 521
xiv
List of figures
20.18 Heavy use of different tools to communicate with online friends. 20.19 Use of different communication tools in contacting different social relationships. 21.1 Internet Use: Effect on Contact with People Who Share Users’ Hobbies or Recreational Activities (Internet Users Age 18 and Older). 21.2 Internet Use: Effect on Contact with People Who Share Users’ Political Interests.(Internet Users Age 18 and Older). 21.3 Internet Use: Effect on Contact with People Who Share Users’ Religion (Internet Users Age 18 and Older). 21.4 Internet Use: Effect on Contact with People Who Share Users’ Profession (Internet Users Age 18 and Older who are Employed). 21.5 Internet Use: Effects on Contact with the Users’ Family (Internet Users Age 18 and Older). 21.6 Internet Use: Effects on Contact with the Users’ Friends. (Internet Users Age 18 and Older). 21.7 Time Spent Socializing Face-to-Face with Friends Outside of School or Outside of Office Hours (Internet Users vs. Non-Users Age 18 and Older: Weekly Hours). 21.8 Time Spent Socializing Face-to-Face with Friends Outside of School or Outside of Office Hours (Internet Users vs. Non-Users Age 18 and Older: Weekly Hours). 22.1 Conflict with family, friends or partners according to the age. 22.2 Conflict with family, friends or partners according to the gender. 22.3 Mood modification due to impossibility to be online. 22.4 Mood modification due to impossibility to be online. 22.5 Dangerous and practical activities online in compared countries.
522 525 535 536 537 537 538 539
539
540 562 562 564 564 566
List of figures
22.6
Frequencies of items on addictive behavior on the Internet. 22.7 Prevalence of dimensions of addictive behavior on the Internet. 22.8 Prevalence of addictive behavior on the Internet. 24.1 The diffusion of the Internet and the DVD player in Hungary between 2001 and 2005. 24.3 Internet penetration in the WIP countries in 2007. 24.3 Rate of Internet users in different demographic groups (education, financial status, age, place of residence), 2001-2007. 24.4 Popularity of different forms of Internet usage in different countries, 2007. 24.5 Reasons for not using the Internet, 2007. 24.6 Path model explaining Internet use. 25.1 Years of Internet use amongst NZ Internet users. 25.2 Effect on Internet users “if they lost all Internet access tomorrow” 25.3 Comparative importance of media as an information source. 25.4 Proportions of users posting online. 25.5 Frequency of financial transactions online. 25.6 Comparison of effect of Internet on general and face-to-face contact time. 25.7 Perceptions of Maori and Pasifika users on whether the Internet helps keep their languages alive. 25.8 Proportion of population who use the Internet by age. 25.9 Importance of the Internet in daily life by ethnicity. 25.10 Self-rated ability to use the Internet by gender.
xv
567 568 569 606 607 609 609 611 612 634 635 636 638 640 641 642 644 645 646
Tables
1.1 1.2 1.3 2.1
Top 10 researched expressions on the Interne. Top 10 uses of the Internet. Top 10 daily uses of the Internet, selected countries. Subjective judgement of the influence of Internet use at Newspaper reading (Proportion of Internet users). 2.2 Subjective judgement of the influence of Internet use at Evening paper reading (Proportion of Internet users). 2.3 A comparison of average reading time between those who are using and not using the Internet, without control of age. 2.4 A comparison of reading time in seven age groups between those who are using and not using the Internet, without control of age. 2.5 Comparison of the habits of newspaper readers, year 2000 to year 2007. 2.6 Subjective judgement of the influence of Internet use at Television viewing. 2.7 A comparison of TV viewing time between those who are using and not using the Internet. 2.8 A comparison of television viewing in seven age groups between those who are using and not using the Internet. 4.1 Internet Penetration Rates by Demographic Factors (2002,2005,2008). 4.2 Logistic Regression Models Predicting PC Internet and Mobile Internet Use (2002 - 2008). 4.3 Comparison of the PC and Mobile Internet Usage of Various Contents on the Internet. xvi
37 38 45 54 55 55 56 58 60 60 61 98 99 99
List of tables
4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 4.9 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 7.1 7.2 7.3 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 9.1 9.2 9.3
Rates and Frequencies in the Use of E-mails , News Sites and Online Communities from PC and Mobile. Factor Analysis of the Usage of Various Internet Services. Regression Models Predicting Average Frequency of the Internet Contents. Regression Model Predicting the Importance of Internet and TV as Information Sources. Regression Model Predicting the Importance of Internet and TV asEntertainment Sources. Regression Model Predicting the Reliability of the Internet, TV and Newspapers. Internet Diffusion Groups. Six Randomly Selected Intermittent Internet Users Pattern of Usage. Factor Analysis of Stated Reasons for Not Using the Internet. Internet Divides in Macau between 2002 and 2008. Research design and methodology in the four countries. The average adult Internet user by gender, age, life stage and experience (months of use). Distance matrix for adults in relation to use access. Math and Language Difference in Test Scores Between students with and without Home Computer By Mother and Father’s level of Education. Math and Language Difference in Test Scores Between students with and without Home Computer By Socioeconomic Scale of Household (SES). Math Test Score – Multivariate Analysis ICT variables at the ONE 2000. Language Test Score – Multivariate Analysis ICT variables at the ONE 2000. PC, Laptops and Internet penetration rates. ICI mean value by gender and age category. Current Internet use.
xvii
100 102 103 105 105 107 114 116 120 140 154 158 163 188 188 194 195 203 209 212
xviii
9.4 9.5 9.6 9.7 9.8 9.9 10.1 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 11.6 11.7 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4
List of tables
Reasons for starting the Internet by gender, income, education and age. ICT Involvement by gender, income, education and age. Time use by gender, education and age. Internet history by gender, income, region, education and age. Multiple regression analysis of ICI on a set of 10 predictors: Unstandardized & Standardized regression coefficients, standard errors and significancea. Contact with people (Has your use of the Internet increased or decreased your contact with the following groups?) Sociodemographics data. Urban vs. Rural 2008. The “ABC” groups of digital literacy, 2006. Breakdown of the sample by age, economic activity and digital literacy categories, 2006 - The segments of the ABC groups by digital literacy. The average index points of the respective clusters in the examined seven dimensions and the percentage proportion of the clusters. Composition of clusters by age and settlement type . The construction of the Individual Digital Opportunity index. The factor weight (main component analysis) of the Individual Digital Opportunity (IDO) index. The composition of the media consumption and ICT clusters as per the average points and categories of individual digital opportunity (IDO). Mean hours of television watched per week, Internet users by access type, selected countries, 2007. Posting content, by access type, Australia 2007. Downloading activities, by access type, Australia 2007. Impact of the Internet on related activities, by
213 216 217 218 219 222 232 245 246 253 254 256 258 260 273 275 276
List of tables
12.5 12.6 12.7 12.8 12.9 12.10 15.1 15.2 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 17.1 17.2 18.1 18.2 18.3 18.4
gender and access type, Australia 2007. Posting activity, by gender and access type, Australia 2007. Downloading activities, by gender and access type, Australia 2007. Impact of the Internet on related activities, by age and access type, Australia 2007. Maintaining blog or website, by age and access type, Australia 2007. Posting activity, by age and access type, Australia 2007. Downloading activities, by gender and access type, Australia 2007. Details of the WIP Chile samples 2003-2008. Selected WIP countries ranked according to UNDP’s Human Development Index (HDI) and other welfare indicators. Proportion of spending on Internet activities in total campaign expenditure by all candidates*. Functional and technical scores of the candidates web sites as of April 2007. First and second sources of information on the election. Socio-demographic and political profiles of Internet users, by web usage. Top Social Networking Sites by Unique Visitors February 2009. Three forms of intentional social action in consumer behavior. Use of the Internet in Portugal to search for medical/ health information. Internet use in Portugal to search for medical/health information according to age groups. Internet use frequency in Portugal to search for medical/health information. Medical/health information search recipients in
xix
279 280 281 286 287 288 289 361 363 392 393 400 400 415 419 444 444 445
xx
18.5 18.6 18.7 18.8 18.9 18.10 18.11 18.12 18.13 18.14 19.1 19.2 19.3 19.4 19.5 19.6 19.7
List of tables
Portugal. Medical/health information search reasons in Portugal. Medical/health information search in Portugal. Medical/health information search characteristics in Portugal. Medical/health information themes Internet search in Portugal. Medical/health information search on Internet in Portugal. A typology of Internet users (Non-hierarchical K-means cluster analysis, final clusters centres). Characterization of the typology of Internet users (Frequency of online activity, % affirmation, chi-square test). Characterization of the typology of Internet users (Gender and Age, chi-square test). Characterization of the typology of Internet users (Country, chi-square test*). Characterization of the Online Health related information seeker (Gender and Age, chi-square test). Internet Use and Family Relations (All Respondents). Internet Home Use and Family Relations (among Internet Users). Regression Analysis on Time Spent Socialising Face-to-face with family members (Dependent Variable). Regression Analysis on Family Satisfaction (Dependent Var.) Time Spent with Family Members after Using Internet. (All Internet Users) Changed in Time Spent with Family Members Face-to-face after Using Internet (Home Users). Family Categories – Usage, Awareness, Style of Parenting and Conflict.
446 447 448 448 449 450 453 454 456 457 458 476 477 479 480 481 482 485
List of tables
19.8 19.9 22.1 22.2 22.3 22.4 22.5 22.6 22.7 22.8 22.9 23.1 23.2 23.3 23.4 23.5 24.1
Relationships Between Usage, Awareness, Parenting Style and Conflict. Consolidated Depiction of Family Conflicts and Resolutions. Review of surveys on the prevalence of addictive behavior on the Internet. Country profiles of three countries for comparison. Factors of addictive behavior on the Internet. Basic information about sample and data collection in the three countries. Sample description. Percentages of Internet users in the relevant sample groups. Average hours spent weekly online at home on wired computer. Do you ever argue with your close ones (family, friends, partners) because of the time you spend online? Do you feel unsettled or irritated when you cannot be online? UAE subgroups having the Internet as a source of information for current Affairs dealing with. UAE subgroups having the Internet as a source of information for UAE social issues dealing with. UAE subgroups having the Internet as a source of information for Entertainment. UAE subgroups having the Internet as a source of information for Business news. Scale distribution for entertainment activities. Results of the linear regression model.
xxi
486 490 553 553 556 557 558 558 559 560 563 592 593 594 595 597 619
Contributors
Alejandro Gutierrez Sánchez, MEcon, Project Professional, CINTEL-Centro De Investigación De Las Telecomunicaciones, Mexico Alfred Choi, Associate Professor, Department of Applied Social Studies of City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, PRC Ana Maria Trimmiño Villa, Project Manager, CINTEL-Centro De Investigación De Las Telecomunicaciones, Mexico André H. Caron , Bell Chair in Interdisciplinary Research on Emerging Technologies and Full Professor, Department of Communication, University of Montréal, Canada Andreina Mandelli, SDA Professor, Marketing Bocconi University, Milan, Italy Angus Cheong, Project Director of Macao Internet Project; Assistant Professor, University of Macau, Macau SAR, PRC Anikó Bernát, Researcher, TÁRKI Social Research Institute, Hungary Anna Galácz, Senior Researcher, ITHAKA - Information Society and Network Research Center, Hungary Bence Ságvári, Managing Director, ITHAKA - Information Society and Network Research Center, Hungary xxii
Carlos Tabernero, Researcher, Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) – Open University of Catalonia (UOC); Associate Professor of History of Science, Centre for the Study of History of Science (CEHIC) – Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), Spain Charles Crothers, Professor, School of Social Sciences, AUT University, New Zealand Daniel Aranda, Associate Professor, Information and Communication Science Studies - Open University of Catalonia (UOC), Spain David Šmahel, Editor of Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace; Associate Professor of Institute for Research on Children, Youth and the Family; Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Czech Republic Ellen J. Helsper, Survey Research Fellow, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, UK Fernando Gutiérrez, Chairman of Department of Communication at the Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campus Estado de México; Coordinator of World Internet Project in Mexico (WIP), Mexico Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva, Dr., Lecturer at Open University of Catalonia; Researcher at Internet Interdisciplinay Institute (IN3),;Member of the Interdisciplinary Research Group on ICTs (i2TIC), Spain Gai Bo, Research Assistant of China Internet Project, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; PhD Candidate, School of Journalism and Communication, Peking University, PRC Guillermo Bermúdez, Economist, Latin American Economic Research Foundation (FIEL), Argentina Guo Liang, Associate Professor, Director of China Internet Project, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, PRC xxiii
Gustavo Cardoso, Research Director of (LINI) Lisbon Internet and Networks Institute; Professor of Technology and Society at Lisbon University Institute (ISCTE), Portugal. Ian Goodwin, Lecturer, School of English and Media Studies, Massey University, New Zealand Ilhem Allagui, Assistant Professor, Mass Communication Department, American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates Imma Tubella, Professor & Researcher; President of Open University of Catalonia (UOC), Spain Jeffrey Cole, Director of Center for the Digital Future, USC Annenberg School for Communication, US Jennie Billot, Research Director of World Internet Project New Zealand (WIPNZ); Deputy Director of Institute of Culture, Discourse and Communication, AUT University, New Zealand Jianbin Jin, Professor, Beijing Tsinghua University, PRC Jordi Sánchez-Navarro, Associate Professor, Information and Communication Science Studies - Open University of Catalonia (UOC), Spain Julian Thomas, Researcher, Institute for Social Research (ISR) at Swinburne University, Australia Kevin Miguel Sherman, PhD Candidate; WIPNZ Researcher, Institute of Culture, Discourse and Communication, AUT University, New Zealand Letizia Caronia, Professor, Department of Education, University of Bologna, Canada
xxiv
Lukas Blinka, Research Fellow, Institute for Research on Children, Youth and the Family; Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Czech Republic Marcela Cristini, Senior Economist, Latin American Economic Research Foundation (FIEL), Argentina Michael Suman, Research Director, USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future, US Nicolas Demertzis, Professor, Political Communication, University of Athens, Cyprus
Sociology
and
Nigel Smith, Research Coordinator, World Internet Project, Institute of Culture, Discourse and Communication, AUT University, New Zealand Octavio Islas, Chairman of “Cátedra de Comunicaciones Estratégicas y Cibercultura” at theTecnológico de Monterrey, Campus Estado de Mexico; Director of ALAIC (Latin-American Association of Communication Researchers), Mexico Olle Findahl, Research Manager, World Internet Institute Sweden, Sweden Petra Vondrackova, PhD Candidate; Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Czech Republic Philippa Smith, PhD Candidate; WIPNZ Researcher, Institute of Culture, Discourse and Communication, AUT University, New Zealand Rita Espanha, Professor of ISLA-Lisboa and researcher at CIESISCTE, Portugal Robert Lunn, Senior Research Analyst, USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future, US xxv
Scott Ewing, Researcher, Institute for Social Research (ISR) at Swinburne University, Australia Sergio Godoy-Etcheverry, Head of Research & Postgraduate Studies, School of Communications, Universidad Catolica de Chile; Director of WIP Chile project, Chile Shunji Mikami, Professor, Department of Media and Communications ,Toyo University, Tokyo, Japan Silvia Vianello, SDA Assistant Professor, Marketing Bocconi University, Milan, Italy Thierry Vedel, Senior Research Fellow, Center for Political Research (CEVIPOF) at Sciences-Po, Paris, France Tibor Dessewffy, Associate professor, Faculty of Social Sciences, Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary Tim Walters, Associate Professor of Mass Communication Department; Head and Associate Dean of College of Arts and Sciences American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, United Arab Emirates Vassilis Gialamas, Associate Professor, Statistics, University of Athens, Cyprus Vera Araújo, Researcher, Observatory), Portugal
OberCom
(Portuguese
Media
Yair Amichai-Hamburger, Research Center for Internet Psychology (CIP) Sammy Ofer School of Communications, Interdisciplinary Center (IDC), Herzliya, Israel Zoltán Fábián, Director of Data Archive, TÁRKI Social Research Institute, Hungary
xxvi
Acknowledgments
This book and the works it describes are part of the efforts from partners of the World Internet Project. The editors wish to thank all the contributors for their brilliant contribution and consistent help throughout the project. We would also like to thank the University of Macau for its generous funding and Prof. Rui Paulo Da Silva Martins for his continuous support to make this publication possible. We also thank Vicky Chan, Athena Seng, Sherry Chang, Candy Fong, and David Chu, who have been of great help to the Macau Internet Project. Above all, the book project would not have been completed without the considerable efforts of Moon Zhou, who has done tremendous coordination throughout the editing process, as well as Casber U, who expertly brought the whole manuscript up to a publishable standard. We also thank Joanne Zhong for her hard working on proofreading all the texts in a very short period of time. Our gratitude also goes to Dr. Raymond Wong from the Publication Center and Dr. Mei Wu from the Department of Communication of the University of Macau for their help and encouragement. Individual contributors’ acknowledgments appear as footnotes in their respective chapters.
xxvii
Introduction: From World Internet Project to World Wide Internet
Introduction
3
From World Internet Project to World Wide Internet
The book you are now reading is the product of a research project launched almost 10 years ago. The World Internet Project is made up of many national reports written by different research teams in recent years. We have also been able to deliver to the academic community and society at large international reports that address the comparative dimensions tapping cross-national and crosscultural similarities and differences in the uses of the Internet. But this is the first time the data gathered by the World Internet Project are published with the aim to develop new hypotheses regarding the role of the Internet in changing our lives and societies. In the pages that follow, we will share with readers various insights on the role of the Internet in changing our societies, economies and cultures. Contributions to this book come not just from different countries but also from different scientific fields and different scientific cultures. In this introduction, we would like to offer a brief historical account on the development of WIP and walk readers through a roadmap of the ideas behind the organization as well as the content of the different chapters in this book. The World Internet Project (WIP) The World Internet Project was founded upon a belief that we lost a great opportunity understanding the impact of television and that the ultimate influence of the web and other forms of digital
4
introduction
communication will eclipse that of television. The WIP was designed for scholarly understanding of the economic, political and social impact of digital technologies. Fostering collaboration among dozens of countries around the globe, the project has established benchmarks for attitudes and behaviors in the digital era. During the last decade, the project has been committed to sharing high-quality and innovative data and insights with academics, governments, journalists, corporations, and general public around the world. The World Internet Project originated at the UCLA Center for Communication Policy (now the USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future) and was founded with the NTU School of Communication Studies in Singapore and the Osservatorio Internet Italia at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy. Since its inception, the project recognized the increasing influence of digital technology and the power of the Internet as a true international phenomenon. It has always been on the project’s agenda to expand to include all the regions of the world. While it was important to find partners among developed countries before they grow too acclimated to the web, it was considered equally important for us to work with developing countries as they began to move on-line. We believe that the Internet (in whatever format of distribution: PC, television, wireless or some yet to be developed systems) will transform people’s social, political and economic lives. We also believe that the influence and importance of the Internet would dwarf that of the most important instrument of cultural influence of the past 50 years: television. Potentially the Internet represents change on the order of the industrial revolution or the printing press. With that belief in mind, the World Internet Project was designed to get in on the ground floor of that change and to watch and document what happens as households and nations acquire and use the Internet. The main objective of the World Internet Project is to explain how the Internet is changing the world – today and tomorrow. The project was the first wide-scoped, longitudinal exploration of how life is being transformed by computers and the Internet, with year-
Introduction
5
to-year comparisons of the social and cultural changes as people use this extraordinary technology. The studies were also the first to answer such broad questions about the Internet on a global scale. While the methodological and international collaboration process is complex, the rationale behind the project is remarkably simple: track households as they go on-line and continue to follow them as their usage increases and becomes more comprehensive. The USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future conducts the survey in the United States and coordinates the international partner projects. Independent teams in each country direct the implementation of the international partner projects with the goal of finding the most qualified teams in each country or region from distinguished universities or research centers. As of 2009, the project has attracted approximately 30 national or regional participants. Each year the researchers meet in one location to share results, explore common issues and concerns and continue to refine the methodology and scope of the work. The U.S. research team became interested in this project while doing extensive work in the 1990s on television. In 1998 television viewing by children under the age of 14 in the United States dropped for the first time in the medium’s 50-year history. For the very first time children found something more appealing: computers and the Internet. While television has had an unprecedented influence on culture, its influence has been primarily in the domains of entertainment and leisure. It is now becoming clear that computers and especially the Internet are producing effects comparable to television’s on work, school and play. Believing that the importance and influence of computer technology and the Internet will dwarf that of television, project designers hope to achieve in research what should have been done on television in the 1940s. The research plan calls for drawing a truly random and representative national sample of computer and Internet users and non-users. Each year the project carries out an extensive survey of the sampled households and then, using standard longitudinal methods for retention, tracks the process whereby non-users become users and users become more advanced
6
introduction
and comfortable users. The use of the Internet will continue to grow (though probably through wireless and television devices rather than computers) until it reaches the television-level of consumption of 98.3%. Using a combination of well-accepted social scientific survey methods and techniques, the different research teams conduct longterm longitudinal studies on the impact of computers, the Internet and related technologies on families and society. In each country researchers follow the growth and change patterns in computer and Internet use and non-use in more than 1,000 households. The households are surveyed year after year, as computer and Internet use evolves. As important as tracking Internet use, possibly even more so, is surveying non-users. We regularly track social and cultural behaviour of non-users to see if and how attitudes and actions change as households obtain computers and Internet access. This project intends to determine why non-users do not participate and what their sense of the connected world is. In so doing, we hope to learn what compels many of them to become users later on and how their established patterns of media use, child-rearing, economic and political behavior and other activities change. When, for example, household penetration of the Internet reaches 90%, we will be able to determine who the 10% non-users are, why they remain non-users and how they do off-line what most of the world is doing on-line. In short, this project looks at the hundreds of factors that are likely to change and remain vigilant. In addition to providing reliable information about who is on-line and how and why, the project traces whether a situation of information haves and have-nots develops and the ways in which our social, political and economic lives are changing. Our objective has been to coordinate a truly international effort in the long run to understand how both industrialized and nonindustrialized countries are affected by the use of information technology. With this book we intend to move beyond our founding objectives and contribute to the development of the scientific field
Introduction
7
of Internet research by gathering in a single volume knowledge acquired by more than 30 research teams in countries and regions spanning Asia and Europe, the Middle East and South America, North America and Oceania. World Wide Internet This book focuses on the social, economical and cultural changes brought about by our appropriation of a given technology: the Internet. Although being born almost 40 years ago, the Internet only reached the current technological maturity a decade ago. This book focuses specifically on that time frame and on the different geographical spaces that constitute the research ground for the teams involved. Gathering such a huge number of researchers and themes in a common volume posed some challenges. The way we chose to address the issues was to allow each team to focus on its own research, the only common rule being the use of data gathered under the WIP research and, whenever possible, complemented by other available data. The book is organized in seven parts, each a cluster of research around a common theme. The first part of this book focuses on the Internet as a medium and its role in changing our digital ecologies and communicational models. The first chapter by Gustavo Cardoso and Vera Araújo suggests that the Internet has moved from being a space of keepers of knowledge into a space mainly built around the communication activities that configure the archetype of the communicator. Cardoso and Araújo examine common traits we find between words written about the Internet before 1997 and actions performed by the users of the Internet in 2007. In this chapter the authors argue that although we could frame the primordial studies about the Internet in the fundamental opposition of uses between information spaces and social spaces or communities, after a decade of Internet usage, communication has emerged as the major driving force in our daily uses of the Internet. The second chapter, by Olle Findahl, looks at the Internet as a complement to traditional media. Findahl states that there are many
8
introduction
signs of difficult times for traditional newspapers and broadcast television, especially in US. However, a more thorough analysis of readers and viewers in countries with high Internet penetration and high newspaper reach like Japan and the Nordic countries does not support that conclusion. Findahl suggests that the habits of reading newspapers in paper format have changed very little since the Internet was introduced even if reading a newspaper online is one of the most popular activities among the users of the Internet in all ages in those countries. Also time spent viewing TV seems also to be constant during the last 10 years when the use of the Internet has increased. The strong tradition of reading a daily newspaper and watching broadcast television seems to have survived at least the first 10 years of the Internet in countries with high newspaper reach and high Internet penetration. Findahl argues then that the development of traditional media is not the same in all countries. The third chapter, by Fernando Gutiérrez and Octavio Islas, looks at the new digital ecology in Mexico. The authors argue that Mexico, as in other parts of the world, has witnessed the rise of a new media ecology. This new ecology carries particular characteristics that have been altering the environment and contributing to the formation of new societies. The Internet is one of its most essential components. In their chapter, Gutierrez and Islas show how environments are changing in Mexico and how the Internet gives a fresh perspective to traditional activities in this North American society. The fourth chapter, by Shunji Mikami, focuses its attention on the role played by the Internet under a changing media environment in Japan. Since the mid-1990s, new media such as the Internet, mobile phones, and digital TV services began to spread in Japan, fostered by government policies and severe market competition, resulting in a diversified media environment. The Internet in Japan is characterized by penetration of the FTTH broadband and mobile service. Judging by the users’ evaluation, the Internet is not highly regarded as sources of information or entertainment, compared with traditional mass media such as TV or newspapers. Another look at the newspapers consumption and industry ends
Introduction
9
the first part of this book. Looking now at the United States of America, Robert Lunn and Michael Suman focus on the analysis of the Internet users and the possible relationship with newspaper readership. Lunn and Suman follow a longitudinal examination of Internet diffusion, using adopter categories and ramifications of Internet usage in order to discuss the importance of newspapers to the American society. Lunn and Suman argue that existing literature shows that the technology diffusion process is inherently complex, usually involving heterogeneous populations, and is correspondingly under-conceptualized through the use of single summary percent utilization figures. In their examination of data from the longitudinal Digital Future Project, Lunn and Suman examine how United States Internet diffusion, including attitudes, opinions, and behaviours for the same 453 subjects, varied over a seven year period (2000 - 2006). Lunn and Suman identified the existence of several Internet usage dimensions: distinct adoption, non-adoption, discontinuance, and intermittent usage patterns. The chapter ends with the argument that membership in different Internet adoption groups might be related to a systematic decline in the importance of newspapers as a source of information over time in the US. Part two of this book is dedicated to the dichotomy of use visà-vis non-use of the Internet and how digital exclusion and social inclusion are related with the use of the Internet. The chapter by Angus Cheong and Jianbin Jin examines the evolving pattern of the digital Divide. Cheong and Jin’s work sheds new insight on one of the frequently ill-defined concepts in social science: digital divide on the Internet. Guided by previous conceptualization and operationalization of the concept, Cheong and Jin adopt the methods researchers have been using for the purpose of quantifying the magnitude of the digital divide. They argue that previous research efforts have been largely descriptive, inevitably yielding diverse presentations and interpretations. They propose the adoption of a standard measure of distribution inequality, i.e., Gini coefficient, under a defining framework which encompasses three key constitutive components: levels of analysis, inequality
10
introduction
types and types of ICT, in the studies of digital divide. Following that path, Cheong and Jin explore the dynamic nature of the digital divide by constructing six digital divide indexes from the survey databank of seven probability surveys over a period of eight years collected in Macau. Cheong and Jin’s research suggests the existence of a “dynamic disequilibria” of digital divide in which different evolutive patterns between access divide and usage divides at the individual level exist. Turning to four European countries Britain, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Sweden, Ellen Helsper and Anna Galácz discuss the links between social and digital exclusion. They argue that social exclusion is linked strongly to digital engagement. The groups at a general disadvantage in society tend to also be at a disadvantage in relation to ICT access, skills and have lower levels of engagement over a breadth of activities. Although this has been shown in a variety of different studies, Helsper and Galácz point out the near total absence of insight on how the links between digital and social exclusion vary between countries. Their chapter looks at the similarities and differences in the links between social disadvantage and digital engagement in four European countries. The two researchers hypothesized that countries with higher levels of socioeconomic inequality will show stronger links between social and digital exclusion and that countries with higher rates of diffusion have highly concentrated unified social exclusion in relation to digital exclusion. Helsper and Galácz conclude that the four European countries are very similar in the ways in which digital and social disadvantage are related. Nevertheless, there is some evidence that countries with high socioeconomic inequality show stronger links between social and digital exclusion. However, overall wealth in a country was as important as inequality in determining average levels of disengagement. In the two countries with low diffusion rates, the Czech Republic and Hungary, different types of social exclusion were grouped together more closely in their relation to different types of engagement than they were in the high diffusion countries, Britain and Sweden. This suggests that a diverse approach to tackling digital disengagement in different
Introduction
11
groups is necessary in high diffusion countries while a more unified social intervention is suitable in low diffusion countries to counter links between social exclusion and digital disengagement. The third chapter, by Marcela Cristini and Guillermo Bermudez, focuses on Internet access and secondary school test scores in Argentina. The analysis of the individual test results was then correlated with the socioeconomic status of households and to their Internet access at home and school. Through the use of econometric measures, the authors discover a significant positive effect of Internet access on test performance in a broader context of the equality of opportunities in Argentina. The fourth chapter, by Nicolas Demertzis and Vassilis Gialamas, looks at Cyprus users, non-Users, and Internet Connectedness. Treating Cyprus as an information society in the making, Demertzis and Gialamas argue that in spite of the recent progress in information and communication technologies (ICT), Cyprus is torn by digital divides across gender, education, age, region and income. Apart from the split between the haves and the have-nots, there are divides in access as well. Most of the Cypriots are not Internet users. The authors detect a substantive group of people which seem to be either immune to ICT or are peripheral Internet users. These are people who do not posses a PC, are not connected to and have never used the Internet, are unwilling to use it in the near future or have used in the past and are likely to continue to use it. According to the authors, Internet penetration in Cyprus will not follow a steadfast course unless youngsters get connected in great numbers rapidly. However, the authors have reasons for expecting that in the mid- and long run, Internet penetration will grow and the digital divide between Cyprus and other developed countries will diminish. The fifth chapter by Alejandro Gutierrez and Ana Maria Trimmino discusses social inclusion through information and communication technologies (ICT) in La Boquilla, Colombia. Gutierrez and Trimmino argue that ICT’s are currently on the business, governments and citizens’ daily agenda, for their capacity to improve the communication and transportation of information for
12
introduction
the building of a modern society. Through the ICT and especially through the adoption and Internet use, there is an opportunity to prevent some people from being excluded from social development processes and products. Further, Gutierrez and Trimmino argue that, through the use of impact measure, the Internet and computer use could stimulate the community participation in the short term. This second part of the book ends with a chapter by Anikó Bernát, Zoltán Fábián, Anna Galácz and Bence Ságvári who examine digital literacy in Hungary. The authors prepared in 2007 a study that aimed to segment and present social groups in Hungary from the point of view of digital literacy in order to support policy action. According to their analysis results, digital literacy is closely correlated with socio-demographic attributes as well as other factors such as culture and media consumption. People in the higher-level groups are mostly digitally literate, while the digitally illiterate members of the middle groups form the most important target groups of policy actions. To measure the chances of becoming digitally literate, the authors introduced a complex indicator, the Individual Digital Opportunity (IDO) index. The third part of this book addresses the Cultures of Internet. The first chapter, by Scott Ewing and Julian Thomas, examines the creative dynamics of the broadband Internet in Australia, focusing on the production and consumption of cultural content. The focus of this chapter is on what Ewing and Thomas call the ‘creative Internet’, uses ranging from relatively straightforward usergenerated content such as posting photographs to the distribution of more complex amateur-produced material. The aim of this chapter is to outline the knowledge, the motivations, incentives, and authorial practices which sustain production and consumption of cultural content. Ewing and Thomas begin by considering the relationship between the development of the ‘creative Internet’ and broadband access. They then turn to some of the social dynamics of this creative activity, considering first gender and then age in relation to broadband access. Ewing and Thomas offer us a tentative approach as to the profile of the producer and consumer of cultural content in the Internet.
Introduction
13
The second chapter, by André Caron and Letizia Caronia, addresses the so-called new screens and young people’s appropriation of entertainment content. Caron and Caronia state that although new information and communications technologies have become extremely dynamic, content has been fairly controlled and regulated. It is now much easier to access on the Internet and is increasingly independent from any formal institutional framework. Images on screens, which used to be viewed on different platforms in specific locations and at predictable times, now transcend space and time, particularly for the younger generations. The question asked here is: how do young people appropriate and evaluate movie and video game content? Are rating systems still relevant in these new media environments? In order to begin answering such questions, Caron and Caronia suggest that we need to better understand the needs, expectations and skills of today’s youth. Some consider young people to be passive, easy to manipulate, unaware of their values and entirely lacking in critical thinking skills, whereas others see them as active users able to interpret, judge and choose, and, consequently, capable of using knowledge and competencies. Caron and Caronia chose a qualitative approach designed to take young people’s everyday environment into account in the construction of their relationships with these images on the new and traditional screens to which they now have access. The study included family interviews (semistructured interview guides), logbooks and digital video cameras that were used by the young participants to gather information on this topic. Findings shed new insights on the cultural dimensions of youth consumption and production. Part three ends with the contributions from Carlos Tabernero, Jordi Sánchez-Navarro, Daniel Aranda and Imma Tubella who investigate the relationship between media practices and connected lives of young people in Catalonia and Spain. The authors argue that the widespread diffusion of ICT’s, particularly the Internet and the explosion of global mobile communication, has brought about a new turn in the rules under which mass communication has been run to date. For one thing, ICT’s have opened the door
14
introduction
to direct participation and thus, while appropriated by individuals into their everyday lives, to the emergence of user-driven participatory/collaborative culture(s). In this context, the young, as their lives unfold in an increasingly media- and technology-rich environment where ICT’s are gradually becoming paramount, play a fundamental role as conducive to socio-cultural transformations linked to media and communication practices. Among these, online social networking stands out as a powerful change factor, both as a multimodal form of cultural consumption and a specific ever renewing set of media practices identity formation, status negotiation and peer-to-peer sociality. Part four addresses the politics of the Internet, particularly elections, political expectations and political efficacy. Two chapters comprise this part, one addressing the Chilean environment and another France. Sergio Godoy Etcheverry connects Internet usage, the media, and political expectations in Chile from 2003 to 2008. He describes how the Internet affects usage and expectations about traditional media in Chile since 2003. This chapter also discusses the influence of the Internet on political expectations of Chileans relative to other countries. Three quarters of Chileans get their perceptions about reality from TV, one of the two media aside from radio which has universal penetration. Besides, newspapers are highly influential on defining the news agenda of all the other media. Godoy argues that if the web affects newspapers and television, it may also affect political perceptions of empowerment since users can circumvent these gatekeepers of information for mass mobilization and public opinion expression. In other words, Godoy invites the reader to accompany him in a preliminary examination of whether the Internet is the drivin force behind the irreversible and dreamatic social change. The second chapter focuses on the Internet and the 2007 French Presidential Election. Thierry Vedel analyzes the event and the uses of the Internet and raises questions about the fate of traditional media. Vedel’s chapter is about the place and role of the internet in the 2007 French presidential election and more specifically the study of how the internet was used by candidates and voters. Did
Introduction
15
the internet intensify the process of electoral competition? Did it help to pull more citizens into the campaign process and contribute to a diversification of their information sources? Vedel argues that the literature on the topic offers two conflicting views. The mobilization thesis sees the Internet as a tool for revitalizing politics and empowering citizens, whereas the normalization thesis holds that the Internet mostly reinforces established powers and existing levels of political engagement. This chapter is organized in two parts. The first part focuses on the supply side of the campaign and documents how the Internet was used by presidential candidates, based on a qualitative analysis of their online strategies and a content analysis of their web sites. The second part scrutinizes the sources voters used to get information about the election and how voters used the political online resources available during the campaign. Vedel’s findings both support and challenge the normalization theory. The Internet was only a marginal component in the strategies of candidates who took advantage of TV for direct contacts with voters. The content analysis demonstrates a strong gap in online activities between main and minor candidates, which reflect inequalities in resources and, to a lesser extent, ideological differences However, while the Internet has not yet become an essential part of French politics, its usage during the presidential campaign illustrates the increasing role of activation methods (by opposition to mobilization) in modern campaigning as well as the aspiration for new forms of political activism Because of the interlinked nature of the Internet and of its modus operandi, people who are not interested in politics and/or are not especially active in offline or conventional politics may engage in some kind of political activity online. Part five of the book focuses on the role played by Internet in our daily routines and our common human trait as potential consumers and patients. Andreina Mandelli and Silvia Vianello bring to our attention the consumers’ involvement in organizations in the era of social media. This chapter is concerned with the increasing customer involvement in organizational roles through consumer
16
introduction
communities whose importance has been augmented over the last few years, due to the diffusion of the Internet for business and brand-related activities as well as increased consumer activism and participation in content production and exchange. Mandelli and Vianello highlight the importance of the diffusion of the so-called social media where user-generated content and user participation become central. Mandelli and Vianello’s chapter aims at exploring research questions on these new consumption phenomena and the changed role of branding in new interconnected markets. In their chapter, Rita Espanha and Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva deal with the health content of the Internet and how its usage affects the autonomy of the user through the transformation of social status from consumers to patients. Espanha and Villanueva point out that information access and dissemination are growing and the ways in which this information and knowledge democratization occur are many, scattered and diverse. If that is true, then what concerns individual health and its daily management on the Internet may also be true, because they never involved as much information as nowadays. The aim of this chapter is to identify and characterize the role of daily information and communication practices for health management in Portugal and to identify and characterize some trends on a global scale of the Internet use for health purpose. Espanha and Villanueva propose an e-readiness index to the Network Society, by considering all Internet activities within WIP database for 2007. Results of cluster analysis show that citizens of poor health are also more likely to be less e-ready. They may even drop out of the Internet. Parallel to the “informed patient” concept, Espanha and Villanueva suggest that when looking at the health dimensions of the Network Society, we must consider the “generational divide” and the “e-readiness divide” concepts. Part six is devoted to the Internet and Social life, focusing on a wide range of dimensions from sociability to social behavior. The first chapter by Alfred Choi looks at the Internet use in family relations and conflict resolution. Choi reminds us that the Internet is widely believed to have huge impacts on individuals, families, and society at large. But he also states that differences in opinion
Introduction
17
exist with regards to whether or not the Internet is beneficial or harmful to family and social relationships and activities. In this chapter Choi reviews two conflicting perspectives on this issue and employs both quantitative and qualitative research to determine whether or not Internet use has effects on family relations. The quantitative part fo the research involves multivariate statistical analysis on a national random sample of 1,000 survey respondents. The qualitative part involves in-depth interviews and observations of 10 nuclear families with teenage children. The ethnographic analysis included objective measurements of the child’s Internet use (as recorded in personal diaries provided), and data obtained from in-depth interviews on parental awareness and parenting style, level of parent-child conflict, and parents’ method of conflict resolution. By means of this multi-method triangulation, Choi’s findings are twofold. The quantitative research did not support the pessimistic view of negative effects of Internet use on family relationship. But the qualitative research showed that the interaction of Internet use, parental awareness and parenting style influence the level of conflict and the method of conflict resolution shapes the outcome of the parent-child conflict. The second chapter takes readers to the issue of Interpersonal Communication in China. Guo Liang and Gai Bo address how different social ties, such as family, friends, colleagues or classmates, are using different ICT tools, such as landline phone calls, mobile phone calls and SMS, Internet email, QQ/ICQ and MSN. Guo and Bo attempt to provide a detailed picture of how people use the new media in their daily interactions in China. They argue that both mobile call and SMS are widely used for personal purposes among mobile phone users in China. However, email and ICQ/QQ are more popular than MSN in daily interpersonal communications. Besides, face-to-face communication plays a more important role in maintaining parent-child and spousal relationships than in maintaining other social ties and work ties. Guo and Bo also suggest that new media are more likely to reinforce the social ties outside family and help people extend their social networks. In the third chapter, Yair Amichai-Hamburger addresses the
18
introduction
effects of the Internet on our social lives. The author starts by discussing the leading psychological components that influence people’s behavior on the net and moves on to describe the debate between those who believe that the Internet is conducive to an active social life and those who argue to the contrary. The results of the World Internet Project, as they pertain to the Internet-social life connection, are assessed in order to recommend an approach for further research in this field. The fourth chapter is the responsibility of a multi-national team of researchers, David Smahel, P. Vondrackova, L. Blinka and Sergio Godoy-Etcheverry, which focus on the comparison of addictive behavior on the Internet. This chapter presents data on the prevalence of addictive behaviour on the Internet in the Czech Republic and a comparison of two addictive behavior dimensions (conflict and mood modification) among users in Chile, the Czech Republic and Sweden. Findings suggest that Internet users in the Czech Republic and Chile scored similar and higher than Swedes in dimensions of conflict and mood modification. Swedes had a lower incidence of “dangerous” online activities (visiting chat rooms, playing online games) and greater tendency to carry out “practical activities” (bank services). In terms of the prevalence of addictive behavior on the Internet in the Czech Republic, results show that a total of 3.4% of Internet users could be described as Internet addicts. This book ends with Part Seven whose theme revolves around the role of the Internet in social change and how such a network configuration influences both the global and the local. The first chapter is written by Ilhem Allagui and Tim Walters and focuses on the United Arab Emirates and the Patterns of Internet usage, in a multi-group society, from “Locals” to “Expats”. In their analysis, Allagui and Walters describe the socio-technological transformation that the UAE has witnessed in the last decade. The UAE Internet users show diversity and difference in their Internet usage patterns that vary by ethnicity, origin and education level. This chapter portrays the social integration of the Internet in UAE as well as its political, economical and cultural implications.
Introduction
19
The second chapter by Tibor Dessewffy and Anna Galácz addresses the development of what is suggested to be the Information Society in Hungary. Dessewffy and Galácz argue that over the last decade, Internet diffusion and usage have shown some interesting characteristics in Hungary. After the changes at the end of the 1980’s – the so-called dual transition – one of the important questions facing Hungary was how the country could join the flow of technological transformation taking place over the world. Despite some promising signs, the Internet proved to be a technological innovation taking off very slowly in Hungary. In this chapter Dessewffy and Galácz investigate this phenomenon and offer some possible explanations. The authors find it inevitable to take into account the cultural background and the role of values into consideration when explaining technological change and of technological adoption processes as socially embedded. The book ends with the contributions of Goodwin, I., Smith, N., Sherman, K., Crothers, C., Billot, J., & Smith, P. on the Internet use in New Zealand and its implications for social change. In this chapter, the authors draw on the findings from the first World Internet Project survey undertaken in New Zealand to examine the implications of Internet use for social change. It is argued that in a rapidly transforming global environment, monitoring the impact of technological change informs possible interventions aimed to alleviate social inequalities at both the micro and macro levels. The chapter first discusses existing Internet research in New Zealand before presenting major World Internet Project New Zealand (WIPNZ) results. Key trends currently shaping New Zealanders’ Internet use are highlighted and the chapter also briefly sketches the nature of the ‘digital divide’ within the country. The findings provide insight into the broad contours of Internet use and their relationship to key social transformations in New Zealand. Changing societies, economies and cultures The seven parts that build this book address many of the uncertainties of current societies and the role of Internet adoption
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introduction
and use on coping with uncertainty. But we like to think that this is not just a book about the countries and regions participating in the World Internet Project. It is our belief that much of the themes here addressed and conclusions reached could be helpful for other scholars and decision makers in other parts of the World that are not yet members of this research network. The main motive behind this book is to share knowledge with others who share with us the same concerns or simple curiosity and to understand the times we are living in and the future being built today. We hope to live up to the expectations that this introduction might have fostered. Gustavo Cardoso, Angus Cheong and Jeffrey Cole
I The Internet as a Media: from digital ecologies to networked communication
The Internet as a media
23
1 Out of Information and into Communication. Networked Communication and Internet Usage Gustavo Cardoso and Vera Araújo
Internet: Informational, Social or Communicational Space? Back in 1997 a book titled “Internet Dreams. Archetypes, Myths, and Metaphors” was published by the MIT Press. Its author, Mark Stefik, argued that one should take into account not just the limiting metaphor of “the information superhighway,” (Stefik 1997) but also other four archetypes in order to better understand the unfolding evolution of the Internet. Those four metaphors and archetypes were the digital library (The Keeper of Knowledge), electronic mail (The Communicator), the electronic marketplace (The Trader) and the digital world (The Adventurer). More than a decade has passed, what archetypes are we left with? Or, to rephrase the question, where is the Internet leading us or what do we see when Internet mirrors our societies? In reality, what we propose in this analysis is to return to the fundamental relationship between representations and practises (Giddens, 2006), namely what common traits are we able to find between the words spoken about the Internet, before 1997, and the actions performed by Internet users in 2007? Our main argument is that the Internet has moved from being a space of keepers of knowledge and into a space mainly built around the communication activities that configure the archetype of the communicator (Stefik, 1997). Although we could frame the primordial works, or studies, about the Internet in the fundamental
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Chapter 1
opposition of uses between information spaces and social spaces or communities (Sproul & Faraj, 1995), we believe that after a decade, communication has emerged as the major driving force in our daily uses of the Internet. The following analysis is rooted on the ongoing empirical research performed by several research networks worldwide that shows us an increasingly clear picture of the importance of mediated communication in our societies (Cardoso 2008). The Networked Communication Society “Are my networks different from yours?” This is a question that makes sense if we think that networks are a form of social organization that is as old as mankind, or that at least can be traced back some millennia (Castells, 2006). But it is also true that even with similar trends the reason why things happen in a particular way might be different between societies and even within the same country. Nevertheless, we would still like to argue that comparative transnational research between different countries, like the one present in the World Internet Project or the OECD, allows us to understand some common traits that can be found everywhere around the world and that such commonalities allow us to better understand the foundations of contemporary social change. So our starting ground is to ask what Internet usage tells us about the role of the Internet in communication, and whether this knowledge can help us characterize the communication models in our societies. In light of the assertions made by Ortoleva (2004), Colombo (1993), and Meyrovitz (1985), we believe that in the very same way sociologists need to examine the relationship between representations and practices to understand society at large, communication rersearchers need to understand media diets (what we do with the media) as much as media matrixes (what social roles do we ascribe them). Over the last decade, we have witnessed tremendous changes taking place in the media landscape. These changes occurred not only because of technological innovations in mediation devices
The Internet as a media
25
themselves, but also because of the ways users chose to socially domesticate these innovations and, consequently, how they have built new mediation processes (Cardoso, 2008). We have an unprecedented variety of communications at our disposal and also an unprecedented choice between apparently equivalent mediation devices (Eco, 2001; Silverstone, 2005), giving communication a leading role in the contemporary world. The society in which we live today is itself the product of the historic confluence of developments that took place in diverse areas of human activity (Castells, 2000). But that moment of confluence is also an arrival point for a process that began early in the 20th century: the centrality of communication in our societies (Silverstone, 2006). The centrality of communication is a relatively recent phenomenon, for up until the late 19th century (Rantanen, 1997), the idea of communication as an autonomous and independent entity within the more general concept of transport (just like the idea of media as something distinct from other instruments useful for exchange or travel) was not generally discussed (Ortoleva, 2004; Winston, 1999; Richeri, 1996; Silverstone, 2005). The births of the new means of communication — such as cinema, radio, the comic book, the gramophone, and the telephone line — were not seen, at the time, as unitary phenomena that could be grouped together in one single concept (Silverstone, 2005; Ortoleva, 2004). However, the idea of communication and information not only imposed itself in its specificity and autonomy, but also asserted itself as a central idea of social life, before becoming in the late 20th century an objective in terms of economic development (Cardoso, 2006). Giddens (1999) and Castells (2000) point out that much of what we have witnessed over the last three decades is a consequence of the networking of different technologies, i.e., the information technologies, communication technologies and computerization. Their economic and social appropriation results in an interesting relationship between the market and democracy. Although the economic dimension of globalization is fundamental, it must not be seen as an economic phenomenon only, but also as a
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communicational one (Giddens, 1999; Lull, 2007). When we live in a world in which the news takes on an almost instant character (Sparks, 2007;Mazzoleni et al., 2004; Tremayne, 2007; McPhail, 2005; Silverstone, 2006; Shoemaker, 2006; Volkmer, 1999), and in which the diversity of information contexts is the rule (see, for example, the differences in the satellite television coverage of the Iraqi insurrection of April 2004 by CNN and Arab television channels such as Al Jazeera), we have to accept that globalization also means a change in the communication systems. That change transforms the people’s lives at the same time as it modifies the economic structure of life itself (Lash, 2007; McPhail, 2005). As a consequence, we should no longer be thinking of something called an “information society” but rather a “communicational society”, because it is in our communication with each other that ICTs intrude most directly into the core of social existence (Silverstone & Osimo, 2005). But how is this communicational society structured? How does it articulate mediation processes and technologies? We believe we are witnessing the rise of a new communicational model. this can be described as the fourth model. The three preceding models can be chronologically ordered in terms of their social affirmation cycles (Ortoleva, 2004). The first is interpersonal communication, characterized by the bi-directional exchange between two persons or several persons within a group. The second model, likewise deeply rooted in our societies, the one-to-many communication in which one single individual sends one single message to a group of people of a limited number. And a third model, with which we have the least experienced in terms of historical time, is mass communication, in which, thanks to the use of specific mediation technologies, one single message is directed to a “mass” of people, i.e., it is sent to an audience whose real dimension is unknown and, as such, not delimited in advance (Thompson, 1996). What is argued here is that we have gone beyond a communication model based on mass communication and into a fourth model – one based on networked communication (Cardoso, 2008). A communicational model shaped by three main features: first, the
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27
globalization of communication process; second, the networking of mass and interpersonal media and consequently networked mediation; and third, interactivity usage of different degrees (Cardoso, 2008). That is to say, our society’s communicational model is shaped by the combined leverage of worldwide communicational globalization processes, together with the networking of mass and interpersonal media by the media users (using, among other devices, the Internet and mobile phones), and, consequently, the rise of networked mediation. The organization of uses and networking of media within this model seems to be directly connected to different degrees of interactivity usage afforded by the current media technology. To illustrate, the Internet features a high degree of interactivity, while television offers low interactivity. Examples of this new communication model can be found anywhere in our everyday life. Our daily routines combine mass media and interpersonal media, with the latter also emulating the former. If we look at how our youngster appropriate the media, we can imagine instant Messaging (IM) network systems increasingly being used as a professional tool to schedule one’s daily activities and social life and also as a meeting place in itself. In fact, it is increasingly common to hear people say “I met him/her on messenger”, just as one would hear “I met him/her in the local coffee house”. An SMS, is often sent not just to one person, but to a group of friends setting a Messenger meeting at a given time. On the other hand, social networks such as Facebook or Hi5 (the most used in Portugal) are being used to keep friends aware of one’s social life. These tools can also go beyond the maintenance of friendship to foster interest-driven contacts. They can be a link between an author’s book and his/her next book, by providing him space to write on a very intense and personalize way as, for instance, in the case of writer Neil Gaiman who writes in Twitter. Twitter and other tools allow anyone to be part of a mass media network, either by providing news or by just free flowing what you have been doing or are doing at the moment you write as well asyour current state of mind. And it is now possible to access IM networks or social
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networks while on the move (through cell phones), contributing to the ubiquity of these applications. Furthermore, IM networks allow users to manage a contact list and to visually see the presence and status of other members (whether they are busy, away, etc.). This “presence awareness” reinforces the idea of constant connectivity, allowing people to be in permanent virtual presence of each other (Plant, 2001; Licoppe e Heurtin, 2002), as the explicit will of perpetual contact seems to be the reason for the great success of Internet communication networks. The networking of mass media has been with us for some time before the Internet made its first appearance: We only need to remember the time when a soccer game was being watched simultaneously on television in many living rooms, with the sound turned off and with the radio on. But the Internet and mobile phones offer novelty by (i) allowing mass media to be shared – people can network with others in an individualized way; (ii) allowing the user to interact with the content of the mass media; and (iii) allowing the user him/herself to be engaged in “hypertext”. That is, allowing a person to choose to watch a movie on TV and later use the very same screen to play in a console a game based on the movie and perhaps, on another screen, follow the new releases of a fan website, the Wikipedia page or the new webisode, thus making the content the common feature, the users the node, and the different technologiesthe “hypertext”. In conclusion, the communication model generated in information societies, where the prevailing social organization model is the network, is a model of networked communication. It is about networks of technologies, the way people use these technologies and the mediation processes. This model is characterized by the fusion of interpersonal communication and mass communication, connecting audiences, broadcasters, and publishers under a matrix of networking media devices (from newspapers to videogames) and giving newly mediated roles to users. It, however, does not replace existing models, but articulates them, producing new forms of communication and new ways to empower both individuals and facilitate communicative autonomy (Cardoso, 2008a; Castells, 2000).
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29
With this “networked communication model” as our framework, we conducted an analysis of contemporary use the Internet. We attempt to find answers to questions such as: What are the key uses of the Internet and how have they evolved over the years? What is the importance of communication-related activities in the ambit of the networked communication model? What web activities do people carry out as part of their everyday life communication process? Departing from our analysis within the Portuguese context and based on our previous research and literature review, we argue that there has been a diversification of Internet usages in the last few years, with a special focus on communication and social usage (i.e. daily use of the Internet). In order to confirm or reject this hypothesis, we will analyse a set of empirical data from national and international sources, as well as the results of the extensive World Internet Project Portugal survey of 2008.1 Internet Usages: from Information, to Entertainment and into Communication The way people use the Internet has been evolving ever since this technology was first introduced. As we previously argued, networked communication has acquired a leading role in our time as people have appropriated new communication technologies, specially the Internet. We can identify six factors contributing to this evolution. First, we may look at the demographic diversification of Internet users. In the beginning, the Internet was mainly used by “early adopters”, who belonged to very specific socio-demographic groups, namely, young men highly interest in technology. The massification of the Internet brought in new types of users - people with other specific interests and aims. These newcomers helped widen the application of the Internet, acting as innovators: “the main trend is that, while the Internet has spread to larger numbers of users, the use of Internet has become more nuanced and varied. 1
This survey is the third edition of a project OberCom (Portuguese Media Observatory) has been developing since 2001 in collaboration with ISCTE (University Institute of Lisbon).
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New possibilities and services have evolved” (Findahl, 2007). For example, older and younger Internet user would give rise to new demand for online services. Internet uses between 35-44 years of age gave a new life to e-banking services and promoted the use of the Internet to pay bills and make purchases. In fact, within a short period of time, the Internet became a major shopping venue for people in Great Britain, as shown by the rapid increase between 2000-06 in online shopping (or ordering) of tickets, merchandises and services (OECD, 2007; Dutton and Helsper, 2007). Also, online transactions of goods and services rise rapidly as consumers develop their own trading activities, bypassing traditional intermediaries (OECD, 2007). A second factor contributing to the diversification of Internet use was the explosive growth of opportunities provided by the tool itself, namely those introduced by the mass deployment and use of broadband. As shown below, the impact of broadband depends not only on the frequency and duration Internet use, but also on the variety and diversity of use (OECD, 2007). In fact, broadband plays a role of accelerator for various online activities, as demonstrated by the research in Australia led by Ewing and Thomas (2009) or that in Sweden by Findahl (2009). In addition, the shift towards broadband connection has not only drawn a wide range of social and individual entertainment functions into the scope of Internet use, but also made the traditional forms of recreational electronics accessible online – from listening to and downloading music to a wide range of radio and television programs. Furthermore, people with home access to broadband are much more inclined to undertake online activities compared to those without. And the differences are highly remarkable: In 2006, compared with narrowband users, 30% more broadband users listened to radio or watched TV programs via PCs in Norway, 20% more read or downloaded online newspapers or newsmagazines in the US, and 20% more purchased or ordered goods or services in Spain and the US (OECD, 2007).
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Figure 1.1 Broadband impact on selected Internet activities, selected OECD countries (Difference, in percentage points, between broadband and narrowband users, 2006). Source: OECD, 2007.
A third factor, in parallel to the development of broadband, is the emergence of “Web 2.0”, which has opened the door to innovative applications - user-generated usages of the Internet. Web 2.0 applications made it possible for users to create virtual networks revolving newly generated contents and to exchange comments with regard to these contents, acquiring a classic and even more important role in social communication. On top of that, Web 2.0 provides a way to consolidate social networks: “social networking adds to existing online communication opportunities by allowing for instantaneous interaction and networking around online material, and by facilitating the production of audiovisual content for private use, as well as storage and narrative broadcast uses with mass audiences. These applications have been labeled ‘Web 2.0’ applications by many” (Dutton & Helsper, 2007). In fact, one of the major changes in the way people use the Internet since 2005 has been the rise in popularity of social networking sites. This has enhanced existing possibilities for communicating and interacting with others, such as e-mailing, chatting and blogging, contributing to the increasing centrality of communication.
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A forth factor contributing to the widening of usages is the multiplication of the context of Internet use. In the beginning years of the 21st century, the Internet entered the home, escaping its original places of usage - namely, Internet cafes and school. More recently, with the proliferation of portable computers and Internet applications in mobile phones, the contexts of Internet use have expanded again, providing an opportunity for the development of innovative uses of the technology and simultaneously increasing the time available to be spent online. And return, the increase in time online is likely to again help widen the range of Internet usages. This increase in time of usage has also an impact on the improvement of peoples’ digital skills, leading us to a fifth factor contributing to the widening of Internet usages, the increase in digital media literacy. While people are increasingly experimenting with Internet’s tools, the tools themselves are also becoming more and more user-friendly, allowing users to continually improve their digital skills, in parallel to the augmentation of formal education initiatives related to digital literacy. Moreover, Internet is now more useful due to the increase of updating performance and consequently greater accuracy. In fact, in the early days of this technology, web pages were not updated as often as today and the information tended to be dated. Today, web pages change fast and the information available there might not be found anywhere else. Therefore, besides being the traditional frount of information, the Internet has become “an encyclopedia an aid for finding timetables, schedules, and addresses; a dictionary and language resource; a market place; and a place to find news and peruse magazines” (WIP, 2008). This constitutes a sixth factor contributing to the widening of Internet usages. The conjunction of these several factors led to the expansion of Internet usages, although in different scales for the various socio-demographic groups. In fact, as it has been shown in Finland (Sirkiä et al., 2005), the range and variety of Internet uses is highly differentiated according to age. According to the OECD (2008), young people use the Internet in considerably more varied ways
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than older people. In 2004, 6 out of 10 of those aged 15-29 years old listed eight purposes of Internet use, against only 1 out of 7 in the 50-74 years old groups. In addition, less than 5% of Internet users aged 15-29 used it for only 1 or 2 purposes, compared with nearly 20% of those aged 50 or more (OECD, 2008). Similar effects of age on use have been observed in Canada in 2005: People aged 18-34 were found to be using the Internet for significantly more purposes. More than 45% of them have 12 and more different purposes, compared with only a third of those aged 35-44, and significantly less in older age brackets (OECD, 2008). In the Netherlands, it has been similarly noted that the frequency of Internet usage is much higher among younger than among older people, and this also holds for the variety of use. Users with 10 Internet activities averaged 32 years old, in contrast to 1 activity for those averaging 49 years old (OECD, 2008). Similar tendencies have been found both in Italy and Portugal in generational studies of the Internet and TV usage (Cardoso, 2006; Aroldi & Colombo, 2003).
Figure 1.2 Gender differences for selected Internet activities in selected OECD countries (2005). Source: OECD, 2007.
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Figure 1.3 Selected online activities by level of education in Sweden (2003-2006). Source: OECD, 2007.
Moreover, it should be highlighted that age has an impact not only on the diversity of online activities, but also on the type of Internet usages. For example, it has been highlighted for France and Australia (Ewing & Thomas, 2009) that entertainment-related uses – namely, playing online videogames or downloading music and movies – are especially relevant to young people. In France, 60% of Internet users aged 18-25 years have used peer-to-peer (P2P) networks for exchanging media files, against only 27% of those aged 40-59 years. In contrast, people in the 25-45 age brackets show higher levels of e-banking and e-commerce usages (Credoc, 2005). Although the impact of gender on the variety of Internet usages is
The Internet as a media
35
of a lesser extent when compared to age, there is a slight tendency for men to use the Internet in more ways than women, especially for certain applications, such as downloading software. Educational background is also an important variable to consider, as the more one is educated, the higher the propensity he/she shows towards conducting more activities online, as can be seen, for example, in Sweden (see Figure 1.3). To sum up, “if Internet usage in the mid-90’s, somewhat exaggeratedly, could be distinguished by mostly e-mail and a few web pages with information, that picture doesn’t fit anymore. Internet has become a medium for communication, information and entertainment, where to a certain extent the users themselves create the contents” (Findahl, 2007). However, this evolution in Internet usages has lead to a new divide: the digital use divide (Sciadas, 2003). Although the digital access divide is decreasing and differences in access among various social groups are declining, a second digital divide, now focused in use, can be found and is based on inequalities of use and socioeconomic factors. Such a digital usage divide can be observed indirectly through the variety of Internet use and the very diverse abilities of individuals to find information efficiently online (Hargittai, 2002; Pénard & Suire, 2006). From the Global to the National: Internet Usages in Portugal, 2003-2008 Not only usages have been evolving. The user profile has also been changing as the Internet becomes more and more widespread. Internet users in Portugal now represent 39% of the population, against 36% in 2006. Although the gender gap has been diminishing in several countries, there is still a difference between men and women, as only 37% of the women in Portugal are Internet users, compared to 41% of men. In terms of age, 90.9% of the individuals aged 15-18 are Internet users, as well as 78.3% of the people aged 19-24, 59.9% of those in the 25-34 age brackets, 33.2% of those aged 35-54, 18.2% of those
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between 55-64 years old, and 3.7% of respondents of 65 years or older. Although the age gap is still considerable in Portugal, it should be highlighted that Internet penetration in older groups has been rising notably over the last three years. In terms of the relationship between education level and Internet use, we observed that Internet use has been increasing strongly since 2006 for individuals that had only the basic education. In 2008, more than half of respondents of this low educational background (52.5%) are Internet users, up from 25.1% in 2006. 85.2
89.1
79.4 77.1
75.1
64.8 52.5
25.1 17.7
!"#$% '()%"*+,
-'%+,("./ '()%"*+,
2003
2006
0$12'. '()%"*+,
2008
Figure 1.4 Evolution of Internet penetration, by level of education in Portugal (20032008). Source: WIP Portugal 2003, 2006 and 2008.
The analysis of Internet users’ profile provides us the necessary framework for the study of the evolution of Internet activities. If we look at technology-based studies, the top 10 of the most researched expressions on the Internet in Portugal in 2008 includes 5 communication-related expressions (Hi5, Gmail, Hotmail, TMN and Vodafone – Portuguese mobile operators), whereas the top 10 researched expressions in 2003 and 2006 were more related to informative and entertainment related features, suggesting growing importance of communication-related applications.
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Table 1.1 Top 10 researched expressions on the Internet. Source: Marktest, Netpanel. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2003 Portugal Download Lisboa Free Porto Natal 2003 CD Sexo DVD
2006 Gmail Sexo Jogos Google Emule Hi5 Sapo Fnac Páginas Amarelas Euromilhões
2008 Youtube Hi5 Gmail Sapo Wikipedia Hotmail TMN Vodafone Jogos Meteorologia
Similar results are observed in users’ studies. Considering the top 10 uses of the Internet in Portugal in 2008, it can be noted that many of those uses are communication related, namely the use of Email, IM (Instant Messaging) networks or sites of social networks such as Hi5 or Facebook. Data from previous WIP surveys (WIP 2003 and WIP 2006) allowed us to discern some emerging trends. In fact, a comparison of data between 2003 and 2008 reveals an increase in the importance of the Internet as a communication mediation technology. Email usage rose from 73.3% to 89.4%, instant messaging became the second most performed activity, and social networks are now used by more than half of the Internet users in Portugal. But analysing only the top 10 activities is not enough to characterize the everyday usages of the Internet in the country. Our analysis of the frequency of usage suggests that communicationrelated online activities are being carried out on a daily basis. Information-related usages (look for news, check facts, look for definitions, look for travel or health information, etc.) are more or less present in the different frequency intervals considered, whereas entertainment uses (download music or videos, play online games, browse the web) appear to be mostly weekly usages.
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38 Table 1.2 Top 10 uses of the Internet (% of Internet Users). Source: WIP Portugal 2003, 2006 and 2008.
2003
2006
2008 (n=404)
1
Email
73.3
Email
70.7
Email
89.4
2
Browse the web
64.9
Browse the web
53.9
74.5
3
Online encyclopedias, dictionaries or atlas
47.9
Online encyclopedias, dictionaries or atlas
41.2
Instant Messaging Look for news
4
Chats
39.8
Look for news
35.4
5
Look for news
39.3
Chats
34.8
6
Download music
34.1
schedule meetings with friends
30.5
7
Look for show related information
30.7
Play online videogames
28.4
8
Download software
28.8
28.0
9
Look for sports news
28.5
Contact friends when feeling down Look for sports news
10
Look for travel information
28.4 Look for show related information
27.6
Browse the web Check facts Look for information about products Look for a definition of a word Use social networks
Download/ listen to online music 27.4 Download/ watch online videos/ Look for health-related information
74.5
69.6 68.6 67.6
59.2
52.0 49.0 43.6
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Figure 1.5 Selected daily uses of the Internet in Portugal per age group – 2008 (% of Internet users). Source: WIP Portugal 2008.
As noted in our literature review, age is a major variable to consider when analysing Internet usages. Therefore, we decided to compare the main daily usages of individuals from two age groups, 15-18 years old and 35-44 years old, with the general population in order to highlight the eventual differences. As can be seen from Figure 1.5, there are several differences in the way these two age groups use the Internet al. though for both categories email and instant messaging (IM) appear as the most performed daily activities, a significantly larger proportion of those in the 15-18 age brackets use it than the general Internet population, whereas people of 35-44 years old use these applications slightly less compared to the total Internet users. A second element that draws our attention is the heavy Internet use by 15-18 year olds for entertainment - namely, playing online
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games and downloading music and video contents - as well as for social networking. Social network sites are visited by 50% of this group on a daily basis, compared to only 20% in the 35-44 age category. However, information-related use – seeking news, product or travel information – are more common among the 35-44 age group. In fact, as suggested by previous research, life stage should probably be more of a consideration than age (Dutton & Helsper, 2007; Cardoso 2006), given that in addition to time available to spend on the Internet other elements such as personal interests, hobbies and lifestyle also have impact on Internet use.
Figure 1.6 Selected daily uses of the Internet in Portugal, by gender – 2008 (% of Internet users). Source: WIP Portugal 2008
We now take a look at the impact of gender on Internet use. Although men tend to generally perform more activities online than women do, it should be highlighted that the gap narrows
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when the activity is communication-related, namely, in the case of social networks. For example, the gap between men and women in daily use of social networks is only 3 percentage points (27% for men and 24% for women), whereas the proportion of men downloading or watching video on a daily basis is twice that of women (12% against 6%), and men play online games more than twice as much as women (19% against only 9%). It should also be noticed that the gap between men and women is the smallest for information-related activities (such as seeking news or travel information, or checking facts). In fact, women use the Internet more than man toseeking school-related information or look for definitions. A Worldwide Trend? Internet Usages around the World The main advantage of performing an extensive international study such as the WIP is the possibility to make comparisons between nations while keeping in mind regional and contextual differences. In this ambit, and using the WIP 2007 data, it is possible to highlight the top 10 daily Internet activities in selected countries from different continents to acquire a global perspective of Internet use. This kind of comparison has of course some limitations. Internet penetration varies significantly across the world. While Internet users in some countries may be suitably described as digital elites or early-adopters, those in others may distinguish themselves only by the different purposes for using the technology and consequently thedifferent Internet activities. In addition, some online activities are important only for people in some countries (or at least, not in a homogenized way) – namely, the use of social networks – which would render the comparison invalid. Also, there are cultural, historic and socio-demographic variables that must be taken into account when looking at the results of such a comparison, as data must not be interpreted out of context. Nevertheless, and in spite of such limitations2, this kind of Note that the countries we selected for the present analysis were those that presented a complete dataset for the variables that we have considered.
2
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comparison is rewarding as presents the possibility for us to spot some worldwide trends and differences. A preliminary analysis of the data allows us to highlight the importance of email for the different countries considered, as it is the most used application anywhere except in China. As the Chinese WIP report explains, “this lesser use of email in China than in the West probably has an explanation in Chinese cultural traditions and communication habits: Chinese prefer instantaneous, confirmable communication, as demonstrated by high use of instant messaging in China as well as low use of answering or message-leaving machines in general” (Liang, 2007). Nevertheless, email usage has grown considerably in China, passing from 69% of onliners in 2005 to 80% in 2007. The importance of communicationrelated uses is also clear if we consider IM networks, as this is the second or third most performed activity in all countries, except for the US, where it ranks the fourth. As the WIP 2008 general report highlights for the case of Britain, “communication is the most popular online activity, with e-mailing leading since the first OxIS survey (in 2007, 93% of Internet users). Instant messaging (60%) and chat room participation (29%) are other consistently used communication services”(WIP, 2008). It should also be noted that 20-30% of the people in most countries use IM on a daily basis, more than 50% do so in Bolivia and China. In fact, as highlighted in the Australian WIP report, despite the fact that more than one fifth (20.8%) of the onliners use IM at least once a day, a clear majority of internet users do not (58.7%), with a further 20.2% of respondents messaging weekly or less often (Ewing & Thomas, 2008). Other applications, such as social networks, are in the same stage of evolution in different countries. For example, in Britain, although social networking has generated much media coverage and excitement, only 17% of users had a profile on a social networking site as of March 2007 (WIP, 2008). By contrast, in the US, membership of online communities has more than doubled in just three years. More than half of the online community members (54%) log into their virtual communities at least once a day,
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and 71% say their communities are very important or extremely important to them (WIP, 2008). Portugal also differs significantly from Britain. WIP Portugal (2008) found that 52% of Internet users visit social network sites and more than 74% use IM. Information seeking (e.g. getting news, checking facts, looking up information for school or word definitions) is a common activity in all the countries studied. Countries with relatively high e-commerce penetration, such as Britain and the US, also present high proportions of users looking for product information. Nevertheless, according to WIP Britain (2007), a significant shift took place in the way people look for information online. In 2005, Internet users were more likely to use both search engines and specific pages they might bookmark to look for information. In 2007, they were found to be much more inclined to use search engines only (Dutton & Helsper, 2007). In addition, the Internet is an increasingly important source for all types of information, especially leisure-related information, such as that about travel and local events. Between 2005 and 2007, the percentage of people looking for health information online increased markedly (OxIS, 2007). With regard to entertainment-related Internet use, the most common activities across countries are listening/downloading music and videos and playing online videogames. These activities rank high places in the list of top 10 uses in China: listening/ downloading music ranks the fourth (even ahead of emailing), playing games ranks the sixth, and watching/downloading videos the seventh. As the general WIP 2008 report highlights, in 2005 “the Internet played the role of ‘entertainment highway’ more strongly than that of ‘information highway’ in China. This year’s survey results also show that although the percentage of Internet users who used the Internet to look for information had increased, the most fully used function of the Internet was still its entertainment function” (WIP, 2008). The importance of entertainment-related usages can also be seen as more than 30% of users say the Internet is an important or very important source of entertainment, with China (76%) and Colombia (72%) in the lead. The growing
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importance of entertainment has also been noted in other countries such as Colombia – “the most popular Internet activities in Colombia are e-mail and instant messaging; however, there are an increasing number of users who demand entertainment content, such as games, music, and video” (WIP, 2008). To sum up, the selected countries can be divided into four broad groups based on Internet usages. The first would include Portugal, Bolivia and Colombia. This group is characterized by a remarkable focus on communication-related activities such as email, IM and social networks. A second broad group would be represented by China, where the differentiating element is the focus on entertainment-related activities. A third group, encompassing the US and Australia, could be characterized by the popular use of service-related applications(e-banking, etc.) and the importance of the Internet for its communication, information and entertainment applications. Finally, a forth group would be composed of Sweden and Britain, where information-related activities are the staple for users. Latin America and South Europe
China
Communication Driven Usage
Entertainment Driven Usage
USA and Australia
Sweden and Britain
Triumvirate Driven Model (Comm-Info-Enter)
Dual Driven Model (Comm-Info)
Figure 1.7 Internet usages around the globe.
Look for news
Instant Messaging
E-banking
Browse the Web
Information for school
Checking a fact
Listening/ downloading music Looking up for a definition
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
10
Watching/ downloading video
Email
1
9
Australia
Watching/ downloading video Look for news
Checking a fact
Information for school
Browse the Web
Listening/ downloading music Looking up for a definition
Instant Messaging
Chat rooms
Email
Bolivia
Look for a job
Information for school
Watching/ downloading video Checking a fact
Play games online
Checking a fact
Listening/ downloading music Email
Listening/ downloading music Watching/ downloading video Look for health information
Look for news
Looking up for a definition
Browse the Web
Information for school
Instant Messaging
Email
Colombia
Look for news
Instant Messaging
Browse the Web
China
Table 1.3 Top 10 daily uses of the Internet, selected countries. Source: WIP 2007.
Play online games
Make phone calls
Look for a job
Listening to online radio
Listening/ downloading music Checking a fact
Browse the Web
Instant Messaging
Look for news
Email
Sweden
Make phone calls
Information for school
Listen to online radio
Play online games
Listening/ downloading music Information for school
Information about products
Checking a fact
E-banking
Play online games
Checking a fact Information about products
Instant Messaging
Look for news
Browse the Web
Email
USA
Look for news
Instant Messaging
Browse the Web
Email
UK
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Country segmentation is useful for highlighting some of the differences among countries and to serve as a ground for the model building of usage trends. Nevertheless, the segmentation is exploratory and needs further contextualization and generalization. Furthermore, the statistics should be complemented with qualitative analysis, especially when evaluating something such as ICT daily uses. Therefore, this research constitutes not an arrival but a starting point for further analysis. Information out and Communication in? Analyses presented here allow us to highlight three important conclusions. First, Internet usages have been evolving considerably over the years in Portugal, oriented more and more towards communication activities, which serves as a ground for the development of the Networked Communication Society. Secondly, although the increment of the Internet usage is a global phenomenon, other countries present some specificities. Some focus more on entertainment, and others present higher levels of information-related activities or web services. Country Internet usage seems to be organized either be highly focusing in a set of common activities, usually communication or entertainment, or by a shared approach, either dualistic or triumvirate driven. In the shared model approach, communication and entertainment rather than Information led usage activities are always present. As the WIP 2008 general report points out, “the most important change will probably be a shift to using the Internet as the first port of call for communication as well as information. This is likely to be bolstered by a growth in Web 2.0 social networking and “Web 3.0” co-creation applications (WIP 2008). Thirdly, more and more people are not only using the Internet for communication related activities, but they are also increasingly doing it on a daily basis, highlighting the importance of such usages in people’s everyday life. In the last pages, we tried to address three different, although interconnected, questions. The first being: can we say that we have
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moved out of Information and into Communication in terms of Internet usage? Our interpretation of the available data is that, although information seeking seems to be always present in every use of the Internet, it no longer leads in an absolute way. Information activities are sharing more and more their lead in user’s hierarchy of performed online activities with communication, and also to a lesser degree with entertainment. The second question dealt with the relationship between the representations of yesterday’s thoughts on the Internet and today’s practices. In that domain, we suggest that the Internet has moved from being a space of keepers of knowledge into a space mainly built around the communication activities that configure the archetype of the communicator (Stefik 1997) and introduced a new archetype based on the role of entertainment in daily lives, that of the creator. The third analytical dimension pursued in this analysis focused on what the Internet usage might tell us about the role of Internet in communication and how that could help us to characterize societies’ communication models. It is our view that the use of a given technology more intensively towards communication itself must have a significant importance in the shaping of the communication model. The more we use technologies of mediation to communicate the more we increment the role of some of the features of a given communicational model. In the case of the networked communicational model, the more the Internet is used to communicate, the more we are to expect that some of the features inherent to interpersonal communication will be developed alongside experimentation with the mass media characteristics and own driven experimentation. When the two dimensions of a given model are both fuelled by individual and organizational experimentation and innovation, the model is able to foster its own evolution and to pass from an embryonic phase into an institutionalized one, which might be the case with Networked Communication.
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References Aroldi, P., & Colombo, F. (2003). Le Età della Tv, Milano: VP Università. Castells, M., (2006). “Connectivity in Antiquity — Globalization as Long-Term Historical Process,” in Connectivity in Antiquity Globalization as LongTerm Historical Process. Edited by O. La Bianca and S. A. Scham. London: Equinox. Castells, M. (2000). The Rise of the Network Society, Oxford: Blackwell. Cardoso, G. (2008). From Mass to Networked Communication: Communicational models and the Informational Society, in IJOC (International Journal of Communication), Annenberg School of Communication, University of South California, vol. 2 2008, available online http://ijoc.org/ojs/index.php/ ijoc/article/view/19/178 Cardoso, G. (2006). The Media in the Network Society : browsing, news, filters and citizenship, Lisboa, Portugal: CIES. Colombo, F. (1993). Le Nuove Tecnologie Della Comunicazione, Milano: Bompiani Credoc (2005). La dynamique des inégalités en matière de nouvelles Technologies, available online http://www.credoc.fr/pdf/Rech/C217.pdf Dutton, W. and Helsper, E.J. (2007). The Internet in Britain: 2007. Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford (Oxford, UK). Available online http://www.worldInternetproject.net/ Eco, U. (2001). Il Medium Precede Il Messaggio, Available Online: http://www. espressoonline.kataweb.it/ESW_articolo/0,2393,12424,00.html Ewing and Thomas (2008), The Internet in Australia, ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation, Austtralia, available online http:// www.worldInternetproject.net/ Ewing, S and Thomas, J. (2009). Creative dynamics of the broadband Internet: Australian production and consumption of cultural content, in Cardoso G., Cheong Angus, Cole Jeffrey (2009) World Wide Internet. Changing Societies, Cultures and Economies, University of Macau Press, Macao, PRC. Findahl (2009). The Internet as a complement to traditional media. An international comparison of countries with high newspaper reach. in Cardoso G., Cheong Angus, Cole Jeffrey (2009) World Wide Internet. Changing Societies, Cultures and Economies, University of Macao Press, Macao, PRP. Findahl (2007). The Internet in Sweden, World Internet Institute, Sweden,
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available online http://www.worldInternetproject.net/ Giddens, A. (2006). Sociology (Fifth Edition), Polity Press, Cambridge. Giddens, A. (1999). DNW Interview met Anthony Giddens, Available Online: http://www.vpro.nl/programma/dnw/download/Interview_Giddens.shtml Hargittai, E. (2002). Second Level digital divide. Differences in people’s online skills, First Monday, available online www.firstmonday.dk Lash, S., & Lurry, C. (2007). Global Culture Industry. The Mediation of Things. London: Polity. Liang, G (2007). Surveying Internet Usage and its Impact in Seven Chinese Cities, Research Center for Social Development, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, available online http://www.worldInternetproject.net/ Licope, C. and Heurtin, J (2002). France: preserving the image, in KATZ, J. e AAKHUS, S. (2002), Perpetual Contact, Mobile Communication, Private Talk, Public Performance, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Lull, J. (2007). Culture on Demand: Communication in a Crisis World, Oxford: Blackwell. Mazzoleni, G., Kelly, M., & McQuail, D. (eds.). (2004). The Media in Europe, London, Sage. Mcphail, T. (2005). Global Communication: Theories, Stakeholders and Trends, Oxford: Blackwell. Meyrovitz, J. (1985). No Sense of Place. The Impact of Electronic Media on Social Behavior. New York: Oxford University Press. OECD (2007). Information Technology outlook 2007, OECD, available online http://www.oecd.org/ OECD (2008). Information Technology outlook 2008, OECD, available online http://www.oecd.org/ Ortoleva, P. (2004). O Novo Sistema dos Media, in Paquete De Oliveira, J.M., Cardoso, G., Barreiros, J., Comunicação, Cultura e Tecnologias de Informação, Lisboa: Quimera. Pénard, T. and R. Suire (2006). Le rôle des Interactions sociales dans les modèles economiques de l’Internet, available online www.marsouin.org Plant, S. (2001). On the Mobile: the effects of mobile telephones on social and individual life, Motorola. Rantanen, T. (1997). The Globalization of News in the 19th Century, in Media, Culture & Society, Nº 3, pp. 605-620. Richeri, G. (1996). La Storia dei Media, Available Online: http://www. mediamente.rai.it/home/bibliote/intervis/r/richer04.htm
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Sciadas, G. (2003). Monitoring the Digital Divide and Beyond, Orbicom, available online www.orbicom.uqam.ca Shoemaker, P. (ed.). (2006). News Around the World: Content, Practitioners and the Public, New York, Routledge. Silverstone, R. (2005). The Sociology of Mediation and Communication, in Calhoun, C., Rojek, C., & Turner, B.S. (eds.), The International Handbook of Sociology. London: Sage. Silverstone, R., & Osimo, D. (2005). Interview with Prof. Roger Silverstone, Communication & Strategies, nº 59, 3rd quarter 2005, p. 101. Silverstone, R. (2006). Media and Morality: on the Rise of Mediapolis, Oxford: Polity. Sirkia, et alia (2005). Finnish People’s Communication capabilities in Interactive Society of the 2000s, part 2, Statistics Finalnd. Sparks, C. (2007). Globalization, Development and the Mass Media, London: Sage. Sproull, L. and Samer Faraj. (1995). Atheism, sex, and databases: The net as a social technology. In Brian Kahin and James Keller (eds.), Public Access to the Internet: 62-81. Cambridge: The MIT Press. Stefik, M. (1997). Internet dreams: archetypes, myths and metaphors, MIT Press, Cambridge. Thompson, John B. (1996). Political Scandal. Power and Visibility in the Media Age, Cambridge: Polity Press. Tremayne, M. (2007). Examining the Blog-Media Relationship, in Tremayne, Mark (ed.), Blogging, Citizenship and the Future of Media, New York: Routledge. Winston, B. (1999). Media Technology and Society. A History from the Telegraph to the Internet, London: Routledge. WIP (2008), The World Internet Project 2009, WIP, available online for purchase http://www.worldInternetproject.net/
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2 The Internet as a Complement to Traditional Media: A Cross Country Comparison Olle Findahl
Changing Mediascape The Internet has existed as a mass medium for more than 15 years and has become an important part of everyday life for a lot of people. There are now 1.5 billion Internet users around the world (Internet World Stats, 2008) who are spending more and more time online. The issue is not only about minutes and hours people spent online in lieu of reading, listening or viewing. It is also about content. Information, news, music and film can be found on the Internet where users can read newspapers and watch TV for free, whenever they want. What are the effects of these changes in the media landscape on traditional media? Hard Times for Newspapers and Broadcast Television Signs of hard times for newspapers are everywhere, especially in the US: Philadelphia Daily News, Miami Herald, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, among others, have been forced to make fundamental changes. And the world’s most revered dailies like the New York Times, Le Mond in France and The Independent in UK, have had severe economical problems. This is also true of newspapers in many other cities- from Los Angeles to Frankfurt, Glasgow to Toronto. No doubt, the newspaper industry has got problems trying to adapt to a changing media landscape with new platforms and new business models. Traditional TV networks suffer too. The three American
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Networks have lost viewers during the last years. Is the web biting into the TV viewing market? Yes, say analysts Jupiter Research: Many are turning away from TV (BBC, 2004). And in Europe the public service television and the major TV channels have had declining audiences during the last 10 years. The loss of audience for newspapers and television were anticipated by many technology experts (Negroponte, 1996) and media researchers (Kraut et al. ,1998; Haythornthwaite & Wellman, 2002; Nie & Erbring, 2000). They predicted that hardcopy newspapers and television were going to disappear along with increased access to the Internet. And these predictions seemed to be confirmed when a simple comparison of users and non-users of the Internet showed that the former read less newspapers and watched less television than the latter. In many countries the nonusers spent 50% more time than the users reading newspapers and watching television (WIP, 2009). But it can be premature to blame the Internet for the decline in television viewing. We know that older people watch more television than younger people who use the Internet more (Findahl, 2007). Thus, the loss in time spent watching television among the Internet users can be an effect of age rather than the nature of the medium. After controlling for age, these differences disappear. The explanation is that the Internet users are, on average, much younger than the non-users. And young people read less newspapers and watch less television with or without the Internet. This state of affairs existed long before the Internet (Findahl, 1986). However, the newspaper and television industry have got problems restructuring and adapting to the new media landscape. It is unclear as to what is happening with the audience. Statistics show that the situation for traditional media is not the same in all countries. In some countries, like the US, newspaper sales are down, in other countries sales are up and in many countries there have only been small changes during the last years (WAN, 2007). In most countries the size of TV audience has not declined (Int. TV Exp Group, 2009). Evidently there are different opinions based on different statistics about what has happened to audience of the
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traditional media. Let us now examine differences between countries, comparing those with a high level of Internet penetration. If the Internet has any effect at all on traditional media, then the effect should be most manifest in countries where a majority of the population are Internet users. We can then look at countries where newspaper readership was high before the Internet was introduced and observe what has happened after the introduction of the Internet. If the use of the Internet is high and users are spending a lot of time reading news online, the hypotheses is that the Internet has an aversive effect on newspaper reading, especially when newspaper reach is high in the country. A similar negative relation should be expected between TV viewing and Internet use when people spend more and more time online during the evenings. Here we will focus on countries with a strong tradition of newspaper reading and a high Internet penetration. Japan and Norway have, for many years, been at the top among countries with high newspaper reach, and with the highest sales per thousand (WAN, 2007). That holds also for the other Nordic countries: Sweden, Finland and Denmark, even though the newspaper reach is a little lower in Denmark. In all of these countries the Internet penetration is high. Around 80 percent of the population are users of the Internet. In the case of Japan the rate of Internet penetration is also high if we combine the use of Internet by both PC and mobile phones (Mikami, 2004). We obtained first hand data in Sweden, which we will compare with the other Nordic countries, followed by a look at the development in Japan where the reach of both newspaper and TV is high. We will also look at Canada, where the Internet penetration is high but the newspaper reach is moderate like in the US. Newspapers in Sweden Swedes have a long tradition of reading newspapers that dates back a hundred years. Among adults more than 80% were daily readers before the introduction of the Internet. Most people subscribe to a
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local newspaper. The question is: Does the increase in number of Swedes who have started to use the Internet negatively influence this strong tradition? 55% of the population were following news online at least once a week or more often and 47% were reading newspapers online 2007 (Findahl, 2007). Subjective Judgements The suspicion of the negative effects of the Internet is reinforced by the answers provided by the Internet users themselves. They were asked in what way the Internet use had influenced their traditional newspaper reading. Most of the users answered that they were reading like before, but 5-10 percent reported much less and 10-15 percent somewhat less. Among the heavier Internet users, more people answered that they were reading much less. There is also a difference between morning newspapers and evening papers. The negative influence at the reading of evening papers is much stronger, according to the subjective judgements of the Internet users. And the younger generation (18-29 years) is more influenced by the Internet then the older generations. Table 2.1 Subjective judgement of the influence of Internet use at Newspaper reading (Proportion of Internet users). Much less Somewhat less 2000
5
10
2005
7
17
2007 (18+ years) 2007 (18-29 years)
6 13
13 39
Time Estimates In addition to subjective judgements, we can look at how much time, in hours and minutes, that people say they spend reading newspapers. A simple comparison between users and non-users of the Internet in 2007 shows a clear difference between the two groups. Internet users read newspapers, on average, two hours and 49 minutes a week, compared to four hours and three minutes
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for those who are not using the Internet. There is also a similar difference when it comes to reading tabloids, evening papers. Table 2.2 Subjective judgement of the influence of Internet use at Evening paper reading (Proportion of Internet users). Source: World Internet Institute 2007. Much less
Somewhat less
2000
9
20
2007 (18+ years) 2007 (18-29 years)
12 21
16 51
2005
10
25
Table 2.3 A comparison of average reading time between those who are using and not using the Internet, without control of age. Source: World Internet Institute 2007. 18+ years, N= 2017
Reading Newspapers
Reading Evening Papers
Non-users of Internet
4 hours 3 minutes
1 hour 5 minutes
Internet users
2 hours 49 minutes
39 minutes
However, this is not a fair comparison, as there are more old people among those who are not using the Internet, and old people spend more time reading newspapers. If we make the comparison within each age group, the result is different. In all three age groups, the Internet users are reading more newspapers, in three age groups there are no differences and in one age group (65-75 years) the Internet users are reading less. But when it comes to evening papers the simple comparison holds for most age groups. We could draw a tentative conclusion that the use of Internet has a negative influence on the reading of evening papers, but not the reading of the daily newspaper.
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Table 2.4 A comparison of reading time in seven age groups between those who are using and not using the Internet, without control of age. Source: World Internet Institute 2007 Internet users read more
No differences
Internet users read less
Newspapers
3 age groups
3 age groups
1 age group
Evening papers
1 age group
2 age groups
4 age groups
Another way to analyze what has happened is to study changes over the years. From our own data (World Internet Institute 2007) we find that 83 percent of the Swedes were reading a newspaper daily in 2000. Seven years later, 87 percent say that they are daily readers. From this figures we cannot say that the introduction of Internet has had a negative influence on newspapers. But people are perhaps reading less today? Or, they read newspapers like before but do not spend so much time reading? As we can see from the diagrams, people are spending more and more minutes using Internet. During the last 10 years there has been an increase from zero to nearly 60 minutes a day (average among all adults). The major increase has happened during the last years when the broadband penetration has accelerated. Today 86% of the Internet users have a broadband connection. Let us first look at the competition for time. There is a steep increase in the use of Internet but the minutes people are spending reading newspapers are about the same from 1996 to 2006. It seems, however, that there is a decrease in newspaper reading (the upper diagram) in the beginning (1996-2002) and a small decrease during the last years (2005-2006), but no decrease when it comes to reading of morning newspapers (the lower diagram). So the influence of Internet use is manifested in a lesser interest in evening newspapers, tabloids, during the last years..
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Minutes a day Population 9-79years
60
50
Newspaper reading 40
30
20
Internet use 10
0
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
Figure 2.1 Daily use (9-79 years) in minutes of Internet and Morning + Evening Newspapers 1996-2006. Source: Mediabarometern 2006.
Minutes a day Population 9-79years
60
50
Internet use
40
30
Morning newspaper reading 20
10
0
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
Figure 2.2 Daily use (9-79 years) in minutes of Morning Newspapers and Internet 19962006. Source: Mediebarometern 2006
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Looking closer at the way people are getting their traditional newspapers we can see that, although more people are reading newspapers today, there are small decreases in how many are buying single copies, reading free newspapers, reading newspapers at work and even a small decrease in subscription. Buying less single copies and reading less newspaper at work is a general phenomenon, but it is limited among the young . They are, however, reading more free newspapers, contrary to the others who have become less interested in those. But on the whole, the habits of reading newspapers in paper format in Sweden have changed very little since the Internet was introduced. Exception is found among the young (18-25 years). Seven years earlier more than half of them (59%) subscribed to a newspaper. Today the figure is close to one third (38%). They are reading more of free newspapers instead of buying single copies and do not read as much newspaper at work as before. In total 71 percent of young people are reading a traditional daily newspaper in paper format. That is exactly the same figure as seven years ago. Table 2.5 Comparison of the habits of newspaper readers, year 2000 to year 2007. Source: World Internet Institute 2007. Daily reader of a newspaper
Subscribe to a newspaper
Buy single copies
Read free newspaper
Read newspaper at work
2000
83%
76%
13%
12%
22%
2007
87%
72%
6%
9%
12%
N= 2000
Swedish population
Daily newsreaders
Daily newsreaders
Daily newsreaders
Daily newsreaders
The tradition of reading a daily newspaper seems to have survived the first 10 years of the Internet. That is remarkable as reading a newspaper online is one of the most popular activities among the users of the Internet in all ages and most Swedish newspapers have a net version of their newspaper (Findahl, 2007).
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Focusing on the young adults, where some changes have happened, we can note that 90 percent of them are using the Internet and 72% read a newspaper online at least daily or a few times a week. That is the same figure as we noticed earlier for reading the paper format of a traditional newspaper. So even among the youngest adults the online format and the paper format exist more like a complement than a displacement. From whence the extra time comes for the new media, it is not so clear (Robinson, et.al. 2000). One problem with the interpretation of results is that the subjective judgements from tables 1 and 2 are not compatible with the audience statistics and the time measures. Heavy Internet users have a feeling that they use traditional media less than before, but impressions emerging from the audience statistics prove otherwise. Television in Sweden Television viewing is a more time consuming activity than newspaper reading. And even if the Swedes do not spend as much time in front of the TV set as the Americans, the Japanese or the English, television viewing should be an activity that could be affected if many people start to use the Internet in the evenings. Daily TV viewing online is still too restricted to have any effect (Findahl, 2008). Studying the audience statistics (Figure 2.3) we can see that the time for TV viewing seems to be constant during the last 10 years when the use of Internet has increased. This diagram does not fit so well with the subjective judgments of the Internet users. Already seven years ago more than one quarter of the Internet users said that they were watching less television since they started to use Internet. This proportion of users is still about the same, even if the time people are using Internet has trebled. A simple comparison between users and non-users supports the claim. Internet users watch television, on average, 12 hours and 38 minutes a week, compared to 14 hours and 38 minutes for nonusers.
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120
TV watching
Minutes a day Population 9-79years
100
80
60
40
20
0
Internet use
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
Figure2.3 Daily use (9-79 years) in minutes of Internet and Television 1996-2006. Source: Mediabaromenter 2006 Table 2.6 Subjective judgement of the influence of Internet use at Television viewing. Source: World Internet Institute 2007.
Proportion of Internet users
Much less
Somewhat less
2000
7 5 4 8
24
2005 2007 (18+ years) 2007 (18-29 years)
17
17 29
Table 2.7 A comparison of TV viewing time between those who are using and not using the Internet. Source: World Internet Institute 2007.
18+ years, N= 2017
No use of Internet
Internet users
Watching television during a week
14 hours 38 minutes 12 hours 28 minutes
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Table 2.8 A comparison of television viewing in seven age groups between those who are using and not using the Internet. Source: World Internet Institute 2007.
Internet users watch more Television 2 age groups
No differInternet users ences watch less 3 age groups 2 age group
This simple comparison is flawed. Those who watch TV the most are older and tend to be non-Internet users. If we compare the amount of time users and non-users spend watching television in the same age group the comparison will be more unbiased. Consistent with the audience statistics, the time people spend watching television is about the same today as seven years ago. In two younger age groups the Internet users watch more television and in two older age groups they watch less. In three age groups there are no differences. So there is no strong evidence that the use of Internet has a negative influence on television, even if the subjective judgements point in that direction (Findahl, 2007b; Nielsen, 2006). Traditional Media Online in Sweden There has been a lot of attention to the possibility of watching television online. But very few are watching television on a daily basis. The Internet has become a new platform where one can find television programs and videos, although the Internet has not replaced traditional television viewing. Reading newspapers online has become much more common and a majority of Swedes are doing this daily or nearly daily. But the same people still subscribe to a daily newspaper in the traditional paper format.
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70 60 50 30 40 30 weekly 20
28 30
26 19
10 0
Read newspaper
6
4
2
Listen/download Music
Listen to radio
Watch Video
15
daily
1 Watch TV
Figure 2.4 Proportion of the population using Internet for traditional media. Source: World Internet Institute 2007.
The Nordic countries Like Sweden, the other Nordic countries - Denmark, Norway and Finland – all have a high Internet penetration rate with a high newspaper reach and a moderate to low TV reach. The question is if the same has happened in the other Nordic countries where newspaper reading and TV viewing remain rather constant during the diffusion of the Internet. Television in the Nordic countries In Sweden the TV reach remained constant during the same period when the time people spent on the Internet has trebled. The situation, as shown in diagram 13, is very similar in the other Nordic countries. The TV reach was 70-75 % 1996 and the same 10 years later. There is a small decrease in Sweden. During the same period, viewing time has somewhat increased from 150 minute to more close to 160 minute a day (Diagram 14). A closer look reveals that this small increase refers to Sweden and Finland, while there has been a small decrease in Norway.
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Finland
Norway
Sweden
100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
Figure 2.5 Television viewing: Daily reach 1996-2006 (share of population, per cent)
Denmark
Finland
Norway
Sweden
200 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Figure 2.6 Television viewing: Total daily viewing time 1996-2007 (minutes).
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Newspapers in the Nordic Countries From our own data (WII 2007) we could see that 83 percent of the Swedes read a newspaper daily in the year 2000. Seven years later 87 percent say that they are daily readers. From those figures we cannot say that the introduction of Internet has had a negative influence on newspapers. Below, we will use media statistics from Nordicom, a mediacenter that gather statistics from all the Nordic countries to make comparisons. Denmark
Finland
Norway
Sweden
100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
Figure 2.7 Newspaper readership: Daily reach 1996-2006 (per cent).
The newspaper readership is still nearly as high as before even in Denmark, Norway and Finland. The strong tradition of reading a daily newspaper seems to survive at least during the first 10 years of the Internet in the Nordic countries. There are, however, some differences. In Norway and Denmark there is a decline (nearly 10%), while the newspaper readership in Sweden and Finland is unchanged. To sum up: Television viewing and newspaper reading in Norway and Denmark have declined during the last 10 years when more and more time has been devoted to the Internet. However, the observed relationship is more correlational than causal. The
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decline in newspaper reading in Denmark, for example, started long before Internet became popular (Jauert & Prehn, 2001). The Nordic countries are known to have a very strong tradition of newspaper reading. In terms of number of copies sold per capita Norway is at the top. There are two reasons for that (Östbye, 2001). One is the historical tradition of public education and widespread literacy. The other is the country’s topography and history, which have produced a tri-level press structure, with local papers, strong regional papers and a nationally distributed press. The result is that many readers have both a local or regional paper as well as a national newspaper. Also Finland is traditionally a land of newspapers, and ranks third after Japan and Norway when it comes to newspapers circulation relative to its population (Jyrkiäinen & Sauri, 2001). The long tradition of reading and the strong position of the local newspapers in their markets are said to be the base of the Swedish daily papers (Weibull, 2007). Denmark is the only exception. Its newspaper readership is the lowest, so is the newspaper circulation, which decreased already during the 90’s (Jauert & Prehn, 2001). The tabloid press was hit hard with a decrease to almost half of the circulation during the 1980s. Japan Internet penetration in Japan is high when the use of the Internet via mobile phones is added to the use of Internet via computers. Newspaper readership is high with a daily reach of 92.5% and even among the youngest group 15-19 years the daily reach is 86%. There has been no decline in readership during the last five years when the minutes spent daily with the Internet has increased from 50 to 90 minutes (WAN, 2007). Neither have there been any changes in minutes spent per day reading a morning paper. The TV reach, that was high when the Internet was introduced, is still very high and has not declined during the last five years. Even after controlling for age, there are no differences between users and non-users of the Internet (Mikami et.al., 2004).
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Canada Canada is also a country with a high Internet penetration. The country’s TV reach is moderate, as well the newspaper reach, which means that the readership is more moderate compared to the Scandinavian countries and Japan. However, contrary to what happened in US, newspaper readership in Canada remains strong, according to the newspaper audience databank 2007/2008 (Tcholakian, 2008). The current news/information diet is still quite varied, and even if the importance of the Internet as an information source among the younger generations is increasing, the exposure to a variety of sources among this group is significant (CMCR, 2008). In the Canadian WIP-study, Zamaria and Fletcher (2008) observed that television viewing has remained constant between 2004 and 2007 as well as newspaper reading. Because Internet users are likely to use all media, traditional media are not being replaced by online activities. Instead the use of new media tends to supplement the use of old media. “It can’t be assumed that the Internet has replaced other media”. They conclude that Canadian youth are not rejecting traditional media but rather adding new things to their media menu and consuming old media in new ways. US In the beginning of this article we described the problematic situation for many newspapers in US and mentioned the decline of the three major television networks (Webster, 2005). Looking closer at the decline of the major broadcast networks, the trend started in the 80s and has continued ever since then. So the decreasing audience of the traditional TV Networks cannot be ascribed to the rise of the Internet (Pew, 2006). The decline is more a logical result of the cable networks and the increasing number of available TV channels. The more channels the less share for each channel. At the same time there are recent findings that show that TV viewing is not decreasing at all. Nielsen Co. presented data, as
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late as February 2009 that TV viewing was on the rise: Americans watch more television than ever. When it comes to newspapers in US, there has been a drop of around 10 percent in readership since 2000 (Pew, 2009). But this decline also begun before the Internet, and most exposed has been the evening papers. The expectation is that circulation will continue to decline in coming years (Pew, 2009). “Where four out of every five Americans in 1964 read a paper every day, today, only half do (Nichols & McChesney, 2009). The Internet has become the main source for information for many users in not only US, but also in countries like Australia, New Zealand and Canada (WIP, 2009). And when it comes to news, the Internet has overtaken newspapers as a source of national and international news, but television is still the main source (Pew, 2008). Nichols & McChesney (2009) argue that the declining readership in US is not an Internet problem or an audience problem but a quality and credibility problem. The economic collapse and Internet have greatly accentuated and accelerated a process that can be traced back to the 1970s, when corporate ownership and consolidation of newspapers took off. It was then that managers began to balance their books and to satisfy the demand from investors for ever-increasing returns by cutting journalists and shutting news bureaus. Philip Meyer (2004) had a diagram in his book that showed that the daily newspaper readership in US has decreased at a rate of 10% every 10 years, from 1970: 70%, 1980: 60%, 1990: 50% and 2000: 40%. If this line of declining readership was to continue there would be no newspapers left 2040. Meyer is widely cited, and as the name of his book is “The Vanishing Newspaper” he is used as evidence to strengthen the assumption of the disappearing newspapers. But the full name of the book is “The Vanishing Newspaper: Saving Journalism in the Information Age”. The last part of the title is often omitted. Meyer is making a complex analyse of the situation for US newspapers, with a lot of quantitative data. And he does not believe that straight-line trends continue forever.
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He is arguing for the importance of quality and credibility and that newspaper should focus more on the long-term health than the quarter-to-quarter earnings (Meyer, 2008). Summary and Discussion The diffusion of Internet has continued rapidly in many countries. In Sweden, and in the other Nordic countries, today 80% of the population are using the Internet. With access to broadband connections, people are spending more and more time online. The questions we have attempted to answer are: What are the consequences of this advancement of a new media for the traditional media - newspapers and television? Will there be competition and rivalry when the Internet as a newcomer tries to get a position in the old media world? Technological advancement has, over the last 100 years or so, given rise to and introduced to human society three new forms of mass medium – namely, the radio in the 1920s, television in the 1950s and the Internet in the 1990s. However, this last time it is not only about new and old media competing for people’s time and attention or competing for advertising revenue. It is also bringing upon us a profound change in economical conditions. The price of bandwidth and storage is dropping, coming closer to the price of digital distribution that already is close to zero. That means that the marginal costs, the charge in total costs that arises when the quantity produced changes by one unit, is quickly decreasing. According to economical theory, goods will be sold at their marginal cost of production if there is no monopoly allowing a producer to maintain prices above marginal costs, if consumers are sensitive to prices, or if the supply of the product is limited. Even if the old actors of yesterday still try to maintain their monopolistic positions, the supply of content – news, information, entertainment – is not limited and the consumers are very sensitive to the prices (Findahl, 2006; Selg & Findahl 2006; Findahl, et.al., 2006). The general assumption is that traditional newspaper reading will decline as there are a lot of newspapers available online for
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free. And television viewing will also decline because people will not have time watching television when they are busy using the Internet. At first sight, these assumptions are in accordance with common sense. A simple comparison of those who use and not use the Internet shows that Internet users are reading less traditional newspapers and watching less television. Their subjective judgements support this finding. But a more thorough analysis reveals that this is a spurious correlation and that it is dangerous to rely on old common sense when media are changing. Holding age constant, the correlation disappears. The same result appears using audience statistics, following the audience figures during the last 10 years. However, there are ongoing changes in media habits among the young generation, but these changes are slow and not as profound as generally assumed. To better understand what is happening over the years, there is need for longitudinal data. In this study, we focused at countries with a high Internet penetration and also a high newspaper reach before the Internet was introduced. The countries were Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark and Japan. In these countries the newspaper reach is still high and the TV reach has not changed during the last 10 years. The long tradition of newspaper readership has not been broken. There are however some differences. In Norway and Denmark, there are signs of a decrease in readership and TV viewing. A comparison of what is happening in other countries shows that the development of traditional media is not the same in all countries (Findahl, 2004; Findahl, 2007b). In some countries the newspapers are severely affected, in others, sales have been rising. Obviously there are many factors other than the Internet – economic, cultural, journalistic, to name only a few – that influence the development of the traditional media. What is happening in the US does not have to happen in other countries. The decline of newspaper reading started in the US back in the 1960s, when newspaper circulation was on the rise in many other countries, while television was introduced. Today the World Association of Newspapers (2008) declears that newspapers are alive and well. Our conclusion, so far, is that the Internet has been more of
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a complement to the traditional media than a competitor and that displacement effects are hard to find. There are, of course, individual cases that point to another direction, but they are still rare. Our sample, however, consists of only countries with high newspaper reach and high Internet penetration. There are several other countries with high Internet penetration but more moderate newspaper reach. The Danger of Media Centrism There are many factors other than competition between media that affect the decline or rise of a new or old medium. The media landscape is evolving and media researchers, quite naturally, have a tendency to focus on inter-media rivalries and disregard other major factors that are important to the well-being of both traditional and new media, like trust and quality. It is not up to the Internet if the traditional newspapers will survive and the long tradition of newspaper readership will remain strong. It is up to the newspapers themselves and how well they will serve the needs of their readers. The young generation, up to 30 years, generally have a different relation to the Internet than the older generations. They are used to looking for news and information online, and they rate the Internet as their most important source of information, more important than television and newspapers. But, as we have seen, this does not mean that they have abandoned traditional media. They include them together with the Internet in their daily media habits. If so, is it a media mix related to the young generations, or a more permanent mix portending a major shift that would undermine the importance of the traditional media? That remains to be seen. Anyway, it will take time, and until then the old tradition of newspaper readership will prevail.
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References CMCR, (2008). Online Canadians and News Study. Canadian Media Research Consortium (CMRC) Future of News Summit 2008. May 2008 Findahl, O. (2008). Svenskarna och Internet 2008. Gävle: World Internet Institute. Findahl, O. (2007). The Swedes and the Internet 2007. Gävle: World Internet Institute. Findahl, O. (2007b). Tio år med Internet. Ingår i Ulla Carlsson & Ulrika Facht (red) Mediesverige 2007. Göteborgs universitet , Nordicom-Sverige. Findahl, O. (2006). Trends in downloading and filesharing of music. Musiclessons – Deliverable 5. xml.nada.kth.se/media/Research/MusicLesson. Findahl, O. (2006). Thieves or Customers? File-sharing in the Digital World. In P. Cunningham & M Cunningham (eds.), Exploiting the Knowledge Economy: Issues, Applications, Case Studies. Amsterdam: IOS Press Findahl, O. (2004). Internet i världen. En internationell jämförelse av Internettillgång och användning mellan länder inom World Internet Project. World Internet Institute. Findahl, O., Eriksson, L-E., Selg, H., & Wallis, R. (2006) The IPR regime and the Open Source/Open Content movement – an alternative stimulus for creativity or on a collision course? In P. Cunningham & M Cunningham (eds.), Exploiting the Knowledge Economy: Issues, Applications, Case Studies. Amsterdam: IOS Press Galacz A, Kuo E & Mahel D (2006). Information Society from a comparative perspective. Some results of the World Internet Project. Brno. November 2006. Haythornthwaite, C & Wellman, B. (2002). The Internet i Everyday Life. An Introduction. In B.Wellamn & C. Haythornthwaite (Eds.), The Internet in Everyday Life. Oxford: Blackwell. International Television Expert Group (2009). Television 2008. International Key Facts. www.ip-network.com/tvkeyfacts Internet World Stats, 2008. Internet Usage World Stats – Internet and Population Statistics. www.Internetworldstats.com/ Jauert, P & Prehn, O (2001). The Danish Medialandscape. Structure, Economy and Consumption. In U. Carlsson & E. Harrie (Eds.), Media Trends 2001. Nordicom 2001. Jupiter Research, (2004). Many are turning away from TV. BBC, 2004
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Jyrkiäinen, J & Sauri, T (2001). The Finnish Media Landscape. In In U. Carlsson & E. Harrie (Eds.), Media Trends 2001. Nordicom 2001. Kraut, R., Lundmark, V., Patterson, M., Kiesler, S., Mukopadhyay, T., & Scherlis, W. (1998). Internet paradox: A social technology that reduces social involvement and psychological well-being? American Psychologist, 53 (9), 1017-1031. Meyer, P. (2008). The Elite Newspaper of the Future. American Journalism Review, October/November 2008. pp. Meyer, P. (2004). The Vanishing Newspaper: Saving Journalism in the Information Age. Columbia: University of Missouri Press. Mikami et.al (2004). Internet Usage Trends in Japan. The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology. Tokyo. Negroponte N (1996). Being Digital. New York: Vintage books. Nie, H & Erbring L. (2000). Internet and Society: a preliminary report. Http:// www.stanford.edu/group/siqss/ Nielsen (2006). US TV viewing still rising, says Nielsen. UK: Digital TV Group, 25.09.06 Nielsen (2009). Americans watch more television than ever. Associated Press, Feb 23, 2009 Nichols, J & McChesney, R (2009). The Death and Life of Great American Newspapers. The Nation, March 20, 2009. Nordicom (2007). Mediebarometern 2006. Medienotiser, nr 1, 2007. Göteborgs universitet , Nordicom-Sverige Nordicom (2008). Mediabarometern 2007. Nordicom-Sverige,Göteborgs universitet Pew (2009). The State of the News Media 2009. Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. Pew (2008). Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, Dec 15-22. Pew (2006). Network TV Audience Trends. 2006 Annual Report. Journalism. org/node/1197 Robinson JP, Kestnbaum M, Neustadtl A, Alvarez A. (2000). IT, the Internet, and time displacement. Paper presented at American Association Public Opinion Research, Portland OR, May 2000. Selg, H., & Findahl, O. (2006). File Sharing and Downloading - Actors, Motives and Effects. MusicLessons, Deliverable 4. Stockholm: xml.nada.kth.se/ media/Research/MusicLesson Tcholakian, G. (2008). The Newspaper Audience Databank 2007/2008. Sep 17
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2008. WAN, 2008. World Press Trends 2007. World Association of Newspapers (WAN). Webster, J.G. (2005). Beneath the Veneer of Fragmentation. Journal of Communication, June 2005. pp 366-382. Weibull, L (2007). Dagspress. In U. Carlsson & U. Facht (eds.), Mediesverige 2007. Statistik och analys. Nordicom-Sverige, Göteborgs universitet. WIP, 2009. World Internet Project: International Report 2009. University of Southern California. Zamaria, C., & and Fletcher, F. (2008). Canada Online. The Internet, media and emerging technologies. Uses, attitudes, trends and international comparisons 2007. Toronto: Canadian Internet Project 2008. Östbye, H (2001). The Norwegian Media Landscape. In In U. Carlsson & E. Harrie (Eds.), Media Trends 2001. Nordicom 2001. AUT (2007). 2007 Benchmark Survey: Interim Report. The institute of culture, discourse & communication. AUT University. December 2007. World Internet Project New Zealand. Beilock & Dimitrova (2003). An exploratory model of inter-country Internet diffusion. They found that the relation is not linear. Non-economical factors seem to play a more important role in comparisons between wealthy countries. EU (2007). Statistics in Focus, 119/2007. Eurostat. mellan länder inom World Internet Project. Gävle: World Internet Institute Findahl, O. (2007). Svenskarna och Internet 2007. World Internet Institute. Findahl, O. (2007). Internet i ett internationellt perspektiv. Del 1. Sverige i Europa. World Internet Institute. Findahl, O. (2008). Internet i ett internationellt perspektiv. Del 2. Sverige i Världen. World Internet Institute. Findahl, O. (2006). Trends in downloading and filesharing of music. MusicLessons, Deliverable 5. Stockholm: Musiclessons (updated version) Findahl, O. Eriksson, L-E., Selg, H., & Wallis, R. (2006) The IPR regime and the Open Source/Open Content movement –an alternative stimulus for creativity or on a collision course? In P. Cunningham & M Cunningham (eds.), Exploiting the Knowledge Economy: Issues, Applications, Case Studies. Amsterdam: IOS Press Findahl, O. (2004). Internet i världen. En internationell jämförelse av Internettillgång och användning
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Human Development Report 2005. UNDP, 2005. Hofstede, G. (2007). Cultural dimensions, 2007. www.geert-hofstede.com. Se också Geert Hofstede (2002), Dimensions do not exist: A reply toBrendan McSweeney. Human Relations, 55 (11). Huang, H., Keser, C, Leland, J. & Shachat, J (2002). Trust, the Internet, and the digital divide. IBM Systems Journal, VOL 42, NO 3, 2003 Inglehart, R (1997). Modernization and Postmodernization. Princeton, 1997. ITU World Telecommunication Indicators Database 2007 Nordicom (2007). Mediabarometern 2007. Nordicom-Sverige, Göteborgs universitet Sauri, T (2006), Radio, TV and Internet in Finland. In E. Harrie (ed.), Mediatrends 2006. Radio, TV & Internet. Nordicom, 2006. Selg, H., & Findahl, O. (2006). File sharing and downloading - actors, motives and effects. MusicLessons, Deliverable 4. Stockholm: Musiclessons, KTH (updated version)
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3 Understanding the New Digital Ecology in Mexico:The Organization and Arrangement of Complex Media Environments Fernando Gutiérrez and Octavio Islas “We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us” (McLuhan & Fiore: 1967).
Understanding changes in media In their book titled Remediation, also a term they coined and defined as the formal logic by which new media refashion prior media forms, Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin have the following to say: “Like other media since Renaissence –in particular perspective painting, photography, film, and television- new digital media oscillate between immediacy and hypermediacy, between transparency and opacity. This oscillation is the key to understanding how a medium refashions its predecessor and other contemporary media. Although each media promises to reform its predecessors by offering a more immediate or authentic experience, the promise of reform inevitably lead us to become aware of the new medium as a medium. Thus immediacy leads to hypermediacy. The process of remediation makes us aware that all media are at one level a play of signs, which is a lesson that we take from poststructuralist literary theory.” (Bolter & Grusin, 1999, p. 19)
According to Bolter and Grusin (1999), to understand media, it is also important to comprehend two concepts: immediacy and hypermediacy. The first one is transparency, the absence of mediation. It is the notion that a medium could erase itself and leave the viewer/reader/listener in the presence of the objects represented, so that he/she could know the objects directly and
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have the feeling that the experience is authentic. In contrast, hypermediacy is opacity, suggesting that knowledge comes to us through a medium. The viewer/reader/listener knows that he/she is in the presence of a medium and receives information and learns through acts of mediation. “New digital media are not external agents that come to disrupt an unsuspecting culture. They emerge from within cultural contexts, and they refashion other media, which are embedded in the same or similar contexts.” (Bolter & Grusin 1999, p. 19)
New digital media are the product of remediation, the result of oscillation between immediacy and hypermediacy. When a new medium is created, it will eventually overtake its predecessor’s content. The older medium becomes a ground upon which the new medium stands, as a more noticed figure. Marshall McLuhan suggested this idea in his book Understanding Media: The extensions of man. In the history of mass communication, no new medium has yet made an earlier one obsolete, despite the reiterated predictions at the time of each new arrival. ►► ►► ►► ►►
Photography was supposed to mean the end of painting Film was supposed to mean the end of the novel Radio was supposed to mean the end of newspapers Television was supposed to mean the end of film and radio
What did happen was that the new medium changed its predecessor but did not replace it. The older medium always adapted itself to fit into the new mix of competitors redefining itself according to its intrinsic strengths. According to Alejandro Piscitelli (2005) a new communication technology can’t eliminate or erase the previous technologies, but can alter the amount of use and the dominating power it has had in everyday life and, therefore, everyday cognition.
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Figure 3.1 Media Consumption In Mexico (2008).
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Today, media compete strongly for our attention. As Paul Levinson (2004), suggests “every time we decide to go out to the movies rather than stay at home and watch television, read a book rather than watch a video, talk on the cell phone rather than send e-mail, we are making a tiny contribution to the rise and fall of media.” (p.12) In Darwanian terms –Levinson thinks- we are acting as if we are selecting the environment for species of media. The survival of the fittest media means the survival of media that fits our needs the best, or show more integration capability.
McLuhan said that media are extensions of our human senses, bodies and minds. It is also interesting to point out that in Civilization and its discontents (1930), Sigmund Freud had already taken note of the possibility to consider tools as an extension of man: “with tools, mankind perfects its organs (...) With the camera, it has created an instrument that transfixes fleeting optical impressions, a service that the record player renders to the no less fleeting auditory impression, both constituting its innate faculty to remember, that is, its memory. With the help of the telephone, it hears from distances that even fairy tales would respect as unachievable. Writing, originally, is the language of those who are absent; housing, a substitute for the maternal womb, the first abode whose nostalgia perhaps still persists among us, where we felt secure and well.” (Freud, 1930, p. 34)
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To this respect, Douglas Rushkoff wrote in Media Virus: Hidden agendas in Popular Culture: “We should understand the media as an extension of a living organism. Just as ecologist now understand the life of this planet to be part of a single biological organism. Media activists see the datasphere as the circulatory system for today’s information ideas, and images.” (Rushkoff, 1996, p.7)
Media can be understood as extensions of man as well as extensions or remedies of other media, deriving from an integration process – or convergence, as Henry Jenkins (2006) calls it – to describe the full context of media change that redefines our media environment.
Figure 3.2 Media As Extensions Of Other Media.
Internet at the center of the New Digital Ecology The Internet is currently at the center of the integration of a new media ecology which again transforms the structural relations among older media such as print, film, radio, and television. It works as an extension for other media industries, not their replacement. Traditional media are using the Internet to identify what the public wants, to interact with their readers/audience, to amplify their own technical capabilities, and to advertise. The Internet has been said to steal audience from other forms of media. However, there are studies showing that people use other forms of media in conjunction with the Internet to maximize their engagement with other media.
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For instance, after reading an article in the newspaper or magazine, we may become curious and decide to find out more by surfing the Internet. People read stories in magazines, then go online to get multiple angles on the stories they just read. They watch a TV series, and then go online to get character bios, scripts, behind-the-scenes information, and more. This kind of behavior shows a much deeper and richer experience with print and broadcast media. We can observe the same situation with other traditional media (film, photography, radio). In this sense, the Internet is also complimentary to for conventional media – it extends the functions of traditional media as well as the power of users. Since 2005, in Mexico, the AMIPCI (Mexican Internet Association) has been observing how the Internet extends the power of some traditional media (TV, Cable TV, Newspapers, Magazines and Movies). Figure 3.3 shows the contribution of the Internet to conventional media, in terms of reach.
Figure 3.3 Internet Extends Media Reach In Mexico (2006).
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Based on the above figure, we can argue that, for some media (Magazines or Newspapers), Internet brings great benefits. These conventional media can reach more audience (readers) thanks to the Internet. Again, the Internet extends the traditional human abilities to see, to speak, and to manipulate. The revolution is not so much one of content but of distribution. Computers allow the manipulation of old content and old media in unanticipated ways. But as Neil Postman (1993) explained, a new media does not merely add something to the culture; it changes everything. The Internet has contributed to the formation of new societies with particular characteristics that differ from the general culture of which it is a part. When a new technology like the Internet acquires importance in a culture in a given location, certain elements of the society begin to be redefined. In this sense then, the society becomes the result of the new technology. For Postman, the consequence of technological change always comes fast. It is often unpredictable and largely irreversible. The technology is always shaped by the social, political and economic systems in which it is introduced. In any medium, what passes for critical discourse is not independent of the medium in which it is produced and circulated. Media change, therefore, is far more than just a new piece of equipment. It affects all of our technologies The Internet, for example, once more gives a new coloration to every institution. In the past, newspapers, radio and television changed society. Today, the Internet is doing something similar. With its introduction, everything changes: political campaigns, homes, schools, churches, and companies. The invention of the Internet has altered the world we live in. Not since the industrial revolution have we seen such profound change in the way we work, shop, receive news, or conduct businesses. The changes can be observed in any country. In the following pages, we will illustrate the impact of Internet in Mexico through data and examples for a better understanding of how this new media is reshaping some important aspects of contemporary life and how our media environment is changing.
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Internet in Mexico According to E-marketer (2008) projections, Mexico ranks the 10th place in the world in terms of the number of Internet users. The top 10 are: 1. China (216.0 million); 2. The US (193.9 million); 3. Japan (90.9 million); 4. Germany (50.4 million); 5. India (40.7 million); 6. Russia (40.3 million); 7. Brazil (38.8 million); 8. UK (38.1 million); 9. France (36.1 million); 10. México (27.4 million). Our last national survey, conducted in late 2008 using the World Internet Project (WIP) methodology, found there are roughly 25 million Internet users in Mexico. Internet penetration in the country is shown in the figure below.
Figure 3.4 Internet Penetration In Mexico (2008). Source: “Estudio 2008 de hábitos y percepciones de los mexicanos sobre Internet y diversas tecnologies asociadas”. WIP México, 2008. Tecnologico de Monterrey, Campus de México.
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Mexico City has the largest concentration of Internet users (6.6 million), followed by the northwestern region (5.1 million) composed of seven states (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas, and Zacatecas). In terms of gender, we found that men make up a slightly larger portion (58%) of Internet users than women (42%). The highest penetration of this medium is among people aged 25 years or younger (64%) and almost 80% of users are under the age of 40. The following figure shows Internet penetration across all age groups in Mexico.
Figure 3.5 Internet Use By Age Ranges (2008).Source: “Estudio 2008 de hábitos y percepciones de los mexicanos sobre Internet y diversas tecnologies asociadas”. WIP México, 2008. Tecnologico de Monterrey, Campus de México.
According to our survey, Internet users in Mexico are young, with the largest group (37%) being 12-18 years old. For them the Internet has become part of daily life. In Mexico, as in some other countries, Internet users gravitate towards groups of high and middle socioeconomic levels. Internet penetration is highly correlated with the socioeconomic level, as can be seen in the next figure.
15’720.0
13’100.0
24’890.0
2’475.9
9’314.1
17’423.0
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7’467.0
7’205.0 5’895.0
10’532.4
5’187.6
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11’790.0
Figure 3.6 Internet Use By Socioeconomic Level (2008). Source: “Estudio 2008 de hábitos y percepciones de los mexicanos sobre Internet y diversas tecnologies asociadas”. WIP México, 2008. Tecnologico de Monterrey, Campus de México.
Figure 3.7 Reasons For Not Going Online (2008). Source: “Estudio 2008 de hábitos y percepciones de los mexicanos sobre Internet y diversas tecnologies asociadas”. WIP México, 2008. Tecnologico de Monterrey, Campus de México.
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While it is reasonable to expect falling costs and better educational opportunities to raise Internet penetration among people of low socioeconomic status. However, we found another important reason for not getting online: Lack of interest is the most cited reason for not using the Internet in all socioeconomic groups, including the lower-level ones. More access to information may not neccsarily lead to better problem-solving capabilities, as it might seem to be the case. French philosopher Jean Baudrillard believes that the Internet creates a terrible world to the person who is not capable of supporting all the information he is given. The advantages and disadvantages of new technologies are never distributed evenly among populations. In terms of access, Mexican users get their connection from any location. Most people access the Internet from outside the home (e.g., Internet cafes, work, schools, and libraries). In our recent survey we found that 69% of Mexican users access the Internet from cafes, libraries and friends’ houses. But they spend more time online from work (12.6 hours per week). In the Figure 3.8, we can observe time spent online and favorite places to access the Internet. According to our survey, Internet users spend most of their time online checking e-mail, using chatting services (e.g., MSN), and looking for school information. In general terms, these are regular activities on the Internet that still show a non experienced user. In the next chart, we show, in order of importance, a list of activities Mexican users are engaged in. As in many other countries, e-mail is the most popular activity when measured by either the amount of time spent or frequency of online use. Figure 3.9 indicates that Mexican users are still heavily involved in the most basic online activities. Although some have been attracted to more advanced services (blogs), the number is still small. But it can be expected that interest in more advanced services will grow going forward.
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Figure 3.8 Favorite Places For Internet Connections And Time Spent Online (2008). Source: “Estudio 2008 de hábitos y percepciones de los mexicanos sobre Internet y diversas tecnologies asociadas”. WIP México, 2008. Tecnologico de Monterrey, Campus de México.
93%
CHECK E‐MAIL
83% 83% 80% 78% 78% 77% 75% 73%
USE INSTANT MESSAGING SEND DOCS BY E‐MAIL SCHOOL WORKS LOOK FOR NEWS
48% 44% 42%
LOOK FOR DEFINITIONS DOWNLOAD AND UPLOAD MUSIC FIND OR CHECK A FACT LOOK FOR HEALTH INFORMATION LOOK FOR JOKES TRAVEL INFORMATION READING BLOGS
Figure 3.9 Popular Internet Activities In Mexico (2008). Source: “Estudio 2008 de hábitos y percepciones de los mexicanos sobre Internet y diversas tecnologies asociadas”. WIP México, 2008. Tecnologico de Monterrey, Campus de México.
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The Internet occupies a large portion of daily life in Mexico. According to our survey, users spend an average of 7.8 hours per week online, which is more than 1 a day. Time online is near the amount spent on television (9.0) and radio (10.3) and almost double the time spent reading newspapers (3.9). For most users (78%), the Internet is a more meaningful source of information than conventional media (television, radio and newspapers), as we can see in the figure below.
Figure 3.10 Internet As A Source Of Information (2008). Source: “Estudio 2008 de hábitos y percepciones de los mexicanos sobre Internet y diversas tecnologies asociadas”. WIP México, 2008. Tecnologico de Monterrey, Campus de México.
The Internet’s different tools favor communication and information exchange among a mid-sized user group, allowing individuals to develop close contact. The function of the Internet as a place for people to share certain hobbies and pastimes or relate to each other on the basis of common interests has filled a void uncovered by conventional mass communication media. In 2006, the Mexican Internet Association (AMIPCI) began to study the amount of time people spent online and the places they make the access. Since then, we have been observing how the Internet occupies important spaces that other media cannot fill for
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different reasons. The following figure reveals where Mexicans get online in weekdays in 2006. Figure 3.11
Places Where Users Access The Internet In Mexico. (2006). Source: AMIPCI
(2006) “Estudio Anual de Hánitos de los Usuarios de Internet en México”. Avaliable at http://www.amipci.org.mx/estudios.php
As we mentioned before, people in Mexico can use the Internet at schools, libraries and cybercafes. The Internet and traditional media rarely occupy the same physical space. For instance, the opportunity to watch television outside a home environment is less common. There are more public places for people to get online than for them to watch television. Today, the Internet is used more for informational purposes, while television is more of a medium to get entertainment and relaxation. But Internet access at home may be displacing television viewing as well as reducing leisure time spent with some other communication agents. After television, the Internet is the most important medium for entertainment purposes, but the difference between these two media is insignificant (1%).
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Figure 3.12 Internet As A Source Of Entertainment (2008).Source: “Estudio 2008 de hábitos y percepciones de los mexicanos sobre Internet y diversas tecnologies asociadas”. WIP México, 2008. Tecnologico de Monterrey, Campus de México.
As shown in Figure 12, 57% of users say the Internet is ‘extremely important’ or ‘very important’ for entertainment purposes. The competition between television and the Internet is largely happening at home. Some users think it is difficult to watch television and go on the Internet at the same time, especially given the amount of interactivity and involvement needed for this new media. That’s why they have to decide to which of the two media they will give their attention. And the fact that the Internet is changing the media business has prompted many traditional media companies to develop digital strategies. In Mexico, people are watching less television and reading fewer newspapers since they began using the Internet. But radio’s niche in the actual media ecology is, in many ways, modest. It survives because it reaches places other technologies do not reach. And people can go online while playing the radio in the background. In this sense, there is a positive relationship between Internet and radio use.
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We believe that the Internet will gain greater prominence in Mexico as broadband connection increases, allowing more people to access it through different devices, such as cell phones or some other PDAs. Mobile phone subscribers in Mexico tallied 70.6 million in 2008, according to Federal Telecommunications Commission (COFETEL, 2008), with the penetration rate being 68.3%. But according to the Mexican Internet Association (AMIPCI, 2007), only 29% of all cell phones in Mexico had Internet access in 2007. In the same year, Select and AMIPCI announced that there were more than 6 million broadband subscribers across the country, accounting for 93% of all Internet connections. The figure below gives the number of accounts (Dial Up, E1, Broadband).
Figure 3.13 Internet Accounts (2006-2008). Source: Select “Estudio Trimestral de Compuradoras Personales en México, April 2008.
The number of broadband subscriptions is expected to increase in the next few years, increasing access to more sophisticated and useful Internet services. This is important because we believe that fast access to the Internet is necessary for individuals as well as institutions to function effectively and fully in the 21st century. In order to remain competitive in this digital environment, people need not only available technologies, but also evolving techniques
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and skills to adapt to changes as they happen. However, according to a recent research by the Marketing Communication Confederation Industry in Mexico (CICOM, 2007), despite an observed increase of Internet connections and considerable penetration (in terms of time spent online), advertising on the Internet accounts for only 2% (75.87 million dollars) of the total advertising revenue in Mexico. The same study also revealed that of the 50,041 million Mexican pesos spent in advertising, nearly 60% went into television, as shown in Figure 3.14. Media Television Radio Newspaper OOHi Cable TV Magazines Internet Cine Other Total
% 59.9% 9.0% 8.7% 8.7% 5.7% 4.1% 2.0% 1.6% 0.4% 100%
Total Investment (000) 29,956 Mexican Pesos 4,505 Mexican Pesos 4,335 Mexican Pesos 4,332 Mexican Pesos 2,859 Mexican Pesos 2,066 Mexican Pesos 1,008 Mexican Pesos 788 Mexican Pesos 192 Mexican Pesos 50,041 Mexican Pesos
i:OOH “Out of home advertising”
Figure 3.14 Distribution Of Advertising Investment In Mexico (2007). Source: CICOM. (2007). “Estudio del valor del mercado de la comunicación comercial en México” [Avaliabl at: http://cicom.org.mx/]
We expect to see a significant increase of advertising revenue for the Internet in the next few years, as it has happened in many other countries. Some final thoughts about this technological revolution We live in a world that’s being transformed constantly by developments in technology and science. Given the fast pace of
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change, the huge amount of information available, and the influence of technology on life in general, people need to develop new skill sets to face and thrive in this changing environment. It is not until recently that educators have recognized that while the tools of instruction change, the problems of learning, ingesting and applying information remain the same as always. The Internet is not the panacea, it is only a tool to help solve problems. People should use this technology rather than being used by it. The Internet presents new possibilities, and these new possibilities awaken new desires. Intelligent use of the Internet could favorably modify our way of learning and communication. The unique characteristics of the Internet, in particular its interactivity and formidable transmission capacity, make it possible for people to access this new communication medium. It is not far-fetched to say that a true “global community” is coming into form with the help of the Internet technology.
REFERENCES AMIPCI. (2006). “Estudio Anual de Hábitos de los Usuarios de Internet” [Available at: http://www.amipci.org.mx/estudios.php] AMIPCI. (2007). “Estudio Anual de Hábitos de los Usuarios de Internet” [Available at: http://www.amipci.org.mx/estudios.php] Bolter, J. & Grusin, R. (1999). Remediation. Cambridge:The MIT Press CICOM. (2007). “Estudio del valor del mercado de la comunicación comercial en México” [Available at: http://cicom.org.mx/] Comisión Federal de Telecomunicaciones (COFETEL), “Telefonía Móvil,” August 2008 eMarketer: Mexico Online. January 2009 Freud, S. (1930). Civilisation and its Discontents. London: The Hogarth Press Ltd. Jenkins, H., (2006). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press. McLuhan, M. (1964). Understanding Media: The Extensions of man. New York:
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New American Library, Times Mirror. O’Malley, G. (2006). “Teens Online Doing Homework, Text Messaging and Watching TV”. New York: AdAge.com [Available at: http://adage.com/ mediaworks/article?article_id=109872&search_phrase=%2BTeens+% 2BOnline+%2BDoing+%2BHomework%2C+%2BText+%2BMessaging+ %2Band+%2BWatching+%2BTV] Postman, N. (1993). Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology. New York: Vintage Books Piscitelli, A. (2005). Internet la Imprenta del Siglo XXI. Barcelona: Editorial Gedisa Rushkoff, D. (1996). Media Virus: Hidden agendas in Popular Culture. New York: Ballantine Books Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campus Estado de México. (2008). “Estudio 2008 de hábitos y percepciones de los mexicanos sobre Internet y diversas tecnologías asociadas”. WIP México. [Available at: http://www.wipmexico. org] Wendell, B. (1990). What are people for? San Francisco: North Point Press
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4 The Internet under a Changing Media Environment: Japan Shunji Mikami
Introduction After World War II, the media environment in Japan changed drastically, thanks to the development of new communication technology. The first major change was brought about by the launch of TV Broadcasting service in 1953. Along with surging economic growth, declining cost of TV receivers, and successive occurrence of historical, national events such as the Olympic Games, television rapidly penetrated the daily life in the early 1960s. The average time of TV watching reached three and a half hours per day in 1975. However, in the mid-1990s, driven by Japan’s promotive telecommunication policy and severe market competition, advanced information and communication media such as the Internet, mobile phones and digital TV services began to spread among citizens, and media environment has changed gradually. Although Internet penetration in Japan was less than 20% by 1999, we expected diffusion to be rapid in the near future and its impact should be enormous on everyday life and society as a whole. The World Internet Project (WIP), initiated by Prof. Jeffrey Cole at UCLA among others, fit our view on the issue and our firwst participation in this project took place in 2000. In collaboration with the Communications Research Laboratory (CRL) and the University of Tokyo, the first Japanese WIP (JWIP) survey was
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conducted in October 2000 , using WIP common questionnaires. Successive surveys were conducted in 2001, 2001, 2003 and 2005 using nationally representative samples in Japan. Annual reports have been published on the JWIP website, which provides historical data on Internet diffusion in Japan (JWIP , 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2006). After a hiatus of three years, JWIP survey using new WIP common questionnaire was conducted in 2008 with a smaller sample of urban residents in Tokyo. With a penetration rate of over 70% (as of 2008), the Internet has become one of the major forms of media in Japan. At the same time, traditional media such as television and newspapers remain dominant. The media environment in Japan is becoming increasingly diversified. This paper attempts to locate the Internet in a changing media environment from the user’s point of view, by analyzing JWIP data over the past decade. Growth of the Internet in Japan The Internet was first introduced to Japan in 1984. A network called JUNET connected computers in three universities in Tokyo. In 1986, it was linked to the CS Net in the U, giving Japan its first international connection through the Internet. Commercial service of the Internet was initially offered in 1992 to the general public. Until the mid-1990s, Internet connection was limited to computers only. In 1997, it became possible to exchange e-mails with @address between mobile phone users and PC Internet users. In February 1999, NTT Docomo launched the first wide platform for mobile Internet services called “i-mode”, providing e-mail, browsing, downloading and other services on the Internet for the first time in the world. Mobile phone has since helped expand Internet access rapidly. According to a survey by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), the number of Internet users from mobile phones and other handheld devices surpassed the number of users from (desktop or laptop) computers in 2007.
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Figure 4.1 Number of Subscribers to Wired Broadband Services in Japan (in millions). Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (2009).
In 2000, the Japanese government launched the “e-Japan” Priority Policy Program which aimed to make Japan the world’s most advanced IT nation within five years. The IT Basic Law (Basic Law on Formation of an Advanced Information and Communication Network Society) was enacted in 2001, and the policy promoting the construction of broadband networks, enabling everybody to enjoy the benefit of IT, reforming economic structure and strengthening global industrial competitiveness, was accelerated. As a result of the collaborative effort between government and private industries, the infra-structure of the broadband Internet became the top level of the world by the year 2004. Although the penetration rate of the broadband Internet is a little behind the other advanced countries now, the number of FTTH (Optical fiber network) subscribers has already surpassed DSL subscribers and remains top of the world (see Figure 4.1). Succeeding the e-Japan policy, the Japanese government launched the “u-Japan” Policy in 2004, which aims to construct a seamless ubiquitous network, enabling people to receive wide variety of services without being conscious of the network (wired or wireless) in everyday life.
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The media environment in Japan has been diversified and digitized through rapid expansion of the Internet, Mobile Phones and the digital broadcasting services. The digital terrestrial broadcasting service started in 2003, and it has become possible to be watched through mobile phones since 2006. The number of mobile phones enabling to watch digital terrestrial TV is more than 41 million, as of August 2008. The functions of the mobile phones in Japan are quite diversified, including voice communication, receiving or sending e-mails, browsing websites, music playing, performing transactions, playing games, and using GPS. Internet Usage Trend 2000-2008 Under changing media environment, especially the rapid diffusion of the Internet in Japan, the usage of the Internet has been changing year by year. We have conducted six surveys on the use of the Internet, applying the common questions of WIP (World Internet Project) teams around the world, in order to explore the Internet usage trends and their impact upon the media use, daily life and social consciousness of the public. The respondents of the surveys from 2000 to 2005 were representative national samples, and the respondents of the survey of 2008 were the representative sample of the Tokyo metropolitan district. Therefore, it should be noted that the strict comparison is difficult between the surveys of 20002005 and the survey of 2008. According to the JWIP surveys, the penetration rate of the Internet in Japan has been increasing rapidly and reached over 72 percent in 2008. The increase of the mobile Internet users is especially prominent. In 2008, 23 percent of the Internet users access only from mobile phones and 45 percent access from both mobile phones and PCs (personal computers), as shown in Figure 4.2.
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Figure 4.2 Internet Usage Rate by Terminal Type (JWIP surveys:2000-2008).
Closing Digital Divide Although the Digital Divide still exists, the difference of the Internet usage rate among various demographic groups are closing steadily in the past decade (Ishii, 2008). Table 4.1 shows the association of the Internet penetration rates with main demographic variables, comparing the JWIP 2002, 2005, and 2008 survey data. This table shows that the Digital Divide has been gradually closing in terms of gender, age, education, income and job status. Comparison of the PC and Mobile Internet Usage As shown in Figure 4.2, the penetration of the mobile Internet has been rapidly increasing in Japan. The question here is whether there are any differences in demographic characteristics between the mobile Internet users and the PC Internet users. Table 4.2 shows the result of the regression analysis predicting PC and mobile Internet usage. In each of the three survey data, the rate of using PC Internet is higher with men than with women, while the rate of using mobile Internet is significantly higher with women than with men. It is interesting to note that there are “reverse Digital Divide” regarding gender in Japan. The table also shows that the Digital Divide still exists over age, education and income in both PC and mobile Internet use, the difference among different job status is closing now.
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Table 4.1 Internet Penetration Rates by Demographic Factors (2002,2005,2008). Source: JWIP surveys (2002, 2005, 2008). 2002 Variable
2005
Values N
Internet Rate (%)
2008
N
Internet Rate (%)
N
Internet Rate (%)
Gender
Male Female χ2 value
1128 1168
54.8 46.2 16.8(***)
925 1074
61.9 59.9 0.9(n.S.)
278 282
73.4 71.6 0.2(n.s)
Age
12 - 19 20 - 29 30 - 39 40 - 49 50 - 59 60 - 69 70 – χ2 value
254 323 415 412 432 342 118
76.0 77.4 68.2 56.1 32.6 15.2 6.8 532.2(***)
208 226 399 362 436 368 -
83.2 85.0 832. 66.9 42.0 25.5 445.5(***)
19 83 110 89 76 85 98
89.5 97.6 99.1 93.3 80.3 47.1 15.3 277.9(***)
Education
Junior high school High school College University χ2 value
377 1121 316 442
25.2 45.7 60.4 77.1 245.1(***)
230 1028 321 414
32.6 54.3 75.4 81.6 199.3(***)
49 249 90 150 538
20.4 69.9 87.8 86.7 94.3(***)
Household Income
Less than 2 million yen 2-4 million 4-6 million 6-8 million 8-10 million 10-12 million More than 12 million χ2 value
191 507 503 366 209 110 113
31.4 33.1 54.3 57.9 63.6 66.4 71.7 145.5(***)
154 481 499 352 188 85 80
36.4 48.6 63.3 68.5 71.8 71.8 81.3 105.5(***)
65 133 138 116 40 12 15
47.7 62.4 75.4 84.5 85.0 83.3 93.3 42.4(***)
Job
Full-time Part-time Housewife Student Unemployed χ2 value
1071 331 352 274 245
58.5 46.2 31.3 79.2 17.1 281.6(***)
925 355 321 228 170
65.1 56.1 51.7 85.1 32.4 135.8(***)
254 100 83 41 78
84.3 80.0 57.8 95.1 29.5 112.7(***)
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Table 4.2 Logistic Regression Models Predicting PC Internet and Mobile Internet Use (2002 - 2008). Source: JWIP surveys 2002,2005 and 2008 The analysis here followed the Ishii (2008) partly.
The figures in this table show the standard parameters B (*p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001 : Wald Chisquare test) 2002
Gender (M=1, F=2) Age Education Income Job (fulltime=1, else=0)
2005
2008
PC Internet Use (n=1,973)
Mobile Internet use (n=1,973)
PC Internet Use (n=1,834)
Mobile Internet use(n=1,834)
PC Internet Use (n=497)
Mobile Internet use(n=497)
-0.402**
0.310*
-0.320*
0.607***
-0.147
0.707*
-0.051*** 0.634*** 0.297*** 0.432***
-0.067*** 0.328*** 0.061 0.554***
-0.045*** 0.685*** 0.257*** 0.616***
-0.067*** 0.274 0.102** 0.146
-0.057*** 0.589*** 0.387*** 0.273
-0.114*** 0.475** 0.220* 0.007
Table 4.3 Comparison of the PC and Mobile Internet Usage of Various Contents on the Internet (%). Source: JWIP surveys 2008.
Watch entertainment websites Gathering information or making reservation of the travels Use information on health and medicines Use for learning in the school Use for work at home Watch local, domestic, international news Banking online Participate in the net auctions Download documents or data Download music or melodies Play online games Play online video files (YouTube etc.) Play streaming videos on the net
PC only
Mobile only
Both PC and Mobile
Do not use either
40.1 46.6
9.9 3.9
16.0 10.1
30.3 36.5
42.9 18.2 30.0 36.7 14.8 21.7 32.5 19.5 14.5 34.0 13.1
4.2 2.0 2.5 8.9 2.2 2.2 3.9 19.2 6.9 2.0 1.5
6.4 4.2 4.4 16.5 1.7 5.7 6.7 9.6 4.4 4.7 3.0
43.1 72.2 59.6 35.0 77.8 67.2 53.2 48.3 70.4 55.9 79.1
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Table 4.4 Rates and Frequencies in the Use of E-mails , News Sites and Online Communities from PC and Mobile. Source: Ishii (2009) , based on the JWIP2008 survey. Use from PC Internet
Send or receive e-mails Watch news sites Watch video sharing sites Watch SNS Watch blogs Watch popular BBS(2channel etc.)
Use from Mobile Internet
Rate(%)
Mean (total)
Mean (users)
Rate(%)
Mean (total)
Mean (users)
53.4 52.8 34.3 22.5 30.4 19.6
70.0 14.6 3.8 9.2 9.0 3.6
131.1 27.6 11.1 41.0 29.6 18.2
92.9 34.6 12.7 17.9 14.7 8.3
176.1 11.0 1.2 11.8 12.9 2.5
189.5 31.8 9.9 65.9 88.3 30.4
Mean (total) is the average frequencies of the use per month for all respondents. Mean (users) is the average frequency of the use per month for those who use each service. Source: Ishii (2009), based on the JWIP 2008 survey.
There are also significant differences between PC Internet users and mobile Internet users in the use of Internet services. Table 4.3 compared the PC and mobile Internet usage of various contents on the Internet, except e-mails and community sites. In most of the contents, the usage rate is much higher for PC Internet users than for mobile Internet users. The only service in which the usage rate is almost the same is “downloading music or melodies”. Table 4.4 compared the rate and frequencies of use with e-mails, news sites and community services on the Internet al. most 93% of the mobile Internet subscribers use e-mails, being much higher than PC Internet users. The average frequencies of use with e-mail also indicate higher rate in mobile Internet users than that of the PC Internet users, as shown in the Table. These data show that communications using e-mails are more active in mobile Internet users than in PC Internet users. On the other hand, the usage of the news sites is more active in PC Internet users than in mobile Internet users regarding both usage rate and frequencies, although the frequencies of use for only users show a little higher in mobile Internet users than in PC Internet users. It is also interesting to
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note that , while the usage rates of watching blogs and SNSs are higher in PC Internet users than Mobile Internet users, the average frequencies of use are higher in mobile Internet users than in PC Internet users. This figure suggests the heavy usage of blogs or SNSs on the mobile Internet especially by young people in Japan. In summary, the uses from PC Internet are mainly for searching and getting information, while the uses from mobile Internet are mostly for communication and entertainment purposes in Japan, as already indicated by Ishii (2006) and others. Patterns of the Internet Usage In the collaborative effort to compare the functions of Internet usage across nations, the WIP team devised a set of questions on frequency of use for various Internet services. We selected 14 items, excluding communications and community services showing higher than 10% usage rates for the Factor Analysis (the Maximum Likelihood Method, Promax Rotation). As shown in Table 5, five main factors were extracted finally. Judging from the factor loading values, factor 1 relates to the e-Transaction usage, factor 2 relates to the e-Learning usage, factor 3 relates to the e-Information usage, factor 4 relates to the e-Entertainment usage, and factor 5 relates to the e-News usage. In order to examine demographic variables determining the factors detected from the above analysis, we constructed a composite measure for each factor by calculating the average frequency of use for the services with high factor loading values (in bold in Table 4.5). Table 4.6 shows the result of the regression analysis predicting the average frequency of using the Internet for different services. Use of e-Transaction and e-Information showed no significant association with demographic variables. E-Learning was found to have a significant positive correlation with education. This implies the possibility of Internet use widening the knowledge gap between groups of different education levels. As for e-Entertainment, younger people, men and non-fulltime workers were more frequent users than older people, women and fulltime workers. For e-News, individuals who are younger in age,
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more educated and from better-off families tend to use the Internet more often than those who are older, less schooled and with lower household income. Table 4.5 Factor Analysis of the Usage of Various Internet Services. Factor 1
Factor 2
Factor 3
Factor 4
Factor 5
e-Transac tion
e-Learn ing
e-Infor mation
e-Enter tainment
e-News
Pay bills online
0.927
0.012
0.012
-0.099
-0.005
Buying things online
0.848
0.038
-0.100
0.053
-0.031
Use online banking
0.614
-0.143
0.052
-0.148
0.145
Find or check a fact
-0.126
0.897
-0.032
-0.060
0.179
Look up a definition of a word
-0.052
0.826
0.034
-0.043
-0.014
Get information for school related work
0.258
0.519
0.093
0.125
-0.199
Look for jobs, work
-0.119
0.014
0.900
0.003
-0.090
Look for health information
0.250
0.014
0.526
0.113
0.037
Look for travel information
-0.002
0.040
0.491
-0.126
0.218
Download or listen to music
-0.123
-0.064
0.050
0.812
0.025
Download or watch videos
0.164
0.026
-0.064
0.588
0.122
Play games
-0.151
0.000
-0.037
0.499
0.008
Look for news (local,national,international) Get information about a product
0.033
-0.048
0.122
0.064
0.640
0.093
0.162
-0.111
0.068
0.424
Method: Maximum Likelihood Method. Promax rotation. Factors are extracted with eigenvalue higher than 1.0 variance accounted for after rotation is 69.6%. The figure of use for each Internet service used is the score of the frequency weighted as follows: “Do not use”=0, “Less than monthly”=0.5, “Weekly”=15, “Daily=30”, “Several times a day”=60. This table shows the factor pattern matrix after rotation.
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Table 4.6 Regression Models Predicting Average Frequency of the Internet Contents. e-Transac tion
e-Learn ing
e-Informa tion
e-Entertain ment
eNews
Gender (M=1,F=2)
-.0116
0.025
-0.106
-0.175**
-0.086
Age
-0.091
-0.108* -0.019
-0.276***
-0.135*
Education
0.024
0.175**
-0.053
-0.025
0.140*
Income Job status
0.034 -0.002
0.049 0.088
0.107 0.068
0.000 -0.176**
0.129* 0.112
(fulltime=1,else=0)
Standardized parameter for each independent variable. t test: * p<.05. ** p<.01, *** p<.001
Importance and Reliability of the Internet and Other Media In the ever-changing and diversifying media environment of our time, how do users evaluate the Internet and other major media? In order to answer this question, we examined users’ rating of the Internet and other media in terms of importance and reliability, using the international comparative data and the JWIP survey data in the past. Importance of the Media as Information and Entertainment Sources Compared with other WIP countries, users’ rating of the Internet as an important information or entertainment source is relatively low in Japan, as shown in Figure 3; instead, evaluation of television as an important information source is the highest in Japan. Comparative data regarding the evaluation of the Internet and television as important entertainment sources show the similar tendencies: television is rated the highest and the Internet is rated relatively low in Japan.
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Figure 4.3 Importance of Media as Information Sources Internet Users Aged 18 or Older Ranking the Media as “Important” or “Very Important”. Source: Cole et al.(2009) and JWIP survey 2008.
Next, we used regression models to examine the demographic variables that affect the evaluation. Table 4.7 shows the result of the regression analysis predicting the importance of the Internet and television. With regards to the Internet, younger people, individuals with higher education and household income as well as those who spend more time online tend to perceive the Internet as an important information source. On the other hand, older people and those who watch television heavily tend to perceive television as an important information source. The regression analysis predicting the importance of Internet and television as entertainment sources shows similar results as that about the perceived information value of these two media. As can be seen in Table 4.8, younger people, highly educated people, and those using the Internet heavily tend to perceive Internet as an important entertainment source. In the case of television, however, no significant correlations were found between demographic variables and the said perception. Only those who watch television heavily tend to perceive television as an important source of entertainment.
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Table 4.7 Regression Model Predicting the Importance of Internet and TV as Information Sources. Internet
Gender(M=1,F=2) Age Education Income( million yen) Time for watching TV Time for using Internet
Television
Standardized parameter
t value
Standardized parameter
t value
-0.010 -0.330 0.209 0.110 -0.021 0.231
-0.274 -7.971*** 5.048*** 2.769** -0.542 5.966***
-0.075 0.107 -0.042 0.037 0.161 -0.088
-1.706 2.167* -0.843 0.787 3.503** -1.897
*p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001
Table 4.8 Regression Model Predicting the Importance of Internet and TV as Entertainment Sources. Internet
Gender(M=1,F=2) Age Education Income(1 million yen) Time for watching TV Time for using Internet
Television
Standardized parameter
t value
Standardized parameter
t value
-0.008 -0.417 0.135 0.050 -0.019 0.176
-0.211 -9.909*** 3.186** 1.249 -0.488 4.446***
-0.053 0.008 -0.021 0.052 0.196 -0.037
-1.189 0.163 -0.426 1.096 4.194*** -0.788
*p<.05,**p<.01, ***p<.001
Reliability of the Media For evaluating the status of the Internet among contemporary media, it is important to assess the perceived reliability of the Internet as an information source in comparison with other major media such as television, newspaper and radio. Using WIP’s common questionnaire, we asked respondents to rate the general reliability of the information they receive from the Internet on a five-point scale. Figure 4.4 shows the results of WIP
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surveys in 11 countries. It is striking to note that the reliability of the Internet is the lowest in Japan compared with other WIP countries. This figure agrees with data generated by the 2003 WIP comparative study (Cole, 2006), which shows the percentage of people who said that most or all of online information is reliable is the lowest (18.7%) in Japan, followed by Germany (23.6%) and Sweden (27.9%). The JWIP 2008 survey found that, of all major media, newspaper is perceived as reliable by most respondents (61.3%), followed by television (54.3%), radio (31.7%), and finally the Internet (20.2%, including both Internet users and non-users).
Figure 4.4 How Much of the Information on the Internet is Reliable? Internet Users Age 18 and Higher. Source: Cole et al.(2009) and JWIP survey 2008.
What explains the low opinion of the Internet as a reliable information source in Japan? It is difficult to find the answer from the survey data alone. One possible explanation could be that most of the posting to blogs, SNSs and popular BBSs are anonymous in Japan. Another important factor may be that traditional media such as newspaper or television command high authority and respect in Japan. Media reports about the Internet tend to emphasize the
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negative side of this new media, attributing crimes, for example, to anonymous BBS or SNS message exchange. The regression analysis predicting the reliability of the Internet and television in JWIP 2008 survey shows that age was the most significant factor determining media reliability (Table 4.9). This result suggests that the difference between generations in views about media influences the perceived reliability of the Internet and other media. Further research is needed to explore the causal relationship. Table 4.9 Regression Model Predicting the Reliability of the Internet, TV and Newspapers. Internet
Gender(M=1,F=2) Age Education Income(1 million yen) Time for watching TV Time for using Internet
Television
Standardized parameter
t value
Standardized parameter
t value
-0.019 -0.217 0.099 0.084 -0.025 0.086
-0.435 -4.468*** 2.030 1.811 -0.552 1.890
-0.044 0.128 -0.001 0.023 0.119 -0.046
-0.992 2.560* -0.021 0.476 2.539* -0.993
*p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001
Conclusion The use of mobile Internet increased rapidly in Japan after “i-mode” was introduced in 1999, surpassing PC Internet access by 2007. Pushed by the Japanese government’s e-Japan and u-Japan policies, broadband Internet in Japan experienced an explosive growth, placing the country ahead of all others in terms of Internet diffusion, especially in the ultra-high speed FTTH broadband service. Other digital media such as digital mobile phones and digital TV services have been multi-functionalized, resulting in a highly diversified media environment in Japan today. Under such conditions, the digital divide among Internet users has been closing gradually. However, PC Internet users and mobile
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Internet users are found to be significantly different in demographic characteristics as well as their Internet content use. With regard to gender, the “reverse digital divide” is observed in the mobile Internet usage. In terms of content use, PC Internet is more often used to obtain information, while mobile Internet is used more for communication and entertainment. Our factor analusis shows that demographic variables have impact on the use of all five common Internet services: e-Transaction, e-Learning, e-Information, e-Entertainment, and e-News. The status of the Internet has been changing in a diversified media environment. In terms of the importance and reliability of the media, the Internet is not highly regarded as sources of information or entertainment compared with traditional mass media such as television and newspapers. Television is still held as the most important source of information and entertainment in Japan. It is striking that the reliability of the Internet is the lowest in Japan, compared with other WIP countries, both in 2003 and 2008 survey data. Overwhelming anonymous messages posted on the Internet, high social prestige maintained by TV and newspapers, media reports emphasizing the negative side the Internet may have combined to give the Internet a low reliability rating among the Japanese. However, as the younger generation are generally positive toward the Internet, we expect the social position of this new media to be raising in the near future. For further exploration of relevant research questions, nationwide WIP survey should be continued going forward using more appropriate WIP common questionnaires.
References Cole, J. (2006). Internet and Society in a Global Perspective: Lessons from Five Years in the Field. In M. Castells and G. Cardoso (Eds.), The Network Society: From Knowledge to Policy (pp. 305-324). Center for Transatlantic
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Relations, The Johns Hopkins University, Washington, DC. Cole, J., Suman, M., Schuramm, P., Zhou, L., Salvador, A.,Chung, J. E., and Lee, S. (Eds.). (2009). World Internet Project International Report 2009. University of Southern California. Ishii, K. (2006). Implications of mobility: The uses of personal communication media in everyday life. Journal of Communications, 56(2), 346-365. Ishii, K. (2008). Social Consequences of Broadband Access in Japan. In Dwivedi, Y.K., Papazafeiropolou, A., and Choudrie, J. (Eds.). Handbook of Research in Global Diffusion of Broadband Data Transmission. (pp.619635). IGI Global, Hershey, PA, USA. JWIP. (2001). Internet Usage Trend 2000: Survey Report in Japan. Communications Research Laboratory, Tokyo Japan, available from http:// www.soc.toyo.ac.jp/~mikami/wip/en/report2000.html JWIP. (2002). Internet Usage Trend 2001: Survey Report in Japan. Communications Research Laboratory, Tokyo Japan, available from http:// www.soc.toyo.ac.jp/~mikami/wip/en/report2001.html JWIP. (2003). Internet Usage Trend 2002: Survey Report in Japan. Communication Research Laboratory, Tokyo Japan, available from http:// www.soc.toyo.ac.jp/~mikami/wip/en/report2002.html JWIP. (2004). Internet Usage Trend 2003: Survey Report in Japan. National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Tokyo Japan, available from http://www.soc.toyo.ac.jp/~mikami/wip/en/report2003.html JWIP. (2006). Internet Usage Trend 2005: Survey Report in Japan. National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Tokyo Japan, available from http://www.soc.toyo.ac.jp/~mikami/wip/en/report2005.html
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5 A Longitudinal Examination of Internet Diffusion, Adopter Categories, and Ramifications of Internet Usage on the Importance of Newspapers Robert Lunn and Michael Suman
Introduction A prerequisite for classifying systems is a conceptual framework within which a system’s properties can be properly codified (Klir, 2001). The conceptual framework underlying Internet adoption provides the basis for all subsequent analytical work. Individuals in a social system do not adopt innovations at the same time. It is therefore useful to categorize individuals by when they first began using an innovation. Rogers’ (1995) seminal work points out that diffusion groups vary based on whether or not adoption has occurred, when individuals adopt, and whether adoption is followed by discontinuance. The study of the adoption of innovations has provided a means of tracking social and behavioral change as new concepts, technology, and ideas disseminate throughout the social system. Studying the diffusion process has given “life to a behavioral change process. Conceptual and analytical strength is enhanced by incorporating time as an essential element in the analysis of human behavior change” (Rogers, 1995, p. 98). In this study, we examine the adoption of the Internet in the United States using a panel research design tracking the same respondents’ Internet usage, attitudes, and opinions over a seven-year (2000 to
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2006) period. While the USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future has regularly published cross-sectional results, this article taps some longitudinal panel aspects of that data. Longitudinal panel research is inherently more resource intensive, time consuming, complex, and methodologically challenging than traditional repeated measures cross-sectional research designs. With cross-sectional data, results are quickly obtained. However, with longitudinal data, the focus is on the form of the adaptive process for the same individuals over time. A twowave longitudinal panel study would enable one to detect change; with three-waves one can determine if change is more or less linear or non-linear. However, since most diffusion processes follow an S-shaped diffusion pattern (Rogers, 1995), we often require more than three waves of data to truly understand the change trajectory. Many Internet studies use cross-sectional data, although substantial advantages have accrued from using true longitudinal data. For example, respondents can serve as their own controls. Moreover, causal relationships can often be established using longitudinal panel data, which also allow researchers to distinguish between individuals’ change over time and changes in cohort behavior over time (Singer & Willett, 2003). An illustrative example serves to clarify this last point. Using data in a repeated measures cross-sectional analysis, we find that average hourly Internet usage increased by 86% over seven years for the 19 to 24 year old age cohort. However, looking at the same age bracket individuals over the same seven years, we find that average Internet hours of usage actually increased by 39%. The two results tell us different things. Using the data in a cross-sectional research design approach indicates that the 19 to 24 year old age cohorts of 2000 and 2006 are experientially different. For example, the 19 year old in 2006 was 12 in 2000 whereas the 19 year old in 2000 was 12 in 1993. The amount of time children spent using computers increased by one-third just from 1998 to 1999 (Subrahmanyam, Kraut, Greenfield & Gross, 2000). Hence, the 19 year old of 2006 would be expected to have a higher Internet usage rate because they started using computers earlier and more extensively than the
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19 year old of 2000. Data from a longitudinal panel design show with more accuracy that the Internet use growth rate for 19 to 24 year old individuals from 2000 to 2006 was about six percent per year (5.6), rather than 12 percent (12.3) per year as indicated with the repeated measures cross-sectional cohort analytical approach. This is a significant difference of approximately 120 percent. Our initial focus in this first look at longitudinal panel data is on verifying the existence of traditional innovation adoption groups with respect to usage of the Internet from 2000 through 2006. Our second focus concerns how Internet usage grows over time for the different adoption groups. Our third focus is looking at demographic differences between different diffusion groups. Our final focus concerns the effects of Internet experience with respect to an individual’s dependence on print newspapers as a source of information. METHODS Data for our analyses come from Surveying the Digital Future, a nationally representative telephone survey of individuals in the United States 12 years of age and older. Yearly sample sizes were in excess of two thousand respondents. Data were collected in the summer and fall of 2000 through 2006 (with the exception of 2004). An equal probability selection method (EPSEM) was used to identify the original sample in Year 1, as well as replacement respondents in subsequent years. During the first call, the interviewer spoke with an adult to create a list of all household members 12 years of age and older from which one member was randomly identified to participate. Interviews were completed in either English or Spanish and took an average of 34 minutes. To replace dropouts from the previous year, additional phone numbers were randomly drawn via EPSEM. The Digital Future Project is a comprehensive, year-to-year examination of the impact of online technology on America. The study gathers data about who is online, how long they are online, and what they do online. It also examines the implications of the use
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of online technology, and links this use to a broad range of values, behaviors, attitudes, and perceptions. In this study we examine two main variables, Internet adoption and usage. Adoption is measured by whether or not one personally uses the Internet from anywhere. Usage is measured by how many hours per week on average one is online from anywhere. RESULTS The diffusion literature (e.g., Rogers, 1995) separates people into seven diffusion groups: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, laggards, non-adopters, and discontinuers. We know from historical country-based Internet usage data (e.g., ITU, AC Nielsen, the UN) that in the United States Internet innovators likely adopted by 1992, and early adopters adopted by 1997 (Figure 5.1). Therefore, the members of the longitudinal panel that were Internet users by 2000 were actually a mix of innovators, early adopters, and some early majority adopters.
80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1988
1990
1992
1994
1996
1998 Time
2000
2002
2004
2006
2008
Figure 5.1 United States Internet Diffusion Over time.
We segmented our panel into groups based on theoretically expected patterns (Rogers, 1995) of Internet use/non-use across our seven years of data (Table 5.1).
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Table 5.1 Internet Diffusion Groups. Diffusion Groups
Frequency
Percent
Innovators/Early Adopters
228
50.3
Laggards
21
4.6
Late and Later Adopters Non Adopters Discontinuers Intermittent Total
42 74 30
58 453
9.3
16.3 6.6
12.8 100
Continuous Internet users for all waves were classified as acombined innovator/early adopters group. Individuals who weren on-Internet users in 2000, but were continuous Internet users from 2001 on, are considered as late majority adopters. Individuals who were non-Internet users from 2000 through 2003, but were continuous Internet users from 2004 through 2006, are considered as laggards, or, as we prefer to call them, later adopters. Individualswho were non-Internet users from 2000 through 2006 are non-adopters. Individuals who were Internet users in 2000, but gradually stopped using the Internet by 2006, or were not Internet users in 2000, but were Internet users for one of the waves, excluding the last wave, constitute the discontinuance group. After the initial classification, we found that an additional 58 individuals who did not fall into a classical diffusion category are intermittent Internet users. They oscillate between Internet usage and non-usage, but are slowly trending towards continuous Internet usage. Figure 5.2 demonstrates the use/non-use patterns, excluding the non-adopter group. Figure 5.2 emphasizes that it is difficult to form an accurate assessment of how the Internet diffused throughout the United States without taking into account the existence of classic diffusion groups. This is difficult to do in a repeated cross-sectional research design and one must depend on long-term memory data. The green dashed line in Figure 5.2 represents average Internet
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usage across all groups. It is immediately evident that a single average Internet usage figure plotted over the years does not well represent the complexity of the underlying diffusion of innovation process.
Figure 5.2 Patterns of Internet Use Diffusion by Year.
The intermittent Internet user group accounts for about 13 percent of general Internet users. Its existence might explain some of the marked variations observed in overall average Internet usage provided by different repeated measures cross-sectional research studies over time. Table 5.2 provides a more detailed picture of six respondents selected at random from the intermittent users group. As can be seen, the pattern of usage and non-usage is somewhat chaotic (Y=yes and N=no). Such a detailed view showing the complex nature of Internet diffusion without dependence on longterm memory is only possible using longitudinal data.
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Table 5.2 Six Randomly Selected Intermittent Internet Users Pattern of Usage. Wave 1
Wave 2
Wave 3
Wave 4
Wave 5
Wave 6
s1
N
N
Y
Y
N
Y
s3
Y
N
N
N
N
Y
s2
s4
s5 s6
N
Y
Y
Y
Y
N N
Y
Y
N Y
N
Y
Y N
N
N
Y N
Y
N Y
N Y
Amount of Internet Usage Follows an S-shaped curve:
Average Hours Per Week
Most diffusion studies’ S-shaped curves are associated with percent of the total population adopting. Figure 5.3 demonstrates that degree of Internet usage (hours per week) also follows an S-shaped curve. Even discontinuance of Internet use follows an S-shaped curve. We have extended the form of the derived S-shaped curves beyond our actual data to illustrate their overall shape and to provide estimates on projected future growth amounts. Actual data values are signified by the points on those curves. 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 1985
1990
1995
Early Adopters Total Combined Late Dis>on?n@e
2000
2005
2010
2015
Early Data Total Data Combined Late data
Figure 5.3 S-Shapes Curves Fitted To Average Hours Per Week By Four Adopter Groups.
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Earlier adopters’ Internet usage in 2006 is 150% greater in average hours per week than that of later adopters. In addition, while Internet usage of earlier adopters is projected to continue to grow another 35 to 40 percent through 2018, later adopters’ degree of utilization is already near its projected asymptote level of six hours per week. Clearly, later adopters are using the Internet less, and differently. Rate of Change of Internet Usage: The first derivative of an S-shaped curve is called the Probability Density Function (PDF). It represents the rate of change of Internet usage (hours per week) over time. The peak value of the PDF provides the peak usage rate, i.e., the fastest rate of increased usage over the time period. Figure 5.4 demonstrates the underlying PDF curves for our early adopters and later adopters using our longitudinal panel data.
Rate of Change of Hours of Use
1.6 1.4 1.2 1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0 1985
1990
1995 Early
2000
2005
2010
2015
Combined Late
Figure 5.4 Rate of Change of Hours of Internet Use by Time For Two Adopter Groups.
The peak rate of change in Internet usage (increases in hours per week of Internet usage) is significantly higher for later adopters than early adopters (1.4 versus 1.0). One plausible interpretation
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for this pattern of results relates to being on the “bleeding edge” of technology, i.e., when a technology is first developed it is relatively expensive and difficult to use. However, while later adopters increase their Internet usage more rapidly than early adopters, they do not sustain that rate of increase. So late adopters exhibit faster increases in hours of usage, but reach their saturation point quicker than early adopters. Demographic Characteristics of Adopter Groups: There is a clear association between age and Internet adoption group membership. The proportion of individuals over age 55 increases sharply as we move from early adoption, to late, later, and nonadoption. The proportion of individuals over age 55 increases from 18 percent for early adopters, to 48 percent for later adopters, to 67 percent for individuals that discontinued usage, to nearly 75 percent for non-Internet adopters. (Employment can affect Internet usage. We checked the employment status of non-adopters and found that 72 percent were unemployed in 2000. The proportion of unemployment increased to 77 percent by 2006.) The majority of early adopters were not from the youngest group, but were aged 35 to 55. We suspected this was due to the likelihood that older individuals needed the Internet for work. Looking at our early adopter group in wave one we found no differences between percent of home Internet usage between individuals that were aged 19 to 34 compared to those aged 35 to 55. However, early adopters between the ages of 35 to 55 reported 49 percent greater hours of Internet work time. We can assume that a great percentage of early Internet adopters started using the Internet for work-related reasons. We confirm classical diffusion studies in finding that early adopters have higher incomes and greater levels of education than later adopters (Figures 5.6 and 5.7). For example, thirty percent of the early adopters versus seventy-six percent of the non-adopters reported income less then fifty thousand dollars. Fifty percent of the early adopters versus less than ten percent of the non-adopters reported four or more years of college education.
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Figure Five Percent-ge .ge /r0u12 34 .50160n /r0u12
80 70
Percent
60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Early
Late 19‐34
35 ‐ 55
Later 56 +
Non‐Adopters
Figure 5.5 Percentage Age Groups by Adoption Groups. Figure Six Percent Income Less Than 50K by Adopter Groups
Percent Average Income Less Than 50K
90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Early
Late
Later
Non‐Adopters
<=s>on?n@e
Figure 5.6 Percent Income Less Than 50K by Adopter Groups. Percent Four or More Years of College
Figure Seven Percent Four or More Years of College by Adopter Groups
60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% Early
Late
Later
Figure 5.7 Percent Four or More Years of College by Adopter Groups.
Non‐Adopters
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Reasons for Non-Adoption or Discontinuing Internet Usage: The original version of the survey questionnaire contained nine possible reasons for not using the Internet or discontinuing Internet usage. We performed a Principal Components analysis and found six factors. The bold numbers in Table 5.3 identify the primary factor loadings. The closer the factor loading is to 1.0, the greater the correlation of the variable with the sense of the latent factor. The six-factor solution accounted for 74% of the total variation. Table 5.3 Factor Analysis of Stated Reasons for Not Using the Internet. Reasons for Discontinuing
Factor 1 Factor 2 Factor 3 Factor 4 Factor 5 Factor 6
Computer not good enough
0.75
0.28
-0.08
-0.12
-0.28
0.12
Connection too slow
0.69
-0.20
0.09
0.05
0.29
-0.09
Do not know how -0.02 to use
0.85
0.13
0.02
0.05
0.02
Fear of / Confused by technology
-0.18
0.25
0.81
-0.09
0.02
0.04
Too difficult to get connected
0.42
-0.14
0.66
0.13
0.01
-0.05
Too Expensive
-0.04
0.01
0.02
0.90
-0.08
0.09
No computer
0.07
0.47
-0.07
0.47
0.30
-0.21
No interest
0.02
0.11
0.02
-0.03
0.89
0.10
Privacy concerns
0.01
-0.02
-0.01
0.05
0.09
0.96
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Percent responses were then accumulated according to the factor structure. Data for late adopters were provided from the time period just previous to Internet adoption. Data for the Internet discontinuance group was provided just after they stopped using the Internet. Data for the intermittent group was provided just after their first discontinuance (Figure 5.8). Figure Eight Stated Reason for Not Using the Internet or For Dropping Internet Usage
70
!er$ent (en)ons
60 50 40 30 20 10 0 No Computer Too Expensive
No Interest
Late
Later
Don't know how Computer / Fear / confused Privacy Concerns to use connecBon not by technology / good enough too difficult Non Adopters
DisconBnuers
IntermiOent
Figure 5.8 Stated Reasons for Not Using the Internet or For Dropping Internet Usage.
The response patterns are quite similar. The top three reasons for late adoption or discontinuance are cost, lack of interest, and lack of knowledge. The discontinuance group seems to be somewhat stronger in regard to lack of interest and lack of knowledge. Ramifications of Internet Usage for Newspaper Readership: So far we have concentrated on verifying the existence of classical innovation (Internet) diffusion groups in the United States, diffusion rates, and demographic characteristics. We also reported how amount of time using the Internet increases with time following an “S” shaped curve. We next examined how the integration of the Internet into the daily fabric of life has acted to transform the way people access the information that connects them to events in their local communities and the world.
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One of our questions asks: “How important are newspapers as sources of information to you?” on a five-point scale (in which 5 means extremely important and 1 not important at all). For each of our Internet diffusion groups, we plotted how top-two box importance (percentage of 4 and 5 responses) varied as a function of the groups’ average Internet hours per week from 2000 through 2006. We then fitted a straight line to the data, and determined the slope of the fitted lines. This slope tells us how the degree of importance of newspapers varies with average weekly hours of Internet use. All of the slopes were negative, which tells us that newspaper importance as a source of information diminished as a function of Internet usage. We then plotted the slopes for each of the Internet groups as a function of the average months of experience each Internet group had been on-line (Figure 5.9). The results demonstrate that respondent ratings of newspapers as an important source of information for them decrease as a logarithmic function of the number of months of Internet experience. Therefore, the earlier one adopted the Internet, the more rapid the decrease in his/her reliance on newspapers as an important source of information. Figure Nine Average Rate of Decrease (slope) in Dependence on Newspapers as a Cource of InforDaEon by Internet Diffusion Groups (Average Months Online) Average Rate of Decrease in Newspaper Dependence by Internet User Diffusion Groups
0 ‐1 ‐2 ‐3
0
50
100
150
200
250
Laggards
Late Majority
‐4 ‐5
Early Majority Opinion Leaders
‐6
Innovators
‐7 Average Months Online
Figure 5.9 Average Rate of Decrease (slope) in Dependence on Newspapers as a Source of Information by Internet Diffusion Groups (Average Months Online).
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Conclusions Diffusion of innovations such as the Internet does not occur uniformly through a social system. There are distinct groups of individuals that adopt, do not adopt, adopt later, adopt much later, or even intermittently adopt. An overall population’s S-shaped diffusion curve provides an aggregate look at how the adoption process proceeds over time. However, the actual underlying population is heterogeneous with respect to adoption intentions, and the actual pattern of adoptions is far more complex than what might be implied by the S-shaped diffusion curve for the total population (see for example Figure 5.1). Confirming the classical literature, we find that earlier adopters are individually more educated and exhibit higher income levels. Individuals who do not adopt or adopt later are predominantly older. The stated reasons for not adopting the Internet or dropping Internet usage are nearly identical regardless of when adoption occurred. The three primary reasons are “no computer/ too expensive,” “no interest,” and “don’t know how to use it.” Over three-fourths of non-adopters were unemployed in 2006, suggesting that Internet usage has a strong economic and active work force requisite. Many use the Internet at work. Moreover, one needs money to pay for monthly access. Provision of low cost computers is a start. Individuals who are not well-off could obtain financial aid or receive technical training so they can appreciate the significant advantages of being connected to the World Wide Web. Simply providing inexpensive computers to older or nontrained individuals might prove insufficient. It is difficult to accurately calculate long-term growth rates using a repeated cross-sectional research design because cohorts exhibit experiential drift (Singer & Willett, 2003). This is confirmed in our study where we found that the average growth rate in hours of Internet use for 19 to 24 year olds is over 100 percent greater for a repeated cross-sectional research approach as opposed to a longitudinal panel approach. Given that the predominance of research on diffusion of the Internet in the United States uses a
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cross-sectional research design approach, this finding has important ramifications with respect to planning for future infrastructure needs. Most innovation diffusion studies focus on a contrast between use and non-use. This study expands that by examining the change trajectories for amount of Internet usage. Degree of utilization change trajectories also follow S-shaped curves. As with use and non-use, change trajectories for amount of utilization differ depending on when the Internet was adopted. Earlier adopters’ Internet usage in 2006 is 150% greater in hours per week than later adopters’. In addition, while Internet usage of earlier adopters is projected to continue to grow another 35 to 40 percent through 2018 (Figure 5.3), later adopters degree of utilization is already near its projected asymptote level of six hours per week. We also found that the rate of increase in Internet use (hours per week) for later adopters is faster than the rate of increase for the earlier adopters. We suggest that this pattern of results relate to being on the “bleeding edge” of technology, technology that is so new that it is difficult to use, expensive, and entails a greater financial risk, especially if the innovation is not subsequently broadly accepted. We also found that the projected Internet utilization growth for later adopters is relatively flat. This implies that later adopters are using the Internet differently than early adopters. Results in regard to the importance of newspapers as sources of information are unequivocal. Earlier adopters of the Internet use the Internet more, and the more time they spend on the Internet the less important newspapers are for them as sources of information. Clearly, the newspaper industry will have to adapt to the emerging world of web-based information if it wants to survive. In conclusion, we would like to point out that cross-sectional research designs are not totally flawed with respect to many of their findings. The addition of longitudinal data will very likely support and augment many of the inferences drawn on crosssectional research designs. We anticipate substantial increases in the precision of analytical findings and a great deal of improvement with respect to causal implications.
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References Klir, G. J. (2001). Facets of System Science (2nd ed.). New York: Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers. Lunn, R. J., & Suman, M. W. (2002). Experience and Trust in Online Shopping. In The Internet in Everyday Life, Edited by Barry Wellman and Caroline Haythornthwaite, Blackwell Publishing. Rogers, E. M. (1995). Rogers, E. M. (1995). Diffusion of Innovations Fourth Edition. New York: Free Press. Singer, J. D. & Willett, J. B. (2003). Applied Longitudinal Data Analysis. Oxford University Press. Subrahmanyam, K., Kraut, R. E., Greenfield, P. M. & Gross, E. F (2000). The Impact of Home Computer Use on Children’s Activities and Development. The Future of Children: Children and Computer Technology 10, (2) Fall/ Winter.
II To Use or Not to Use the Internet: from digital exclusion to social inclusion
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6 The Evolving Pattern of Digital Divide: An Investigation of Individual Level of Divides1 Angus Cheong and Jianbin Jin
Introduction One of the most prominent and persistent concerns in the Internetrelated social science studies in recent years has been the issue of digital divide. The term is used to describe the social division among people in terms of their involvement with information and communication technology (Hawkins, 2005). As an issue “rooted at the heart of the Information Society” (Sciada, 2005, p.299) since its birth in 1995, digital divide has been a “catchy expression” among academics, administrators, and policy makers (Hawkins, 2005, p. 172). The underlying reasons for the “increasing currency” (Joseph, 2001, p. 333) of this term lie in the general recognition that the Internet has the ability to both empower and discriminate citizens of a society (Guillen & Suarez, 2005). In Eamon’s (2004) summarization, digital divide subsumes at least four major aspects: educational advantages, future employment and earnings, opportunities for social and civic involvement, and equity and civil right development. The digital divide, therefore, represents “a major challenge”2 confronted by any information-based network society and knowledge economy. Meanwhile, empirical evidence regarding the existence of digital divide has accumulated rapidly The current chapter is an updated and revised version of the article titled “Measuring Digital Divide: The Exploration in Macau” published in Observatorio (OBS*) Journal, 2(3),2008. 2 Cited from Dr. Abdul Waheed Khan, UNESCO, retrieved on December 20, 2005 from http:// www.idrc.ca/en/ev-67626-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html 1
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in literature. As relevant researches proliferated and policy debates continued, however, more and more accusations were made regarding the validity of the concept of digital divide (e.g., Arquette, 2001; Hawkins, 2005; Guillen & Suarez, 2005; Servon, 2002; Van Dijk & Hacker, 2003). To cite Bertot’s (2003, p. 185; cf: Hawkins, 2005, p.184) comment, the term seems “too narrow at best and quite problematic at worst”. The problem with “digital divide”, as Hawkins (2005) puts it, is that while many researchers use it, “they did not always conceptualize the digital divide in the same manner” (p.174). Based on the review of numerous studies published in the past years under the umbrella of “digital divide”, Dewan & Riggins (2005) summarized that in terms of levels of analysis, three different levels of digital divide are frequently explored, i.e., global level, organizational level and individual level. In terms of the types of inequality, Van Dijk and Hacker (2003) found that there are at least two inter-related but conceptually distinct types of divide, i.e., ICT access inequality and ICT use inequality, which they labeled as first order and second order digital divide respectively. Furthermore, the concrete content of so-called ICT also varied in different studies. For example, while some studies compare across a wide range of ICTs’ penetration in different countries (e.g., Dewan et al, 2005; Venkatesh & Shih, 2005; Wong, 2002; Arquette, 2002; Sciadas, 2005), other studies exclusively focus on the penetration of the Internet (e.g., Hargittai, 1999; Kiiski & Pohjola, 2002), and still others exclusively focus on particular branches of ICT such as digital wireless (e.g. , Kauffman & Techatassanasoontom, 2005). Mindful of different conceptualizations of digital divide in mind, a defining framework of the concept is proposed, with three key components in the scheme, as is shown in Figure 6.1 below. Figure 6.1 shows three key components in the scheme of studying digital divide: levels of analysis, inequality related divides and ICT related divides. The levels of analysis include global, organizational and individual. While inequality types of divide are composed of access divide and usage divide, ICT types of divide encompass the Internet, multiple ICTs and other particular ICTs.
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Levels of analysis ● Global ● organizational ● Individual
Digital Divide
Inequality Types ● access ● usage
ICT types ● Internet ● Multiple ICts ● other particular ICts
Figure 6.1 The Key Components in the Conceptualization of Digital divide.
Decomposition is but the beginning of elaboration of this “misleading concept” (Paterson, 2004, p.123). In his explication of the multifaceted nature of access, Van Dijk (1999; cf: Van Dijk & Hacker, 2003) further distinguish four types of access, i.e., mental access, a concept related to the digital experience; material access which reflects the possessing of computers and network; skills access, the aspect related to people’s digital skills or literacy, and usage access which is basically a reflection of usage opportunities. This somehow resonates with Hawkins’ (2005) comment on the multilayered nature of access: Besides being conceptualized as physical access, other alternative ways of access should also be taken into consideration, including “information literacy and content” (p.178). Similarly, Paterson (2004) pointed out that access to ICT is embedded in a complex array of factors encompassing physical, digital, human and social resources and relationships. In addition, there could also be different schemes of inequality types. For example, while Servon (2002) argued that digital divide is composed of three interrelated components, i.e., access, training and content, Corrocher & Ordanini (2002) employed a synthesis of six composite factors, including markets, diffusion, infrastructure,
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human resources, competitiveness and competition, in their analysis of global digital divide. Since many digital divide studies seek to identify the determinants of digital divide (e.g., Dewan et al., 2005; Guillen & Suarez, 2005; Paterson, 2004; Hawkins, 2005, Norris, 2001), it is not surprising that “the biggest differentiator of the research efforts has been the choice of dependent variable” (Dewan et al., 2005, p. 412), i.e., the choice of specific definition of digital divide. In keeping with these views, the framework we presented in Figure 6.1 provides a multidimensional exploration of the concept. Compared to the seemingly confusing situation of the conceptualization, the measurement of digital divide is plagued by the problem of “too many” divergent understandings of what the concept actually means when it is used in various specific contexts. People have made great efforts to developing their own definitions about the term. In contrast, as Corrocher and Ordanini (2002, p.10) observed, there have not been sufficient efforts at developing and/or improving the theoretical approaches and the statistical methodology directed at measuring this divide. While different measures of the digital divide can result in very different inferences about the nature of the divide (Dewan et al., 2005, p.412), measurement has been challenged by the “lack of an instrument capable of systematically quantifying the digital divide” (Sciada, 2005, p.299). This situation is partially due to the absence of a clear definition of the concept (Corrocher & Ordanini, 2002). Therefore, proposal of new measurement frameworks merits serious attention in order to further understanding of digital divide so that we might assess its “actual magnitude” with “appropriate evaluation techniques” (Corrocher & Ordanini, 2002, p.10). In fact, we concur with the judgment that “reliable measurement and analysis of the digital divide is desperately needed” (Sciada, 2005, p. 299). Notably, pleas like this were made very recently, implying that the appropriate measurement of digital divide is still a major challenge confronted by multiple players of the digital divide agenda. In view of the situation, the current study attempts to make some unique contribution in this direction. Based on a critical review of
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the ways hitherto people employed to measure the digital divide, we propose a measure of digital divide based on the established approach in assessing the distributional inequality, i.e., the Gini coefficient. While we do recognize the appropriateness of this approach in measuring different levels of analysis, as we depicted in Figure 6.1, this article places emphasis on the individual level analysis, even though we view digital divide as a social divide in nature. It is our belief that individual level analysis provides the most essential clue to capturing the complex nature of digital divide. Accordingly, social divide constitutes the primary divide of varied levels of divide, be it organizational level or global level. Logically, the analytical framework and measurement instruments developed in the individual level analysis should be easily applicable to the higher levels of analyses. With this specification, we explore the digital divide situation in both types of inequalities, i.e., access divide and usage divide using data made available from a longitudinal Internet research project conducted between 2002 and 2008 in Macau. We are especially interested in the relationships between these two types of divide as to whether they have some inherent connection. Therefore, our first research question is: RQ1: What is the relationship between access divide and usage divide over time in Macau? Many researchers have empirically revealed the dynamic nature of digital divide. It is clear that both the digital divides themselves and their determinants might evolve over time (Servon, 2002; Dewan et al., 2005; Sciada, 2005; Van Dijk & Hacker, 2003; Chakraborty & Bosman, 2005). More specifically, research interest is increasingly focused on the second level digital divide or usage divide (Chakraborty & Bosman, 2005). This echoes Van Dijk’s (1999) argument that there will be a “shift” in people’s concern of digital divide from access gap to more complicated and socially important usage gap. The underlying hypothesis for this might be that, compared to access divide, usage divide might be
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more difficult and persistent. A longitudinal analysis is needed to examine the possible different evolutive patterns of two types of divides. Therefore, our second research question is: RQ2: Does usage divide evolve differently from access divide? To summarize, the dynamic nature of digital divide (Servon, 2002) is highlighted and discussed based on our longitudinal analysis. As mentioned previously, since in numerous studies, digital divide is most frequently treated as a dependent variable, a function of some antecedent determinants, it is evident that our study about the appropriate measurement and quantification of digital divide is of fundamental importance. The Quantification of Digital Divide: An Instrumental Review Digital divide research can be clustered based on different angles or dimensions (see Figure 6.1). In their summarization of current digital divide research, Dewan and Riggins (2005) conducted an overview according to the inequality types and levels of analysis. We categorize existing digital divide research works based on the ICTs involved. An alternative approach for reviewing the relevant literature is simply to see whether a study is basically a demonstration of the existence and magnitude of digital divide, or whether it focuses more on the identification of various determinants of such divides. In other words, the former focuses on and explicitly describes or measures the digital divide per se. The latter, on the other hand, emphasizes the exploration of various causes of digital divide. The magnitude of divides per se is not a key concern. As has been frequently shown (e.g., Dewan & Riggins, 2005; Dewan et al., 2005; Quibria et al. 2003), in this latter case, either ICT access or use is treated as dependent variable(s), and various regression analyses are typically employed to determine the significant causal factors. The underlying assumption is although divides exist in ICT access or usage, the magnitudes of the divides per se are not
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necessary the key concern. Our review of literature generates an impression that by and large existing works on digital divide are descriptive in nature, usually with simple comparison of the mean values of particular indicators. “An instrument capable of systematically quantifying the digital divide” is yet to be recommended (Sciada’s, 2005, p.299). The main problem here is twofold. On the one hand, by only using mean value rather than the whole distributional information of the indicators, the results could be misleading since the important information on the dispersion level of the distribution is neglected. On the other hand, a simple method of description is incapable of quantifying the magnitude of digital divides, causing particular strains when multiple ICTs and levels of analysis are considered together. The univariate nature of this illustration will make the supposedly intuitionistic description of digital divide extremely complex and confusing. As such, it is impossible to assess scientifically the magnitude of the divides. To remedy the situation, some researchers have attempted to employ inferential statistics to quantify the digital divide. For example, Dewan et al. (2005) employ the ratio of deviation to mean as the indicator of divide magnitude. Jin & Xiong (2002) also took the same criterion to assess the level of national digital divide, while Corrocher & Ordanini (2002) employ this approach to evaluate the magnitude of global digital divide. Chakraborty and Bosman (2005) lamented on the situation of measurement methods researchers have been using in their digital divide studies this way: Most of these empirical studies have relied on conventional statistical methods to measure differences in Internet access or PC ownership between races or income groups. Standard measures of distributional inequality, however, have rarely been used to analyze racial or economic disparities in the digital divide research literature. (p. 396-397)
Chakraborty and Bosman (2005) argue that the Gini coefficient,
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“the best-known measure of inequality” (p.367), should be especially suitable as a standard measure of digital divide. As an established approach, this measure of inequality has been widely applied in different disciplines in social sciences, including economics, demography, epidemiology, and geography (See Chakratorty & Nosman, 2005 for a review). They demonstrate how the Lorenz Curve and the Gini coefficient can be applied to measure income inequalities in the ownership of home PCs at the national, regional, and state levels. To the best of our knowledge, this is the only research which explicitly uses the Gini coefficient to quantify the magnitude of digital divide in literature. For any “good” or standard measure of inequality, there are usually a set of criteria that must be met (Allison, 1978; Dagum, 1983; cf. Chakraborty and Bosman, 2005). The Gini coefficient satisfies all of these desired properties. Specifically, compared to the prior methods we reviewed, the Gini coefficient is more succinct with a standardized format which makes its meaning clear and definite, comparable across different kinds of divides. That is why it becomes one of the most frequently used standard measures of distributional inequality in multiple fields. This study follows the suggestion of employing a standard measure to quantify the magnitude of digital divides. Different from the focuses of Chakraborty and Bosman (2005), the loci of our analyses of digital divide are the individuals, i.e., the digital divide among different social groups defined by a couple of individual level demographic variables. The Gini coefficient adopted in this study is defined as a ratio with values between 0 and 1: the numerator is the area between the Lorenz curve and the uniform (perfect) distribution line;3 the denominator is the area under the uniform distribution line. Taking the income distribution as example, the computational formula of Gini coefficent is:
A detailed description of Lorenz curve can be found at Wikipedia, URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Lorenz_curve.
3
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G=� ∑ WiYi + 2� ∑ Wi (1 _� Vi ) _� 1 n
n �1
i =1
i =1
Where Wi is the percentage of group i’s population in the total population, Yi is the percentage of group i’s income in the total income of the population, and Vi is the sum of Y1 to Yi, i.e. Vi=Y1+Y2+Y3…+Yi. Research Design Operational Definition of Digital divide As illustrated in Figure 6.1, our conceptualization of digital divide consists of three dimensions: levels of analysis, inequality types and ICT types involved. In this study, we focus on the investigation of the level of analysis and the inequality in access and usage of the Internet among social group members. In their study about the digital divide in the United States, Lindsay and Poindexter (2003) took the same definition. More specifically, we will investigate the distributional inequality of Internet access and usage among social groups defined by following key demographic variables: a) Gender. A dummy of male and female was coded. b) Educational level. Educational level of respondents was grouped into two categories: below university and university or above. c) Employment. Three categories for this variable were constructed: employed, unemployed non-students, and students. d) Age. Respondents’ ages were grouped into three categories: less than 25, between 25 and 54, and older than 54. With the specification of these factors, the respondents will be fallen into one of the 36 (2×2×3×3) groups. The digital divide is
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therefore operationally defined as the inequality of Internet access and use among these social groups. Adopting the computational formula of Gini coefficient, the inequality of Internet access is calculated as G=� ∑ WiYi + 2� ∑ Wi (1_� Vi ) _� 1 n
n �1
i =1
i =1
Where Wi refers to the percentage of group i’s population in the total population, which represents the divide indicators including gender, employment, educational level and age; Yi denotes group i’s Internet users in the total users of the population, which represents the digital indicator (whether an individual has access to the Internet or not); and Vi=Y1+Y2+Y3…+Yi. The selection of these defining variables is actually based on the findings of previous studies on the determinants of digital divide (e.g., Dewan et al., 2005; Hawkins, 2005; Lindsay & Poindexter, 2003). While income level is a widely used factor in researches of digital divide, especially among those with global level of analysis (e.g., Dewan et al., 2005; Guillen & Suarez, 2005; Hargittai, 1999), it is not included in our scheme of defining variables. One of the main reasons for this is that educational level, as well as employment and age, is usually highly correlated with income level (e.g., Norris, 2001), thus mediating the effect of income. On the other hand, as Norris (2001) found, once a certain level of Internet development is achieved, economic development is not necessarily essential to Internet use. While access can be unambiguously operationalized with whether or not one is able to use the Internet, the operational definition for Internet use is much more complex. As a multidimensional concept, Internet use can be defined either by the amount of online time, the frequency of use, or the websites or applications one uses. According to Zhu and He (2002), at least two dimensions, i.e., time and activities need to be considered in the operationalization of Internet use. In addition, when they elaborate the concept of usage gap,Van Dijk and Hacker (2003) apply the dimension of whether using the Internet for work and education, or out of the
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motivation of entertainment. In the current study, we will examine four aspects of Internet use, i.e., the time Internet users spend on the Internet, and three most popular Internet activities in terms of information acquisition, email use and online game playing. They are measured in the following ways. 1) Time: the time that users spend on the Internet was coded as light and heavy, segmented by the median of the weekly time. Heavy time was adopted in each demographic group. 2) Information acquisition, email use and online game playing: respondents were asked whether or not they participate in these online activities. A dummy code was assigned for each of them respectively. Data of Analysis The data for current study were drawn from the Macau Internet Project which is one of the partners of the World Internet Project. Seven random sampling telephone surveys from 2002 to 2008 were conducted in the territory. All surveys were conducted using a computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) system in December, except one which was carried out in January 2002, All surveys targeted regular residents aged between 6 and 84, except the 2002 survey which had a narrower age range between 18 and 74. Eligible respondents should be native Chinese speakers (including Cantonese, Mandarin and other dialects) and live in Macau with a landed residential telephone line. Calculated by the Response Rate Formulae 3 (RR3) of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR),4 the response rates are 40.2%, 46.2%, 45.3%, 36.2%, 46.4%, 36.6% and 38.4% respectively. The sample size varies between 1002 and 2070. At the 95% confidence level, the sampling errors of the whole sample are ±3.16%, ±2.2%, ±2.5%, ±2.3%, ±2.4%, ±2.3% and ±2.3% respectively. All sample data are 4
http://www.aapor.org/default.asp?page=survey_methods/standards_and_best_practices/standard_definitions#response
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weighted based on gender and age against the same variables of the population (Cheong, 2009). Findings We have illustrated in the previous section that digital divide involves both access divide and usage divide in the study of ICT divide, the Internet divide in particular. To answer our research questions “RQ1: What is the relationship between access divide and usage divide over time in Macau?”, and “RQ2: Does usage divide evolve differently from access divide?”, we start with the computation of a series of Gini coefficients to measure the magnitude of these divides based on the probability sample data between 2002 and 2008 in Macau. The results are shown in Table 6.1. For the purpose of reference, the Internet adoption rates are also listed. Table 6.1 Internet Divides in Macau between 2002 and 2008. 2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
Internet adoption rate
32.9%
39.5%
46.2%
52.7%
54.8%
63.9%
66.0%
Internet access divide
0.3941
0.3675
0.3796
0.3282
0.3200
0.2795
0.2653
Internet use time divide
0.2081
0.1990
0.1215
0.2262
0.1684
0.1606
0.1488
Email usage divide
0.1187
0.0712
0.1209
0.1102
0.1037
0.0959
0.1117
Information acquisition divide
0.1132
0.0496
0.0559
0.0554
0.1061
0.0900
0.1285
0.3073
0.3128
0.2752
0.2399
0.2471
0.2704
0.2731
Online games playing divide
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According to its definition, the bigger the Gini coefficient, the larger the divide or inequality. From Table 6.1, among all types of divides in 2008, it is found that the magnitudes of the divide of online gaming and the Internet access divide are more than twice or almost twice as large as those of emailing, searching information and time spent online. In addition, a closer examination on the Internet access divide shows that the divide drops from 0.3941 in 2002 to 0.2653 in 2008 whereas no clear pattern is found among the four Internet usage divides. It seems that such findings reveal different characteristics between Internet access divide and Internet usage divide. To further our analysis, we performed a correlation analysis among these five variables. Results produced no statistically significant relation between Internet access divide and any of the four Internet usage divides, which confirms the independent relationship between the two types of divide. It is also worth noting that a strong negative correlation (r=-.964) between Internet access divide and Internet adoption rate was found, indicating that more people using the Internet certainly helps to reduce inequality of Internet access, but this is not the case for Internet usage divide. To better illustrate the scenario of Internet divides over time, we compare them in Figure 6.2 which shows the continuous declining pattern over years except a slight rise in 2004 for the Internet access divide. As for the Internet usage divides, a fluctuant pattern is depicted. The divide indexes of information acquisition increased from 2005 to 2006, then increased again after a decrease in 2007. Based on these findings, we come to a tentative conclusion that while access divide might relatively be easily predictable, usage divides are somehow much more illusory because functionalities and applications of the Internet are continually updated. In other words, access divides and usage divides do evolve in different patterns.
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Figure 6.2 Internet Divides in Macau between 2002 and 2008.
Discussion and Conclusion This study begins with the review of digital divide related studies and debates, which, in Norris’ (2001, p.4) words, remained “conceptually over-simplified and theoretically underdeveloped”. More specifically, we focus on the methods researchers have been using for the purpose of quantifying the magnitude of digital divide, and found that so far most of such efforts have been quite preliminary, characterized by descriptive rather than analytical approaches. We then provide conceptual grounds for the necessity of using a standard measure of distribution inequality, i.e., Gini coefficient, in the studies of digital divide. In the process, we also elaborate a defining framework through which various definitions of digital divide can be organized under the same umbrella. Three key constitutive components of this framework, including levels of analysis, types of inequality and types of ICT are proposed. With these theoretical and methodological preparations, we attempt to explore the dynamic nature of digital divide by investigating the Internet access divide and usage divide in Macau over time. We empirically investigated the “dynamic disequilibria” (Chakraborty & Bosman, 2005, p. 397) of digital divide and found no relationship between Internet access divide and usage divide.
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We also confirmed from our findings that access divides and usage divides evolve in different patterns over time. The findings suggest that the Internet access divide and Internet usage divide are not parallel in terms of the magnitude of divide. In addition, the evolutive pattern of Internet access divide, in some sense, might mirror the socioeconomic status as Arquette (2002) found that the digital divide parallels the gap in economic and human development. As the current study focuses on the individual level of divides, it is suggested that future investigation on access divide or usage be connected to the broader social and cultural context. Previous studies have revealed that ICTs access and usage are related to factors such as cosmopolitanism (Guillen & Suarez, 2005), size of urban population, telecommunication policy, physical communication infrastructure , rule of law, credit card use, political freedom, etc. (Dewan et a., 2005). Such investigations should shed more lights on the understanding of the evolving patterns of various dimensions of digital divides.
References Arquette, T. J. (2001). Assessing the digital divide: Empirical analysis of a meta-analytic framework for assessing the current state of information and communication system development. Unpublished draft dated on Sepember 15, 2001, Department of Communication Studies, Northwestern University Arquette, T. J. (2002). Social discourse, scientific method, and the digital divide: Using the Information intelligence quotient (IIQ) to generate a multilayered empirical analysis of digital division, Working Paper, Northwestern University. Chakraborty, J. & Bosman, M. M. (2005). Measuring the digital divide in the United States: Race, income, and personal computer ownership. The Professional Geographer, 57 (3), 395-410. Cheong, A. (2009). Surveying Macau ICT Indicators 2009. Macau: Macau
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Internet Project, University of Macau. Corrocher, N. & Ordanini, A. (2002). Measuring the digital divide: A framework for the analysis of cross-country differences. Journal of Information Technology, 17, 9-19 Dewan, S. & Riggins, F. J. (2005). The digital divide: Current and future research directions. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 6 (12), 298-336. Dewan, S., Ganley, D., & Kraemer, K. L. (2005) Across the digital divide: A cross-country multi-technology analysis of the determinants of IT penetration. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 6 (12), 409-432. Eamon, M. K. (2004). Digital divide in computer access and use between poor and non-poor youth. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, XXXI(2), 91-112. Guillen, M. F. & Suarez, S. L. (2005). Explaining the global digital divide: Economic, political and sociological drivers of cross-national Internet use. Social Forces, 84(2), 681-708. Hargittai, E. (1999). Weaving the western web: Explaining differences in Internet connectivity among OECD countries. Telecommunications Policy, 23 (10/11), 701-718. Hawkins, S. (2005). Beyond the digital divide: Issues of access and economics. The Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science, 29 (2), 171189. Jin, J. & Xiong, C. (2002). Digital divide in terms of National Informatization Quotient: The perspective of Mainland China. Paper presented on International Conference on The Digital divide: Technology and Politics in the Information Age, 22-23 August 2002, Hong Kong. Joseph, R. (2001). Understanding the digital divide. Prometheus, 19(4), 333336. Kauffman, R. J. & Techatassanasoontorn, A. A. (2005). International diffusion of digital mobile technology: A coupled-hazard state-based approach. Information Technology and Management, 6 (2), 253-292. Kiiski, S. & Pohjola, M. (2002). Cross-country diffusion of the Internet. Information Economics and Policy, 14 (2), 297-310. Lindsay, B. & Poindexter, M. T. (2003). The Internet: Creating equity through continuous education or perpetuating a digital divide? Comparative Education Review, 47 (1), 112-122 Norris, D. T. & Conceicao, S. (2004). Narrowing the digital divide in low-
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income, urban communities. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 101, 69-81 Norris, P. (2001). Digital divide: Civic engagement, information poverty, and the Internet worldwide. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Paterson, A. (2004). (Book review) Technology and Social Inclusion: Rethinking the digital divide by Mark Warschauer. Knowledge, Technology, & Policy, 16(4), 122-125 Quibria, M. G., Ahmed, S. N., Tschang, T., & Reyes-Macasaquit, M. L. (2003). Digital divide: Determinants and policies with special reference to Asia. Journal of Asian Economics, 13 (6), 811-825. Sciada, G. (2005). Infostates across countries and over time: Conceptualization, modeling, and measurements of the digital divide. Information Technology for Development, 11(3), 299-304. Servon, L. (2002). Four myths about the digital divide. Planning Theory & Practice, 222-227. Van Dijk, J. & Hacker, K. (2003). The digital divide as a complex and dynamic phenomenon. The Information Society, 19, 315-326. Van Dijk, Jan (1999). The network society: Social aspects of new media. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Venkatesh, V. & Shih, C. F. (2005). An investigation of theories of diffusion in the global context: A comparative study of the U.S., Sweden and India. Working paper, The Paul Merage School of Business, University of California, Irvine, CA. Wong, P. K. (2002). ICT production and diffusion in Asia: Digital dividends or digital divide? Information Economics and Policy, 142(2), 167~187 Zhu, J. H. & Zhou, H. (2002). Perceived characteristics, perceived needs, and perceived popularity: Adoption and use of the Internet in China. Communication Research, 29 (4), 466-495
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7 Understanding the Links between Social and Digital Exclusion in Europe Ellen J. Helsper and Anna Galácz
Background Links between social and digital exclusion have been established through research in many parts of the world. These relationships between social and digital exclusion can be observed both within and between nations. Within a nation, those with lower levels of education, income and health are less likely to engage with Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). On a global level, countries and regions that have higher levels of poverty and lower levels of literacy tend to have a smaller section of their population using technologies such as the Internet. Some argue that a diminishing digital divide will mitigate social exclusion by giving disadvantaged groups access to, for example, education, health information and social interaction that they would not otherwise have access to. In other words, access to and the use of technologies could support social mobility and reduce the social divide. There are others, however, who argue that the online situation reflects offline society and that as long as social inequality exists offline, there will be no equality online. This view consists of two layers of meaning. First, it means that those who are socially excluded are less likely to have the material and educational resources to engage with technologies in a meaningful way; second, providing access to technologies will not solve wider issues of social inequality because even when socially
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disadvantaged people are online, they are unlikely to engage with technologies in the same way as those who are not disadvantaged. That debate aside, comparisons between countries beyond simple diffusion rates are difficult because there are very few databases of sufficient details to capture the subtlety of exclusion, be it digital or social. This chapter will use the World Internet Project (WIP) data from four European countries to examine the differences between nations as well as within Europe. The comparability and detailed nature of the WIP Europe data allow us to draw conclusions about national factors as well as the socio-demographic factors that might facilitate better understanding of the links between social and digital exclusion in Europe. WIP covers 28 countries across the globe, but the complexity of socio-political issues involved in comparing all these regions and nations makes such a task awkward and sometimes outright implausible (Helsper & Gerber, forthcoming). Therefore, in this chapter we choose to focus on describing and understanding the phenomena related to digital inclusion across Europe – a continent that has a more or less shared history and numerous cultural similarities between nations, while also featuring clear differences between these nations (Gupta et al., 2002). Theoretical background Social exclusion Sociologists and economists have been trying to define and conceptualise social exclusion for almost a decade now. Indicators of social exclusion tend to focus on aspects of an individual’s life that are associated with their health, well-being and general quality of life. They are highly correlated with a person’s socioeconomic status and often indicate a lack of material and/or social resources. Some indicators are based on combinations of measures. For example, the Office for National Statistics (UK) describes several socioeconomic classification systems with indicators based on
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income, education and occupation1. Nevertheless, the sociological literature on inequalities has developed a diverse set of views on what exclusion means. Following Bourdieu’s (1986) work, these different aspects of exclusion have been labelled as “capital”. These “various species of capital are resources that provide different forms of power” (p.23, Sallaz & Zavisca, 2007) and can be divided into five broad categories2: economic, social, cultural, political or civic, and personal (Anthias, 2001; Chapman et al.,1998; Commins, 1993; Durieux, 2003; Phipps, 2000). A more recent approach to conceptualising different types of social exclusion is Nussbaum and Sen’s (1993) framework of capabilities. The focus of this approach is on individuals having the capability, defined as the “free” or “real” choice, to participate in society in the ways they wish to (Nussbaum, 2000). Governments under this approach should create “substantial freedom” which, in the context of ICTs, means an environment in which people can use their capability to make informed choices about using or not using the Internet. Sen (2004) refuses to provide a fixed list of capabilities needed to function in society – he argues that there is a need to define capabilities according to particular contexts. Following his recommendation, we have for the current study defined and specified capabilities for both social and digital contexts. Helsper (2008) argued that a classification of social exclusion in economic, cultural, social and personal resources makes the most sense when studying digital inclusion. Digital exclusion A review of the literature indicates that a gradual approach to measuring digital inclusion is increasingly adopted in explorating the issue. However, these gradations are too often focused on different levels of access. They can also be too theoretical, making it difficult to operationalise the findings. If research is to impact 1 2
See: www.statistics.gov.uk/methods_quality/ns_sec/continuity.asp Although there are good arguments for a broader or narrower set of categories, these categories encompass all the differentaspects of people’s lives from macro socioeconomic to micro individual-psychological characteristics. This report thereforeuses this classification to model different levels of social exclusion on which digital exclusion might be influential.
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policy and provide actionable suggestions more effectively, then researchers need to conceptualise digital inclusion not only around levels of access to ICTs, but also motivation, knowledge and skills. Bradbrook and Fisher (2004) advocate the “5 Cs” of digital inclusion: Connectivity (access), Capability (skill), Content, Confidence (self-efficacy) and Continuity. The last C, continuity, is related to Dutton’s idea of the Internet and other ICTs as part of the infrastructure of everyday life – not only is the technology widely available, it is becoming such an ingrained part of everyday life that it is increasingly difficult to see the digital world as a separate entity from the real world. Anderson describes how digital inclusion often fails to incorporate this idea of continuity, especially in groups that are vulnerable to social exclusion. People tend to “dip in and out” of technologies such as the Internet, depending on their everyday circumstances. This means that they are digitally included at certain points in their lives and excluded at others. The OxIS surveys (Dutton & Helsper, 2007) show clearly the differences between fully engaged users, the flexible in-out users, and those who have never used the Internet are important to understand when examining the processes that lead to exclusion. Furthermore, it is important to include those people without direct access to ICTs in this type of research, since there is evidence that many non-users have a proxy-user, that is, someone who can use the technology for them if they need to access some information or a service. Against this context, digital inclusion can be defined and measured in a number of different ways. These digital resources have been grouped into four broad categories: ICT access, skills, attitudes and extent of engagement with technologies, and used to create an index of inclusion. Van Dijk (2005) proposes a similar classification of digital resources, but the way in which this classification is operationalised is slightly different. Digital disengagement can thus be determined either by exclusion, factors and barriers that are not easy for an individual to overcome quickly and independently (e.g. low income and poor infrastructure availability), or by “digital choice” - that is, the person chooses not to use technologies even though he/she has the
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capabilities to do so. This chapter will use the general areas of exclusion identified by other researchers. These areas can be classified as indicators of access (quality) and breadth or type of use. Since only the core questions of the WIP data were used, skills and attitudinal measures were not included. The individual countries did have questions on these issues but the decision was made not to incorporate these since their comparability is contestable due to different phrasing. Relationships between social and digital exclusion Several authors have discussed the links between social and digital exclusion and the possible scenarios that might follow from these links. One can generally divide these into general models which describe the level of access or uptake of technologies in relation to income levels or other socio-demographic indicators of social inclusion, as against models that discuss gradations of inclusion (i.e. levels or different types of engagement with technologies and how they differ between different groups). The introduction of this chapter referred to the scenario where social exclusion will become smaller over time because the most disadvantaged will catch up in terms of access to technology. Rogers’s (2003) S-shaped diffusion curve model is an example of this scenario. He argues that over time the laggards catch up with the innovators and early adapters so that everyone is equally engaged. However, Norris (2001) argues that the alternative is that the top of the S-curve (that is maximum uptake within a group) might be lower for socially excluded group so that the difference between socially included and excluded groups remains the same over time. A third alternative is that the gap between the socially included and the socially excluded in fact grows wider over time because those who are already included benefit more from access to technologies than those who are socially excluded. For example, because the socially included tend to have higher levels of education, they would proportionally benefit more from having access to information and educational materials online because they are able to understand them and use them more efficiently. Norris
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seems to argue for scenarios in between scenarios two and three, which proposes that engagement with “the Internet reflects and thereby reinforces, rather than transforms, the structural features of each country’s political system”. Helsper, Dutton and Gerber (2009) showed that inequalities in society are indeed reflected in inequalities in uptake of technologies (see Figure 7.1).
Note. Adapted from Helsper, Dutton and Gerber (2009) Figure 7.1 Relationship between the percentage of broadband subscribers in a country and the Gini coefficient (Highlighting Sweden, the Czech Republic, Hungary and the UK).
The second area of research was started by researchers such as Warschauer (2004) and further developed by Van Dijk (2005) and Haddon (2000) among others. Most of these scholars argue that engagement with technologies and thus digital inclusion goes beyond access or use/non-use and that research trying to understand the links between social and digital exclusion should look at the ways in which people engage with technology and how they develop skills as a result of their use. This is an argument that
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is especially relevant when one tries to determine whether digital exclusion will persist over time or whether it will disappear when the current generation of elderly non-users passes away and the “tech savvy” digital generation grows up. If it is just access that we are trying to understand, then differences are likely to be a cohort effect. Government policy in many European countries has actively pursued ubiquitous access to the Internet and in just over a decade of initiatives most Nordic, Germanic and Anglo countries in Europe have an extensive infrastructure coverage which means that almost everyone lives close to an Internet connection that they can use. As soon as we start focusing on skills and motivation, this becomes more difficult since from research, it is clear that skills and attitudes towards the Internet continue to be strongly linked to socio-demographic indicators even when access is widespread. People with lower levels of education, less income, who are socially isolated or elderly tend to have lower levels of skills and tend to have more negative attitudes towards the impact that technologies may have on their lives (Gorard, Selwyn & Williams, 2000). There are fewer studies in relation to social exclusion and the types of activities that people undertake online. In a study based on analyses of the Oxford Internet Surveys (OxIS), the Office of National Statistics (ONS) and the Communication Regulator’s (Ofcom) datasets in the UK, Helsper (2008) showed that disadvantaged people, when they do use the Internet, are often less likely to engage with activities from which they would benefit most. For example, low income individuals are least likely to use the Internet for activities related to economic opportunities and services (e.g. online shopping, online banking, government services). In a previous publication, these were labelled “the economically excluded”. Hypotheses Based on previous research and what is possible with the available WIP data, this chapter focuses on two different aspects of exclusion - extent and concentration. By extent we mean the extent to which
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certain social exclusion indicators are related to digital engagement. Since most research indicates that offline patterns of inequality are reflected in digital patterns of inequality we tentatively formulate the following hypothesis around this topic A) Countries with greater social inequality will exhibit stronger links between digital exclusion and social exclusion. The second aspect is concentration of exclusion, which can be defined as the strength of the clustering between different types of social exclusion in predicting digital engagement. In other words, we attempt to find out whether different types of social exclusion can explain different types of digital disengagement, or whether different social exclusion indicators are so strongly linked that they are all equally linked to different types of digital disengagement. Few people have theorised about how national characteristics can explain the links between different types of social exclusion and different types of disengagement, therefore proposing hypotheses in this area seems slightly problematic. Nevertheless, we might reasonably expect countries relatively high on the ladder of diffusion to have a more varied user base simply because a larger portion of the population is online and therefore variation naturally increases. We therefore propose the following hypothesis about concentration: B) Countries which have higher rates of diffusion will see less concentrated, more diverse links between digital and social exclusion, while countries with low rates of diffusion will have concentrated digital exclusion. Design It is particularly fortunate that the WIP 2007 data contains information on four European countries from the different political and socioeconomical clusters as described by Gupta et al. (2002). This makes the comparison more interesting for understanding
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cultural and economic differences in association with social and digital inclusion. Sweden represents the Nordic countries, Britain the Anglo cluster, and Hungary the Eastern European group. The Czech Republic is an independent cluster but, similar to Hungary, it is a post-socialist country and a new member of the European Union. The European surveys have a slightly different background. Table 7.1 describes the different methodologies used and the different formats. Table 7.1 Research design and methodology in the four countries. Countries
Methodology
Sampling method
Population
Sample size (unweighted)
Sample Data gathsize 18+ ering (unmethod weighted)
Date of fieldwork
Czech Republic
Stratified random sample
12+
1583
1412
Face to face interviews
September 2007
Hungary
Stratified probability sample
14+
3059
2907
Face to face interviews
May-June 2007
Sweden
Random sample
18+
2015
2015
Britain
Stratified probability sample
14+
2350
2258
Face to face interviews Face to face interviews
FebruaryMarch 2007 March 2007
Based on the information presented in Table 7.1, we can be relatively confident that the similarities are sufficient to make justify the comparison – researchers in all four countries conducted face-to-face interviews in more or less the same period of the year and they all used stratified probability or random samples. To make the comparison more feasible, we included only adults (>18 yrs) in our analysis.
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Country profiles To understand how different or similar the four countries are as case studies for this chapter, we analysed the links between social and digital exclusion by presenting descriptive statistics on age, unemployment and inequality in these countries. Comparing age structures results in the conclusion that these European nations are very similar in this respect. The different age cohorts are more or less equally represented across the countries (see Figure 7.2). 15%
16%
28%
27%
19%
26%
16%
26%
31%
30%
26%
28%
26%
27%
29%
30%
Czech Republic
Hungary
Sweden
UK
65+ 45‐64 25‐44 0‐24
Figure 7.2 Age distribution in EU WIP countries (in 2007). Source: US Census Bureau (2007)
In addition, OECD data for the four countries reveal only minor differences in unemployment between them in 2007. Czech had an unemployment rate of 6.2%, Hungary 5.5%, the UK 5.3% and Sweden 4.9%. All lower than the 7.1% average EU in 2007. If we investigate social inequalities instead of absolute disadvantage, the differences between the countries become more conspicuous. The Gini coefficient is an indicator often used to show the general degree of social inequality in a given society – a smaller coefficient signifies a more equal society.3 3
More about the calculation of the Gini coefficient: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient
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2
Czech Republic Digital Divide by Income
1.8
R² = 0.49
Britain
1.6
Hungary Australia
1.4
Sweden New Zealand
1.2
USA Macao
1 20
25
30
35
40
45
50
Gini
Figure 7.3 Gini and digital divide distribution (use high income/ use low Income) for WIP 2007 countries.Source: Helsper, Dutton & Gerber (2009).
Figure 7.3 shows that in 2007, three of the four countries were characterized by a small Gini coefficient: Sweden and Czech were fairly equal (Gini around 25) and Hungary’s Gini coefficient was a little higher, but still relatively small (around 27). The nature of this equality nevertheless varies from one country to the next. As illustrated by GDP per capita. In 2007, GDP per capita was US$49,603 in Sweden, US$ 16,956 in Czech and US$ 13,745 in Hungary4. In plain terms, people in Sweden were equally rich while people in Czech and Hungary were equally (relatively) poor. The UK seems less equal even though its GDP per capita was similar to Sweden’s (US$ 46,098). The UK’s Gini coefficient was around 35 which is about average among Anglo-Saxon countries covered by WIP. Thus our conclusion so far is that the UK is the country with the highest levels of relative inequality (based on the Gini coefficient) even though inequality there is only average by absolute indicators. Source GDP: International Monetary Fund. World Economic Outlook Database. Retrieved April 2009 from http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2008/02/weodata/index.aspx
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The average Internet user The previous section showed that while overall indicators of age and employment were very similar across the four European countries, there were differences in equality that might or might not be reflected in Internet use. A similar descriptive view of Internet users is necessary to explain whether differences in engagement with the Internet between the countries may be partially attributed to the difference in the population of Internet users. Therefore, before advancing further in multivariate analysis, it is useful to take a quick overview of the general characteristics of Internet users in these countries. Internet penetration varied across these countries in 2007 - 49% in the Czech Republic, 40% in Hungary, 68% in Britain and 76% in Sweden (among people aged >18). Table 7.2 shows other basic indicators related to the diffusion of the Internet in different groups. The analyses of age also show a significant difference between the countries: while the average age of users in Hungary and Czech is 38 years, it is around 40 in Britain and Sweden. Nevertheless, the youngest are found to use the Internet most. The difference in age is especially obvious in the Czech Republic and Hungary, where less than a quarter of those between 55-64 years of age and over three quarters of those between 19-25 use the Internet. Not surprisingly, the average adult Internet user is employed. Less than 10% of adult Internet users are either student, unemployed or retired in all four countries. However, Internet use is clearly highest amongst students in all countries, almost universal in this group in Britain and Sweden. Meanwhile, Internet activity is the scarcest amongst retired people. In the Czech Republic and Hungary, approximately 10% of the retired population used the Internet while in Britain and Sweden this is considerably higher, around one third of retired people, but still considerably lower than use amongst employed people. Unemployed adults are more likely to use the Internet than retired users but less likely than employed adults or adult students.
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Table 7.2 The average adult Internet user by gender, age, life stage and experience (months of use). Source: WIP 2007 data Adults (>18yrs). Country
Average Internet user’s profile Gender m/fm % users within group
Age Average age user % users within group
Life stage % of users (% users within group)
Experience (months)
Czech Republic
52/48
38 yrs 81% of 19 -25 54% of men 60% of 36-45 44% of women 24% of 55 - 64
5% unemployed (37% uses) 76% employed (63% uses) 7% student (91% uses) 7% retired (12% uses)
62
Hungary
50/50
38yrs 81% of 19 -25 58% of 36-45 44% of men 38% of women 20% of 55 - 64
3% unemployed (28% uses) 71% employed (60% uses) 12% student (95% uses) 8% retired (8% uses)
56
Sweden
50/50
92
Britain
51/49
3% unemployed (88% uses) 68% employed (86% uses) 12% student (95% uses) 9% retired (37% uses) 6% unemployed (53% uses) 70% employed (80% uses) 7% student (98% uses) 9% retired (32% uses)
42 yrs 93% of 19 -25 75% of men 88% of 36-45 78% of women 72% of 55 - 64
69% of men 67% of women
42 yrs 86% of 19 -25 79% of 36-45 53% of 55 - 64
63
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Based on the data above, we conclude that the countries form two groups: the users in Sweden and in Britain seem to be similar, while the profiles of Hungarian and Czech users also show similarities. However, when taking experience into account, the picture appears to be more complex. A randomly chosen adult Internet user has the most experience (in this case measured by the number of months he/she has been a user) in Sweden, 92 months (7-8 years). The average adult user’s experience in Britain is much lower: 63 months (just over five years). In this respect, Britain is closer to the East-European countries than to Sweden. Adult users in Hungary have the least years of experience, 56 months (4-5 years). For the purpose of analysis, we will consider basic Internet penetration rates, which yields that Britain and Sweden are high in diffusion and Hungary and the Czech Republic are low. Methodology Since this chapter aims to understand the links between digital and social inclusion and is interested in taking the multivariate nature of digital inclusion and social inclusion into account, the analyses chosen is a principal component analysis (PCA) of the links between a variety of social and digital inclusion indicators in the EU countries. PCA allows for a two-dimensional mapping of a multitude of variables to understand how close different types of indicators are. The larger the distance between two indicators, the less positive the relationship between the two; if two points are close to each other, they are strongly and positively related. These analyses will first describe the relationship between the social exclusion indicators measured across all four EU countries and home access and Internet use. Subsequent analysis will use the same statistical technique but apply it to the Internet users in each country and examine how the social inclusion indicators are related to the different types of engagement with the Internet and having home access.
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Results Access and use From PCA (Figure 7.4) and the corresponding distance table (Table 7.3), two strands of conclusions can be drawn for each country. The first is composed of indicators that are furthest removed from access to and use of the Internet. This can tell us something about the most important socio-demographic predictors of digital exclusion. The second is related to the clustering of different sets of variables in their relationship to digital engagement – those sociodemographic indicators that are strongly related to each other for predicting whether a person has access to or uses the Internet. For example, one might expect that low levels of education go together with low levels of income in relation to disengagement from the Internet. In an earlier study, Helsper (2008) labelled this the cluster of the “economically disadvantaged”. A)
Single 19-25yrs Men Public access
No Children Cohabit Low income
Internet use Home access
Higheduc
26-35yrs Middle Educ
65+ 56-65
46-55yrs
High Income
Basic educ
36-45yrs Children
Women Married
B)
Single 19-25yrs Public access Low income
Home access 26-35yrs Cohabit Middle Children Educ Minority 36-45yrs Higheduc Men 56-65 46-55yrs High Income
Women Basic educ No Children 65+
Internet use
Married
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C) Internet Home access 19-25yrs use Middle Educ Women Cohabit Public access 26-35yrs Single Higheduc Low income 46-55yrs Children No Children 36-45yrs High 56-65 Income Basic educ 65+ Men Married
D) No Children
Men Single
Higheduc
19-25yrs Low Income
65+
56-65
Middle educ
Minority
Public access
Cohabit 46-55yrs 26-35yrs
Internet use High income Home access
Basic Educ
Married
36-45yrs
Women Children
Base: Adults (>18yrs) Countries from top to bottom. a) Czech Republic (N=1369); b)Hungary (N=2853); c) Sweden (N=2011); d) Britain (N=2212) Figure 7.4 Principal component analysis of the links between use, access and social inclusion in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Sweden and Britain.
Clusters in relation to Access and Use Figures 7.4a through 7.4d present results of our PCA of the factors related to access in the Czech Republic (a), Hungary (b), Sweden (c) and Britain (d). Based on the graphs it is possible to distinguish certain clusters of variables that were in proximity of each other when mapping social inclusion and basic digital inclusion variables. There were several clusters that replicated themselves in all
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countries, but there were also some interesting differences that reflected different cultural and historical contexts. Low income was a factor standing out on its own in most countries with the exception of Sweden, where it was surprisingly close to not having children. This economic disadvantage cluster was in almost all countries far removed from access and use, indicating that those displaying low income-related characteristics are digitally disadvantaged across these four countries. Another cluster could be observed in most countries. This includes people with a lower education level and older in age. In Hungary, the educational (and generational) disadvantage cluster is proximate to not having children. Not having children is a standalone category in Britain and closer to low income in Czech. Just as low income, low education and older age are universally related to disengagement. In Britain basic education seemed to be a category on its own and did not fall in the above mentioned cluster with older age, which formed a separate cluster. Distances to access and use After shortly reviewing the clusters above it is worth describe the effects of the included demographic variables one by one. Table 7.3 shows the distances between indicators and Internet use, access at home and public access (not at home or work/school) based on the PCA presented in Figure 7.4. For the purposes of the discussion of results, any distance larger than .70 indicates a negative relationship (i.e. large distance), a distance of smaller than .20 points to a small difference, and a distance of less than .10 is assumed to signal high similarity between indicators. Access. In most countries home access and Internet use are strongly related. In most countries having access to the Internet outside the home (and school/work) is the realm of younger single people but still relatively close to Internet use in general, the exception is Sweden where access outside the home is less strongly related to (further removed from) Internet use than in the other countries.
Note. Distances calculated based on Pythagoras’ theorem d = Shaded areas show large distances (>.70).
Table 7.3 Distance matrix for adults in relation to use access. Czech Republic Hungary Use Home Public Use Home 0.62 0.59 0.17 0.67 0.48 Men 1.10 1.04 0.83 1.03 0.90 Women 0.64 0.65 0.37 0.71 0.71 Single 1.15 1.08 1.00 1.10 0.92 Married 0.66 0.60 0.27 0.68 0.54 Cohabiting 1.26 1.20 0.86 1.40 1.26 Basic Education 0.56 0.50 0.33 0.52 0.36 Middle Education 0.46 0.41 0.16 0.62 0.43 High Education 0.87 0.74 Ethnic Minority 0.58 0.58 0.27 0.75 0.75 19 and 25 0.48 0.41 0.35 0.43 0.28 26 and 35 0.81 0.74 0.69 0.57 0.39 36 and 45 0.86 0.80 0.54 0.90 0.72 46 and 55 1.21 1.15 0.79 1.08 0.91 56 and 65 1.21 1.16 0.79 1.40 1.24 Older than 65 0.84 0.78 0.91 0.36 0.17 Children 1.35 1.32 0.89 1.31 1.16 No Children 1.40 1.36 0.95 1.33 1.24 Low Income 0.52 0.47 0.67 0.82 0.66 Higher Income 0.07 0.46 0.19 Use 0.07 0.42 0.19 Home access 0.46 0.42 0.50 0.46 Public access
1.30 1.17 0.70
0.85 0.82 0.88
0.68
0.37
0.40
0.58
0.06
1.39
0.95
0.49
0.94
0.61
0.06
0.65
1.19
1.32
0.63
1.39
0.93
0.61
0.58
0.89
0.60
0.73
0.96
0.95
0.58
0.55
0.37
0.04
0.07
1.46
1.35
0.78
1.24
1.02
0.70
0.60
0.58
0.72
0.61
0.70
0.40
0.63
0.58
0.49
0.60
0.43
0.62
0.23
0.49
0.78
0.50
0.75
0.44
0.06
1.25
0.41
0.47
0.54
0.62
0.81
0.59
0.78
0.19
0.59
0.23
1.15
0.31
1.05
0.64
1.16
0.91
0.32
1.06
0.78
0.71
0.30
0.22
0.53
0.94 1.06
0.38
1.10
0.95
1.13
0.90 0.09
Public
0.64
1.11
0.35
1.09 0.58
0.37
0.04
0.05
1.44
1.35
0.74
1.23
1.00
0.68
0.57
0.56
0.63
0.63
0.45
0.77
1.22
0.56
0.75
0.79
0.95 1.03
Britain Use Home
0.39
1.11 0.55
0.48 0.55
Public
Sweden Use Home
0.37
0.37
0.32
1.11
0.99
0.81
0.88
0.66
0.36
0.48
0.28
0.27
0.27
0.24
0.43
0.97
0.29
0.57
0.43
0.62 0.91
Public
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There is a consistent pattern of people that are excluded at the most basic level from Internet use. These are typically of low income and low educational background and are generally furthest removed from using the Internet. Age. Age on its own was a very important dividing factor: individuals older than 55 years are further removed from usage and access. This age divide starts at a younger age group in Hungary and the Czech Republic, where even those over 45 are considerably excluded, and in some cases those older than 35 are disadvantaged. Income. Sweden seems to be the outlier in this European context. Income there is relatively less important in relation to access than in the other three countries. This can be observed by low and high income groups being equidistant from Internet use and home access. In the UK, a country showing a relatively high Gini coefficient, the influence of income and education is stronger than that of age, while in Sweden age and education seem to be the furthest removed. Education. Education is a highly significant factor in each country: people with only basic education are most removed from both Internet access and use. In the Czech Republic, Hungary and Sweden the difference between groups with mid-level education and high-level education is not too big, which means that these groups are equidistant from usage and access. By contrast, in Britain, even people with an average level of education are relatively far removed from using the Internet, which means that the education “gap” probably starts after mid-level education rather than highlevel education. Gender. Gender is an indicator whose distance from engagement varies between nations. In Hungary and Czech, women are further removed both from Internet use and from access, while in Sweden men are more likely in a disadvantaged situation. Gender does not appear to be an important factor in Britain – men and women there are an equal distance from use and access. Ethnicity. Only two countries – Hungary and Britain – had data on ethnicity. This factor, which in the case of Hungary means
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whether somebody is Roma or not, had a different weight in the two countries. While in Hungary, the Roma population is in a strongly disadvantaged situation and is found to be very far from both access and use, ethnicity in Britain does not seem to result in any significant difference in terms of digital exclusion. Marital Status.Marital status is likely to be connected to the different weight of the age variable in the four countries. While being married means a more disadvantaged situation in Hungary and in the Czech Republic, the opposite is true in Sweden: single Swedes are further from Internet usage and access than their married fellow citizen, although the difference between the two categories is very small. Britain is more similar to Sweden in this respect, but here the differences are almost invisible. Children. Having children is an advantage in terms of home access in almost every analysed country, but especially in Hungary and in Sweden. In Sweden this was not as closely related to having access anywhere else. In Britain not having children is also quite strongly and negatively related to using the Internet, those without children are less likely to use the Internet or have home access. Different types of engagement In the previous section, we analysed what explained general access and use within the wider populations of each country. In this section, we take the analysis one step further and investigate whether traditional factors of social inequality have any effect on the types of activities undertaken online. From factor analysis of all the uses measured in the four EU countries in our study, seven distinct types of uses of the Internet could be established: Financial, Entertainment, Information, Formal Learning, Informal Learning and Basic uses (see Appendix). The scales measured the average frequency of use (from “never” to “several times per day”) across the activities included in the broader usage types (all those with a factor loading higher than .30). So for example, the Formal Learning indicator measures the average frequency of using the Internet for “distance learning” and “getting information for school/work.”
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These variables were used for the PCA analysis with Internet users presented in this section. No Children
A)
Single 19-25
Low Income
Men
Public Cohabit
56-65
High educ
65+ Basic Educ
46-55
Entertainment Informal Formal learning learning Communication Information Home use
Middle educ 26-35 Women 36-45
Financial Basic
High Income
Children
Married
B) Single
Low Income 19-25 Middle educ Basic Educ
Entertainment
Public No Children
Minority Cohabit 65+ Women Children 56-65 46-55 36-45
Formal learning Communication Men
Information Informal learning
26-35 Home use
Basic Financial
High educ
married
High Income
C) No Children High Income
19-25
Single
Middle educ Public Women
65+
Cohabit
56-65 Basic Educ
Men 46-55
married
High educ
26-35
36-45 Low Income Children
Formal learning
Communication Entertainment Information Informal learning
Home use
Financial Basic
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D)
Children married
167
High Income 36-45 Home use
Financial Formal Basic learning Information Informal learning
Women Basic educ
46-55 56-65 65+
Cohabit 26-35 Minority Middle Educ Men Public
High educ
Entertainment
Communication
19-25 Low Income
Single No Children
Base: Adult Internet Users (>18yrs) a) Czech Republic (N=667) b) Hungary (N=1,150) c) Sweden (N=1,535) d) Britain (N=1,494) Figure 7.5 Principal component analysis of the links between digital engagement and social inclusion in Czech Republic, Hungary, Sweden and Britain.
Clusters in relation to different types of engagement The clusters in relation to different types of engagement (or Internet usages) are similar to those found for general access and use. Age is more clearly clustered here than in the analysis concerning access. Life stage, or marital status, also seems to come out in most countries as a separate cluster (in Britain, it clustered with having children). Also, gender seems to be a group on its own, being less important in relation to access than it is in relation to different types of engagement with the Internet. It does seem to be the case that in Hungary and the Czech Republic the different socio-demographic disadvantage indicators (older age, lower income and less education) cluster more closely together, while in Sweden and Britain the different indicators form separate clusters. This also implies that the weight of the variables is clearly distinct in the different countries5.
Since the distance matrix would become unmanageable due to its size we did not include it here, we will report on distances (D) in text.
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Distances in relation to different types of engagement In the following, we present the findings concerning different indicators of engagement in the four countries in relation to the general socio-demographic indicators that we have used throughout this chapter. The significance of these findings for our hypotheses will be described in the discussion section. Age. That the younger a person the more engaged he/she is in Internet use holds true for almost all countries and all types of engagement, with exceptions found in basic usage and financerelated activities, where older age groups are more frequent users. In Sweden, members of the youngest age cohort (19-25 years old) are the most active Internet users (distances (D)= .27 -.62), except when it comes to basic and finance-related uses, which are most common among 26-35 year olds (D= .50 - .49 v D=.79-.80 for 1925 yr olds). In Hungary and Britain, people aged between 26-35 are actually more engaged than those of younger age groups (D= .39 - .61 in Hungary and D= .33-. 54 in Britain). In Hungary, the youngest age groups was furthest removed from informal learning (D=.95) and as well as from basic (D=1.15) and finance activities (D=1.17). Education. Education seems to have a major effect on engagement. In all four countries, the less educated people are, the less engaged they are in most aspects of Internet. But in Czech, individuals of mid-level education (D=.77-.85) are found to be more removed Internet use than those with only basic education (D=.58-.79), which is in contrast to the findings in the other three nations. In Britain, the effect of basic education (D=1.06-1.27) is stronger than that of any of the other indicators as well as stronger than basic education in any other countries. In fact, the furtherst distance between a variety of engagements and an indicator across the datasets was between basic education and basic and informal learning in Britain (D=1.27). In contrast to this general trend, Hungarian adults with lower levels of education were closer to entertainment (D=.79), communication (D=.68) and formal learning (D=.52) than those with higher education (D=.1.04, D=.97, D=.88). Income. Across all four countries income followed a similar
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pattern as education, although the distance varies and the two indicators form part of different clusters as discussed earlier. In general, low income means less engagement in every category. The distance between low income and finance types of engagement is the largest in all countries (D=1.00-1.27) followed by basic uses (D=0.95-1.24). The largest difference in distance between lower and higher income groups and types of digital engagement is found in Britain (∆D=.28-.84). In the other countries, there were some activities for which the distance differences between high and low income groups were relatively small (∆D<.20). In Hungary, the differences were especially small for information (D=.08) and informal learning (D=.15); in the Czech Republic, these differences were small for entertainment (D=.12), communication (D=.18) and formal learning (D=.14). In Sweden and Hungary, there seemed to be a different pattern than expected: in terms of using the Internet for entertainment, communication and formal learning, those with higher levels of income were actually further removed from engagement (D=0.95-1.15). Gender. Men tend to engage more with the Internet for all purposes except finance related applications in most countries, with Sweden being the only exception. In this Nordic country, the impact of gender on engagement is minimal (∆<.20). In most countries the widest gap between genders can be found for entertainment ( ∆D=.33-.42), formal learning (∆D=.28-.33) and communication (∆D=.32-.42). Men are found to be a lot closer to these types of engagements. Marital status and children in the household. In general, married people are found to be less engaged in Internet use but are comparable in distance to singles for finance related (∆D=.01-.12) and basic uses (∆D=.00-.07). The exceptions are Britain for basic use (∆D=.32) and Hungary for finance related use (∆D=.23). In most countries singles and cohabiting people were especially close to the entertainment (D=.53-.86 v D=1.161.31 for married), communication (D=.49-.72 v D=1.11-1.15 for married) and learning (D=.38-.89 v D=0.94-1.11 for married). In most countries, singles are the most frequent users, but in Sweden
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cohabiting couples score consistently higher than singles and the married, especially in regard to entertainment and communication related activities. It is important to keep in mind that being single is clustered with young age in all countries but Sweden, and that these small distances might therefore be a function of generation rather than life stage. The role of children in the household differs considerably across the four countries, although in most cases the difference in distance between household with children and those without is small (D<.20). In Hungary, not having children is closer than having children to adults’ engagement with entertainment (D=.67) and communication (D=.55) related activities (D=.90; D=.72), but adults without children in the household are not closer to other usage forms (∆D<.20). In Sweden and Czech, having children is closer to finance-related (D=.89;∆D=.75) as well as basic uses (D=.87;D=.70). In Sweden, those without children are found to be engaged more with formal learning (D=.68) and communication (D=.85), possibly because they are also younger. In Britain, having a child and not having a child in the household are equally distanced from engagement (∆D<.20), the only difference is found for finance-related uses (∆D=.42), which are more engaged by adults with young children in the household (D=.71) than their counterparts without children at home (D=1.13). Ethnicity. Data on ethnic minority status are available only from Britain and Hungary. In Hungary, the Roman population was far removed (D=.71-.99) from engagement with the exception of formal education (D=.57). Britain showed the opposite pattern – ethnicity does not seem to have any effect on digital engagement (D=.33-.55), or at least if it does, ethnic minorities are more likely to be engaged in more varieties of activities once they have access to the Internet. Access. The location of access to the Internet is important for Internet users to engage with the Internet. Here the most important finding is that basic (D=.20-.65) and finance-related usages (D=.28-.51) are very close to home access. In the Czech Republic, home access is closest to engagement of all kinds including
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formal learning (D=.34 v D=.58), the only type of engagement that is closer to public access in all other countries (D=.24-.35). In Britain, public access (D=.35-.55) is closer than home access (D=.48-.70) to all uses except for finance-related activities (D=.48 v.D=.59). It is important to note that in most countries except the Czech Republic and for most activities except finance and basic uses, people who have access at home also use the Internet outside of the home, thus presenting a relatively minor differences in types of engagement depending on type of access (∆D<.20). Discussion This chapter sets out to examine the links between social and digital exclusion across Europe using the data available from four countries that participate in WIP – the Czech Republic, Hungary, Sweden and Britain. It attempts to explain the different strengths and concentration of links between these issues, with consideration of the different historical and cultural contexts in these countries. The results of our analysis present a number of similarities and disparities between the four EU nations selected. Descriptive analyses showed Britain to have a higher level of socioeconomic inequality than the rest of the countries, even though GDP per capita in Sweden and Britain is about the same and higher than that in Hungary and the Czech Republic. Rates of Internet diffusion are distributed in ways that reflected GDP and not inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient. That is, Sweden and Britain had the highest levels of diffusion while the Czech Republic and Hungary had the lowest. Our first hypothesis (A) stated that countries with higher levels of socioeconomic inequality would show stronger relationships between digital and social exclusion independent of levels of diffusion. There was only partial evidence to support this hypothesis. Britain, the country with the highest level of socioeconomic inequality among the four countries under investigation, showed the largest gaps between low education and income and the use of the Internet. The difference between low and high income in relation to use was also larger than in other
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countries. In Sweden, the country with both high GDP and low levels of inequality, showed smaller differences based across gender, education, and income than Britain. Nevertheless, differences based on marital status and age, both related to cultural resources as identified in the corresponding fields model (Helsper, 2008), were clearly as in other countries. This is not to say that other, new European countries with a low GDP but high equality show the same pattern as Sweden. In Hungary and the Czech Republic, both economic and cultural factors were related to disengagement. Age, marital status and gender were all related to access and use levels as well as low income and education. Cultural resources (based on socialization and not material wealth) did seem less significant with the exception of age in countries with low overall wealth and high equality. There was no indication that economic factors are less important in determining access and use in the general population in countries with higher levels of socioeconomic inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient. Instead a combination of general level of wealth and the level of inequality seems related to Internet uptake and access. Our second hypothesis (B) was that countries with higher rates of diffusion would see less concentrated digital exclusion, which directly links a specific type of offline disadvantage (eg. Economic, social) to a specific types of digital exclusion. While countries with low levels of diffusion were hypothesised to have a more concentrated type of digital exclusion, different types of social exclusion were expected to cluster together and be equally related to different types of digital disengagement. The analyses of Internet users confirmed our second hypothesis. That is, in Hungary and the Czech Republic different types of digital engagement clustered together and were clearly separate across types of social exclusion. This is not the case for access, because in Hungary home access and public access were equally strongly related to different types of use and more strongly related to some types of socioeconomic exclusion than others, while in Britain and Sweden home access in particular was more closely related to engagement than public access was. In Sweden and Britain, the spread of social exclusion
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indicators was broader which made some types of indicators more closely linked to digital disengagement than others. In both countries, this was clearly the case for education, where high education was almost a prerequisite for high levels of engagement. In Britain this could further be observed for high income levels, which had a relationship to financial uses quite separately from low education which was more strongly linked to disengagement with learning activities. It is interesting to note that in Hungary ethnicity had a strong effect on engagement with the Internet which was considerably narrower in the Roma population than in the majority population. This minority status clustered together strongly with lower levels of education, older age and to some extent lower levels of income in our explanation of digital disengagement of any kind. Further Research and Conclusions Important in relation to the findings presented in this chapter is that we found more similarities than differences in the relationships between social and digital exclusion. This is in itself quite remarkable since these countries have such different diffusion rates and relatively different socioeconomic and political historical backgrounds. Future research should include data from different geographical regions to understand whether this is a ‘European’ thing or whether similarities in the links between social and digital exclusion can be replicated in contexts that are completely culturally determined. However, individual idiosyncrasies such as ethnicity in Hungary, education in the UK, and the gender equality (or even reversal of gender stereotypes) in Sweden, are indicative of the importance of cultural and political contexts in explaining digital disengagement. Both the similarities and the differences are important and cannot be ignored. At the country level of analysis we saw that basic sociodemographic variables can explain a large portion of variance within the country in terms of the relationship between social exclusion and digital disengagement, but a number of questions
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remain unanswered. It seems likely that with the inclusion of other ‘soft’ variables, such as skills, values and attitudes, the explanatory models will be more effective and illustrative. Several recent studies have established connections between these kinds of variables and the patterns of technological diffusion, and most probably it would be fruitful to have international comparisons also including such factors in the context of the adaptation to the Internet. The problem is that at the moment we lack cross-culturally comparable items for these topics. The models presented in this paper showed more nuance and subtlety with the inclusion of these types of detailed data in an earlier attempt at analysis. However, we had to use different items across different countries which meant that the comparability of results was subject to uncertainty (Helsper & Galacz, 2008). In addition, it is important to conduct analyses over time to include variables corresponding to the personal, social, skills and value domains, Analyses of the links between social exclusion and digital disengagement and how they develop over time would allow us to answer questions related to whether countries with lower diffusion rates are catching up to those with higher diffusion rates. We would be able to draw conclusions about whether or not the relationships between the variables in the different countries start to represent each other more and more as time passes. This could also help us to understand whether the S-curve or the widening gap hypotheses are valid within and between countries with relatively similar cultural and historical origins.
References Anthias, F. (2001). The Material and the Symbolic in Theorising Social Stratification: Issues of Gender, Ethnicity and Class. British Journal of Sociology, 52, 367–390. Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In J. C. Richards (Ed.), Handbook of
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Theory and Research for Sociology of Education (pp. 241-258). New York: Greenwood Press. Bradbrook, G., & Fisher, J. (2004). Digital Equality: Reviewing Digital Inclusion Activity and Mapping the Way Forwards. London: CitizensOnline. Chapman, P., Phimister, E., Shucksmith, M., Upward, R., & Vera-Toscano, E. (1998). Poverty and Exclusion in Rural Britain: The Dynamics of Low Income and Employment. Layerthorpe, York: York Publishing Services. Commins, P. (1993). Combating Exclusion in Ireland 1990-1994: A Midway Report. Brussels: European Commission. Durieux, D. (2003). ICT and Social Inclusion in the Everyday Life of Less Abled People. Liege, Belgium: LENTIC, University of Liege. Dutton, W., & Helsper, E. J. (2007). The Internet in Britain: 2007. Oxford, UK: Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford. Gorard, S., Selwyn, N., & Williams, S. (2000). Must Try Harder! Problems Facing Technological Solutions to Non-participation in Adult Learning. British Educational Research Journal, 26(4), 507-521. Gupta, V., Hanges, P. J., & Dorfman, P. (2002). Cultural clusters: methodology and Findings. Journal of World Business, 37(1), PII S1090-9516(1001)0007000070. Haddon, L. (2000). Social Exclusion and Information and Communication Technologies. Lessons from Studies of Single Parents and the Young Elderly. New Media & Society, 2(4), 387-406. Helsper, E. J. (2008). Digital Inclusion: An Analysis of Social Disadvantage and the Information Society. London: Communities and Local Government. Helsper, E. J., Dutton, W. H., & Gerber, M. (2009). To be a Network Society: A Cross-National Perspective on the Internet in Britain. [Electronic Version]. OII Research Report, 7. Retrieved January 2009 from http://papers.ssrn. com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1323813. Helsper, E.J. and Galácz, A. (2008, July) Links between Social and Digital Exclusion Comparing Four European Countries. Presented at World Internet Project Conference (Budapest). Norris, P. (2001). Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty, and the Internet Worldwide. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press. Nussbaum, M. C. (2000). Women and Human Development: The Capabilities Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Nussbaum, M. C., & Sen, A. (1993). The Quality of Life. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
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Phipps, L. (2000). New Communication Technologies - A Conduit for Social Inclusion. Information Communication and Society, 3(1), 39-68. Rogers, E. M. (1995). Diffusion of Innovations. New York: The free press. Sallaz, J. J., & Zavisca, J. (2007). Bourdieu in American Sociology, 1980-2004. Annual Review of Sociology, 33, 21-41. Sen, A. (2004). Capabilities, Lists, and Public Reason: Continuing the Conversation. Feminist Economics, 10(3), 77-80. Van Dijk, J. A. G. M. (2005). The deepening divide: Inequality in the Information Society. Thousand Oaks, CA, USA.: Sage. Warschauer, M. (2004). Technology and Social Inclusion: Rethinking the Digital Divide. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
making phone calls through the Internet
chatting in chat rooms
looking for job/work
looking for health related information
looking for travel information
betting/gambling online
looking for humorous content
browsing the Web
listening to radio online
playing games
downloading/watching videos
looking for information about products downloading/listening to music
making travel bookings and reservations
using the Internet to invest in stocks/bonds
buying things online
using online bank services
paying bills online
Entertainment
0.09 0.08 0.12 0.08 0.05 0.16 0.76 0.73 0.58 0.42 0.36 0.39 0.34 0.15 0.09 0.19 0.19 0.18
Financial
0.87 0.84 0.64 0.62 0.58 0.43 0.06 0.06 0.07 0.21 0.02 0.05 0.28 0.23 0.15 0.11 0.02 0.09
Appendix Factor analysis of uses measured in all EU countries
0.05 0.00 0.23 0.18 0.35 0.29 0.12 0.13 0.08 0.22 0.11 0.39 0.21 0.62 0.54 0.44 0.07 0.08
Information -0.02 -0.03 0.13 0.17 0.08 0.14 0.11 0.18 0.24 0.14 0.16 0.14 0.19 0.04 0.07 0.12 0.59 0.59
Communication 0.01 0.03 0.11 0.13 0.03 0.00 -0.02 0.01 0.02 0.11 0.05 0.07 0.06 -0.03 0.03 0.07 0.01 0.06
Formal learning 0.02 0.02 0.07 0.06 0.13 0.16 0.10 0.09 0.07 0.07 0.19 0.07 0.02 0.08 0.10 0.04 0.05 0.01
Informal learning 0.16 0.22 0.09 -0.12 0.00 0.17 0.20 0.10 0.00 0.14 0.25 0.15 -0.18 0.18 0.11 0.04 0.08 0.20
Basic use
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0.12 0.28 0.04 0.09 0.16 0.17 0.06 0.11 0.16 0.29 0.28
0.10 0.06 0.12 0.06 0.14 0.12 0.09 0.13 0.16 0.12 0.20
0.12 0.00 0.04 0.03 0.13 0.17 0.12 0.17 0.36 0.15 0.28
Information 0.53 0.45 0.05 0.02 0.04 0.08 0.21 0.24 -0.03 0.05 0.20
Communication
Note. Only those items with loadings higher than .30 were included in the composite scales.
looking at sites with sexual content looking at religious sites
looking for news
sending email with attachment(s)
email usage
looking up the definition of a word
finding/checking a fact
getting information for school work
participating in distant learning
instant messaging
writing blog
Entertainment
Financial
Formal learning 0.02 0.01 0.84 0.82 0.14 0.24 0.05 0.01 -0.02 0.17 0.06
Informal learning 0.03 0.06 0.13 0.15 0.92 0.59 0.07 0.10 0.12 0.02 0.03
Basic use 0.04 0.27 0.01 0.06 0.14 0.10 0.60 0.59 0.37 -0.08 -0.13
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8 Internet access and Test Scores in Argentina: Exploring the Evidence Marcela Cristini and Guillermo Bermúdez1
Introduction Argentina is a medium-income developing country in Latin America. In spite of the recurrent macroeconomic crises that have hindered its potential to grow over more than four decades, the country is still characterized by an educated population: illiteracy has been practically eliminated and total school enrolment reached 90 % in 2005, 10 percentage points(ppt) over the LAC average and only 3 ppt below the North American/Western Europe average2. Unfortunately, the institutions promoting the equality of opportunities that enabled this result in the past have been jeopardized by spasmodic growth and socio-political instability. Public education, a key institution among them, was severely affected and efforts to restore it have been unsuccessful. The country participated in the Internet era from the very beginning, even though dissemination proceeded somewhat slowly. In this regard, Cristini and Bermudez (2005) used the Argentine WIP survey dataset (2004) to construct an S-shaped curve of Internet adoption at home and found that early adoption (prior to The authors are economists at FIEL (Latin-American Economic Research Foundation, www.fiel. org.ar ) of Argentina.
[email protected] and
[email protected]. 2 The gross enrolment rate is defined as the total enrolment at a specific level of education, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the eligible official school age population corresponding to the same level of education in a given school year. The rate shown here corresponds to all levels combined (except pre-primary). 1
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1999) was strongly related to the educational level of the adopter, while income or wealth was a much more important determinant in explaining the decisions of late adopters. In fact, early adopters were characterized as having an above-average education and being middle-aged whose knowledge of the Internet began at their place of work. From 2000, Internet adoption at home accelerated and home connections (for which most are paid) increased at an annual rate of 18% annually. By 2008, around 35 % of total households in the country had home access, up from only 10 % in 2000. A rough estimate of the population using Internet at home registers between 10 to 14 million people (out of a total population of around 40 million). However, actual users might exceed that number considerably if we take into account users at public places charging for Internet services, such as Internet cafés or call and Internet shops (locutorios), along with students’ access at school. 3 The importance of computers as learning tools is also widely recognized in Argentina. Nevertheless, until very recently, Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) infrastructure and teacher training had not fully satisfied parents’ increasing demands for their children to acquire computer literacy, particularly in public schools. Several efforts to take advantage of computers and Internet at school have been underway since the late 1990s.4 These efforts encompass not only the promotion of computer literacy but also the diffusion of computers and Internet as a pedagogical tool. In the international arena, the idea of promoting new ICT at school through public policies has recently been challenged by numerous studies and doubts have been raised as to what extent computers (and the Internet) could improve children’s learning. Along those lines, this paper investigates the relationship between Internet mobile phone access is not yet very common in Argentina. In 2000 Argentina organized the official Website EDUC.ar to promote Internet use at schools. Loans to buy computers were made available to households at preferential rates and various programs to implement computer and Internet use at schools and social centers in the country were put in place by both the federal and provincial governments in varying degrees.
3 4
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computers/Internet access at home/school and the educational achievements of secondary school students in Argentina as recorded by a countrywide math and language test in 2000. Our work is organized into four sections following this introduction. Section 1 presents a summary of the relevant literature; Section 2 describes the dataset; Section 3 explains the main results of the analysis; and finally, we present our main conclusions in Section 4. 1. Internet impact on learning performance: The scope of the analysis The ICT revolution has changed the way we work and learn. It has had a remarkable impact on productivity and economic growth. It is also recognized that the labor performance of new generations is closely related to their ability to manage new technologies (that is, their computer skills). This is so even though the academic literature has not yet synthesized the size and scope of Internet’s impact on the labor market. Among the studies estimating the effect of computer skills on the labor market, Krueger (1993) used cross-sectional data to determine that computer use by U.S. workers increased expected wages by 10-15 % in the late 1980s. His results were challenged by subsequent studies and the final impact was practically reduced to zero. 5 In the same way that an increase in productivity brought about by workers’ improved computer skills should be reflected in wages, the acquisition of computer skills by students should be manifest in the rate of return to education, though robust estimates of this phenomenon may be elusive (Krueger,1993). At an even more basic level we could ask whether computer skills, including the use of Internet facilities, have a noteworthy impact on learning results. If so, the improved math, language and science skills accumulated during the learning process would convey a higher return to education (ultimately, a higher wage) for those with access to new ICT. See, for example, Di Nardo and Pischke (1997) and Borghans and Ter Weel (2004).
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In assessing the relationship between learning results and students’ computer skills, the literature offers a recent set of studies using descriptive techniques that signal the potential importance of ICT in the learning process. Likewise, several studies based on more rigorous approaches have shown a broad range of results in this regard. Some of them report some negative effects of computer use in schools6 ; others cannot rule out positive effects or find evidence of small positive impacts.7 These studies differ in many aspects, such as the students’ level of education when the impact is measured (primary or secondary), the type of access considered (laboratory at school, home computers, Internet access at school and/or at home), the level of ICT dissemination in each country at the time of the study, and so on. Consequently, it is difficult to make fair comparisons and draw general conclusions. A recent study by Fuchs and Wöbmann (2005) takes advantage of the Programme for International Student Assessment of OECD (PISA) to estimate the relationship between computers and Internet access vis-à-vis students’ educational achievements in 32 developed and emerging countries. They controlled the impact for differences in family background and school characteristics and found a negative relationship for home computers and an insignificant one for school computers. Computer availability does not suffice and, in fact, can be counterproductive for learning. Instead, the authors find a positive relationship with computer use for education and communication at home and with computer and Internet use at school. The database of the study corresponds to a representative random sample of the population during the year 2000. In the case of Argentina, the studies referring to the effect of computers on education come mainly from the pedagogical field or are merely descriptive, that is, they are narrative accounts of selected school experiences.8 This fact has partly motivated our See, for example, Wenglinsky (1998) and Angrist and Lavy (2002) The impact of Internet access has been studied by Ravizt et al. (2002) and Goolsbee and Guryan (2002) for the U.S. case and by Valentine et al. (2005) for the British case. A wider approach is available in Fuchs and Wöbmann (2005) for OECD countries and Sprietsma (2007) for Brazil. 8 See references in www.educar.gov.ar 6 7
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study. On the one hand, it seeks to contribute a quantitative assessment of ICT and learning skills in Argentina and, on the other hand, it aims to explore ICT as a tool to help promote equality of opportunities through education. In this latter regard, FIEL (2008), based on an extensive household survey in Argentina, found that intergenerational mobility has been diminishing over time.9 Likewise, education was identified as one of the most important mechanisms to promote equality of opportunities and, hence, Argentine families have traditionally valued education as a source of social promotion. Additionally, some authors have explored the role of schools as a compensating instrument for the poor in our country, finding that physical infrastructure and human and social capital provided by schools in low-income neighborhoods compare poorly with those in higher-income neighborhoods, particularly in rural areas. Simulation exercises suggested that enhancing the school services in low-income neighborhoods would improve the children’s learning results.10 Along these lines, we question below whether the use of computers and Internet access may be suitable complements for educational policies oriented to recover the role of the school in social promotion. 2. Exploring the data: Bivariate analysis as a first approach. Standardized tests of basic skills, particularly in math, language and sciences, have been organized regularly by OECD under its Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). In 2003, the interest in ICT impact on education led to the implementation of a special module of the survey that would provide the basic inputs for the analysis. According to a recent report, OECD (2005), The lack of mobility in society can be measured by the fraction of the relative position that a child “inherits” from a parent. The literature refers to this fraction, between zero and one, as the “intergenerational income elasticity”. This indicator is 0.51 in Argentina and may be considered low when compared with other countries in the world. The intergenerational transmission mechanism through education is even more rigid – 0.65. Also, the father’s education tends to condition the educational achievement of the child more often than the mother’s. 10 Llach and Schumacher(2005) and Vera et al. (2008). 9
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the results of this initiative showed that “the minority of students who still lack access to computers, or who use them little, underperform at school”, but also showed that “there is no simple relationship demonstrating that the more students use computers, the better they will perform”. The minority of the students who, at the time, had only limited access to computers performed below the OECD average in PISA 2003. In particular, those without home access to computers were, on average, one proficiency level below the OECD average. In most countries this effect could be found even after accounting for the socioeconomic background of the students. The highest performances in PISA 2003 were observed among those students with a medium level of computer use rather than among those using computers intensively, suggesting that it is the quality of ICT usage, rather than the quantity, that determines the degree to which these technologies contribute to students’ outcomes. Their results are mostly based on bivariate analysis, suggesting caution on a broad interpretation of the facts, as we will illustrate in the next section. Argentina does not participate in internationally implemented tests like PISA on a regular basis. Instead, the country has organized its own national assessment of students’ academic performance, the Operativo Nacional de Evaluación (ONE) under the Program of Promotion and Assessment of Educational Quality of the Ministry of Education. In particular, in 2000, the implemented assessment included a set of questions on ICT. The ONE test has been organized at the national level since 1993. It includes a rich survey of the characteristics of students and their households, of teachers, and school directors/principals. The ONE 2000 offers the advantage of its full coverage (it is a census) of students examined at the selected levels. The following two tests from 2003 and 2005 were administrated to a relatively small random sample of students, who by design were only representative of the provincial level but not of the school or city level. In particular, we will focus on students graduating from the last year
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of secondary school (5th year – Polymodal)11 . ONE 2000 collected data on 283,573 students in their last year of secondary school from math and language tests across the country. The test scores averaged 61.3 points out of a total of 100 for math and 59.3 points for language. As was registered in international tests, male students outperformed female students in math. Just the opposite relationship was verified for the language test. Urban students outperformed rural ones on average in both fields. Similarly, students attending private schools achieved better scores than students from public ones. Finally, students with access to a relatively large library at home performed better. The following figures present a summary of the differences between scores and the average, classified by selected characteristics Math Test Scores of students and schools. Difference to average score Se3ecte4 5haracteris6cs 7 89: ;<<<
Men Women Private Schools Public Schools Urban Area Rural Area Private Schools at urban area Public Schools at urban area Private Schools at rural area Public Schools at rural area Working students More than 100 books at home Between 51 and 100 books at home Between 10 and 50 books at home Less than 10 books at home (12.0) (10.0) (8.0)
(6.0)
(4.0)
(2.0)
‐
2.0
4.0
6.0
8.0
10.0
Figure 8.1 Math Test Scores, Difference to average score, Selected Characteristics – ONE 2000. Source: Own elaboration based on ONE 2000.
In 2000 Argentina’s basic education comprised three levels: Pre-school, for children from 3 to 5 (only Kindergarten at 5 is compulsory); General Basic Education (EGB), including three sublevels of three years each; and Polymodal: a three-year level (from 15 to 17/18 years old). All these levels were compulsory. In 2005 an educational reform introduced new changes into this organization.
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(6.0)
(4.0)
(2.0)
‐
2.0
4.0
6.0
8.0
10.0
Figure 8.2 Language Test Scores, Difference to average score, Selected Characteristics – ONE 2000. Source: Own elaboration based on ONE 2000.
The hypothesis of this study postulates that both the use of computers and Internet access at home and at school have positive impact on the learning process in Argentina. We assume that students are capable of improving the quality of their learning process directly through the compilation of more and better information and indirectly through the development of complementary skills associated with computer literacy. However, the role of the new technologies is envisioned as a complement to rather than a substitute for traditional pedagogical methods. Specifically, in 2000, when the ONE test was conducted, home computer use was not widespread among the population and access to Internet at home and at school was just beginning to disseminate. In fact, according to the Argentine WIP 2004 survey, the most common uses of Internet were to send and receive e-mail, to connect to search engines for no definite purpose, and less frequently, to use digital academic tools. According to ONE 2000, 41 % of secondary school students possessed a home computer and 17 % had home Internet access. Figure 8.3 shows the difference in the average score of students by computer ownership and Internet access. Students with home
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computers surpassed the average score in both tested fields by 10 %, while students without computers scored around 6 % below the average. A 20 % difference was observed between the two groups. Regarding Internet access, students with access performed better, 15 % above the average, both in math and language. In contrast, students without accessComputer and Internet Access performed around 3 % below the averMath and Language Test Scores age. Difference to average scores ONE 2000
12.0 10.0 8.0 6.0 4.0 2.0 ‐ (2.0) (4.0) (6.0)
With personal computer at home
Without personal computer at home
With Internet access at Without Internet access at home home
Math Language
Figure 8.3 Computer and Internet Access Math and Language Test Scores, Difference to average score – ONE 2000. Source: Own elaboration based on ONE 2000.
These results are similar to those found by OECD (2005) for the group of countries participating in the PISA test. For example, students with home computers outperformed the rest on math tests by one full proficiency level on a six-level proficiency scale. This difference is narrower than that observed in Argentina. Note that these results might reflect not only ICT advantages for a student but also the different socioeconomic and educational background of the household, which facilitates the student’s learning process. Table 8.1 shows the differences in test scores for Argentine students by their possession of a home computer and by their parents’ level of education.
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Table 8.1 Math and Language Difference in Test Scores (%) Between students with and without Home Computer By Mother and Father’s level of Education. Source: Own elaboration based on ONE 2000.
Primary incomplete Primary completed Secondary incomplete Secondary complete University incomplete University complete
Mother Maths Language 14.5 12.4 13.3 11.5 12.5 11.1 12.7 11.5 14.6 13.0 15.2 13.1
Father Maths Language 15.4 12.7 13.4 11.7 12.2 11.4 12.2 10.9 13.9 12.3 15.9 13.5
Source: Own elaboration based on ONE 2000.
As can be seen, the differences in scores do not increase together with the parents’ level of education, suggesting that the latter do not significantly modify the relationship between scores and computer use. A similar result is obtained when the socioeconomic level of students’ households is used as the classificatory variable for the differences: to possess a car or to be at the top of the socioeconomic scale (SES) does not affect the differences reported between those with home computers and those without them. Table 8.2 Math and Language Difference in Test Scores (%) Between students with and without Home Computer By Socioeconomic Scale of Household (SES)- as %. Source: Own elaboration based on ONE 2000.
Without car With car SES decile 1º 2º 3º 4º 5º 6º 7º 8º 9º 10º
Maths 17.6 16.7
Language 15.7 15.6
17.4 15.0 14.7 13.7 13.4 13.8 13.5 14.7 15.3 14.4
16.3 13.5 13.9 12.4 12.3 12.7 12.5 14.2 14.3 15.5
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A second step in our bivariate analysis focused on ICT at school. The survey that complemented the ONE 2000 test included 5,066 schools and 10,583 classes. Out of this total, 4,981 schools used computers as part of their service infrastructure and 2,592 also had Internet access. These figures indicate that computer availability was generalized at the school level although the quality of the access and the frequency of use available to students differed at each establishment. Instead, Internet access was a less disseminated facility. Figure 8.4 shows the differences in test scores for students by the relative availability of computers (the number of computers per student). The pattern corresponding to the comparison between the availability of computers in the classroom versus access in a laboratory to enhance the students’ computer activities shows that the presence of the latter is not relevant to the results. Instead, the number of computers per student shows a very interesting pattern in which low availability is negatively related to test scores. The impact only turns positive when the number falls to 2 to 5 students per PC.
PC at the classroom
PC at Lab
More than 20 students by PCs
Between 10 and 20 students by PC
Between 8 and 10 students by PC
Between 5 and 8 students by PC
Between 2 and 5 students by PC
1 student by PC
(8.0)
(6.0)
(4.0)
(2.0) Language
‐ Maths
2.0
4.0
6.0
8.0
10.0
12.0
Figure 8.4 Math and Language Test Scores, Difference to average scores, Selected Characteristics – ONE 2000. Source: Own elaboration based on ONE 2000.
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Internet access at school can be analyzed in a similar way by taking into account the number of computers with Internet access out of the total number of computers at each school. In this case, results also show the benefits of the ICT (Figure 8.5). With Internet access at school
Without Internet access at school
From 76% to 100% computers connected
From 51% to 75% computers connected
From 26% to 50% computers connected
From 1% to 25% computers connected
(6.0)
(4.0)
(2.0) ‐ 2.0 Language Maths
4.0
6.0
8.0
10.0
12.0
14.0
Figure 8.5 Math and Language Test Scores, Difference to average scores Internet Access at School, Selected Characteristics – ONE 2000. Source: Own elaboration based on ONE 2000.
Like what had been noted in the bivariate analysis using household characteristics, the advantages of computers and Internet at school could be influenced by the type of school (costly private schools attracting students with better background vs. public in poor neighborhoods with a random student population). We have used a bivariate analysis to illustrate our hypothesis. However, we will improve the accuracy of our findings by going one step further to gather the relevant variables in a multivariate analysis.
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3. Findings of the econometric analysis To measure how students’ ICT adoption impacts on their learning process, available international studies have attempted to identify the differences in the scores of standard academic tests in math, language and science between those with and without access to computers and to Internet. To isolate the effect of technology, various controls have to be included, such as the characteristics of the student (age, gender, and so on); the household and neighborhood in which the student lives (socioeconomic status, access to public services like electricity); the type of school (rural vs. urban, public vs. private, the quality of school management, the quality of the school’s infrastructure, teacher training in ICT, and so on); and the characteristics of the class attended (peer effect). Ideally, the availability of a “natural experiment” whereby a group of students can be exposed to the use of ICT while a group with similar characteristics is excluded could provide a highly accurate estimate of the impact and, under certain conditions, could prove that there is a causal relationship between ICT and test scores. In practice, empirical evidence is more general and, therefore, presents at least two main obstacles to the researcher. On the one hand, there is a problem of “endogeneity” that is difficult to overcome. This problem is derived from the presence of “nonobservable” variables that concurrently affect both scores and ICT use. One such unobserved variable, for instance, could be the cognitive skills of each student: students possessing higher-thanaverage skills will exhibit higher-than-average scores and, at the same time, will find it easier to take advantage of new ICT. Alternatively, both the presence of a computer laboratory and computer and Internet use by the teacher could be related to the openness of the director and teachers to new teaching methods, their experience with ICT and potentially other non-observables (Sprietsma, 2007) that affect the academic performance of students.12 On the In some cases the use of panel data that allow following students’ performance over time has proved useful at reducing the bias introduced by endogeneity problems. Sprietsma(2007) uses a pseudo-panel to analyze the use of computer assisted instruction in Brazil and Goolsbee and Gu-
12
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other hand, there could be a “selection bias” given that students’ and teachers’ abilities are not observable, and the distribution of ability among schools (and perhaps classes) may not be random: top quality schools could attract top qualified students, obtaining the highest scores and taking the best advantages of ICT. The lack of a rich dataset has led various authors to use different techniques to tackle these problems. In our case, the Argentine dataset is cross-sectional, which does not allow us to capture the evolution of the student over time. Nevertheless, the wide range of variables collected in the survey allow for a rich set of controls to isolate the desired effects, at least throwing a robust conditional correlation result. For this purpose we consider the following “production function for education”:
TS refers to the test score of student “i”, who belongs to the household/family “f” and attends school “j”. Under this specification, ICT is a vector of variables representing the use of personal computers and access to Internet by the student. Various controls are introduced to improve the estimation of the coefficient . First, we include the personal characteristics of each student; summarized in the vector X. Vectors F and S capture the characteristics of the household and of the school, respectively. These controls attempt to reduce the identification problem given that certain aspects of the family background or the school infrastructure could positively affect the student’s scores, further impacting the one stemming from digital technology represented by the ICT vector. If these other variables are omitted from the empirical estimation, the estimated effect of computers will be skewed. Our objective is to include the largest number of available controls associated with the family background, as well as each school’s resource endowryan(2002) implement instrumental variables in an exercise on the impact of the E-rate program in the United States beginning in 1996.
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ment and organizational structure, so as to avoid a potential bias of the estimation. Regarding the selection bias also mentioned above between the obstacles to be tackled, ONE 2000 data have full coverage of the population involved (it is a census counting every student in every school in the last year of secondary school), which, in principle, helps to reduce gross problems stemming from the design of a sample. Nevertheless more subtle selection biases will continue to be present and some of the controls will be helpful but not enough to resolve them. Tables 8.3 and 8.4 present the results of our econometric estimations. Each regression relates the individual test scores in math and language of students in their last year of secondary school (Polymodal) to the variables representing ICT, along with control variables. The ICT vector includes the following variables: computer possession at home, computer availability at school, Internet access at home, and Internet access at school. Vector X corresponds to the personal characteristics of students and includes gender, age and some dummy variables to represent students that also work in the labor market, and repeat students. Vector F, household’s characteristics, is composed of an indicator of the socioeconomic status (SES, which combines various indicators, such as the possession of a car, a wealth/income scale indicator, the number of books at home, etc.); the level of the parents’ education13 ; and variables reflecting the availability of basic public services in the neighborhood and at home. With regards to the characteristics of the school, vector S, the variables include the infrastructure, the characteristics of teachers, the characteristics of each class, the condition of being rural or urban, the condition of being a private or public school and the province in which the school is situated. As an alternative to the use of vector S, and according to the extensive literature on estimation of production functions for education, we also tested the inclusion of fixed effects. This alternative helps to reduce the A low correlation between the father’s and mother’s education suggested the suitability of including both variables.
13
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Table 8.3 Math Test Score – Multivariate Analysis ICT variables at the ONE 2000.
Variables
EQ1 Coef.
Vector ICT computer at home 8.69 Internet at home 5.24 computer at school 1.26 Internet at school 3.89 Vector X gender_stud repeat student age employed Vector F car wealth books< 10 10 < books< 50 51 < books< 100 More than 100 books years education mother years education father Infrastructure Vector S Constant 53.41 Fixed Effect Number of obs R sq overall R sq between
EQ2 Coef. * * * *
7.35 4.74 0.93 3.51
* * * *
3.79 2.47 0.56 2.93
3.34 (4.01) (1.80) 2.69
* * * *
3.12 0.53 (1.43) 1.96
* 80.747
244,758 0.1045
EQ3 Coef.
*
234,816 0.1385
EQ4 Coef. * * *** * * * * *
EQ5 Coef.
2.60 1.11 1.34 1.96
* * *** *
1.71 0.49
3.51 0.47 (1.22) 1.73
* ** * *
2.18 0.08 (1.09) 1.34
* *
* *** * *
1.67 * 1.60 * 0.71 * 0.06 ** (0.31) * (0.29) * (3.50) * (3.23) * (1.53) *** 0.37 *** 0.47 *** (0.36) *** 1.68 ** 2.85 * 1.48 *** 4.34 * 2.64 ** 2.44 * 0.26 * 0.24 * 0.14 * 0.27 * 0.22 * 0.13 * Included Included Included Included 61.62 * 56.14 * 71.08 * Included 188,181 0.1835
126,575 0.2348
Notes: Dependent variable math test score - One 2000. Robust standard errors and fixed effects (*) Significant at 99% (**) Significant at 95% (***) Not Significant
188,181 0.1623 0.4540
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Table 8.4 Language Test Score – Multivariate Analysis of ICT variables at the ONE 2000.
Variables
EQ1 Coef.
EQ2 Coef.
EQ3 Coef.
EQ4 Coef.
EQ5 Coef.
Vector ICT computer at home Internet at home computer at school Internet at school
8.06 4.28 0.87 3.10
* * * *
6.97 4.39 0.26 2.83
* * *** *
3.42 2.14 0.04 2.29
* * *** *
2.38 0.78 1.43 1.65
* * *** *
1.70 0.33
* *
(4.87) (0.07) (1.68) 2.59
* *** * *
(4.59) (0.05) (1.39) 2.23
* *** * *
(4.27) (0.33) (1.00) 1.81
* ** * *
Vector X gender_stud repeat student age employed
(4.56) (4.54) (2.01) 3.17
* * * *
Vector F vehicle wealth books< 10 10 < books< 50 51 < books< 100 More than 100 books years education - mother years education - father Infrastructure Vector S Constant 52.658 * Fixed Effect Number of obs R sq overall R sq between
234,774 0.0893
1.40 * (0.06) * (2.94) * 1.15 *** 4.06 * 5.77 * 0.29 * 0.25 * Included 86.2
*
225,190 0.1517
67.9
*
180,619 0.2035
1.18 * (0.41) * (2.41) ** 0.61 *** 3.01 * 4.36 * 0.27 * 0.22 * Included Included 63.3 *
121,526 0.2535
Notes: Dependent variable math test score - One 2000. Robust standard errors and fixed effects (*) Significant at 99% (**) Significant at 95% (***) Not Significant
0.42 * (0.45) * (1.91) ** 0.35 *** 2.25 * 3.23 * 0.16 * 0.13 * Included 69.7 * Included 180,619 0.1712 0.4781
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bias for the presence of externalities at the school or class level, such as the “peer effect”, that is, the influence of classroom peers on the achievement of an individual student, directly through the collaboration with coursework or indirectly via values or as role models.14 Regarding the endogeneity problem, some unobserved characteristics, such as the cognitive skills, may remain uncontrolled and if they are correlated with the ICT variables, the findings will no longer show a causal relationship between access to digital technologies and students’ test scores. In this sense, our results should be interpreted cautiously as descriptive conditional correlations. While this is substantially more informative than simple bivariate correlations, it is still not the kind of causal information that controlled experiments would provide. ICT variables and math test score. Equation 1 shows that the availability of a PC and Internet access at home is related to a difference in test scores of 8.7 and 5.3 point over the average, respectively. The differential in the case of PC availability and Internet access at school is lower, 1.3 and 3.9 points over the average, respectively. No controls are introduced into this equation, which presumably could lead to biased coefficients particularly in the case of school characteristics that show a higher variability among students and that can be potentially mixed up with other characteristics. Equation 2 includes vector X – personal characteristics – as a control set. In this case, the math score is higher for males and, curiously, for those students who are also employed in the labor market. The scores are lower than the average in the case of repeat students. The coefficients of availability and the use of personal computers and Internet at home and at school are slightly lower than in equation 1. In equation 3 we introduce vector F to control for some observable characteristics related to the family background. In this version, coefficients of digital technologies are smaller but remain statistically significant with the exception of the variable of computers at school that becomes non-significant. Note that under this latter specification, the coefficients of computer and Internet at school are dropped.
14
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Note that the availability and use of home computers and Internet show a somewhat higher score over the average but are similar to the impact of a library with more than 100 books at home. Equation 4 introduces vector S, controls related to the school, which again reduces the coefficients of the digital variables. The wealth/ income indicator has a very low impact (slightly positive or negative, according to this equation) which suggests that the test scores are only indirectly influenced by the level of household income. Most likely, the socioeconomic status operates via family’s selection of the educational institution for their children (see equations 4 and 5). Finally, even though ONE 2000 allows for the inclusion of an important set of controls for school characteristics, equation 5 presents an alternative by introducing fixed effects by school at the place of the vector S. In this version, digital variables at home are the only available and corresponding coefficients that are lower than the ones in the preceding equations, but that continue to be positive and significant. Our estimates strongly suggest that ICT has an impact on the math learning process, that this process continues at home and exceeds the mere differences of household background among students. In equation 5 the impact of a home computer and Internet access is equivalent to a library at home with 50 to 100 or more volumes. In Argentina, a good library at home has been traditionally associated with the search for a good level of education for children. ICT variables and the language test score. Results are very similar to the math case but females tend to do better in language. The impact of SES indicators is lower compared to the math impact, and parents’ educational level is more important. Libraries at home are a more significant factor in language than in math. Home computers and Internet use have a slightly smaller impact. 4. Conclusions In this study we have used the dataset of a national test on educa-
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tional quality at the student level, the ONE 2000, to estimate the impact that computers and Internet at home and at school have on the test scores in math and language of secondary school students. Previous studies for various countries have shown a very modest impact and some experts have even postulated that they may have a negligible impact. Unfortunately, the quality and nature of the data make these results vulnerable to methodological and practical criticism. This situation contrasts with the generalized perception that computer literacy has proven to be a basic skill in the labor market and that computer and Internet access by students has become a useful instrument in the learning process. While new evidence is becoming available, the employment of econometric analysis, combined with a wide variety of complementary information could be a useful tool to study country cases. In any case, results should be considered cautiously. Argentina has launched initiatives and programs to improve access to ICT at school and at home since the late 1990s. However, its impact was hindered by the very slow pace at which it was adopted. Over time, the initial impulse diminished due to the consequences of spasmodic economic crises that affected household finance and the need to invest in more basic aspects, such as building the infrastructure of public schools. Our estimates suggest that there is room for a positive impact of new technologies in the learning process in our country and that students would benefit from a better coordination of ICT initiatives to promote access both at school and at home. Internet is a powerful resource for teachers and students alike. And, in our case, it could be an interesting means to compensate for the obstacles in achieving an effective equality of opportunities. In a previous study, FIEL (2008), we showed that home libraries had been a key instrument in the educational promotion of children, notwithstanding their social origin. In this paper we compared students’ ICT access with a home library. Similar findings suggest similar consequences, furthering the case for rapid dissemination of new ICT among Argentine students.
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References Angrist, Joshua, Victor Lavy (2002). New Evidence on Classroom Computers and Pupil Learning. Economic Journal 112 (482). 735-765. Borghans, Lex, Bas ter Weel (2004). Are Computer Skills the New Basic Skills? The Returns to Computer, Writing and Math Skills in Britain. Labour Economics 11 (1). 85-98. Cristini, M. and G. Bermudez (2005). Internet Adoption Pattern in Argentina, 1994-2005. XL Reunión Anual de la AAEP, La Plata, November 2005. DiNardo, John E., Jörn-Steffen Pischke (1997). The Returns to Computer Use Revisited: Have Pencils Changed the Wage Structure Too? Quarterly Journal of Economics 112 (1). 291-303. FIEL (2008). The Equality of Opportunities in Argentina: Intergenerational Mobility in the 2000s (Spanish). Ed. Temas. Buenos Aires. Fuchs, T. and L. Wößmann (2005). Computers and Student Learning: Bivariate and Multivariate Evidence on the Availability and Use of Computers at Home and at School. Ifo Working Paper N 8. Goolsbee, A. and J. Guryan (2002). The Impact of Internet Subsidies in Public Schools”. NBER Working Paper Series. WP 9090. Krueger, Alan B. (1993). How Computers Have Changed the Wage Structure: Evidence from Microdata, 1984-1989. Quarterly Journal of Economics 108 (1). 33-60. Llach, J.J: and F. Schumacher (2004). Rich Schools for the Poor. Anales de la Asociación Argentina de Economía Política. OECD (2005). Are Students Ready for a Technology-Rich World? What PISA Studies Tell Us. Ravitz, J., J. Mergendoller and W. Rush (2002). What’s School Got to Do With it? Tales about Correlations between Student Computer Use and Academic Achievement, AERA: New Orleans. Sprietsma, M. (2007). Computers as Pedagogical Tools in Brazil: A Pseudopanel Analysis. Centre for European Economic Research. Discussion Paper N 07-040. Valentine, G., J. Marsh, C. Pattie and BMRB (2005). Children and Young People’s Home Use of ICT for Educational Purposes: The Impact on Attainment at Key Stages 1-4, DfES: London. Vera, M.L., H. Gertel and R. Giuliodori (2008). Do Schools Contribute to Reproduce or Compensate for Social Inequality? Anales de la Asociación Ar-
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gentina de Economía Política. Wenglinsky, Harold (1998). Does It Compute? The Relationship Between Educational Technology and Achievement in Mathematics. Princeton, NJ: Policy Information Center, Research Division, Educational Testing Service.
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9 Users, Non-users, and Internet Connectedness: The case of Cyprus Nicolas Demertzis and Vassilis Gialamas
Introduction The Republic of Cyprus is a small island country with a population of 800,000. It is located at the east Mediterranean Sea1. Over the last 25 years or so, it has been transformed into a successful free-market, service-based economy with dynamic industrial, agricultural and constructions sectors, along with a considerably high rate of literacy and well-developed higher education. The service sector, where tourism occupies a substantive position, accounts for 76% of Cyprus’s GDP and employs over 70% of the local labour force. The World Bank classifies Cyprus2 as one of the high-income nations in the world, given the island’s per capita GDP of EUR 18,500 - approximately 80% of the EU average, placing it at the top among all Candidate Countries. Per capita income of Cypriots is higher than that in Greece or Portugal. The country has a great macro-economic potential due to the introduction of high tech, professional expertise and know-how that facilitate foreign capital investments (Christodoulou, 2008: 48; Kovács, Margaritidis, Fákó 2004: 101). As a consequence, knowledge-intensive industries http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/cy.html#Intro In this paper ‘Cyprus’ does not refer to the part of the country occupied by Turkish troops since 1974. The biggest problem of Cyprus is the division between the Greek and Turkish parts. Accession to the EU has been considered as a means to achieve fiscal and monetary stability and simultaneously make possible a solution to the political problem under the auspices of the European integration.
1 2
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(machinery, audiovisuals, pharmaceuticals, education, social work, etc.) are making solid advancement. Consumer spending is also relatively high. If not yet a full-fledged network society, Cyprus is certainly a consumer society by all definitions. Cyprus jointed the EU on May 1, 2004, along with nine other countries. Cyprus and Malta were the only ”new member states” that were not part of the former Soviet bloc. Economically, Cyprus was far better off than most of the new member states, with less regional, financial, social, and human capital divides and inequalities. In 2004, Cyprus ranked second among all new EU member states in terms of the average level of productivity, corresponding to around 78% of the EU average. In addition, Cyprus is the first among the 10 new member states and the 5th among the EU25 in terms of employment rate (Christodoulou 2008: 51). The key to Cyprus’s advancement among EU nations lies in its success in upgrading infrastructures and developing the human capital, achieved thanks to opportunities afforded by the Information Society (access to ICT, online public and private services, etc.). It is true that despite increasing investment in R&D over the last decade or so, in both public and private sectors, Cyprus still lags the average EU nation in terms of ICT expenditure – its ICT spending accounting for only 0.1% of the total in Europe (Christodoulou, 2008: 54; Kovács, Margaritidis & Fákó, 2004: 107-8). Nevertheless, via investment on state-of-the-art telecom infrastructure, Cyprus has grown into one of the most important telecom hubs in the Middle East. Additionally, impressive efforts have been made to implement eGovernment programs and the provision of broadband services across the country (Kovács, Margaritidis & Fákó, 2004: 78). To be sure, Cyprus is a “late-starter” in terms of IS policy. In 1987 the Cypriot government inaugurated the “Information Systems Strategy” (ISS), which still exists in one form or another. Under this strategy a number of projects were implemented in various areas in public and private sectors, though at a relatively slow pace. The majority of these projects began after 1996, when the accession to EU was a viable goal and harmonization was required. Since then
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Cyprus has improved drastically in the amount of ICT services (Kovács, Margaritidis & Fákó, 2004: 38). Provided that Cyprus was already a modernized society, articulated well into the world economic system, one cannot claim that its late start in the digital era is a case of leap-frog process, where an opportunity is seized in order to reduce the gap between itself and more developed countries. As it has been demonstrated, the leap-frog metaphor fits better for poor countries which adopt the right telecommunications policies and move quickly to the information society (Howard, 2007). Cyprus as a Digitally Divided Information Society. Truth be said, Cyprus is not a full-fledged information/network society in spite of the major changes that have occurred over the last decade or so. As in many other countries, a dramatic change has been taking place during the 2000s regarding the use of mobile phones. According to international telecoms statistics, the mobile cellular subscribers in Cyprus increased from 42% in 2002 to 99% in 2007, when there were 115 mobile cellular devices per 100 inhabitants3. The PC and laptop penetration increased dramatically as well ( Table 9.1). Table 9.1 PC, Laptops and Internet penetration rates. Sources: EU-ESIS. http://www.mof.gov.cy/mof/cystat/statistics.nsf/ http://www.Internetworldstats.com/stats4.htm
Yet, according to records, Cyprus scores rather modestly in Internet access compared to most other EU countries, either PCs/100 inhabitants Laptop Computers /household Internet users
http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics
3
1998
2000
2005
2008
14%
31%
46%
56%
-
-
12%
30%
17%
32%
41%
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the EU15 or EU25. It suffices to mention that in 2008, 41% of the Cypriot population had access to the Internet – roughly half of what was recorded in Denmark (80%), Finland (83%), the Netherlands (83%), and United Kingdom (71%). Cyprus comes closer to nations like Greece (46%), Czech Republic (49%), and Portugal (40%), namely those halfway in the course towards being network societies4. In spite of the current global recession, it might be possible that Cyprus, a small but fast-growing economy and society, will cross the digital divide soon. Yet, as it is well known, the digital divide is not only between nations but within nations as well alongside gender, age, education, income, and other socio-demographic variables. In addition, a digital divide can be detected in terms of ICT access between individuals and groups with good search skills and those without (Dobransky & Hargittai, 2006). This has been described as ‘divide after access’ in the sense that the digital divide is not simply reduced to the rates of Internet access achieved, but affects the nature and quality of individuals’ connection to the Internet. (Jung, J.-Y et al., 2005; Bonfadelli, 2002; Jung et al., 2001). This conception of divide ‘beyond or after access’ entails the difference between access and use in the sense that access is normally higher than use as some people with access to the Internet do not use it. In this vein, some scholars speak of ‘double digital divide’, where the lack of technical access is worsened by the lack of social support in acquiring skills and knowledge about utilizing the Internet (Wellman et al., 2001). It is apparent, therefore, that in developed societies what counts more is not the divide between the haves and the have–nots but the ‘second-level digital’ divide which, according to Hargittai (2002), taps disparities in people’s online skills and the quality of connection and related services. Usually research on these ‘divides after access’ illustrates a host of inequalities that both disenfranchise and deter individuals from productively integrating ICT into their everyday lives. Nevertheless, in affluent countries the digital divide among categories is expected to be closing gradually (Hoffman & Novak, 4
http://www.Internetworldstats.com/stats4.htm
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1998; Howard et al., 2001; Margolis & Fisher, 2002; Youngs, 2002), and that might be the case for Cyprus. This paper is a case study focusing on both levels of the digital divide in Cyprus: (i) the first-level divide between those who have access and those who don’t and (ii) the second-level divide between people with access but are marked by considerable differences in the quality of Internet use and its overall integration into their everyday life. We will elaborate on data from the first wave of the Cyprus World Internet Project (WIP), which was launched at the end of 2008. In order to explore the existence of a digital divide per se, we analyse data concerning the profile of users and non-users across demographic sectors. Besides, we attempt to record public attitude towards ICT in general by differentiating between individuals who are “immune to progress”, “hard core non-users” or “non adopters” (Rogers, 1995) and individuals identified as “peripheral connectors”, “discontinuers” or “intermittent” (R. J. Lunn & M. W. Suman, 2008). In order to explore the existence of a digital divide “after access”, we make a threefold distinction as to the frequency of usage: “casual”, “regular” and “heavy users”. Also, with regards to Internet use history, we differentiate between “novices”, “late users” and ”early users”. These different types of Internet connectors indicate the varied ways in which individuals articulate the Internet into their everyday lives. Yet, on an overall basis, this is better specified via the implementation of Jung et al.’s index of Internet connectedness, a research tool which measures the “quality” of Internet access, i.e. how broadly, intensively and creatively or resourcefully individuals connect to the Internet in their everyday lives (Jung et al., 2001). Methodology The study population comprised people of at least 15 years of age living in the four Greek Cypriot provinces in private homes, able to express themselves either in Greek or English. Before launching the survey, a pilot study with 43 first-and second-year students of the Cyprus University of Technology was conducted; in addition,
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through a reverse translation, a culturally adapted version of the WIP questionnaire was made so that “linguistic equivalence” could be attained. The interviews took place between the 1st and the 17th of December, 2008. They were conducted with 1,000 households selected via a multi-stage stratified random sampling design. The response rate was to 84%. Specifically, 1,186 households were visited and 1,000 effective interviews were obtained. If the randomly selected individual was between 15 and 17 years of age, the interviewer asked a parent for permission to interview the young person. The average length of an interview was 37 minutes for Internet users and 16 minutes for non-users. Respondents identified as “immune to progress” or “‘hard core non-users” are those who do not own a computer, do not use and have never used the Internet in the past, and have declared that it is unlikely they would use it within the next year. Respondents identified as “peripheral connectors” are those who own a computer but are not currently connected to the Internet (or, alternatively, do not own a computer and yet are using the Internet), have used the Internet in the past and are likely to use it within the next year. Other typologies have been constructed profiling the non-users in other countries5; the present typology was the only possible typology sustained by our data. The three types of the frequency of usage were identified as follows: “casual users” are those who are connected to the Internet less than 5 hours per week from home, work, school or elsewhere; “regular users” are all those who are connected to the Internet from 5 to 15 hours per week; “heavy users” are those connected more than 15 hours per week. The three types of Internet use history were constructed according to the following criteria: “novices” are those who have been using the Internet for less than one year; “recent” or “late users” are those who have been using it for one to five years; finally, “long term” or “early users” are those who have been connected for more than five years. 5
See for instance the distinction between ‘casual engagers”, “departed users”, “expected converts” and “hard core non-users” employed by the Canadian Internet Project team (Zamaria & Etcher 2007).
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The multi-dimensional Internet Connectedness Index is composed of nine items, following Jung et al.’s (2001) methodology almost all the way through. To produce compatible scale items each variable was multiplied by a value to create a common factor of 12 so that measurement scale in each item has a minimum value of 1 and a maximum of 12. ►► Home computer history concerns the years a respondent has owned a computer at home (from less than one year up to more than six years). ►► Task scope refers to the tasks for which respondents connect to the Internet (work related, school related or intimate/ personal related tasks). In own questionnaire these tasks were taped as follows: ‘I needed it for work’, ‘I needed it for school/studies’, ‘my friends are on the net’. These responses were aggregated to identify the scope of tasks. ►► Site scope is operationalized by adding up the number of places where a user connects to the Internet (home, work, school, Internet cafes, public libraries etc). ►► Goal scope refers to the number of goals pursued online; each of the three goals defined (understanding, orientation, and play) are comprised by two categories: social understanding, self-understanding, action orientation, interaction orientation, solitary play, social play. Because of the low response, a dichotomous variance was constructed so that none of the goals pursued was coded as 1 and choosing one or more goals was coded as 2. ►► Activity scope was estimated by asking users to choose among 10 different activities performed online; instant messaging, support own blog, search for news, search for travel information, read blogs, online gambling, surfing, gather information about a product; purchasing online; online training/learning. Because of the low response, a dichotomous variance was constructed so that none of the activities performed was coded as 1 and choosing one or more goals was coded as 2.
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►► Time spent indicates the intensity of online activity; this item was tapped by asking users how often they engage in chatting online, make phone call via the Internet and participate in chat rooms. Users who do not participate in these activities were coded as 1 and the rest were coded as 2. ►► Evaluation of the Internet; on a 5-point Likert-scale respondents were addressed the question “With all the pros and cons of the Internet, what would you say its general effect on your life is?” Responses were coded as follows: 1= 3-5, 2=2, 3=1. ►► PC dependency is operationalized through the response to the question “how much you would miss your PC if it disappeared one day, on a scale of 1 to 10. Responses from 1 to 5 were coded as 1, from 6 to 9 were coded as 2 and the response 10 was coded as 3. ►► Internet dependency refers to a similar scale of 1 to 10 with respect to the question ‘How much do you think you would be affected by the absence of your connection’. Original responses from 1 to 4 were coded as 1, responses from 5 to 7 were coded as 2 and responses from 8-10 were coded as 3. Explanatory factor analysis (screen plot method) revealed that ICI has a one-dimensional structure; its reliability (internal consistency) is appropriate with a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.65. We calculated the average score for every respondent in each of the nine items, so the scores in the ICI vary from a minimum value of 1 to a maximum of 12. The mean equals 8.26 with a standard deviation of 1.69 for the 475 Internet users represented in our sample. Table 9.2 indicates the distribution of the ICI mean value across gender and age groups.
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Table 9.2 ICI mean value by gender and age category. AGE
15-17 18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+ Total
MALE
FEMALE
Mean
N
Std. Deviation
Mean
N
Std. Deviation
8.4 8.7 8.4 7.8 7.9 8.4 7.3 8.3
29 58 73 36 33 23 5 257
1.7 1.6 1.8 1.7 1.9 1.6 1.9 1.7
8.5 8.9 8.4 7.7 7.3 7.6
26 47 65 45 26 9
1.1 1.4 1.4 1.7 2.1 2.2
8.2
218
1.6
The independent variables we employ in this paper are gender, age, education, region (rural vs. urban), citizenship, and income. Results In this section of the paper, we start with a description of the firstorder digital divide in Cyprus, i.e., differences in Internet access across a number of demographic variables. We then step into the analysis of the “divide after access”. Users’ and non-users’ profile Most of the respondents have their own computer (63%); people most dependent on their computers are those coming from urban regions, the younger, and the more educated, with the mean value being 6.46. This indicates that Cypriots have not incorporated computers deeply into their everyday life. Overall, the duration of computer ownership varies from 1 to 10 years (87%). Our research indicates that 48% of the Cypriots are Internet users (475/1,000), which is 7 percentage points higher than the latest official statistics (41%, see Table 9.1 above). This can be partly explained by the fact that our data were selected from the field in late 2008, whereas the official Internet statistics were
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collected in the previous year. Almost 13% of the non-users did have access to the Internet in the past. Figure 1 below reveals the current situation. Graph 1. Users & non-users of the internet N =1000 40% Users
53%
Non-users Ex-users
47% 13%
Figure 9.1 Users and non-users of the Internet.
An overwhelming majority (83%) of users say they have accessed to the Internet at home; most (69%) have broadband connection. Beyond that, there are some apparent divides across age, gender, income, education and region, with the least obvious divide observed with regards to citizenship. To start with, it was found that Internet use is closely related to age (F(1.985)=376.5, p<0,001). Users’ average age is much younger (33.2) than nonusers’ (50.7). The age digital divide is clearly depicted in Table 9.3 and the Figure 9.2. The older a person is, the less likely it is for him/ her to become connected. In addition, men are using the Internet more (χ2(1)=14.41, p<0.001) than women (Table 3). The same holds with income: the higher the income the more frequently one uses the Internet (χ2(4)=87.1, p<0.001). More specifically, respondents of the highest income category use the Internet (67%) as much as double than those of the smaller income category (35%).
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Figure 9.2 Current Internet use by Age.
Nevertheless, it is education that presents itself as an absolutely decisive factor for the digital divide among Cypriots (χ2(3)=260.75, p<0.001). The higher the education level the more likely Internet use is. In Table 9.3 one can see that only 2% of the users have received up to primary education, whereas 79% are at least university graduates (see also Figure 9.8 in the Appendix). Another divide was found as to the respondents’ region (χ2(1)=12.3, p<0.001). Cypriots in urban regions use the Internet more than those living in rural regions (51% and 39%, respectively). Marginal, albeit not statistically significant (χ (1)=3.72, p=0.054), is the difference between Cypriots and respondents of foreign citizenship in Internet use. Even if we cannot speak firmly of a digital divide across citizenship, the discrepancy in net connection is apparent (47% and 60%, respectively).
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212 Table 9.3 Current Internet use (%).
No. of cases Gender
Income
Education
Region Citizenship Age
M F UP TO 1200 1201-2000 2001-3000 3001-4000 4001+ PRIMARY OR LESS HIGH SCHOOL LYCEUM GRADUATE COLL/ UNIV. OR HEIGHER URB. RUR CYP. OTHER M SD
YES
NO
475 54 42 25 35 53 56 67
525 46 58 75 65 47 44 33
2
98
41
59
40
60
79
21
51 39 47 60 33.2 12.9
49 61 53 40 50.7 15.1
Respondents were asked to indicate the main reasons for starting to use the Internet (Table 9.4). By far, education and work needs were the strongest motives for someone to begin using the Internet (84%). Entertainment, personal interests, and search for quick information, count much less as motives. Our analysis documented that women report more frequently than men that they started using the Internet in order to satisfy “educational needs” (36.2%), while they less frequently justify start of use on quick information (1.4%), entertainment (5.5%) or because they find the Internet new
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23
18
18
37
37
38
25 39 52 29 22
6 5 6 7 4
6 2 4 8
6 1 4 5 5
11 6 4 17 6
8 10 8 8 10
12 6 10 14 6
3001-4000 4001+
28 38
32 29
4 5
4 4
4 2
10 5
9 9
10 8
7
54
11
1
4
6
17
7
33
11
6
9
13
13
15
33
35
38
3
3
8
9
5
35
M
44.2
23.9
24.7
40.9
33.7
36.2
32.8
26.9
SD
10.9
6.6
8
12.5
11.1
12.4
10.5
11.5
I WANTED TO BE UP TO DATE
FOR ENTERTAINMENT
I WANTED TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THINGS THAT INTEREST ME
137
28 30 10 20 39
FAST/IMMEDIATE COMMUNICATION
123 M F UP TO 1200 1201-2000 2001-3000
MY FRIENDS ARE ON THE NET
I WANTED THE ABILITY TO GATHER INFORMATION QUICKLY
Income
I NEEDED IT FOR SCHOOL/ STUDIES
No. of cases Gender
I NEEDED IT FOR WORK
Table 9.4 Reasons for starting the Internet by gender, income, education and age (%).
Education PRIMARY OR LESS HIGH SCHOOL /CURRENTLY IN LYCEUM LYCEUM GRADUATE COLL/ UNIV. OR HEIGHER Age
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and interesting (6%) in comparison to men (23.0%, 5.1%, 9.7%, 10.5%, respecitvely) [χ2(12)=22.86, p<0.05]. Those who started using the Internet out of work needs or for gathering information quickly (age average= 44.2 and 40.9 respectively) are significantly older than those who began for reasons involving studies, getting together with friends online and entertainment (age average = 23.9, 24.7 and 26.9, respectively) [F(11,453)=28,52, p<0,001]. Finally, region, income and citizenship are not significant predictors of differences in the motive for initiating Internet use. What is more, though, is that education is significantly related to the reasons for starting Internet use (χ2(12)=78.19, p<0.001). It is of little surprise that those who started using the Internet because they needed it for school/studies are mostly university graduates or are currently attending the Lyceum or Lyceum graduates (54% and 38%, respectively). Also, as expected, much higher proportions (33% and 35%) of Lyceum graduates and university graduates than those who are currently attending Lyceum or have completed secondary education (7%) indicate that they started using the Internet because they needed to do so for work. The mean duration in the Internet use is 6.45 years. This may explain their rather high self-rating. Like in other countries, Internet users in Cyprus assess their own digital literacy quite high (Figure 9.3 in the Appendix). Naturally, it was found that those with wireless devices for Internet access (cell phones, wireless computers, etc.), university education, aged 18-24 or 25-34 years old rate their digital literacy higher compared with the rest. As said earlier, non-users represent the majority of our sample (525/1,000 or 53%). The main reasons provided by themselves for not being connected to the Internet are: Not interested/not useful (55%); Don’t know how to use/technology confuses (22%); No computer/no connection (10%); and No time/too busy (11%). The very same reasons have been cited by non-users studied by other researchers as well (Katz & Rice, 2002: 91-94). In this context, we found a significant relation between non-use and respondents’ age (3.508)=20,72, p<0.001). Respondents who do not use the Internet because they have no time, or do not own a personal computer/
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have connection are significantly younger (average age = 40.3 and 42.9, respectively) than those who do not use the Internet because they are not familiar with the technology or do not find it useful (average age = 52,4 and 53.8, respectively). Given the overall affluence of Cyprus, only a few referred to expensiveness as a reason for their lack of connection. However, our data point to a significant correlation between non-use and income (χ2(12)=38.54, p<0.01). Significantly high portions of those from the middle-income (2001-3000) and higher-income (3001-4000; >4000) groups cite the lack of free time as the main reason for not using the Internet (14.9% and 22%, respectively), compared to respondents within lower-income brackets (up to 1200; 1201-2000), where only 1.4% and 9.5%, respectively, said their non-use was mainly due to a lack of free time On the other hand, “lack of interest” is mentioned by significantly lower portions of respondents in the middle- and higher-income groups in comparison with those who belonging to lowerincome groups. On the contrary, region and citizenship fall short to explain the variation in respondents’ justifications for not using the Internet. Divide after access As mentioned above, some non-users (66/525; 13%) have used the Internet before and most of these justified their choice to discontinue the use by mentioning that the Internet consumed too much time” (24.2%), that they found no interest in it (18,2%) or that they didn’t use it enough (15,2%). A considerable number of respondents (248, or 47% of non-users and almost 25% of the total sample) were classified as “immune to progress” or “hardcore non-users” – people outside the premises of Internet society as they do not have computers, are not connected to the web, have never used the net in the past and are not likely get connected in the near future. Among the non-users, more than half (296/525; almost 56%) are characterized as “peripheral connectors” – mainly exusers who do have a computer and are expected to get connected to the web in the near future. Being “immune to progress” is not
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statistically related to gender, region and citizenship. Yet analysis suggests (Table 9.5 and Figure 9.4 in the Appendix) that it is highly related to age. The average age is significantly higher (58.8 years) among those who share the characteristic, while the mean for the remaining non-users is 42.6 [F(1.542)=205.4, p<0,001]. Table 9.5. ICT Involvement by gender, income, education and age.
No. of cases Gender
PERIPHERAL CONNECTORS
IMMUNE TO PROGRESS
M
296 57
248 43
F
53
47
UP TO 1200
32 48
52
66
34
3001-4000
69
31
4001+
75
25
PRIMARY OR LESS
19
81
HIGH SCHOOL
56
44
LYCEUM GRADUATE
67
33
COLL/ UNIV. OR HEIGHER
84
16
M
42.6
58.8
SD
13.4
12.9
Income 68 1201-2000 2001-3000
Education
Age
In addition, being immune to progress is highly related to income (χ2(4)=56.33, p<0.001). The percentage of people immune to progress declined from 68% for the group with the least income
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(up to 1200) to 25% for those in the top-income class (>4000). The correlation holds the other way round as far as “peripheral connectors” are concerned (Figure 9.5 in the Appendix). Once more, education is a crucial factor as it is significantly related to IT involvement (χ2(3)=112.62, p<0.001). The percentages of those who are immune to progress are extremely limited among university graduates (16%), whereas it increased as education level dropped, up to 81% for the those with not more primary education. The share of “casual users” amongst the Internet users of our sample is 19%; the proportions of “regular users” and “heavy users” are 37% and 44%, respectively. Frequency of Internet use is not related to income, region, and citizenship. By all means, though, it is related with gender (χ2(2)=9.49, p<0.01). As much as 50% of male respondents are “heavy users” whereas only 37% of women belong to this category. On the other hand, only 15.5% of the men are “casual users”, in contrast to almost 24% of women. There also appears to be a minimal yet significant age difference (F(2.451)=4,61, p<0,01) between “casual” and “regular users” with mean value being 36.5 and 31.3 years of age, respectively. The mean value for “heavy users” is 33.6 years old (Table 6 and Figures 9.6 & 9.7 in the Appendix). Table 9.6 Time use by gender, education and age.
No. of cases Gender Education
Age
M F PRIMARY OR LESS HIGH SCHOOL LYCEUM GRADUATE COLL/ UNIV. OR HEIGHER M SD
CASUAL
REGULAR
HEAVY
88 15 24
166 35 39
200 50 37
10
49
40
33
37
30
15
33
53
36.5 12.4
31.3 12.9
33.6 13.2
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Frequency of usage depends significantly on education (χ2(4)=34.13, p<0.001). A lion’s share of the “heavy users” is taken by those with the highest level of education (53%) vis-àvis the Lyceum graduates (30%) who rank first as far as “casual users”’ are concerned (33%). Table 9.7 Internet history by gender, income, region, education and age. NOVICE
LATE USER
EARLY USER
M F UP TO 1200 1201-2000 2001-3000 3001-4000
5 0 2 0 3 2 0
220 47 45 63 48 42 47
250 52 53 37 49 56 53
4001+
1
38
62
URBAN RURAL PRIMARY OR LESS HIGH SCHOOL LYCEUM GRADUATE COLL/ UNIV. OR HEIGHER M SD
0 0
45 55
55 45
3
78
19
2
57
41
0
31
69
29.4 14.5
30.1 13
35.9 12.3
No. of cases Gender
Income
Region
Education
Age
Apart from the fact that “novices” are virtually non-existent (1%) in our sample, as for the Internet use history we found 47% of our sample to be “late users”, while 52% suit the “early users” label. Also, we found that, naturally, age plays an important role (F(2.463)=12,23, p<0,001) since in “late users” the age average is 30.1 while “early users” and “novices” average 35.89 and 29.4 years old, respectively (Table 9.7). What is more, a significantly
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(χ2(2)=6.53, p<.05) higher proportion of “early users” live in urban (55%) rather than rural regions (45%). The “Internet use history” variable is not related to income or citizenship. Yet, it is significantly correlated with education (χ2(4)=70.90, p<.001). The percentage of early users increases from the low to high level of education (20%, 41% and 69%, respectively). At a more complicated level of analysis (Table 8), the “divide after access” was analyzed via the ICI. We used multiple regression to analyse the impact of demographics and other personal characteristics on users’ responses to the items comprising the index. Our independent variables were “citizenship” (1=Cypriot, 0=Others), “gender” (0=Male, 1=Female), “age” (in years), “employment” (1=employed, 0=unemployed), “region” (1=urban, 0=rural), “income” (5 levels), “education” (5 levels), “‘Children under 18 at home” ( Yes=1, 0=No), “acceptance of the right-left axis” (1=accepted, 0=not accepted) and “usage from wireless devices” (Yes=1, 0=No). Table 9.8 Multiple regression analysis of ICI on a set of 10 predictors: Unstandardized & Standardized regression coefficients, standard errors and significancea.
Predictors Gender (female) Age Employment (employed) Education Income Children Under 18 at home (Yes) Citizenship (Cypriot) Region (urban) Acceptance of the right-left axis (accepted) Internet Usage From Wireless Devices (Yes)
*p<.05 ** p<.011 ***p<.001
Unstandardized Coefficients
Standardized Coefficients
B -.194 -.022 -.206 .310 .134 -.157 .056 -.063
Std. Error .163 .007 .217 .080 .064 .167 .370 .193
Beta -.057 -.175** -.057 .219*** .105* -.046 .007 -.016
.244
.190
.061
.889
.173
.253***
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Results suggest that a significant percentage of the variation in connectedness index(R2=0,17, F(10.381)=7,9, p<.001) is attributed to the independent variables included in the model. Results in Table 3 suggest that the index increases in conjunction with age (Beta=-0.175, p<.01), education (Beta=0.219, p<.001), income (Beta=0.105, p<.05) and use of wireless devices (Beta=0.889 p<.001). On the contrary, the impact of gender, citizenship, employment, region, “children Under 18 at home” and “acceptance of the right-left axis” are not significant. Discussion The research findings presented above indicate that in Cyprus today. a digital divide exists both in terms of international comparison and in terms of intra-national digital cleavages. The latter refers to the difference in Internet access between the haves and the have-nots, as well as the differences within the group of the haves (i.e., the “divide after access”). By either measure, the overall impression our data generate is that Cyprus is an information society in the making. A most striking feature is the threefold discrepancy between mobile phone penetration (115%), PC ownership (63%), and Internet connection (48%). As in other countries of the semi-periphery (e.g., Greece, Portugal), ICT access in Cyprus has generally improved, and the most dramatical improvement was observed in the penetration of mobile phones. Most of the population is not connected to the net, which has to do more with the general level of social and techno-economic development of the country and its cultural premises than with the availability of digital technology. Otherwise one would expect Internet connection to be coeval with, or about the same measure as, mobile-phone penetration. The wireless technology for mobile phones has made it feasible to connect to the Internet without owning a computer. Yet, we found that mobile Internet has not taken off notwithstanding, however, that those who use wireless-phone connection score quite high in net connectedness. Nevertheless, it is often argued that the digital
To use or not to use the Internet
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divide between nations is closing as the number of computers and mobile phones increase across the globe (Howard, 2007: 141). It might be the case that Internet penetration in Cyprus will not follow a steadfast course in the near future since, as this study shows, there is a non-negligible group of hard-core non-users (or the “immune to progress” group) plus a fraction of “novices”. Unless youngsters get connected in great numbers rapidly, taken together, these two factors may hold the connectedness rate in the country. In the mid and long run, however, there is every reason to expect that Internet penetration will grow and the digital divide between Cyprus and other developed countries will diminish because, apart from the encouraging economic environment, many political and social factors in Cyprus are conducive to such a development – EU membership, open and multicultural society, stable democracy, effective public administration, among others (Milner, 2006). A clear sign of normalization is that, as in many other countries, the overwhelming majority of users in our study (83%) say they have accessed to the Internet at home and almost half of them use the net at work as well. This means that, though not thoroughly widespread, the Internet is becoming domesticated in Cypriots’ everyday activities and soon it will no longer be a novelty, especially for the younger generations. With regards to their social networking, our research on Cypriot users, in line with recent research on the relationship between the Internet and sociality, alleviates the fear articulated in firstgeneration Internet research literature – fears that the Internet would drive its users to social isolation, especially the young. Most of those covered by our study do not think that access to the Internet influences the contact they have with other people, including their family members and friends. Using a scale of 1 to 5 where “1” means a large decrease, “5” means a large increase and “3” means contact remaining the same, our respondents indicate that the Internet has not incurred major changes in their social networks (Table 9.9). This is likely due to the inter-connaisance character of the Cypriot society – a small island society where personal acquaintance is the norm in social relationship, the endurance of
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which not easily undermined by the Internet. In spite the country’s affluence and well developed tertiary sector, this cultural trait could pose a hindrance to faster diffusion of the Internet, especially among people over 45 ages of age. Table 9.9 Contact with people (Has your use of the Internet increased or decreased your contact with the following groups?) Mean A
People who have similar hobbies or participate in similar activities for entertainment
3.11
B
People who have similar political interests
2.72
C
People who share similar religious beliefs
2.61
D
Your family
2.89
E
Your friends
3.14
F
People from your workplace or colleagues
3.08
As to the “digital divides” that persist even after individuals gain Internet access, our findings suggest that age, education, income and versatility in ICT are the basic predictors for users to interweave the net into their everyday activities and personal identities. The Internet Connection Index increases among the younger members of the sample, those with the highest level of education, those in the highest income class, and those who use mobile connection devices. Generally, this finding is in tandem with most recent research results worldwide6. For these groups of people, the use of the Internet initiates a broadening of individual multi-modal and multi-purpose content creation, production and distribution practices. The finding that income and education are strong predictors for in-depth Internet connectedness implies that not a virtuous (Norris, 2001) but a vicious cycle is put into effect class differences and knowledge gap still have pertinent effects on the way people incorporate ICT. ibid
6
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References Christodoulou, E. (2008). ‘Cyprus’. In Geomina Turlea and Marc Bogdanowicz (eds.). EU Enlagement. Economic Development and the Information Society. VUBPress. Bonfadelli, H. (2002). The Internet and Knowledge Gaps: A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation, European Journal of Communication 17(1). 65– 84. Dobransky, K. & Hargittai, E. (2006). The disability divide in Internet access and use. Information, Communication and Society, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 313– 334. Hargittai, E. (2002). Second-Level Digital Divide: Differences in People’s Online Skills. First Monday, Peer-reviewed Journal of the Internet 7(4), URL (consulted April 2009) http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/ index.php/fm/article/view/942/864. Hoffman, D. & Novak, T. (1998). Bridging the racial divide on the Internet, Science, 280(5362), pp. 390–391. Howard, P. N., Rainie, L. H. & Jones, S. (2001). Days and nights on the Internet: the impact of a diffusing technology, American Behavioral Scientist, (45)3, pp. 383–404. Howard, Ph. (2007). Testing the Leap-Frog Hypothesis. The Impact of Existing Infrastructure and Telecommunications Policy on the Global Digital Divide. Information, Communication & Society Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 133–157. Katz, E.J. and Rice R. E. (2002). Social Consequences of Internet Use. Access, Involvement, and Interaction. Cambridge: The MIT Press. Kovács A., Margaritidis C., Fákó P. (2004). Factors and Impacts in the Information Society. A Prospective Analysis in the Candidate Countries. Report on Cyprus, European Commission: Joint Research Centre (DG JRC), Institute for Prospective Technological Studies. Lunn R. J. & M. W. Suman (2008). A Longitudinal Examination of Internet Diffusion and Adopter Categories. Observatorio (OBS*) Journal, 6 (http:// obs.obercom.pt/index.php/obs/article/view/185/197) Margolis, J. & Fisher, A. (2002). Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. Milner, H. (2006). The Digital Divide: the Role of Political Institutions in Technology Diffusion. Comparative Political Studies. 39(2), pp. 176–199. Norris, P. (2001). Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty, and
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the Internet Worldwide, Cambridge University Press, New York. Rogers, E. M. (1995). Diffusion of Innovations. Fourth Edition. New York: Free Press. Youngs, G. (2002). Closing the gaps: women, communications and technology’, Development, 45( 4) pp. 23–28. Jung, J.-Y, Linchuan Qiu, J., Kim Y.-C. (2001). Internet Connectedness and Inequality. Beyond the “Digital Divide”. Communication Research. 28(4), pp. 507-535. Jung, J.-Y. , Kim, Y.-C., Lin, W.-Y., Cheong, P. H. (2005).The Influence of Social Environment on Internet Connectedness of Adolescents in Seoul, Singapore and Taipei. New Media & Society. 7(1).64–88. Wellman, B., A.W. Hasse, J. Witte and K. Hampton (2001). Does the Internet Increase, Decrease, or Supplement Social Capital? Social Networks, Participation, and Community Commitment. American Behavioral Scientist 45(3). 436–55. Zamaria, Ch. and Fetcher F. (2008). Canada Online! The Internet, Media and Emerging Technologies. Uses, Attitudes, Trends and International Comparisons 2007. Toronto: Canadian Internet Project.
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Appendix Figure 9.3 Self-rating of ability to use the Internet N-475. Figure 9.3E Self-rating of ability to use the internet N=475
3% 31%
24% Poor Fair Good 42%
Figure 9.4 IT involvement in 2 levels by Age.
Excellent
Excellent
226 Figure 9.5 IT involvment in 2 levels by Income.
Figure 9.6 Frequency of usage by Gender.
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To use or not to use the Internet Figure 9.7 Internet use history by area.
Figure 9.8 Current Internet use by Education.
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10 Social Inclusion Through ICT La Boquilla Colombia Alejandro Gutierrez and Ana Maria Trimmiño
Introduction The ICT has registered continued growth in Colombia. In 2008, the number of Internet subscribers in the country totaled more than 2 million, 46% more than in 2007 and 128% more than in 2006. Of the 2 million, 73% had broadband connections1. The same happened with the number of Internet users, which increased 70% between June 2007 and December 2008, from 10.1 million to 17.1 million, accounting for 38.5% of Colombia’s total population. In 2008, Colombia had 41.3 million mobile telephone subscribers. The 93% penetration was 16% higher compared to 2007. On the other hand, policy facilitates adoption. Today, the reach of the Internet and landlines has widened to provide services to more institutions and individuals. In 2008 the program Compartel2 had connected 12.996 schools (56% of school enrolments), 1,032 Town Halls (92% of all municipalities) and 769 health institutions. Likewise, Colombia’s progress in ICT has drawn international attention. The IDI (ICT development index) of the ITU3 recently ranked Colombia the 70th among all countries in the world in According to the Comisión de Regulación de Telecomunicaciones - CRT broadband connections are the connections with a speed of download equal or superior to 512Kpbs. 2 It’s a program whose objective is to allow remote areas and low resource communities have access to ICT services, especially rural telephony and Internet service. 3 International Telecommunication Union. 1
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terms of ICT development, compared to the 72nd in 2002. This made Colombia one of the few in Latin America that advanced in ranking. By the IDI standard, Colombia rose from 13th to 15th in the “use and abilities” sub-indicator. That means that Colombia has made progress in expanding the benefits of ICT to isolated regions and low-income groups in vulnerable conditions, enabling them to use ICT to improve their wellbeing. This article contextualizes the possibility of achieving such “social inclusion” through ICT. The first part focuses on the definition of this social phenomenon. The second section identifies the advantages of using ICT as a tool to realize wider social inclusion. The last segment is a summary of CINTEL’s4 experience in executing relevant projects. SOCIAL INCLUSION What is Social Inclusion? The term “social inclusion” can be analyzed from several perspectives and it is sensitive to multiple interpretations. Following, we present our definition of the term, adjusted to the context of this article. Before we go into a discussion of “social inclusion”, it is important to understand the other side of the coin – the concept of “social exclusion”. Social exclusion is usually associated with the marginalization or disaggregation of certain groups or individuals from society and its participative processes. Silver and Miller (2006) argue that social exclusion is a multidimensional social progressive breaking process, where groups and individuals are separated from social relations and institutions, putting their normal activities to a stop. Given the multiplicity of the concept, literature presents interpretations of social exclusion from various angles – economic, social, cultural and political each carrying its own shade of meaning 4
Columbian Telecommunication Research Center
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suitable to its field of research. For example, from an economist’s point of view, a group severely restricted from satisfying its need for welfare is highly likely to be excluded from social production and therefore from getting rewarded for the production. From a cultural perspective, an individual would be socially excluded in a way that he/she lacks access to knowledge and the means to exchange knowledge. One of the most refreshing views is that of of Sen (2000), which asserts that social exclusion leads to poverty because it deprives an individual or a community the capacity to take advantage of opportunities that generate interrelation in a society. In a more specific way, social exclusion is understood by the Council of Spanish Youth (Consejo de la Juventud de España)5 CJE 2005 as “a phenomenon that conjugates a series of endogenous factors (gender, age, race, among others) and outer factors (social, cultural and economical status among others) that make difficult or stop an integral development of the individual”. Determining these vital factors for the integral development is a task apart and independent for each community. By contrast, social inclusion works the other way round, by including individuals or groups into political, cultural and economic processes which give rise to human and social development. In this sense, social inclusion is related to the capacity of transforming and breaking down the barriers for accessing the benefits generated from productive social participation, not without previously having sufficient tools to achieve this. Why is the ICT a tool to achieve social inclusion? ICT has supported the articulation of individuals to achieve society operation, generating a direct relationship between society and technology. Over the past decades, this relationship has been strengthened and it is now being used more frequently and at a more rapid pace. Hence, ICT has enabled individuals to communicate with 5
Consejo de la Juventud de España is a group of entities that encourages youth participation on different social, cultural and politic environments.
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one another despite the geographic distance between them and facilitated the creation and transportation of information vital to the operation of modern societies. ICT accelerates innovation. Today it is not enough just to ensure that different parties are connected, people are seeking to improve communication, making it more effective and enjoyable. This has been achieved by, for example, incorporating audiovisual and interactive applications. It is common now for people to base their consumption, investment or entertainment decisions on information retrieved from the Internet. For example, according to CINTEL, 48% of Internet users in Colombia in 2008 sought information on the Internet regarding a specific product. Among them, 6% did it at least once a day. Moreover, businesses are beginning to be conducted over the Internet from mobile devices; Juniper Research6 expects that by 2011, 150 million mobile subscribers in the world will make banking transactions on mobile devices. However, despite this advance, there are still communities with little or no access to ICT. Besides, commercial interest of private companies does not encourage equal ICT marketing in all communities. Governments must assume the responsibility of guaranteeing universal access to ICT. Generally, when the digital divide is calculated, the extremes identified do not have the same socioeconomic conditions that help determine the capacity of acquiring or consuming certain technologies. Communities with limited or no access to ICT must satisfy necessities that are different from those for communities with easy access to technologies. The former type achieve access to public utilities, education, health and labor market (that is, when they do) in a more difficult7 manner, and in consequence, prioritize their consumption of goods and different services above the consumption of ICT. To illustrate this fact, using data from the Quality of Life survey made by the DANE8 with national coverage show that access to Enterprise dedicated to market technological investigation and telecommunications. For this reason it is affirmed that the digital gap is the add up of different gaps and social, economical and cultural differences. 8 National Administrative Department of Statistics (Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Es6 7
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seven main consumer goods9 varies depending on the location and demographic characteristics of the household10. (see Figure 10.1) 60% 56%
32% 26%
Urban Non ICT Products
Rural ICT Products
Figure 10.1 Percentage of household with products. Urban vs. Rural 2008. Source: DANE. Table 10.1 Sociodemographics data. Urban vs. Rural 2008. Source: DANE
Data People per household Illiteracy Years of study Health access
Urban 3.6 4.7% 10.3 87.5%
Rural 4 14.8% 6.1 84%
tadística – DANE) is responsible of the planning, uprising, processing, analysis and spread of official statistics of Colombia. 9 ICT products: Color T.V, mobile telephony, subscription TV, fixed line, DVD, home PC and Internet connection. Non ICT products for the urban: electric or gas stoves, blender, refrigerator or freezer, stereo, washing machine, ventilator and electric or gas stoves. Non ICT products for the rural: blender, electric or gas stoves, refrigerator or freezer, stereo, ventilator, motorcycle and washing machine, 10 This discrimination is made by the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE), it is related to the differentiation between rural and urban population.
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Households located outside the main municipalities are characterized by having more family members, less education and less access to healthcare systems, compared to those inside these locations (Table 10.1). As can be observed in Figure 10.1, urban households acquire a larger proportion of non-ICT products compared to ICT products, differing from the ones consumed in rural household (rural, 7% and urban 4%). This difference could be even bigger, but the penetration of mobile phone and of DVD has considerably increased in the rural household. While ICT can be considered in some cases as final goods, they can also be used as means to obtain other products. ICT, especially the Internet, can be used in different ways and can offer training and productive information, as well as information for the assessment of one’s health conditions. In Colombia, according to CINTEL, 22% of Internet users said they have taken online courses. The main provider of online courses in different areas is the National Service of Learning – SENA (for its Spanish abbreviation), even though in the recent years some universities have also implemented platforms to offer this study modality. In a complementary manner, the Internet makes itself useful for people seeking resources fundamental for integrated social development (education, healthcare, business, community welfare, etc.), as it stimulates social reordering, integration and cooperation of the population with common objectives. Hence, the endeavor for visible social projects increases the interest of private companies in participating through the Enterprise Social Responsibility. The virtual social networks, including Facebook and Hi5, constitute an important part of Internet use, as 52.1% of users in Latin America often visit this type of portals. In Colombia, according to CINTEL data, 40% of Internet users know what Facebook is, and out of this 42% (18% of the total) confirm they belong to this network. This kind of social networks is not only for publishing photographs, chatting with old friends or meet new people, they have also become a tool that has changed the way society gathers
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around an idea or initiative. That is the case of the public call made in Facebook for the march “No más FARC” on February 4th 2008, which was considered the biggest public manifestation against Colombian guerrilla initiated by people within a virtual social network. The idea was born from one individual who decided to express his disagreement with the Colombian guerrilla group and created a group in Facebook called “No mas FARC!” (“no more FARC!” in English) on January 4th 2008. He then added his closest friends to this group. Twenty-four days after the creation of “No mas FARC!”, on January 26th 2008, the group expanded to 226,025 members, which further transmitted the idea to their relatives and close friends. Finally, on February 4th 2008, thousands of Colombians and foreigners came out to march, not only in different cities and towns in Colombia, but also in 166 locations outside of the country. 250,000 226,025
Group Members
200,000 190,753
150,000
145,650 121,828
100,000
86,600 70,000
50,000 920
26/01/2008
25/01/2008
24/01/2008
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11/01/2008
10/01/2008
09/01/2008
08/01/2008
07/01/2008
06/01/2008
05/01/2008
04/01/2008
0
Date
Figure 10.2 Evolution of members the “No más FARC!” group. Source: Facebook.
The power of virtual networking can potentially enable individuals to acquire power through their own means and allow them to advance causes for their own wellbeing. But to achieve
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these, ICT-supported universal access and complementary training are necessary. The way in which individuals and society in general interact around information has a direct impact on whether and to what extent they can achieve their goals and objectives. Technological tools make the processes more dynamic and ICT play a fundamental role as they are inherent to how each society operates. Therefore, adopting ICT as tools to develop inclusive models that are linked to the knowledge installed by social inclusion projects (such as mid/long-term government plans), whose objective is to seek individuals with the basic competence to use information effectively, realize their rights and take advantage of the opportunities afforded by this knowledge, implies that vulnerable communities will have the opportunity to learn, use and appropriate the technology for their continuous development. ICT APPROPATION FOR SOCIAL INCLUSION La Boquilla- Colombia La Boquilla is a small village with a history of about 200 years. It is located in the Caribbean coast of Colombia, 800Km from Bogota, north of Cartagena de Indias. It has an estimated population of 16,50011, spread over 14 areas. Their main occupations are fishing, tourism and production handcrafts. Situated in a strategic zone for the development of the tourism industry in Colombia, the village is also in close proximity to La Ciénaga de la Virgen, one of the most conservative regions in the country. Its conditions can be described as poor and vulnerable as there is insufficient supply of basic necessities such as water, electricity, sewage and landline phone connection. And the unemployment rate is high among the locals. Currently, there are three Community Technological Centers (CTC) in the village: one in the ProBoquilla Foundation, another in the school (INETEB) and a last one in the House of Culture (Casa According to the data of Fundación ProBoquilla.
11
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de la Cultura). Activities to promote productivity, education and healthcare among the villagers concentrate in these three locations, respectively, where computer equipment and Internet access are available. The social project The “ICT Appropriation for Social Inclusion” project is an initiative of CINTEL in cooperation with social institutions, government entities and private enterprises to link the community of La Boquilla to the development process through the adoption and use of ICT. The project relies heavily on Internet use and the application of technological tools designed for the development of education, healthcare and production. One of the main objectives of the project is to reduce the “digital divide” that affects the community of La Boquilla, with a special emphasis on the youngest population (school-age children and youngsters), aiming at strengthening their skills that would help them enter the Knowledge Society successfully and gain access to all ICT resources avaliable that can support educational activities. CINTEL and its associates in this project12 have developed interactive contents for learning and appropriation of ICT skills. The goal is to strengthen the communication process between leading agents of the community for a positive transformation of La Boquilla in social, economic and cultural dimensions. The activities The project is composed of activities in education, health and productivity in the three CTCs in La Boquilla.
Fundación ProBoquilla, INTEL, Empresas de Telecomunicaciones de Bogotá – ETB, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, El Ministerio de Comunicaciones con los programas Computadores para Educar y COMPARTEL, COLCIENCIAS, SENA, Fundación Carlos y Sonia Haimes, La Armada Nacional, Metasys, DAGA, el Instituto de Patrimonio y Cultura de Cartagena – IPCC y Universidad de San Buenaventura – Sede Cartagena.
12
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Health
Education
237
Training 23 health workers, doctors, nurses and health promoters from the community of La Boquilla through 4 videoconferences focusing on: Diabetes, Hypertension, Cervical Cancer and Parasitism. This activitywas supportted by Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. Training in basic and advanced computer use. Courses and workshops on computers and the Internet, in which more than 70 children participated. Workshops for the training of teachers in technological tools. More than 30 teachers participated. Socio-cultural investigation projects where the use of Internet Use as an investigative tool is encouraged. Workshops to boost the creativity and innovation of children who are part of the country subdivision, through the use of multimedia tools. Workshop about the experience in the Creative Club, with the formation and updating of the pedagogic strategies.
Productivity
Workshop for the content production of contents for the web. Training of 45 teachers in Intel Educar Introductory Level Course. Establishment and assessment to productive groups. Legal issues conerning productive. Mechanism of citizen. Workshops for the Promotion of Leaders or Community Agents. Organization of common savings.
La Boquilla Website One of the activities undertaken concentrated on the development of the community website www.miboquilla.com, where teachers and children participated in designing the contents for the page. From the day this portal was put online, the number of visits to the site have been increasing rapidly (by 100% per day in the early stage). By the end of the first trimester of 2009, the webpage logged 8,074 visits. Impact of the Use of ICT In 2008, CINTEL began to systematically measure the impact of the project on the socio-demographic conditions of La Boquilla and major variables concerning the project. The methodology applied was the “Selection of Noticeable Variables and Difference in Difference” which is part of the recognized and promoted techniques by the World Bank13. This methodology was chosen because it allows the comparison of two In BACKER (2000). “Evaluation of the impact of the development projects in poverty”. Professional handbook. For the World Bank.
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populations: a population that participates in the programs of the project and one that does not. This facilitates the determination of the conferred impact on the project’s activities. Relevant ICT in conjunction with educational activities have succeeded in increasing the villagers’ knowledge and use of ICT tools – especially the Internet – in their daily activities. Computer use went from 24% in 2006 to 33% in 2008. The main activities developed were academic-related (70% being school homework relevant) and entertainment (28% being playing on the computer).
To make presentation and animations
6%
To write letters and documents
To make activities for work
To play computer
To make school homework
18%
20%
28%
70%
Figure 10.3 PC usage. 2008. La Boquilla – Colombia.
Internet use went from 5% in 2006 to 21% in 2008. As shown in Figure 4, three years after the project started, the main activities on the Internet developed by users in the area were: academic (62.2%); downloading, listening to music or watching videos (31.1%); surfing the web (21.1%) and searching for information related to work (17.8%).
To use or not to use the internet
Look for other information
14%
Read news Look at religious or spiritual sites Look for political information
6% 3% 2%
Look for health information Make or receive phone calls over the internet Upload information
6% 1% 3%
Send mail
10%
Participate in chat rooms Pay bills Visit government websites
239
16% 3% 1%
Look for employment
4%
Look for work information
18% 62%
Make academic activities Participate in distance learning Buy online
4% 1%
Surf or browse the Web Look at sites with funny content
21% 8% 31%
Download or listen to music or video Play online
13%
Figure 10.4 Internet usage. 2008. La Boquilla – Colombia.
Social Impact The social impact conferred to the project activities was measured in the same way. Community development has impact as it stimulates the recognition and participation of community organizations. ►► Increase of the recognition of community organizations: +10.2% ►► Increase in the participation of community organizations: +38.8% Likewise, educational variables for ICT training and technical and
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technological education showed that progress has been made as a result of the workshops and courses offered by the project. ►► Increase in ICT training: +98.4% ►► Increase in the population with technical and technological education: +2% CONCLUSIONS Social inclusion through ICT can be achieved because ICT facilitate the articulation of individuals, ideas, information and knowledge, which are principal elements for the transformation of conditions adverse to the development of individuals and societies in an “Information and Knowledge Society”. It was found that activities supported by the use of computer and the Internet stimulate communities in vulnerable conditions to recognize and participate in community organizations. Also, it was observed that the Internet and computer use promote the academic activities in and outside of the school environment.
REFERENCES Backer J. (2000). Evaluación del impacto de los proyectos de desarrollo en la pobreza. Manual para profesionales. Banco Mundial Sen, Amartya. (2000). Social Exclusion: Concept, Application, and Scrutiny. Manila: Asian Development Bank. Silver, Hilary and S.M. Miller. (2006). From Poverty to Social Exclusion: Lessons from Europe. Pp. 57-70 in The Emerging Agenda: Poverty and Race in America, ed. Chester Hartman. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
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11 Opportunity and Digital Literacy: Media Consumption and Digital Tool Usage Status Groups in Hungary Anikó Bernát, Zoltán Fábián, Anna Galácz and Bence Ságvári
Introduction In connection with the founding study of the governmental action plan for the promotion of digital literacy, ITHAKA Kht and Tárki Zrt.1 prepared a research project in 2007 that aimed, among others, to segment and present in detail well-distinguished social groups in Hungary from the view point of digital literacy in order to support policy action. We will briefly present the phases and most important results of this empiric examination in the current study. On the importance of digital literacy Beside the concept of traditional literacy, that of digital literacy appeared in the last decade of last century, closely connected to another phenomenon of the information era, digital inequalities. The digital gap or digital divide essentially means that the members of the various social groups cannot use the info-communication tools with the same opportunities.2 In recent years, Hungarian and The basis of the document was given by the founding study prepared for the action plan meant to promote digital literacy by the Ministry of Economy and Transport of Hungary. This is a short and edited version of the original text. 2 Éva Bognár – Anna Galácz: A new dimension of social inequalities, in: Eu-studies II., NFH, 2005, 949-980. loosen. 1
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international studies on this topic have already shown in detail the lines along which such inequality develops3 From the digital literacy perspective, we may divide the population into two major groups – “users” and “non-users” of digital tools (primarily non-users for whom the hindrance to access is not simply of a material or technical nature). Meanwhile, we can distinguish “users” according to the quality of Internet use. Today, we can barely doubt that “digital literacy” has become an important part of human capital. It is obvious that in information societies, skills related to the use of ICT tools have become indispensable. The importance of digital literacy is decisive at both individual and social levels, while these two levels are implicitly linked. In globalizing economies and labour markets necessitating increased flexibility, individuals are also forced to react in a more and more flexible manner. Given this environment, a growing proportion of jobs require digital literacy and various relevant skills. However, digital literacy, the capability to use the info-communication tools, is not only pre-requisites of jobs built on these skills, but are indispensable for the increasingly important life-long learning as well. As such, the use of info-communication tools means both qualification for many types of jobs and the possibility for employees to continuously train themselves and so as to be able to react more flexibly to labour market changes4 The promotion of the use of info-communication tools also serves socio-political objectives: it may present a possibility to underprivileged groups to catch up. This fact naturally goes in pair with another statement: digital illiteracy, which can easily be linked to other dimensions of social hindrances, can further reduce the opportunities of the underprivileged and deepen the gap between social groups. Besides, digital literacy plays an increasingly prominant role in a growing number of fields of everyday life - in the relationship between the state and citizens, in consumer protection, even in See for instance Pippa Norris: Digital Divide? Civic Engagement, Information Poverty and the Internet in Democratic Societies. New York, Cambridge University Press. 4 http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/edutra/index_en.htm 3
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friendship and family relations and community life. As UNESCO, the education, scientific and cultural body of the U.N.O., points out, individuals can use digital tools to better access important information influencing their lives,be it political, health,or other type of information.5 It should be kept in mind that on top of the aspect mentioned above, digital tools are obviously able to offer numerous possibilities in other areas, such as human relations, communication, information acquisition and entertainment. Therefore, digital literacy can ultimately lead to improvement the quality of life in all dimensions. Although we were aware that the concept of digital literacy can be interpreted and made operational in many ways, for the current study, we chose to somewhat simplify the expression and interprete it from the perspective of basic digital inequality. This was due partly to the principal’s expectations and partly to the nature of the available data sources. From a statistics point of view, we have considered as “digitally literate” those who are in any form users of computer and the Internet, or rather who are in possession of the skills and know-how that enable their use of the tools. As opposed to this, we have categorized people who do not use the computer and/or the Internet as “digitally illiterate”. Segmentation of the Hungarian society by digital literacy, according to multiple aspects Data used for the analysis and the examined population In compliance with the objectives of the basis study, the task of the analysis was to identify the groups in the Hungarian society that have a good chance to acquire digital literacy or, in other words, to become computer users and regular Internet users. We used the database of the Hungarian World Internet Project (WIP) of the year 2006 for our analysis.6 http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=1509&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html 6 The Hungarian WIP study was a common study by ITHAKA, TÁRKI and BME ITTK. The field 5
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The empirical model shown here breaks up with the previous practice, which basically divided the population to uses and nonusers and basically did not go further than examining according to the basic demographic variables. We have naturally also applied this dichotomous division, but we have completed the segmentation with lifestyle, cultural and media consumption dimensions ensuring much more complex explanation models with several variables. The empirical analysis presented in the following chapters can be divided into three major thematic units. In the first one, in accordance with the above-mentioned traditional categorization, we define the macro-groups in terms of usage. Following this, we define the characteristic segments of media consumption and digital tool usage. Finally, we introduced the index designed to predict the chance of becoming digitally literate, aiming at ensuring a usable measurement framework to a more precise definition of the target groups of governmental programs. The “ABC” groups of digital literacy When making operational digital literacy, we divided the Hungarian society into three groups: (A) regular Internet users; (B) computer users who are not regular Internet users; and (C) non-users of computers. We call these three groups the “ABC groups of digital literacy”.7 Based on this, the Hungarian population aged 18 or above (based on the 2006 WIP data) can be segmented as follows in terms of digital literacy: works of the study were carried out by TÁRKI Social Science Institute in spring 2006. According to the “micro-census” examination of the Hungarian Statistics Bureau in 2005, the population of Hungary is 10,090,330 people. Of this, the number of people of 18 years of age and older is 8,140,697. The 3,969-people sample of the 2006 Hungarian WIP study examined the population older than 14 years of age, although the action plan focuses on the population older than 18 years of age. The case number of the sample corresponding to this section is 3,674 people, thus the data made comprehensive relate to a total of 8.14 million people. 7 We have defined the three groups as follows: Group A – vanguards: those who use the Internet regularly (at least weekly); group B – closing up: people using computers, but not using the Internet regularly; group C - underprivileged: the group of people not using computers and digitally illiterate. (Note: a fourth group would logically be possible, those who regularly use Internet but do not use computers. There were 7 such cases in our database, which we have not taken into consideration during further analysis).
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Group
'C'
non
users
("laggards")
56%
245
Group
'A'
Internet
users
("vanguards")
27%
Group
'B'
Computer
users
("closing
up")
17%
Figure 11.1 The proportion of groups by digital literacy (ABC), 200.
On the basis of the 2006 data, 56% of the Hungarian population older than 18 years of age (4.5 million people) are digitally illiterate; 17% (1.4 million people) are using computers but not using the Internet regularly; and 27% (2.2 million people) are regular users of the Internet – the digitally “vanguard” group. Table 11.1 The “ABC” groups of digital literacy, 2006. Regular User of Internet user computer, but (weekly or not regular more often) Internet user group „A” group „B”
Does not use computer or Internet group „C”
Total
18 years and older (%)
27.4
16.8
55.8
100.0
Case number
1,020
625
2,078
3,723
2,230,551
1,367,637
4,542,509
8,140,697
Total population
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The age and economic activity segments of the ABC groups of digital literacy In the following, we will show in more details that digital literacy is in closely tied to certain social, economic and demographic factors. It is well acknowledged that differences in age and education play a decisive role in the development of digital inequality in Hungary. The table below shows the proportions of the ABC groups of digital literacy in a breakdown by age and economic activity categories. Table 11.2 Breakdown of the sample by age, economic activity and digital literacy categories, 2006 - The segments of the ABC groups by digital literacy. % n total population (case number (people) in the sample) Vanguards
A1 economically active, 18-39 years
11.0
409
893,273
7.3
273
597,700
7.1
266
580,751
A4 economically inactive 40-59 years
0.9
34
73,497
A5 60+ years
1.0
39
84,388
6.6
247
540,215
5.2
193
421,495
3.1
114
249,507
0.8
31
66,948
A2 economically active 40-59 years
A3 economically inactive 18-39 years
Closing up B1 economically active 18-39 years
B2 economically active 40-59 years
B3 economically inactive 18-39 years
B4 economically inactive 40-59 years
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B5 60+ years
247
1.1
40
88,230
6.8
253
553,061
10.9
406
888,102
5.1
189
412,777
C4 economically inactive 40-59 years
8.7
325
711,596
C5 60+ years
24.3
905
1,979,157
total / average
100.0
3 723
8,140,697
Laggards C1 economically active 18-39 years
C2 economically active 40-59 years
C3 economically inactive 18-39 years
From the above table, it is obvious that the members of the regular Internet users (group A) and the computer user group B characteristically come from the group of economically active and younger than 60, while most of group C is economically inactive (C3 and C4) and older than 60 (C5). The definition of media consumption and digital tool use status groups by cluster analysis As a next step in the work process, we carried out a multiple variable analysis, in which we considered another seven dimensions related to media consumption, digital tool usage or, rather, lifestyle and attitudes: ►► financial status, standard of living; ►► the info-communication technology (ICT) infrastructure of the subject’s household; ►► mobile phone usage; ►► cultural capital; ►► attitudes related to the consumption of radio and television shows;
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►► attitudes related to books and printed media (daily papers, magazines); ►► attitudes related to social environment.
Figure 11.2 The averages of the financial status, the household ICT infrastructure and mobile phone usage in the ABC groups of digital literacy, 200.
We set up multiple-variable indexes to measure each dimension. We used the respective variables transformed into standardized z-score form, thus the expected value of each is 0, with a standard deviation of 1.8 When calculating the indexes, we considered the 8
During the calculation of the z scores (Zi), we subtract from each observed value (Xi) the average o the variable (
X N ) and divide it with the standard deviation (S). �
X �XN Zi = i S
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average of the included variables, so the mean of each index is also 0, with a standard deviation of 1. The establishment of the indexes is presented in the annexes. The average of the indexes in the ABC groups of digital literacy are shown in Figures 11.2 and 11.3.
Figure 11.3 The averages of cultural capital, TV and radio, print media and sociabilitynetwork indexes in the ABC groups of digital literacy, 2006.
As can be seen, the digitally illiterate, underprivileged group reaches a lower index point in all dimensions, except in the attitudes related to television and radio. These media are the most important ones for group C (“laggards”) for both information acquisition and entertainment. However, the members of group A (regular Internet users) have valued electronic media the least. It is worth noting that the fact that Internet users spend less time watching TV was demonstrated in early stages of WIP studies already. The differences in the other dimensions are generally of linear
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nature. The members of group A are in the best situation: they dispose of the most financial and cultural capital, their household is better equipped with ICT equipment and they are characterised by more intensive mobile phone usage. In these respects, group B is in an intermediate situation, while group C lags behind. However, in two dimensions - attitudes related to print media and social environment - there is no essential difference between group A and group B. We have performed a cluster analysis with the so-called K-means method in order to differentiate the media consumption and digital tool usage status groups. Through this non-hierarchical cluster analysis technique, it is possible to create homogenous groups according to the examined dimensions. Among several possible solutions, we have finally chosen the relatively well-interpreted seven-cluster model, while keeping in mind the composition of the clusters according to the ABC groups of digital literacy. In the chosen seven-cluster solution, respondents are divided into Lower (25%), Medium (45%) and Upper (31%). clusters of groups according to their media and ICT usage. Two lower groups essentially only differ in their attitudes related to television and radio. For one of the groups, these two electronic media play a very important role in entertainment and information. We call this group (17% of our sample) the “TV and radio-centred lower class”. Within this group, the proportion of the digitally illiterate (group C) is 96%. They characteristically refrain from using the Internet for cultural reasons, at least they mention that they are “not interested” in the Internet and “do not need it” far more often than the average. The other lower group (8% of the sample) is referred to as “not interested, deprived group”. Individuals in this group scored below average in all dimensions. The proportion of group C is extremely high in their case too (93%), while the ratio of regular Internet users is barely measurable (<2%). The upper group (30%) also has two segments of equal size (15%). One is the “urban-style, leisure time centred yuppies”. Individuals in this segment are characterized by outstanding financial and cultural capital. For them, traditional electronic (TV, radio) and
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print media are of less importance, and their media consumption is presumably and decisively via the Internet – 73% of them are regular Internet users, while the ratio of digitally illiterate (group C) is only 7%. The other 15% of the upper class are named the “wealthy cultural elite”. These people are consistently in good position in all examined dimensions. Generally, reading as well as the culture consumption of the elite play an important role in its members’ lives. The middle layer of the sample consists of three groups. The first is the “countryside grandparents”, which can be characterized by better-than-average attitudes towards electronic and print media as well as social environment, while it has lower-than-average cultural capital and possesses less-than-average ICT infrastructure. This group accounts for 12% of the adult population and the ratio of digital illiteracy is outstanding here. The name of the cluster comes from the fact that 45% live in towns and 47 in country cities. Their average age is 58. The “culturally active middle class” cluster occupies 10% of the population. They consider their social environment important, but electronic media (TV, radio) immaterial. Their financial status is average, but they dispose of above-average cultural capital. Their average age is 40, and 41% of them can be considered digitally illiterate while 36% are regular Internet users. The largest share of the middle layers belongs to “active age skilled workers”. Their financial status is average and their cultural capital is below average. Television and radio are important for them. Those belonging to groups B and C exceed the average.
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Figure 11.4 The composition of the clusters according to the ABC groups of digital literacy (%)
Overall Percentage
Household ICT Infrastructure Financial status Percentage
Cultural capital
Mobile phone
Social
Reading
Television and radio
-0.47 8.1
-0.52 16.5
24.6
-0.54
-0.57
-0.81
-0.85
-1.35
-1.42
-0.61
-0.64
-1.01
-0.59
-0.83
0.60
Television Not interestand radio ed, deprived centred, ICTinsensible lower class
Lower groups
44.6
-0.12 11.9
-0.34
-0.43
-0.82
1.18
0.71
0.65
“Country-side grandparents” media centred, average financial status, senior citizen
Medium groups
0.03 9.6
0.18
0.10
0.31
0.61
0.01
-1.25
Company and leisure time centred, culturally active middle class
-0.05 23.2
0.03
-0.32
0.28
-0.32
0.22
0.56
Middle age skilled worker
30.7
0.53 15.7
0.60
0.94
0.74
-0.49
-0.18
-0.80
“Yuppie”: ICT centredwealthy leisure time centred urban young person
Upper groups
0.41 15.0
0.45
0.79
0.80
0.79
0.92
0.36
Wealthy cultural elite
Table 11.3 The average index points of the respective clusters in the examined seven dimensions and the percentage proportion of the clusters. To use or not to use the Internet 253
City % Town %
BP %
Average age
Proportion of 18-30 year-olds
Proportion of people older than 70
Proportion of 60-69 year-olds
Proportion of active age (18-59)
41.7 42.9
15.4
60.2
6.3
33.9
22.4
43.8
50.7 37.1
12.3
57.1
11.6
32.7
16.2
51.2
Lower groups Television Not interestand radio ed, deprived centred, ICTinsensible lower class
47.1 45.0
7.9
58.4
4.3
25.8
25.8
48.4
Medium groups “Country-side grandparents” media centred, average financial status, senior citizen
Table 11.4 Composition of clusters by age and settlement type (percent).
48.5 32.8
18.8
40.2
28.5
5.0
7.3
87.7
Company and leisure time centred, culturally active middle class
51.1 31.3
17.6
45.5
13.9
5.8
11.1
83.1
Middle age skilled worker
50.5 19.1
30.4
35.0
42.2
1.7
3.4
94.9
53.0 28.9
18.0
38.6
30.5
2.0
5.5
92.5
Upper groups “Yuppie”: Wealthy ICT centred- cultural wealthy elite leisure time centred urban young person
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The probability of becoming digitally illiterate: the “Individual Digital Opportunity” (IDO) index Beyond the segmentation by computer and Internet usage, that is digital literacy (ABC groups) and the seven-cluster standardization of media and digital tool usage, it is worth examining what chance one has to become digitally literate (i.e. a regular Internet user) on the basis of his/her current social-economic characteristics and media and ICT consumption habits. We used the concept of the socalled Individual Digital Opportunity (IDO) to show the probability for an individual to become digitally literate (or a regular Internet user) through his/her social-economic resources and attitudes.9 We set up the IDO index for the measurement of this probability. It is composed of seven dimensions and 20 variables. The dimensions are: ►► ►► ►► ►► ►► ►► ►►
financial status household ICT infrastructure mobile phone usage cultural capital, skills media consumption (written) social environment positive attitude towards ICT tools
The IDO index mostly includes the same dimensions as we have used during the cluster analysis, except the “attitudes related to television and radio” because this variable is negatively related to digital literacy (or computer and Internet usage habits). Instead, we included “attitude related to the info-communication tools” in the IDO index. The concept of “digital opportunity” can also be found in international literature with a somewhat different meaning. The already quoted ITU-UNCTAD (2007) report measures the degree of development of the info-communication market, infrastructure and its use in the respective countries through the Digital Opportunity Index. Therefore, we emphasize in this study that we are speaking about individual digital opportunity. This concept also expresses that the use of ICT equipment is a matter of individual decisions in all cases. The groups disposing of the most social and economic resources will not use the digital equipment at 100 % either, even if they have all the chances to do so (Dutton et al., 2006).
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256 Table 11.5 The construction of the Individual Digital Opportunity index.
Financial status, standard of living: Subjective financial status: those answering “we live without problems” or “we are well off by budgeting” to the following question: “How do you feel, do you live financially without problems, are well off by budgeting, barely contrive from your revenue, have financial problems each month or live in deprivation?” Household ICT infrastructure: – Has a computer at home – Has an Internet access at home – Has a mobile phone in the household –Has a landline phone at home – Has a DVD player / home cinema at home Mobile phone usage: – Mobile phone is important/very important –Regularly sends/receives SMS
Cultural capital: Education level, foreign language skills, computer literacy Social environment: Has been to a meeting with friends during the last six months –Has been to a meeting with friends during the last six months – There is an Internet user in the (non-user) family* – A family member has tried to persuade the non-user to use Internet* – There is a computer user in the (non-user) family* Positive ICT attitude: – The ICT equipment makes the world better – Those who do not use the Internet are disadvantaged
Media consumption (in the Gutenberg galaxy). – Book reading – Newspaper reading * If the subject is a user himself/herself, he/she also receives the positive value.
In case we examine the 20 variables composing the index using main component analysis, we can create a totalised variable that condenses the information content of the factors partly interlinked that define digital opportunity. The main component obtained
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herewith thus transforms digital opportunity to a single variable, and with its help, we can define which set of pre-defined variables have the greatest power of explanation, and which the least, in terms of digital opportunity. As we can see from Table 11.6, the individual’s digital opportunity is mostly determined by the existence of computer and Internet using family members and their possible “persuasion”, as well as the accessibility of the necessary infrastructure at home (i.e. computer and Internet access present in the household), thus these are the most necessary conditions for someone to become a regular Internet user. However, a higher level of education – at least high school graduation level – is equally important. Other elements of the cultural capital, such as participation at computer literacy training or knowledge of foreign languages, are somewhat less decisive compared to the ones mentioned above, but they belong to the “middle of the field” among the listed factors. The fact that someone has ICT and other new technology equipment (e.g. mobile phone and DVD player) in the household also belong to this middle field, since not just elements of the network of relations such as participation at family reunions and meetings with friends, but subjective financial status also has a similar capacity of explanation. The lowest level of explanation is observed among other elements of cultural capital (such as reading books and newspapers, having a landline phone, and believing that ICT equipment and the Internet as tools “making the world a better place”). In other words, these elements have the least effect on the extent of digital opportunity among the 20 factors we examined. We can see that the respective variables are not equal in the definition of digital opportunity, it is thus worth handling the respective elements of the index in accordance with their weight and then correct the index accordingly. We can do this by multiplying the respective variables included in the index by their own factor weight, as a result of which we will obtain a scale ranging from 0 to 10.56. We used this IDO index with appropriately weighted factors in our study.
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Table 11.6 The factor weight (main component analysis) of the Individual Digital Opportunity (IDO) index. Variable Factor weights 1. 2.
has a PC in the household
A family member has tried to persuade him/her to use the Internet
0.800 0.771
3.
there is a PC at home
0.768
4.
there is an Internet user in the household
0.761
5.
has a home Internet access
0.661
6.
has at least secondary education level
0.627
7.
sends/receives sms at least weekly
0.620
8.
has participated at IT trainings
0.596
9.
considers mobile phone important
0.583
10.
has a DVD player or a home cinema at home
0.581
11.
speaks any foreign languages
0.574
12.
has mobile phones in the household
0.566
13.
has been to a meeting with friends during the last six months
0.531
14.
considers his/her financial status good
0.401
15.
has been to a family reunion during the last six months
0.366
16.
reads books at least weekly
0.339
agrees with the statement that those who do not use the Internet are disadvantaged
0.278
17. 18.
agrees with the statement that ICT tools make the world 0.286 a better place
19.
reads newspapers at least weekly
0.245
20.
has a landline phone in the household
0.205
In case we examine what digital opportunity the ABC groups constituted on the basis of digital literacy based on the current user habits have as per the IDO index, we will find that the index
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“works out well”. Examining the average values of the IDO index in the ABC groups of digital literacy, we found that (i) laggards, the digitally illiterate (group C), have the least opportunities. The digitally illiterate scored an average of 3.1 points on the IDO index. (ii) People in group B, those who are already using the computer, scored twice as many – 6.2 points on average. (iii) Members of group A or the vanguards, people who are already regular Internet users, logged almost three times the points of group C - 8.7 points on average on the index measuring digital opportunities. (Figure 11.5)
Figure 11.5 The individual digital opportunity in the ABC groups of digital literacy: the average points of the IDO index by groups.
Let us see what digital opportunity the groups constituted according to the seven-cluster typology based on media consumption and ICT aspects on the basis of the IDO average points and the four categories (Table 11.7). The lower social-class groups “television and radio centred, ICT-indifferent” and “not interested, deprived” clearly belong to the low-chance group on the basis of the IDO averages in our examination (1.91 and 2.23 points), while the upperclasse groups can be expressly characterized by high chances (8.42 and 8.05 points). But the picture is more differentiated than for the middle class. The “countryside grandparents” - the media centred, average financial status elder group – is characteristically made up of low-chance people (with an average of 3.28 IDO points). The digital chance for members of the “economically active, middle-
0.0
Total Average IDO index
100.0 1.9
3.6
High IDO
Good IDO
22.7
73.7
100.0 2.2
0.3
8.3
25.4
66.0
Lower groups
Television and Not interestradio centred, ed, deprived ICT-insensible lower class
Small IDO
Low IDO
100.0 3.3
1.1
18.3
39.7
40.9
100.0 6.0
28.0
38.9
26.9
6.2
Company and leisure time centred, culturally active middle class
Medium groups
“Country-side grandparents” media centred, average financial status, senior citizen
100.0 4.9
10.6
36.2
44.3
8.8
Middle age skilled worker
100.0 8.4
77.5
20.6
1.9
0.0
100.0 8.0
66.4
29.1
4.5
0.0
Wealthy cultural elite
Upper groups
“Yuppie”: ICT-centred, leisure time centred wealthy urban youth
Table 11.7 The composition of the media consumption and ICT clusters as per the average points and categories of individual digital opportunity (IDO).
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aged skilled worker” is a bit higher that the elder group, but still quite low (4.93 IDO average). However, members of the “company and leisure time centred, culturally active middle class” show they have rather decent opportunities, with IDO averaging 6.03. Conclusions In general and in all cases, how we define the objective of a social policy intervention is a matter of preliminary value choice. In a simplified manner, one of the possible objectives of social intervention is to reinforce the underprivileged, in order to increase social solidarity and promote social cohesion. The other possible objective is to raise the competitiveness of the country’s economy by benefiting groups that are potentially active on the labour market and are of average or better-than-average socioeconomic status. In our analysis, we tried to demonstrate which groups have the basic social and cultural resources that can serve as conditions to acquire digital literacy. We believe that in the short run, specialized policies striving for efficiency in Hungary should concentrate on the groups that have the necessary chances (social, economic and cultural resources) to become computer and Internet users on the short term. We will find such groups primarily in the middle class as defined in this study. However, for the upper classes, we suggest the initiation of PPPbased programs, which was started by the government and mostly financed and realized by market players. It is obvious that to help groups of individuals with the least digital opportunity catch up with other groups is a task that goes far beyond the area of information society policies. Programs and initiatives exclusively focusing on the acquisition of digital literacy or their concatenation are not efficient in the case of lower classes, since the identified hindrances and restraining factors are far more complex than the ones that a focused departmental program is able to manage. A complex, integrated and targeted set of policy tools are necessary for any success in this area. These policy tools must
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include elements of economy development (e.g. job creation) as well as education (e.g. training) and social intervention. Programs aiming at elevating underprivileged groups should not only focus on the use of information-communication tools, but also place emphasis on elements of complex, long-term programs with a holistic approach. Based on our analysis, we recommend that policymakers concentrate on, among all groups that are difficult to reach, those that dispose of sufficient resources to learn digital literacy. By our categorization, most of these individuals belong to middle-class groups – namely, the “countryside grandparents”, the “culturally active middle class”, and the “active skilled workers”.
REFERENCES BME-ITTK, ITHAKA Kht. and TÁRKI Zrt. (2006). A digitális jövő térképe. (Map of the digital future.) A magyar társadalom és az Internet. (The Hungarian Society and the Internet) Gyorsjelentés a World Internet Project 2006. évi magyarországi kutatásának eredményeiről. (Brief report on the results of the Hungarian studies of the World Internet Project 2006) Budapest: ITHAKA. Cooper, Mark (2004). Expanding the Digital Divide & Dalling behind on Droadband. Consumer Federation of America. http://www.consumerfed. org/pdfs/digitaldivide.pdf DiMaggio, Paul, Eszter Hargittai, Coral Celeste and Steven Shafer (2004). Digital Inequality: From Unequal Access to Differentiated Use. In: Kathryn Neckerman (ed.). Social Inequality. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, pp. 355-400. http://www.eszter.com/research/pubs/dimaggio-etaldigitalinequality.pdf Dutton, William H., A. Shepherd and C. Di Gennaro (2006). Digitális megosztottságok és digitális döntések. (Digital divide and digital decisions) Az Internet terjedésének brit és nemzetközi mintázatai. (British and international patterns of the dispersion of Internet) In: Dessewffy Tibor,
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Fábián Zoltán and Z. Karvalics László (szerk.). Internet.hu: A magyar társadalom digitális gyorsfényképe 3. (Digital Quick Picture of the Hungarian society 3) Budapest: TÁRKI, 205-226. old. Harvey, Brian (1983). Stop Saying >>Computer Literacy!<< Classroom Computer News. http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~bh/stop.html International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and United Nation Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) (2007). Information Society, 2007: Beyond WSIS. Geneva: ITU (3rd online version, 1 June 2007) http://www. itu.int/osg/spu/publications/worldinformationsociety/2007/) Martin, Steven P. and John P. Robinson (2004). The Income Digital Divide: An International Perspective. IT&Society, Vol 1, No 7: pp. 1-20 Norris, P. (2001). Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty, and the Internet Worldwide. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press. Robinson, John P., Paul DiMaggio and Eszter Hargittai (2003). New Social Survey Perspectives on Digital Divide. IT&Society, Vol. 1. Issue 5. (Summer). pp. 1-22 Sen, Amartya (2000). A Decade of Human Development. Journal of Human Development Vol. 1. No. 1.: pp. 17-23. http://hdr.undp.org/docs/training/ oxford/readings/Sen_HD.pdf UNDP (2006). Beyond Scarcity: Power, Poverty and the Global Water Crisis. Human Development Report, 2006. http://hdr.undp.org/hdr2006/statistics/
Annexes The establishment of the indexes used for cluster analysis (1) Financial status, standard of living Subjective financial situation: “How do you feel, you live financially without problems (5), are well off by budgeting (4), barely contrive from your monthly revenue (3), have financial problems each month (2) or live in deprivation (1)?” Note: We have completed the missing data with the average values as per education level. We have used the values o variable standardized (z-score) for the analysis.
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Equipment level of the household - is there a dishwasher: yes (1) / no (0). Note: We have completed the missing data with the average values as per education level. We have used the values o variable standardized (z-score) for the analysis. Do you have a car: yes (1) / no (0). Note: We have completed the missing data with the average values as per education level. We have used the values o variable standardized (z-score) for the analysis. According to the interrogator, the real estate market environment of the flat / house is: cheap market environment (1) / medium, average market environment (2) locally upper level market environment (3) locally the highest level market environment (4). Note: We have completed the missing data with the average values as per education level. We have used the values o variable standardized (z-score) for the analysis. According to the interrogator, the furniture of the flat on a 5-grade scale is (1) cheap - (5) expensive We have completed the missing data with the average values as per education level. We have used the values o variable standardized (z-score) for the analysis. (2) Household ICT infrastructure (5 variables) Home computer: (1) yes / (0) no. Standardized z/score Home Internet access: (1) yes / (0) no. Standardized z/score Home landline phone: (1) yes / (0) no. Standardized z/score Mobile phone in the household: (1) yes / (0) no. Standardized z/ score DVD in the household: (1) yes / (0) no. Standardized z/score
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(3) Mobile phone usage (2 variables). Sends/receives sms regularly (at least weekly). (6) daily / (5) several times a week / (4) weekly / (3) several times a month / (2) monthly or less / (1) never and doe not have a mobile phone. We have completed the missing values with the average. Standardized z/score. The mobile phone is important for the person: (4) very important / (3) important / (2) not too important (1) not important at all (0) does not have a mobile phone. Standardized z/score (4) Cultural capital (3 variables). Has a high school graduation (1) yes / (0) no Standardized z/score Speaks foreign languages (1) yes / (0) no Standardized z/score Has he/she ever taken part at an IT training? (1) yes / (0) no Standardized z/score (5) Media consumption - television and radio (4 variables). “how important is the following for you as a source of information ...? (television / radio) And how important is it as entertainment? (television / radio). (5) very important (1) not important at all. The standardized (z-score) value of the average value of the TV and radio 4 variables. (6) Media consumption - books, newspapers, magazines and weekly papers (6 variables) “How important is the following for you as a source of information ...? (books / daily papers / weekly papers, magazines) “And how important is the following for you as a entertainment? (books / daily papers 5 weekly papers, magazines) (5) very important (1) not important at all. The standardized (z-score)
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value of the average value of the book and newspaper reading 6 variables. (7) Company, network (4 variables) “How important is the following for you as a source of information ...? (Local clubs, civil organizations, religious communities / your friends and family) And how important are they as entertainment? (Local clubs, civil organizations, religious communities / your friends and family) (5) very important (1) not important at all. The standardized (z-score) value of the average value of the company and network 4 variables.
III The Cultures of Internet: producing for new screens
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12 Creative Dynamics of the Broadband Internet: Australian Production and Consumption of Cultural Content Scott Ewing and Julian Thomas
Introduction The focus of this chapter is on what we call the ‘creative Internet’ — in brief, those ‘creative uses’ of the net ranging from relatively straightforward user-generated content such as sharing photographs to the distribution of more complex amateur-produced material. Our analysis builds on sample survey data collected as part of the Australian component of the World Internet Project (WIP). 1 The Australian WIP study fills a major gap in our understanding of the basic dynamics of the Internet in Australia. While there are widely available data on the numbers of Australians who access the Internet, where they access the net and whether they have broadband or dial-up access (for example see ABS, Household Use of Information Technology 2004-05 Cat No 8146.0), there is almost no detailed, publicly available data on what people are doing online in Australia and how this varies across different subpopulations. Of particular interest, for reasons we will discuss 1
The Australian partner for the WIP is the Institute for Social Research (ISR) at Swinburne University, as part of its role in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCI). CCI was established in July 2005 and is the first Centre of Excellence funded outside the science, engineering and technology sectors. The Centre has an ambitious research agenda organised around three key themes: creative innovation; innovation policy, and creative human capital. For a further discussion of the Australian component of the WIP, see Ewing and Thomas (2006).
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further, is the difference in Internet use between those people relying on dial-up access and those with broadband access (the Household Broadband Adoption Report undertaken for DCITA in January 2004 does provide some basic information on this topic.) Our first survey of Australian households was undertaken in August 2007. We talked to a random sample of 1,000 people across Australia. In this analysis, we will concentrate primarily on differences between the online activities of individuals with broadband home connections and those with dial-up access at home. For the purposes of this discussion, we are particularly interested in people’s creative uses of the net, both as consumers and producers of content. What role do people play as producers of online content? What are the characteristics of these content producers? Do factors such as age, gender, experience, or skills and speed of access play a role here? Other issues we are keen to pursue include: the diffusion of broadband in Australia and reasons hindering take-up; the effects of Internet usage on the consumption of other media; the uptake of social web technology; video usage; news consumption online and how it is changing; and the impact of the ‘always on’ element of broadband as people move from getting news to getting entertainment on line. People’s creative uses of the net are of interest as indicators of an information society for two broad and related reasons: • Creative uses tend to require more skills on the user’s part and are an important marker of increasing digital literacy; • Increasing user-generated content implies that users are gaining more from their online experience and that the resultant increase in online content will enrich others’ online experience. They also raise broader issues. The Australian government’s interest in the Internet and its role in the creative economy was signaled as far back as the early 1990s with two major reports: that of the Broadband Services Expert Group in 1993, and the Cutler
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and Company report Commerce in Content: Building Australia’s International Future in Interactive Multi-media Markets. In a highly influential statement of national cultural policy, Creative Nation (1994), the section on information technology concentrated largely on developments in ‘off-line’ multi-media applications, but nevertheless recognized that ‘… ultimately it is the broadband services that are likely to have the most pervasive effect on our lives and culture…’ (Commonwealth of Australia, 1994). Fifteen years later, the question of the ‘creative Internet’ has now fully emerged as a focus for debate. Recent critical studies of the economics of the Internet emphasize the development of what Yochai Benkler calls the ‘networked information economy’ (Benkler, 2007, p.3), where non-market activity acquires a new significance in cultural, political and social innovation. Benkler’s starting point is the observation that declining costs of computing, communicating and storing information have ‘placed the means of information and cultural production in the hands of a significant fraction of the world’s population — on the order of a billion people around the globe’ (ibid). In this analysis, human creativity and the economics of information are ‘the core structuring facts of the new networked information economy’ (ibid). Benkler provides a wide-ranging study of the law, economics and politics of ‘social production’ — the non-market, voluntary or amateur activity enabled by networks. The World Internet Project has the potential to provide a fine-grained account of the development of this substantial new sector of media and cultural production, namely the amateur domain, and to help inform the information laws and policies that regulate and shape it. The emergence of amateur content has attracted some attention in Australian debates over our media futures (including Simons, 2007), but has not so far received systematic analysis. We know little about its scale and scope, or the motivations, incentives and authorial practices which sustain it. It is not surprising that at this stage of Internet development, arguments remain somewhat polarized between those who have rightly pointed to the continuing power of mainstream commercial media companies
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(for example, Given, 2003), and those advocates of amateur media who have relied more on arguments about the potential of new online applications and the speed of their adoption than studies of demonstrated influence (for example Lessig, 2004). The scholarship of the ‘new Internet’ pulls in opposing directions across a range of issues. In one direction lies the democratic promise of an expanding field of creative opportunity, and the social benefits attributed to increased individual involvement in cultural, economic and political life (Benkler, 2004). The individual who is able to express herself within society, who can contribute meaningfully to the public sphere, and who has agency over her own expressive life, is one of the key aspirations of liberal democratic theory. In the other direction lies all manner of hazardous activities, including copyright infringement, privacy violations, content that is defamatory or degrading, spam, and email scams. These aspects of the new communication environment will never be neatly reconciled. However, current Australian legal and policy responses to the new environment are framed largely as negative reactions. The harms produced by copyright infringers, spammers and pornographers readily attract the attention of governments; the more subtle benefits need to be better understood. We do not yet have a framework for a grounded account of both the opportunities and threats that this new communications environment offers; but the results of our work so far aim to contribute to that objective. This chapter begins by considering the relationship between the development of what we are calling the ‘creative Internet’ and broadband access. It then turns to some of the social dynamics of this creative activity, considering first gender, and then age in relation to broadband. 1. Creative Uses and Broadband In order to make the most of the opportunities of the ‘creative Internet’, users need access to services of the kind that are generally marketed as ‘broadband’. Of course, ‘broadband’ means different things to different people, and the ‘speed’ (or more accurately the
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bandwidth) of some Australian broadband services has often been criticized as inferior to that available elsewhere. While in our survey almost eight in ten households with Internet connection described it as broadband, almost a year later information collected directly from ISPs by the Australian Bureau of Statistics found that 44% of Internet connections in Australia had download speeds of 512Kbps or less and half of these were 256Kbps or less. The term’s ‘folk’ Australian connotations have not only substantially higher ‘speeds’ than dial-up, but also three equally important additional features: detachment from the plain old telephone service, so that conventional voice services are not interrupted by Internet access; ‘always on’ service, or at least fast and simple log-ins; and the capacity to share network access across several computers. These factors, taken together, appear to substantially change the way the Internet is used in domestic environments, opening up new possibilities not only for what may be done online, but also for who may be doing it. At the outset, we can review the differences between those with home dial-up access and those with broadband at home in relation to uses that are broadly creative. How does broadband change the pattern of media creation and consumption in Australian homes? Figure 12.1 shows that over half of broadband users felt that the Internet was ‘very important’ to their way of life, compared to a third of those with dial-up connections. Just under a third of those with dial-up connections felt the Internet was ‘not important’ or ‘not at all important’, compared to around half of this proportion for those with broadband access. Broadband connectivity is associated with spending less time watching television. In all the countries that reported findings in 2007 from WIP, people with dial-up connections watched more television on average than their peers with broadband connections (see Table 12.1). For all dial-up users, the average was 15 hours per week compared to 11.3 hours for broadband users. People who didn’t use the Internet watched more television on average than Internet users.
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Dial‐up
Bband
59 32
Very important
37
25
Important
31 15
Not important
Figure 12.1 Importance of Internet to current way of life, by access type, Australia 2007. Table 12.1 Mean hours of television watched per week, Internet users by access type, selected countries, 2007.
Number of minutes per week watching television Country Don't Use Dial-up Broadband Australia 21.0 14.3 13.6 Canada 13.5 10.8 10.2 China 21.9 16.4 13.8 Colombia 20.9 15.5 Czech Republic 20.6 15.3 14.6 Hungary 17.1 16.5 12.7 New Zealand 18.9 14.1 11.5 Sweden 14.6 13.7 12.4 UK 21.5 15.4 12.4 USA 22.3 15.4 12.3 Total 16.3 15.0 11.3 In Australia 45% of broadband users say they now watch less television compared to 32% of dial-up users (Figure 12.2). One interesting pattern here is that while the relationship between
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television watching and home Internet connection is almost exclusively negative, this is not the case for time spent reading books and to a lesser extent, reading newspapers and magazines. Looking just at the figures for broadband, for every person who said that his/her television watching had increased since gaining home access, 11 said that it had decreased; for books, the ratio was around one increase to two decrease; and for newspapers and magazines, it was around one to three.
5678 9:8
;b6u< <=8 >a:8 9:8 Books
Television
Papers,Mags
19
24
69
64
32
?8>> 9:8
17
26
45
79
66
4
9
Dial‐up
Bband
64 51
4
4
12
12
Dial‐up
Bband
Dial‐up
Bband
Figure 12.2 Impact of the Internet on related activities, by access type, Australia 2007.
As Figure 12.3 illustrates, just over a third of broadband users rate the Internet as an ‘important’ or ‘very important’ entertainment source compared to a quarter of dial-up users. There was little difference between the two groups in their rating of television, magazines or radio as sources of entertainment. Table 12.2 shows the results for various forms of posting content. Quite small proportions of our sample maintain a blog of their own (7.9%). Those with broadband were more likely to have a
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blog. Numbers of respondents who kept a personal website were higher and here broadband access was a major factor. Fourteen percent of those with broadband access worked on a personal website compared to 5.6% with dial-up access. No one with dialup access said they worked on their website daily (3% of those with broadband) while 6.5% of those with broadband said they updated their website weekly compared to 2.1% of those with dialup access. Not important at all Important Internet 12
Not important Very important
Somewhat important
Television
17
17
17
38
34
22
26
31
19
12 6
12 5
Magazines 4 6 14 14
13 16 21
25
26
27
30
Radio 16
11 31
34
26 30
24
Dial‐up Bband
30 31
29
26
8 11
Dial‐up Bband
Dial‐up Bband
17 11
Dial‐up Bband
Figure 12.3 Importance of various media for entertainment, by access type, Australia 2007. Table 12.2 Posting content, by access type, Australia 2007.
Dial-up Broadband
Own blog Participate At least weekly 4.9 2.1 8.5 3.9
Own website Participate At least weekly 5.6 2.8 14.3 9.9
Post photos Participate Dial-up Broadband
21.0 26.9
At least weekly 9.9 12.6
Post video Participate 1.4 6.1
At least weekly 0.0 2.4
Post messages Participate At least weekly 14.9 8.5 26.2 16.1
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Broadband users were slightly more likely to have a blog (8.5% to 4.9%) and those that did were slightly more likely to update them more frequently. More than twice the proportion of broadband users had a personal website (14.3% to 5.6%) and again were more likely to update them regularly. Having broadband did not make our respondents a lot more likely to post pictures or photos (21.0% of dial-up and 26.9% of broadband) and had no real impact on frequency. It did affect posting videos however with only 1.4% of dial-up users undertaking this activity compared to 6.1% of broadband users. Downloading activity is reported in Table 12.3. Those with broadband were much more likely to download video (35.7% to 11.2%) and to do so frequently with 23.6% of broadband users downloading at least once a week compared to just 5.6% dial-up. Broadband connection made users more likely to download music (55.7% to 30.8%) and twice as likely to do so at least weekly. Broadband users are about twice as likely to listen to radio online and almost four times more likely to do so frequently. Listening to podcasts is also related to broadband access, with more than double the proportion of people downloading or listening to podcasts. They were also much more likely to do so frequently. Connection type was not related to respondents’ likelihood of surfing or browsing the web with no specific purpose, nor how often people did this. Table 12.3 Downloading activities, by access type, Australia 2007.
Dial-up Broadband
Download video Download music Listen to radio Participate At least Participate At least Participate At least weekly weekly weekly 11.2 5.6 30.8 14.7 15.4 3.5 35.7 23.6 55.7 30.5 30.4 11.0 Podcasts Participate
Dial-up Broadband
8.4 20.2
Surf
At least Participate weekly 2.1 56.6 7.2 58.7
At least weekly 35.0 41.0
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Figure 12.4 sets out respondents’ attitudes to sharing and creating content online. A clear majority of those with broadband connections at home agreed that the Internet enables them to share content that they liked with others (55.2%) with 38.5% of those with dial-up access agreeing. When we asked people about sharing their own creative work, a surprisingly high proportion of respondents agreed that the Internet had enabled this. Almost 40% of broadband users and 38.5% of dial-up users agreed, with a fifth of broadband users agreeing strongly. We then asked people whether Internet access had encouraged them to produce their own creative work and share it with others. Over a quarter of broadband users and 15.7% of dial-up users agreed that it had.
Disagree Share creative work
Neither
Share my creative work
Agree Produce and share my creative work 16 27
39
39 50
57
21 17
22
27
17 17 34
Dial‐up
64 39
26
Bband
Dial‐up
56
33
Bband
Dial‐up
Bband
Figure 12.4 Impact of Internet access on creative endeavours, by access type, Australia 2007.
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2. Women, Creativity and Broadband The preceding analysis reveals a close positive relationship between the diffusion of broadband services and what we are describing as creative uses of the technology; as we would expect, there is also a concomitant decline in the consumption of traditional media. But how does the ‘creative Internet’ map onto the uneven social landscape of Internet access? It is only possible in this paper to highlight some aspects of the issue. This section examines how gender combined with access type influences creative uses of the net. It is notable that while broadband access is related to how important both men and women consider the Internet to be to their way of life, it does seem to have a greater impact for women (Figure 12.5). Women with dial-up access are less likely to consider the Internet to be very important to their current way of life (31.7% to 36.1%). This pattern is reversed when looking at broadband access, women are more likely to answer ‘very important’ (59.4% to 52.1%). Very important
Important
Not important Men
Women
15
15 33
31 25
33 31
37 59
52 32
Dial‐up
36
Bband
Dial‐up
Bband
Figure 12.5 Importance of the Internet for the current way of life, by gender and access type, Australia 2007.
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Figure 12.5 presents data on people’s perceptions of the impact of home Internet access on ‘offline’ media consumption. Internet access decreases the amount of television people watch and broadband increases this impact. The effect is greater for men than women. Over a third of men with dial-up access (36.1%) claim they watch less television since gaining access compared to 28.0% of women while almost half of men with broadband access (48.3%) say they watch less television compared to 39.8% of women. The interaction of Internet access (and type) and gender with book reading is complex. Men are slightly less likely than women to say they read less since gaining access and more likely to say they read more. Access type has little impact on men’s reading while it makes women more likely to read less (17.1% up to 24.4%) and less likely to read more (9.8% to 7.5%). Men are more likely than women to say that they read newspapers more following connection (6.6% to 2.4% for dial-up and 11.2% to 5.5% for broadband). Similar proportions of men and women say they read newspapers less since they gained home-access with around a quarter of both men and women with broadband connections spending less time reading newspapers off-line. Table 12.4 Impact of the Internet on related activities, by gender and access type, Australia 2007.
Female dial-up Female Bband Male dial-up Male Bband
Television More Less 2.4 28.0 4.7 39.8 4.9 36.1 3.8 48.3
Reading books More Less 9.8 17.1 7.5 24.4 13.1 19.7 14.3 21.7
Reading papers/mags More Less 2.4 17.1 5.5 24 6.6 14.8 11.2 25.5
Figure 12.6 shows that broadband access has a bigger impact on women’s rating of the importance of the Internet as a source of entertainment than it does for men. The proportion of men who describe the Internet as either an important or very important source of entertainment is 31.1% for those with dial-up, which increases to 37.4% (an increase of around 20%) while for women the corresponding figures are 19.5% and 29.1% (an almost 50% increase).
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People’s access to broadband does make them less likely to consider television and radio as important sources of entertainment but there is little difference for men and women.
Very important
Important
Somewhat important
Not important
Women
54
Men
44
38 56 25
26 27 13
6 13
16
Dial‐up
Bband
13 19 21 10
Dial‐up
18
Bband
Figure 12.6 Importance of the Internet for entertainment, by gender and access type, Australia 2007. Table 12.5 Posting activity, by gender and access type, Australia 2007.
Female dial-up Female Bband Male dial-up Male Bband
Own blog Own website Post photos Participate At least Participate At least Participate At least weekly weekly weekly 2.4 0.0 1.2 1.2 13.4 4.9 11.0 5.9 12.2 9.1 28.0 12.2 8.2 4.9 11.5 4.9 31.1 22.9 6.3 2.0 16.1 10.7 25.9 11.8
In terms of activities involving posting content, such as maintaining blogs and websites or posting photographs, participation by women appears to be much more influenced by access type than men’s (Table 12.5). Very few women on dialup connections kept a blog (2.4% compared to 8.2% for men) whereas 11.0% of women with broadbrand had a blog (for the men the figure actually decreased slightly to 6.3%). This pattern is repeated for personal websites: only 1.2% of women with a dial-up connection had a website (11.5% of men) but this figure increased
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to 12.2% for women with broadband (16.1% for men). While only 1.2% of female dial-up users updated their website daily, 9.1% of broadband users did so. Posting pictures and photos provides a good example of this pattern. Only 13.4% of women with a dial-up connection report posting pictures at all, compared to 28.0% of women with broadband. The proportion of men posting photos actually decreases slightly in the broadband group (31.1% compared to 25.9%). Regarding regular posting of photos, 4.9% of women with dial-up post weekly or more often, compared to 12.2% broadband female users. The results to this question present an anomalous finding that more than one in five male dial-up users post photos weekly compared to slightly less than one in ten broadband users. Table 12.6 Downloading activities, by gender and access type, Australia 2007.
Female dial-up Female Bband Male dial-up Male Bband
Download video Download music Surf the web At least At least At least weekly weekly weekly Participate Participate Participate 4.9 2.4 23.2 7.3 54.9 31.8 29.5 18.5 48.4 27.2 53.1 34.7 19.7 9.8 41.0 24.6 59.0 39.3 41.3 27.9 62.2 33.5 63.6 46.5
Downloading videos exhibits the same pattern (Table 12.6). Six times the proportion of women with broadband relative to dial-up downloaded videos while for men the proportion doubled in the move from dial-up to broadband. Only 2.4% of women on dial-up connections downloaded weekly (vs. 9.8% for men) while 18.5% of women with broadband did so (men 27.9%). Downloading or listening to music again shows a bigger difference in behaviour between women with dial-up or broadband compared to men. While 7.3% of women with dial-up connections download or listen to music at least weekly (men 24.6%), the figure jumps to 27.2% for women with broadband, well over double the proportion (increases for males were around 40% and 34.5%, respectively).
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Surfing or browsing the web without a definite purpose does not change greatly for either men or women, by access type and there is not a great deal of difference between men and women for this activity. Strongly agree Neither Strongly disagree
Agree Disagree Men
Women
15.9
13.0
11.5
14.6
18.0
10.8 14.0
19.5 16.1 21.6 31.1 26.8 37.4 32.7 23.0 29.3 18.1 8.5
Dial‐up
Bband
16.4
Dial‐up
21.7
Bband
Figure 12.7 The Internet enables me to share creative work I like with others, by gender and access type, Australia 2007.
Figure 12.7 shows that in terms of attitudes to the Internet and creative activities, men are overall slightly more positive than women and those with broadband slightly more optimistic than those with dial-up connections.
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Just under four in ten men (39.4%) with dial-up connections felt that the Internet enabled them to share creative work they liked, while 37.8 % of women did. For those with broadband connections, the figure rises to 59.1% for men and 50.8% for women. Strongly agree Neither Strongly disagree
Agree Disagree Men
Women
17.1
15.0
13.1
16.9
24.6
20.7
12.6
20.3
15.7
22.5 19.6 26.8
30.4 28.3
24.6
16.9
18.0
21.0
Bband
Dial‐up
Bband
28.0
7.3
Dial‐up
Figure 12.8. The Internet enables me to share my creative work with others, by gender and access type, Australia 2007.
Figure 12.8 demonstrates that connection type did not have such a big influence on whether people thought that the Internet enabled them to share their own creative work with others (as opposed to creative work they liked). More than four in ten males (42.6%)
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with dial-up agreed with this statement compared to 35.3% of women. Just over half of the men with broadband (51.4%) agreed while 45.2% of women did. Strongly agree Neither Strongly disagree
Agree Disagree
Women
31.7
Men
27.6
21.3
31.1 26.4
23.1
33.2
37.8 20.1
29.5
16.7
17.0 18.2
18.5 11.5 12.2
7.5
6.6
8.7
Bband
Dial‐up
Bband
1.2
Dial‐up
Figure 12.9 The Internet has encouraged me to produce my own creative work and share it with others, by gender and access type, Australia 2007.
Interestingly the pattern of response to the statement ‘the Internet has encouraged me to produce my own creative work and share it with others’ was similar to that for activity based questions — there was a bigger difference between women on dial-up and broadband
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than there was between men (Figure 12.9). The proportion of women with broadband connections agreeing with this statement was double that of those with dial-up connections (26.0% and 13.4%) while the corresponding increases for men approximately halved (18.1% and 26.9%, respectively) 3. Age, Creativity and Broadband Here we consider the impact of the interaction of age and type of home access on people’s online activities. To do this we have split our sample into three broad age groups: the young group (age 1829 years), the mid-aged group (30-49) and the older group (50 and above). Age does not seem to make a big difference in whether people feel that the Internet is important to their way of life. Having broadband makes one more likely to describe the Internet as ‘very important’, although the impact is less for older age groups. Table 12.7 sets out people’s perceptions of the impact of home Internet access on off-line media consumption. More than six in ten of the younger group with broadband connection say that they watch less television since being connected to the Internet (34.5% for those with dial-up). The pattern is similar for those in the mid-age range although off a lower base (43.3% with broadband, 25.4% with dial-up). In the oldest age group the proportion claiming to watch less television is higher for those with dial-up connections (37.8%, relative to 31.1% for those with broadband). Internet access has more impact on younger people’s reading habits than older groups’, but shifting to broadband was only important for those aged 30-49 (10.4% of dial-up users spent less time reading compared to 23.7% of those with broadband). Just under a third of persons aged 18-29 said they read less since being connected to the Internet at home (31% of those with dial-up connections and 32.6% with broadband). Broadband connectivity is related to less reading of newspapers and magazines for the first two age groups. For the youngest age group, 13.8% of those on dial-up say they spend less time reading newspapers and magazines since gaining home connection (the same proportion that say they read more), compared to 30.4% of
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those with broadband. For the 30-49 age group the figures were 13.4% and 27.3% respectively. For older people the proportion fell between dial-up (20.0%) and broadband (15.2%). Table 12.7 Impact of the Internet on related activities, by age and access type, Australia 2007. Television More
Reading books More Less
Less
Reading papers/mags More Less
18-29 dial-up
13.8
34.5
13.8
31.0
13.8
13.8
18-29 Bband
2.9
60.9
12.3
32.6
9.4
30.4
30-49 dial-up
0.0
25.4
10.4
10.4
1.5
13.4
30-49 Bband
4.9
43.3
11.4
23.7
9.8
27.3
50+ dial-up
2.2
37.8
11.1
20.0
2.2
20.0
50+ Bband
4.6
31.1
9.9
12.6
6.0
15.2
Very important Somewhat important Not important at all 18- 29
Important Not important
30-49
50+
4.3 13.8 14.5
22.4
18.8 35.6
10.3
32.5
19.6 20.7
27.5 32.8 31.8
24.1
30.6
21.0
37.8
25.4 16.6 17.1 31.0
32.6 9.0
Dial‐up Bband
15.6
10.4
10.6 13.9
Dial‐up Bband
6.7 4.4
8.6
Dial‐up Bband
Figure 12.10 Importance of the Internet for entertainment, by age and access type, Australia 2007.
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Table 12.8 Maintaining blog or website, by age and access type, Australia 2007. Own blog Participate At least weekly
Own website Participate At least weekly
18-29 dial-up
20.7
6.9
13.8
10.3
18-29 Bband
20.3
11.5
24.6
19.5
30-49 dial-up
0.0
0.0
1.5
0.0
30-49 Bband
4.9
1.6
13.5
7.7
50+ dial-up
2.2
2.2
6.7
2.2
50+ Bband
4.0
0.7
6.6
5.2
For young people the Internet is an important source of entertainment regardless of access type (Figure 12.10). Over half of the young group say that the Internet is at least important for entertainment, and a slightly higher proportion of those on dialup connections reported this (35.1% for dial-up and 53.6% for broadband). On the other hand, only 19.4% of the mid-aged group and 12.1% of the older group with dial-up consider the Internet an important source of entertainment. These proportions increase with broadband connectivity, to 31.0% and 20.2%, respectively. Young people with broadband connections are no more likely to keep a blog than their peers on dial-up but they are more likely to update their blog regularly (Table 12.8). While 6.9% of dial-up users in this age group updated a blog at least weekly, 11.5% of those with broadband at home did. Nobody aged 30-49 on dial-up keep a blog while just under 5% with broadband did. Access type has little impact on whether older people keep a blog (2.2% and 4.0% respectively). A similar pattern was found in relation to working on personal websites although higher proportions of people kept a personal website. Young people with dial-up were much more likely to have personal websites (13.8%) than those aged 30-49 (1.5%) or 50-plus (6.7%). Almost a quarter of young people with broadband keep a personal website (24.6%) compared to young people on
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dial-up, and a greater proportion (19.5%) of broadband users in this group update weekly, in contrast to 10.35% among dial-up youths. Table 12.9 Posting activity, by age and access type, Australia 2007. Post messages Participate At least weekly
Post photos Participate At least weekly
Post video Participate At least weekly
18-29 dial-up
27.6
17.2
27.6
20.7
0.0
0.0
18-29 Bband
40.6
29.7
45.7
26.1
11.6
5.8
30-49 dial-up
11.9
4.5
17.9
9.0
0.0
0.0
30-49 Bband
25.7
14.5
19.6
6.5
6.1
2.0
50+ dial-up
11.1
8.9
22.2
13.3
4.4
0.0
50+ Bband
13.9
7.9
21.9
8.6
1.3
0.0
Table12.9 sets out respondents’ posting activity broken down by age and home access type. In relation to posting messages, the impact of broadband seems most pronounced on those in the middleage bracket with 11.9% of dial-up users ever posting compared to over a quarter of those on broadband connections (25.7%). There’s little difference between older dial-up users and broadband users. But young people on dial-up connections are more likely to post than those aged 30-49 with broadband connections (27.6% to 25.7%) with usage increasing to 40.6% for those on broadband connections. Frequency of use increases for both the young and mid-aged group in the move from dial-up to broadband. Connection type is not related to whether the mid-aged group or older people post photos. Young peoples’ participation increases from 27.6% for dial-up to 47.7% for broadband and frequency increases (no young person posted photos daily on dial-up while 5.1% did with broadband. No young or mid-aged person with a dial-up connection posted video footage whereas 11.6% of the young and 6.1% of the midaged did. Only very small proportions of those aged fifty and over posted video on either form of connectivity. Broadband connectivity makes people more likely to download
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video content across all age groups and much more likely to do so frequently (Figure 12.10). For the youngest age group, 31.0% of dial-up users download video footage compared to 57.2% in the broadband section. The impact on the two older-aged groups is even more dramatic - the corresponding figures for mid-aged users are 9.0% and 36.7%, respectively; and for the older group, 2.2% and 15.9%, respectively. Just under one in five broadband users aged between 18 and 29 are downloading video footage daily (18.8%). Downloading and listening to music is related both to age and access type. While just under half of the youngest age bracket with dial-up connections (48.3%) download and listen, 83.3% of those with broadband do. A similar pattern is seen over the other two age groups but with lower overall rates of participation. Frequency also increases with broadband access with over one in five young persons listening or downloading daily (22.5%). Table 12.10 Downloading activities, by gender and access type, Australia 2007. Download video Participate At least weekly
Download music Participate At least weekly
Surf the web Participate At least weekly
18-29 dial-up
31.0
20.7
48.3
34.5
72.4
51.7
18-29 Bband
57.2
44.9
83.3
56.6
74.6
62.3
30-49 dial-up
9.0
3.0
35.8
13.5
58.2
29.9
30-49 Bband
36.7
22.8
54.3
29.0
58.0
40.8
50+ dial-up
2.2
0.0
11.1
4.4
44.4
15.5
50+ Bband
15.9
6.0
35.1
10.5
45.7
21.9
The proportions of people in each age group who ‘surf the web with out any definite purpose’ is remarkably consistent across the two access types with younger groups more likely to engage in this activity. However people with broadband access are more likely to do this frequently. For the younger age group, 72.4% of those with dial-up surfed compared to 74.6% of those on broadband. However, only 17.2% of dial-up users did so daily compared to 31.9% of those with broadband. The mid-range group had a similar pattern while those over 50 with dial-up were more likely to surf daily than those of this age with broadband (15.5% vs. 6.0%).
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Strongly agree Neither Strongly disagree 18- 29
Agree Disagree 30-49
6.9
5.1
6.9
12.3
16.4
50+ 10.6
15.6
20.5
12.7 15.6
13.0 25.4
34.5
19.2
20.4
42.0
35.5
21.8
20.0
29.1
13.3
9.3
22.4 33.9
34.5 26.9 27.5 22.4
17.2 9.0
Dial‐up Bband
Dial‐up Bband
Dial‐up Bband
Figure 12.11 The Internet enables me to share creative work I like with others, by age and access type, Australia 2007.
Figure 12.11 shows that of all groups, the young with broadband access are most likely (68.5%) to agree with the statement that ‘the Internet enables me to share creative work with others’. For young people with dial-up, proportion is 51.7%. For the mid-range group the difference is even greater, with 35.9% of dial-up users and 56.3% of broadband users agreeing. There was not such a marked difference for the oldest group – 33.3% dial-up and 38.4% of broadband users agree.
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Strongly agree Neither Strongly disagree 18- 29 6.9 6.9
Agree Disagree
30-49 5.8
13.8
50+
14.7
11.1
18.8
28.9
19.9
22.4
15.2
23.8
23.9
41.4
18.7 37.7
22.2 17.9
23.2 28.2
27.6
24.4
26.9
21.9
27.5 17.2
19.6 9.0
Dial‐up Bband
Dial‐up Bband
13.3
10.6
Dial‐up Bband
Figure 12.12 The Internet enables me to share my creative work with others, by age and access type, Australia 2007.
In relation to whether the Internet enables people to share their own creative work the pattern of response was similar (Figure 12.12). Young broadband users are the most likely to agree (65.2% compared to 45.8% of young dial-up users). The mid-range group had the same ‘broadband impact’ but with lower figures overall (35.9% of dial-up and 47.8% of broadband). Those aged 50 and above with a dial-up connection are more likely than those on broadband to agree (37.7% to 32.5%).
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Strongly agree Neither Strongly disagree 18- 29 13.8
30-49
50+
12.3 31.3
24.1
Agree Disagree
25.3
31.1
37.1
30.4 31.4
24.1 22.4
33.3
38.8
27.2
16.7 17.2 34.5
27.5
24.4 20.9
16.7 11.9
3.4
7.2
Dial‐up Bband
7.5 1.5
9.8
Dial‐up Bband
4.4 6.7
6.6
Dial‐up Bband
Figure 12.13 The Internet has encouraged me to produce my own creative work and share it with others, by gender and access type, Australia 2007.
Finally Figure 12.13 shows that the pattern of response to whether the Internet has encouraged people to produce their own creative work is very different. Young people with dial-up access are more likely than those with broadband to agree (37.9% vs. 34.7%), while for the other two groups broadband access was associated with a higher proportion of agreement. For dial-up users aged 30-49, only 9.0% agreed compared to 26.5% of broadband users; and for the oldest age group, the figures are 11.1% and 18.5%, respectively.
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Conclusion We briefly summarise our key findings: Australians with a broadband connection at home are almost twice as likely to consider the Internet as ‘very important to their current way of life’ and more likely to rate the Internet as a ‘very important source of entertainment’. In terms of activities, there is a stronger relationship between downloading activities than uploading activities. The additional time spent by broadband users online appears to come mainly from television viewing. There is evidence that broadband access has a bigger impact on women’s online activities than men. While this is not a conclusive finding given our sample size and other intervening variables, there are some interesting possible explanations that are worth exploring. It may be that dial-up is a more ‘technical’, even ‘fiddly’ technology that fewer women in general might be willing to engage with. If so, that may reinforce the conventional picture of the geek hobbyists who characterised the Internet in the early times. More significant may be the shared access associated with broadband technologies, which makes it easier for every member of a household to connect more. Our results in relation to age and access type indicate that the Internet’s role as an entertainment source is much stronger for those in the younger group and that this group is much more likely to be watching less television as a result of access. Younger people are more likely to be uploading and developing online content. Blogging is clearly a game for the young, with one in five in the young group with dial-up and broadband maintaining a blog. For the next biggest blogging group, those aged 30-49, the corresponding figure was one in 20. Younger people are also greater downloaders, and dial-up connections are not as big an inhibitor as for the older age groups. Our understanding of the creative Internet and its users requires a broader context. A striking feature of the Internet’s brief history in Australia is the comparatively rapid diffusion of dial-up services in the 1990s, followed by a slower uptake of broadband services
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in the new century. The reasons for this history are not the issue here; we are more concerned with understanding its consequences. At the level of policy analysis, many authors have seen the slow spread of broadband as a major bottleneck in the country’s national innovation system (see, for example Barr (2000)), preventing Australians from participating fully in the cultural, economic and political benefits of what Benkler calls the ‘networked public sphere’. While both the uptake and quality of Australian broadband services have not yet caught up with those in some other advanced liberal economies, we can now see that broadband is very closely linked to the emergence of the creative Internet. But how far will the benefits of that network and its extraordinary new economy extend? This paper suggests that the creative Internet bears some distinctive social features: an expanding user base, notably including more women, but nevertheless still slanted towards younger users. These are worth exploring further in upcoming surveys.
References Australian Bureau of Statistics, (2007). Household Use of Information Technology 2007-07 Cat No 8146.0 Australian Communications and Media Authority, (2007). Media and Communications in Australian Families 2007, ACMA, Canberra Barr, T., (2000). New Media.com.au: The Changing Face of Australia’s Communications, Allen and Unwin, Sydney. Benkler, Y. (2007). The Wealth of Networks, Yale University Press, New Haven. Broadband Services Expert Group Commerce in Content: Building Australia’s International Future in Interactive Multi-media Markets. Commonwealth of Australia, (1994). Creative Nation - Commonwealth Cultural Policy. Cutler & Company Pty Ltd. (1994). Commerce in Content - Building Australia’s International Future in Interactive Multimedia Markets
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Department of Communication, Information Technology & the Arts (DCITA) (2004), Household Broadband Adoption Report, DCITA: Canberra Ewing, S. and Thomas, J., The World Internet Project and its Australian component, Telecommunications Journal of Australia, Volume 56 No 3 & 4, Spring & Summer 2006 Given, J. (2003). Turning off the Television: Broadcasting’s Uncertain Future, UNSW Press, Sydney Lessig, L. (2004). Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity. Penguin Press. New York. Simons, M (2007). The Content Makers - Understanding the Future of the Australian Media, Penguin, Melbourne
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13 New Screens and Young People’s Appropriation of Entertainment Content André H. Caron and Letizia Caronia
Acknowledgements This study was supported by a number of organisations including: The Bell Chair in Interdisciplinary Research on Emerging Technologies, The Canada Foundation for Innovation, The Régie du Cinéma du Québec and the Centre For Youth and Media Studies (G.R.J.M.) Université de Montréal. Introduction New information and communication technologies have become extremely dynamic. They have permeated our everyday life in many forms, and provide highly accessible, flexible, interchangeable multimedia content, particularly via the Internet. While content has been controlled and regulated, it is now much easier to access freely, and increasingly independent of any formal institutional framework. Images on screens used to be viewed in specific locations and at predictable times. Now, different platforms and widespread Internet access have allowed these images to transcend space and time. Multimedia consumption may now be a more private affair far from adult control and supervision. This raises new challenges for us all, particularly for institutions that have a mandate to protect youth in society. We can then rightly ask: How do young people appropriate and evaluate this content, specifically,
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movie and video game content? Are rating systems still relevant in these new media environments? In order to properly investigate such questions we must explore how young consumers today perceive images displayed on these new and traditional screens and how they relate to different discourses in their daily lives as they are influenced by their relations with their parents and peers. We have to understand the values, cognitive skills and moral stances that today’s young people have and develop, especially given that they now live and have grown up in a hyper-media environment. Some consider young people to be passive, easy to manipulate, unaware of values, moral or developmental issues related to media consumption, and entirely lacking in critical thinking skills. Others see them as active users able to interpret, judge and choose, and able to use their knowledge and competencies. Consequently they consider this issue of consumption of media content in a control-free environment as relatively unproblematic. Both of these scenarios are partial and therefore suspect. If we accept that today’s teenagers are more media literate than their counterparts of only ten years ago, the landscape of media consumption has dramatically changed in terms of quantity, quality and accessibility. Internet behavior patterns related to streaming or downloading movies or playing on-line videogames create a universe of entertainment content appropriation that seems infinite and, thus, increasingly difficult to control. To address these issues we need to consider young consumers of these images as active subjects moving in evolving environments under the influence of constantly changing new technologies. Accessing screen images in everyday life Although limited data are specifically available on the question of movie downloading and streaming by young people, there are early indications of its prevalence. For gaming, more data exist because these usage patterns have been around for a longer time. Major studies, including the Pew Internet, the Kaiser Family
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Foundation and the Canada Online studies, have recently published findings on young people’s consumer habits in terms of Internet uses for movies and games. Yet data on actual movie streaming and downloading is still approximate. A study (Harris, 2007) involving a sample of 1,196 youths aged 8-18 years finds that 8% of American youth admitted to downloading movies without paying. The main reasons for hesitating to download digital copyright software from the Internet without paying were viruses (62%), legal trouble (52%), and spyware (51%). In other words, refraining from such behavior is motivated less by moral or legal terms and more by not wanting to corrupt one’s computer. In another American study, this time limited to adults, Ipsos MediaCT concluded that in 2008, 17% of their sample (n = 935) reported streaming movies and 11% downloading movies, whether free or paid for. In a national Canadian study (Zamaria & Fletcher, 2008), conducted in 2007 with a sample of 400 youth aged 12-17, it was found that 39% of Canadian youth reported having downloaded/ streamed and watched DVD/movies from the Internet, compared with only 18% of the adult population. Interestingly, 12- to 17-year-olds reported that they more often watch/listen/stream DVD/movies (33%) than download (18%) long form content. In terms of frequency of accessing movies and DVDs online only 3% of Canadian teenagers reported doing it daily or more frequently, 6% weekly and 30% monthly or less frequently . A recent study by Pew on video games and civics (Lenhart, Kahne, Middaugh, Macgill, Evans & Vitak, 2008), involving 1,102 American teenagers of 12-17 and a parent or guardian, finds that 97% of American teens played computer, web, portable or console videogames, and half of them had played these games the previous day. The percentage of teens having played video games was similar in the Canadian study (Zamaria & Fletcher, 2008). Almost three-quarters of American teens (73%) play games on a desktop or laptop computer. The Pew study reports that the most frequently played games in 2007 and 2008 were Guitar Hero (Rhythm), Halo 3 (first-person shooters), Madden NFL (sports, solitaire (Puzzle) and Dance Dance Revolution (Rhythm). One in three (32%)
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gaming teens report that at least one of their favourite games is rated Mature or Adults only. One in five (21%) teen gamers play massive multiplayer online games (MMOGs), which are online game spaces where multiple individuals play a game together. A variety of games are thus available on different platforms, as mentioned in the Pew report: “More importantly for regulators and parents, different ratings apply to games played in certain environments. Ratings apply to console, dedicated handheld gaming devices, and most computer-based games but are often not given to web-based games, MMOGs, or games played on cell phones.’’(p.12)
Regarding prevention filters for the Internet, the Pew survey Teens, Privacy and online Social Network (Lenhart & Madden, 2007) (n = 935, aged 12-17) reports that more then half (53%) of parents admitted they had filtering software on the computer the child uses at home and half the teens are generally aware that there are filters on their computers that keep them from going to certain websites . Two-thirds of parents report checking up on their teens after they go online. A majority of American parents (85%) of online teens say they have rules about Internet sites their child can visit, and television shows (75%) they can watch, and two-thirds (65%) restrict the kinds of video games their child can play . The Parents, Children & Media report of the Kaiser Family Foundation (Rideout, 2007) states that “the majority of parents say they are very concerned about the amount of sex and violence in the media and many believe such content has a real impact on young people’s behaviors. Two thirds say they would support government policies to restrict such content on TV” (p.4). A Canadian study (Zamaria & Fletcher, 2008) shows that 51% of parents say they often monitor their children’s activities online, but only 17% of teenagers say that adults often monitor their online activities. If we combine data referring to young people’s consumption of multimedia contents with parents’ concern about and supervision of their youth’s media uses, we gain an interesting insight into
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teenagers’ “moving culture” (Caron,Caronia 2007), actual media environment and how parents try to assume their role. The first set of data reveals that young people’s consumption of multimedia contents (movies and video games) is relatively high (all platforms included), and that in regard to videogames, one in three teenagers play “mature” or “adults only” games that are explicitly rated as such, or play web based videogames that are often unrated. These environments thus allow teenagers to access rated and unrated movies and videogames wherever and whenever they wish, to override filters if they want to, and to transgress by consuming “adults only” or “mature” contents in more accessible ways than they ever were capable of in the past. The second set of data reveals that parents express concern about their children’s multimedia consumption and try when possible to exert control or supervision by using ratings as a reference when they are made available. There clearly appears to be a “zone of discomfort,” a gap between parents’ attitudes towards performing as “good parents,” concerned with and committed to their children’s healthy media diet, and the fact that it is increasingly difficult for them to control the environment for such consumption. Given these new technological opportunities, we must take into account the possibility that the only filters teenagers use when accessing and consuming these cultural products is their own cognitive thinking, world views and moral criteria acquired through their socio-cultural experiences. Is this possible scenario a social problem? Does consumption of potentially age-inappropriate content necessarily put teenagers at risk? Many of these answers and questions depend strictly on the theoretical frame we adopt in investigating the relationship between young consumers and multimedia content presented on their everyday screens. If we adopt the traditional and almost commonsensical “effect approach,” the answer could only be “yes.” If, on the contrary, we adopt a more “active user” approach, then we need to explore the cognitive and moral attitudes of today’s teenagers in terms of these new screens.
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Fearing the effects of images: A history of common sense thought about media Shared ideas about children’s and teenagers’ vulnerability to media as well as public policies concerned with protecting minors from inappropriate media contents have a social and cultural history and an unavoidable inertia. They rest on data, studies and developmental theories that have been developed in the past, whose contemporary validity may be considered problematic. Moreover, these policies are rooted in a social, cultural and psychological portrait of “children and teens” that does not necessarily mirror the children and teenagers of today. An historical overview of the various discourses on the role of new technologies in society - for example, radio in the early 20th century or television in the 1950s - shows that discourses are always constructed around the same recurrent ideas. First, new media and its content are supposed to have a direct effect on the psychology of individuals and their social behavior. Every new technology gives rise to the same traditional fears: it will make people more aggressive, apathetic or hyper-sexualized, and upset the established order. Also, media consumption is thought to have negative effects on human physiology. Finally, the cultural value of content carried on new media is often considered to be of poorer quality than that conveyed by earlier media (Wartella & Reeves, 1983; Drotner, 1992). Rarely utopian and very often catastrophic, such forms of discourse are rooted in academic traditions, and still nurture common sense opinions. Between pessimistic paranoia and idealistic optimism, between fear and hope, social discourse shapes thought with fuzzy, ambiguous contours while building upon a selection of scientific discourses. Indubitably, the academic tradition that has had the greatest influence on common sense opinions on young people and the media is the “Media effect paradigm.” Theories belonging to this paradigm are generally divided into two types (Anderson & Bushman, 2001), (Gauntlett, D., 2001).
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Both traditions share an underlying causal-deterministic model that accounts for the influence of media on the minds and behavior of young people. At least within common sense reasoning and theories, media and media contents are presumed to determine not only children’s and teenagers’ behaviors but also their attitudes, relationships and even identities. Often echoed by media discourse and sometimes reinforced by references to simplified expert discourse, common sense reasoning and layman theories constitute a shared cultural system through which we make sense of media in our daily life. Although the deterministic approach has nurtured common sense theories more than any other approach, it is not the only one. The scientific landscape offers at least one other concurrent approach: the active user perspective. This theoretical approach emphasizes research that perceives media consumption as a social practice and considers that the analysis of cultural contexts and the users’ active roles are essential in understanding what people do with media (Katz, Blumler & Gurevitch, 1974; Arnett, Larsen & Offer, 1995; Sorensen Holmes & Jessen, 2000; Williams & Skoric, 2005; Jonhson, 2005). While the “effect approach” very often underestimates users’ competences and paints a picture of a helpless, vulnerable victim, the “active user” approach attributes to users and those close to them responsibility for their media consumption and construction
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of the meaning of images. This emphasis on the cultural context and the consumers’ active role in making sense of media and media content underscores the necessity to constantly monitor the ways in which a changing active audience copes with new multimedia products. Another aspect of society that evolves as well is it’s approache to child rearing. Such methods, shaped by scientific and public discourses on “media effects on children and teens”, have circulated, nurtured and shared media awareness, and changed adults’ media education practices over time, both in families and schools. Young people’s media experiences have also changed; teenagers have been socialized by images on screens since their early years, and computer-based videogames are part of the daily entertainment of many contemporary children. As a consequence of this changing media environment and of media education practices, we cannot automatically assume that children and teenagers are as vulnerable or illiterate as they are often presented to be in most common sense discourse. However, neither can we adopt a laissez-faire view that media exposure and content are irrelevant with respect to the cognitive, social and moral development of children and teens. As media are accessible semiotic tools (Lave & Wenger, 1991) situated in young people’s everyday developmental contexts, their consumption contributes to shaping children’s and teenagers’ sociocultural and psychological development. Rather than investigating “what these texts do to young people,” we chose to investigate what today’s teenagers do with media and media content and how they incorporate them into their everyday life. If we consider the everyday and often control-free consumption of movies and video games, if we take into account the growing accessibility of age-inappropriate content through Web access, if we consider parents’ concern about the need to supervise their children and protect them from inappropriate content (Wartella, Caplivitz, & Lee, 2004; Vanderwater, E., Park, S.E., Huang, X. & Wartella E., 2005), this issue becomes more and more relevant. How do adolescents interpret and evaluate movies and videogames? What cognitive and moral interpretive repertoires do
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they use when consuming such cultural products? Is there any way to provide them with evaluative skills they can apply regardless of the platform of consumption and ratings? Although it is relevant to know the specific context and platform of consumption (downloading streaming, web-based and online games, console or home computer, private consumption vs. shared use), we first need to investigate how teenagers perceive all media content in general, how they evaluate it as more or less appropriate for a given age, and the categories they adopt for such an evaluation. Investigating teenagers’ media interpretive repertoires: A qualitative study The present chapter is based on a larger study on the consumption of movies and videogames as a family practice involving developmental and therefore educational issues. Our research was based on the theoretical premise that media and media content do not determine the social, cultural and psychological development of young consumers, but, like any other text, they contribute in a significant way to the very essence of that development. In this study we investigated: — Family consumption of movies and videogames on all platforms as a rule-governed practice integrated in the daily routines of family members. — The uses family members make of these texts and the meanings they give them in their everyday environment and through everyday social interactions. — Parents’ perceived effects of such texts on their children, the extent to which these perceived effects activate concern about the quality and appropriateness of visual cultural products, and the role played by the rating systems in such an assessment. — Children and teenagers’ perspectives on the role of such texts in their own life and those of their peers.
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— The ways in which young people develop critical thinking skills with respect to such entertainment content, and how they understand and use crucial notions such as “content effect,” “youth protection” and “media awareness.”
The study was conceived in two parts. This first was ethnographically oriented and intended to explore family discourses and practices related to family members’ consumption of movies and videogames. The second part was a quasi-experimental investigation into how teenagers construct and develop their critical thinking about these cultural products. It consisted of structured evaluation workshops where teenagers were asked to evaluate a variety of movies and videogames. The complete corpus of data is comprised of recorded in-depth family interviews (averaging two hours) involving nine middleclass families having at least one child (age 8-16), data from a daily logbook filled by a member of each family for a one-week period, 15 hours of video-recording made by teenagers on their own and their friends’ consumption of movies and videogames, 40 hours of recordings of focus groups with fathers and mothers on specific topics related to movie and videogame rating systems, and video-recorded teenagers’ joint discussions about the quality and appropriateness of a sample of videogames and movies.1 A total of 78 young people and adults (31 girls and 25 boys; 12 mothers and 10 fathers) participated in this research. Some young people participated in more than one stage of the research (family interview and evaluation group), but played different roles in each case. While the sample was reasonably large for a qualitative study, it cannot purport to be representative. Instead, its purpose was to make sufficient exploration possible to be used as a starting point for future surveys, assessments, and educational and awareness 1 The
participants were recruited in the urban and suburban area of Montreal, Canada through popular events such as videogame festivals; university recruitment programs, parents associations and consultations with teachers. This provided us with a suitably diverse number of participants from varied socioeconomic and ethnic background.
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programs. Although based on the whole study, this chapter focuses primarily on a sub-corpus of data. Particularly those gathered during the last lag of the study, where teenagers were asked to participate in evaluation workshops. The evaluation groups comprising 12 young people aged 14-16 were created to explore a specific question: if teenagers were asked to assume the role of evaluators for their younger peers, what cognitive stance would they activate vis-à-vis these texts that could enhance their media awareness. All interviews and discussions were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Teenagers that participated in the workshops were asked to analyse three different action movies and two action video games, individually, in their homes, over a three-week period.2 They were also asked to code these products according to specifically designed grids, to rate them according to what they considered the age appropriate, and to evaluate them from the point of view of children or teens younger than themselves. In a subsequent session, the teenagers that evaluated the same products were asked to discuss their evaluations providing the reasons and criteria they used to rate content as they did. The evaluators’ analysis of these joint discussions, of the arguments and explanations given to support the evaluation and rating, and the conversational dynamics of agreement and disagreement, occurred during discussions of the texts. This provided us with a paramount insight into the rich and sophisticated interpretive repertoires teenagers adopt when exposed to images on screens. Research findings Movies, video games and related practices play essential roles in constructing the two social worlds in which children develop: 2
The titles we used were among the most popular and representative of the genres mentioned by young people. In the end, in compliance with ethical rules applying to research involving minors, we chose the movies Aurore, Domino and Final Destination 2, and the games Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow and Call of Duty 2: Big Red One.
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the family and the peer group. Within the family, while movies and video game images contribute to construction of a collective or even community dimension in family life, they also make it possible for each family member to set him- or herself apart from the others by constructing individual identities, family roles and different cultures. In peer groups, movies and video games are used to create a feeling of belonging to the group, internal social cohesion and a common shared culture. Nonetheless, our findings on young people’s evaluation of these images showed most of them had integrated family values well, because they feel the need to control consumption of these contents on the new screens. Thus, when they are made responsible for controlling content, they consider that respecting family values is necessary and essential to assessing the appropriateness of images for children younger than themselves. Proximity and narrative realism Realism appears to be an important factor in evaluating images, and is inherent in the notion of proximity, which refers to the degree to which the viewer identifies with the story, events and characters. According to the young evaluators we met, watching a movie takes on a whole new dimension when the images do not form only an imaginary or fictional narrative, but encroach on everyday life, real life. Young people consider that a cultural product that anchors some elements (e.g., story line, actors, actions, location) in reality and that resembles their everyday lives has a more profound effect on their sensitivity and emotions. The movie Aurore3 triggered diverse emotions. The fact that the main character in the movie is a child and that her story unfolds in a family universe sparked much empathy in our young evaluators. Although temporally distant from their daily life, this movie underlined the existence of potential acts of inhumanity in this At the start of the twentieth century in rural Quebec Aurore is a quiet but happy young girl. When her mother dies, her father immediately remarries a woman whom the child detests. Her stepmother retaliates by inflicting increasingly severe punishments.
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everyday environment. Our evaluators felt intimately touched, to an intense and lasting extent, by the brutality of this story. Rosalie, age 14, comments on Aurore: Well I wrote for an older audience because I found this hard for a movie, you know when you are little it might sound stupid, but when you are little it can traumatize because when I was little and I watched things like that, because I fell on some of the worst ones, movies on TV, and things like that really got to me more then when you’re older, it’s really hard.
In contrast, the movie Final Destination 24 inspired much disbelief. Although the images presented adolescents engaging in activities in a universe very close to their own, our young evaluators mainly stressed the extravagance of the story line and the absurdity of the scenes of violence. Martin, age 14, comments on Final Destination 2: It wasn’t really frightening, scary at the beginning but just a little distressing it would have been a better movie if the deaths had not been so absurd. Andrée, age 16, comments on Final Destination 2: There’s a lot of blood in this movie, and a lot of disgusting scenes too, but it’s so unrealistic that it didn’t scare me at all.
If the images often idealize a narrative or provide an unrealistic depiction of reality, the evaluators seemed to seek an exact resemblance to their daily life, their society. This realism, or rather this movement between entertainment and transmission of real information, allows the evaluators to judge the appropriateness of Thanks to a premonition, young Kimberly avoids a fatal accident, thus saving the lives of many motorists. Soon after, however, the survivors perish one by one in often horrendous circumstances
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the cultural product. The problem of truth and reality, of what is assumed to be real in the images, thus unveils the singularity that allows the evaluators to pass judgment on the content of images that society makes available to them. The attraction to or repulsion from the images is thus an expression of spontaneous intelligence related to a natural perception of events Thus, images of a real story or of a current or historical social or cultural fact affect the audience more than those of an extremely violent movie or video game in which there is no realism. The group interviews and evaluation grids clearly show that scenarios and scenes showing exaggerated violence do not always result in great discomfort, concerns or unpleasant impressions, but often rather in laughter, mockery and contempt. However, even our 1416 year old evaluators admitted that such movies can sometimes have destabilizing or traumatic effects on their younger peers. They thought that prudence is required, and did not believe that caricatured or exaggerated violence should be viewed by young people of all ages. Some young people, considering their level of maturity, social origins and education, might not be able to grasp all the subtleties of a script or distinguish exaggerated from realistic violence. Supervision by parents and older children was thus seen as essential by our evaluators. Some young evaluators said they were also troubled not only by the proximity of violent images but also by images that show disrespect for order and justice in society, sexuality and eroticism, in both movies and video games. They indicated that these contents should have a certain level of morality and intellectual quality. Elegance, sensitivity and appropriate clothing and manners, for example, were important factors in their evaluation of media products. Rosalie, age 14, comments on Domino5 You know, they’re not just swearing in this movie, it’s vulgar. 5
The daughter of English actor Laurence Harvey and model Sophie Wynn, Domino, a young dropout, decides to join bounty hungers Ed and Choco. The trio then participates in a reality television program that broadcasts their exploits live.
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It’s not pretty words. And you can’t find good values in this movie. Like, it’s only showing to people how fun it is to kill people and do that kind of stuff. And there are not values that you want to show to your kids for example courage or things like that.
They were well aware of how the images on new screens may affect the popular culture of young people and, consequently, became judges as rigorous as some parents. Images and Violence (explicit vs. implicit) Physical, verbal, sexual and psychological violence is the criterion most often used by young evaluators to judge a movie. However, they considered that the consequences on viewers were different depending on whether the violence was explicit or implicit. According to our young evaluators, it is brutal and upsetting to see depictions of violence that are so clear and precise that they leave nothing to the imagination, but such scenes are extremely common and unoriginal in movies today, including scenes of death, shootings and fights. Portrayed in an explicit manner, such scenes of violence do not produce the same reactions of fear and discomfort as scenes in which the viewer can only infer actions and consequences. An image that shows unequivocal violence leaves no room for the imagination because it defines the limits of the action: what happens is what the viewer sees on the screen. Our young evaluators said that implicit violence created greater reactions and distress because it gave rise to many different interpretations. Catherine, age 15, comments on Aurore: It’s because it’s your imagination that imagines the scene, because you see nothing then maybe it’s not like you imagine Denis, age 16, comments on Aurore: You know, at one point for example, the little girl gets burned, you know, like her step mother takes something from the fire
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place, puts it in the fire and burns her. But we can’t see what happens when the little girl gets burn, but we can understand what’s happening. You understand and you can even imagine more things. Andrée, age 16, comments on Aurore: Well I think, when you see it for real you feel the emotion directly when you see it, but when we don’t see it and we imagine it well the emotion you keep it for the whole movie. And all along you really feel bad for her because you keep it. After seeing the movie you still think about it well in my case I was still thinking about it.
The implicit violence therefore compels our young evaluators to play an active role. They insert themselves in the scenario to be able to understand by conjecture, assumption and intuition what the characters feel, what they experience at the time of the act. This interpretation of violence thus leads the evaluators to draw on their own referents and their own experiences with violence. This memory exercise makes scenes of violence more difficult to tolerate, because they are closely linked to their life stories. They evoke situations already perceived, events that marked their lives. Images and sexuality As mentioned above, the themes of violence and sexuality were central to our respondents’ reasoning when they evaluated these contents. While there were many references to violent scenes, and such scenes were described in detail, we found few detailed descriptions of sexual scenes by our young people. Our respondents made brief, modest reference to “making love,” “showing her breasts,” and “taking off her shirt.” When we asked questions on this subject, the discourse became problematic, ambiguous and often contradictory. The young evaluators stammered and did their best to avoid making comments. The uneasiness with
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respect to references to sexuality is a datum in itself and indicates that sexuality remains a taboo, at least in discourse. Speaking of violence and describing horrific scenes with almost clinical precision proved less problematic than referring to sexuality, even in a general manner. The few scenes with a sexual nature presented in the images evaluated attracted the evaluators’ attention, particularly the female ones. They often considered such scenes embarrassing and unpleasant. Further, these scenes often concerned the conduct of the female characters. When an actor bared parts of her body or behaved provocatively, the scenes were considered superfluous to the unfolding of the story: Rosalie, 14 years old, comments on Final Destination 2: It’s a motorcycle and she lifts her jacket. And she shows her breasts …] and it really had no reason in the movie.
The evaluators expressed their criticism of the images that idealize the constriction of feminine sexuality into stereotypes. There must be an elegant correction, a certain conduct and modesty, other strategies to overturn the old clichés of an objectified woman. The scenes must then be dictated by more rational motives or consideration, in order to enhance the cultural products. The evaluators hope to preserve certain conventional rules of seduction, sensuality and eroticism, and demand an image of themselves that is untarnished, free of moral flaws or corruption. Scenes of a sexual nature did not measure up to the ideal standards for quality of products directed at young audiences, at least not from the female evaluators’ perspective. Notably, the evaluators criticized the portrayal of conventional roles. Valérie, age 14, comments on Domino Yeah that’s it one time it can seem banal they are in a hotel room the guy just rented a porn video well it’s because in the camera shot you also see the movie. For sure the emphasis is not on that , it’s just to show what kind of guy he is But it isn’t
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it isn’t anyone that can watch that with no problem.
The liberalization of morals that is believed to be a fundamental issue for young people also occurs at a sensitive time for them, one of construction of practices and minds, passion and polemics. A time when for some of them, control is crucial to attain a balance and resolve difficulties. If the young women seem to have adopted the commonly accepted social discourse of the woman-object, the young men take another position and do not appear to be disturbed by scenes of licentiousness. They would pout approvingly and smile out of the corner of their mouths, which confirms that this behavior does not provoke the same attention and consideration. A group of peers is not an easy context in which to openly discuss discomfort with sexuality. If this theme is frequently cited as an essential component of the evaluation of the content of cultural products, young people feel ill at ease explaining why. Images and vulgar language The young evaluators also paid particular attention to the actors’ forms of expression. Improper language was another important evaluation criterion to judge the acceptability of a cultural product for a young audience. Mathew, age 13, comments on Domino: Interviewer: Did you watch it with your younger brother? Mathew: No. Interviewer: Do you think it would have been o.k. to watch it with him? Mathew: No I don’t think so. Interviewer: Why? Mathew: Well the language and things like that, the language and he is 20 months younger then me. He won’t see something and he might redo it well let’s say the language I think he doesn’t understands at least less then I do.
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Direct, crude, transgressive, provocative, sometimes vulgar language, is not, as might be presumed, a sign of belonging to a peer group. Its excessive side, like sexuality, clashes with the values of our evaluators. The language specific to youth, (cloaked in narcissistic behavior, identities, modes, forms of opposition, sometimes rebellion or even encryption techniques) was denounced, because they are aware that its content easily affects their younger peers. They confirm unequivocally that the tone used and the choice of words can have an influence, can be adopted and repeated by younger viewers. According to our young evaluators, children easily absorb vocabulary, more so than acts related to sexuality or violence, even if they do not fully understand it. Rosalie, age 14, comments on Domino Oh no, the language it’s bad for young children also because it’s not like actions you know kids are not going to do actions you know like if you see someone hit someone else even the parents will always be there to say don’t hit anyone and he will learn but language is a lot easier i think to imitate.
The evaluators thus examined psychological aspects of the emergence of the personality among youth, a phase where the intellectual and social apparatus is forming, and enables them to construct their own visions of the world, their own value systems and self concepts. If language is a refuge and defines a community, our young evaluators affirm it as a preferred vector of education and transmission of ideals. Language has a social resonance and can thus be configured for specific applications. It can then be perceived as a threat by the evaluators who are fully aware of the effects of new uses of language on the affirmation of identities and as a figurative forum for behaviors and interactions. Our young evaluators question the movie creators’ concept of youth, of the stereotypes that they perpetuate in their products. In their role of evaluator, young people no longer identify with carefree people that break with authority and society. The evaluators describe how cultural products construct their reality, their daily
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lives. They underline that the images are subject to construction, manipulation, structuring that mobilizes values, standards and presumptions. New ideas develop and are affirmed. For our evaluators, language contrary to these proper uses imparts a feeling of disappointment. Youth often view consumption of media products as a time for sharing. They expect that the content will not put them into uncomfortable situations vis-à-vis their peers. Games – A game is a game, or is it? The games Call of Duty 26 and Splinter Cell7 were evaluated in this study. These products are different means of expression from movies because they prompt creative interactivity in the user. However, their ludic nature and synthetic imagery make their worlds that lack natural characteristics and that seem to be dissociated from the human condition. According to our evaluators, although they can reflect a certain reality, they allow players to more easily distinguish between what is part of everyday life and what is not. They then become tools that deepen the distinctions between truth and imagination, between real and virtual, between plausible and implausible, between possible and impossible. Rosalie, age 14, comments on videogames in general: There’s always a part of your body, well a part of your brain that is going to react, even if you don’t notice it. If you kill bugs that are from another planet, in your head, you know that it isn’t real. But if you kill people, real people who exist for real. Not that they really exist but you really have the feeling that they do exist (…) You feel like it’s someone like you, You enjoy it less. Well normally I think you enjoy it less. You are in the midst of World War II, the leader of the Big Red One unit in COD2. On the battlefield, explosions are constant, planes crash a few metres away, the ground shakes and bullets whiz by…You and your unit can’t let down your guard for even a second 7 Sadono, a militia leader of Indonesian guerrillas, has no choice but to use bacteria warfare as a dissuasive tactic. Sam Fisher must face this new challenge. His objective: to counter the risks of contamination and disarm this particularly virulent terrorist faction! 6
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Being actors Users of video games are no longer merely passive beings connected by peripherals. They are actors that build meaning. Video games thus place individuals in a particular relation with the cultural product by making them actors of their lives. By taking an active part in their media environment, players acquire new data on the value of their skills and knowledge. They become skilled at producing plans and directing their actions toward a particular goal. By transforming themselves, they drive a change in their relation with the game. The subject thus evolves from the status of “spectator” passively absorbing a cinematographic context to that of actor “playing” their existence and future. This investment is translated by the evaluators through the use of first person pronouns to refer to the actions performed in the game Andrée, age 16, comments on Call of Duty 2: Everytime I kill someone Mathew, age 13, comments on Call of Duty 2: You’re almost dead Andrée, age 16, comments on Splinter Cell: That an enemy attacks me Denis, age 16, comments on Splinter Cell: I am very small in the train so I don’t know when they are going to shoot me.
All these examples illustrate the incarnation process of the players and the identification in which they are engaged when they play video games. The game becomes an allegory, a representation to which attributes and discourse are associated. The user is projected in the cultural universe and then assumes the role assigned in the game universe. The adoption of these virtual
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identities allows manipulation of the self. The users participate in permutations between the different roles they play: that of player and actor. They thus discover the pleasure of being able to be who they want, not only what they are required to be. They can exist in their every day life and take possession of a virtual space. Games – skills Entering this virtual space, making it their own and mastering it nonetheless demands skills. The criterion of skill is exclusive to games. Unlike a film viewer, who is mainly passive, players must possess or develop skills that let them progress in the video game. Video games are systems formed by rules (grammar) and elements to which these rules apply (lexicon). The evaluators perceive these systems as a natural language that lets them form an indefinite number of scenarios, to understand elements never viewed and overcome obstacles that arise. In this context, they acquire new functions and responsibilities. Young people become experts in this environment. Andrée, age 16, comments on Call of Duty 2: You must at least have a few abilities to play this game. Denis, age 16, comments on Splinter Cell: Younger than 13 I don’t think they would understand the game.
The evaluators consider it necessary to master particular skills to explore these virtual universes. First, there is hand-eye coordination, which they need to execute tasks in order to win the game. This type of skill is necessary in adventure video games in which the actions sometimes unfold so quickly that good reflexes are required to be able to advance through the levels. Contrary to what one might believe, this type of skill is not necessarily linked to age, because an adult may find it just as difficult to control the action of the video game as a child.
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Some games, especially those with a rich narrative content, also require cognitive skills. They are needed to grasp the objectives of the game. Role-playing games or puzzles, for example, require great mental involvement. The player must keep track of the story to fulfill the quests and solve the puzzles. Evidently, this type of skill implies more maturity from the player than mere hand-eye coordination; it also calls for analytical and reading skills. What about violence in video games? Both games and movies sparked much commitment in young evaluators’ responses. Those who think that the profusion of violent, sexual and vulgar images signified a fragmentation of the value systems, a precipitous decline in conventions and morality, have misjudged the situation. Similar to the images in movies, those in games engendered discourse and awareness of the way they affect the popular culture of young people. Nonetheless, games have a particular place in the universe of young people even if they regularly spark worry among educators and families. There is the attraction of virtual worlds and the imagination that is explored alone, but often with friends. Although marginal to the game, this practice brings to light original forms of sociability: meetings between friends, organizing of competitions, etc. Further, there is self-improvement, particularly related to technical skills and cognitive abilities. If the violent nature of some games and possible spillover exist, rather than objecting, the evaluators mention that young people generally distinguish between the fiction proposed in the game and their everyday reality. Violence remains confined to this virtual amphitheatre. “Combat games” have always existed in the universe of young people, particularly boys. These combats have also surfaced in the digital age in other forms. Just as boys and girls previously pretended to be cowboys and Indians, soldiers, princes, princesses and parents, they currently use games that prolong the existence of these mythical characters.
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Valérie, age 14, comments on games in general: You know when we play games when we are young there’s imagination, let’s say cowboys and all of that well you go with knowledge that is yours, what is it you do not know about the war, what do you know.and when you are going to play a videogame well maybe you are going to learn some tricks that it is there you will learn things you did not think you would see.
In the past, this violence took place out of adults’ view, in parks, fields, streets and backyards, at school or virtually anywhere. The shootings and killings on these improvised battlefields, the product of their imagination, were equally terrifying for people that perceive therein the darkest manifestation of humanity. However, these actions were considered by most adults as acceptable forms of amusement because they were only one element of the game, a normal part of their children’s recreation. For many of our young evaluators, the prime virtue of games was their ability to provide enjoyment. These games are a product of pure fantasy that involve a constant reference to the experience and the creation of another self, a disincarnate being from daily life, grounded in fiction. Denis, age 16, comments on games in general: I think it’s different. I don’t know. It’s different because you must always take into consideration the virtual side. OK. When you are playing a game you must not forget that it is virtual and you should not forget that it is not real you can’t let yourself be intimidated by the game. A person who is going to play San Andrea’s, he will understand that it is a fantasy and that you should not go into it. Andrée, age 16, comments on games in general: That’s exactly it. Would I let my child play it, I would tell my kid ,whether you are 18 or 21 I don’t care . Go find another game that is more interesting like for example Splinter Cell
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If the young evaluators reproduce a form of parental discourse whereby violence is unacceptable, they insist on the fact that the universe in which they function is only virtual and that the acts they perform are fictitious. Games have a ludic characteristic in which individuals reorganize their environment into a system of meaning that defines their myths, desires, needs, etc. However, the young evaluators demonstrate that the communication process specific to games may serve as a foundation for social relations. The games are their main leisure activity and contribute to this socialization. This is why they fear that younger children will imitate inappropriate behavior that they see on the screen. According to the evaluators, violence in games is a throwback to the past. Gamers perpetuate a collective habit of acting, a habit transmitted from generation to generation. Video games respond to a general desire among youths to “play war.” Games apply the rules of fabrication of common storylines in order to standardize and guarantee the functioning of children’s play universe. Violence is then considered simply content to develop one’s ability, and is devoid of exceptional qualities. Violence then becomes a form of capital tailored to the imaginations and aspirations of young people who explore these virtual universes. Andrée, age 16, comments on Splinter Cell and Call of Duty2: And it (Splinter Cell) encourages your logic. Call of Duty 2 I am a little divided it’s the real war, but its true young people like that. We are going to always like to kill and have a small gun and shoot I don’t want to take that away.
Nonetheless, for some users there is no doubt that playing video games can induce delinquent behavior. Even if they appropriate models of behavior contrary to society and the social order through their identification with heroes and their imitation of the actions in their games, this practice fosters intellectual acuity For the evaluators, video games, whether they be violent or not,
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encourage interpretation and analysis of environments, characters and actions, and require reasoning about future events, organization and development of singular strategies. Games are a fundamental tool to develop self-knowledge, skills and learning. Notably, they allow users to define the limits of their qualities and morality. Accordingly, the evaluators mentioned logic, perseverance, determination and patience. Playing a game allows users to possess certain virtues and mental dispositions. They can form a coherent chain of ideas. They can also adopt an attitude of determination and action without hesitation while remaining calm. Further, games are the best means to understand some dark chapters of human history. Rosalie, age 14, comments on Splinter Cell: It’s a really excellent game. Very realistic and with no blood. It is a little difficult but it encourages logic and perseverance. Denis, age 16, comments on Splinter Cell: I think with this game a thirteen year old can learn some small things about politics. Besides this game will encourage determination and patience to a young guy. Mathew, 13 years old, comments on Call of Duty 2: We can better understand about the Second World War. How it must felt to be a soldier.
Playing video games is a challenging exercise for users. They learn to refuse to bow and be submissive. This invitation to pit oneself not only against technology but also against adversaries is the very nature of the game and its practice. A nature that players must overcome in their exploration, evolution and learning process. A nature that is opposed to action and achieving success and victory.
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Violence and frustration in video games For children familiar with the world of video games, thoughts about violence and its consequences are more complex and highly nuanced. Evaluating the appropriateness of a video game requires players to take into account a number of aspects: the degree of realism of the game, the kinds of actions required, and the player’s psychological stability and level of involvement in the scenario. The game places the individual in a specific relationship with the cultural product, and that relationship makes it possible to create an original scenario, characters, actions and situations. Video games are by definition a fictional world. Killing human beings is not like killing “skeletons” or “pigs riding horses.” Generally, though in some video games young people “kill,” “commit assault” and “violate” laws and social conventions, the actions are not perceived in the same manner as in a movie or in reality. For them, the recreational dimension of video games can partly mitigate possible consequences of violence. However, our young evaluators reported that the violence in video games can sometimes affect young users’ behavior. The joy and pride of winning and meeting goals can be followed by frustration, aggressiveness, depression and worry about failure. Denis, age 16, comments on Call of Duty 2: That sequence was really distressing and frightening. I only had one life left and had 4 enemy tanks to shoot at. Mathew, age 13, comments on Call of Duty 2: I was frightened – I was almost dead.
A young evaluator told us about her brother’s aggressive behavior after playing the controversial game Grand Theft Auto. Valérie, age 14, comments on games in general: And he plays mostly Halo, Halo 2, Grand Theft Auto, I find it influences him a lot. And sometimes there is his brother that is
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younger then him and then sometimes they fight. And he beats him up pretty roughly. It’s only for play but still….
While the most widespread discourse is that video games themselves set limits on the forms of behavior that they encourage, in our society there is a strongly held belief that video games are responsible for some asocial forms of behavior. Thinking about possible relations between video games and behavior in these terms is one of the arguments used by our young evaluators in the way they classified video games. Our overall analysis thus shows a distinction between movies and games in the evaluation and classification of media products. Generally, movies evoke much more sensitive and affective aspects. Our young evaluators then pay particular attention to the representations and values that arise from their daily life, particularly violence, sexuality and language. Games, in contrast, are more intuitive and often evaluated according to the aptitudes of the players’ motor skills, their role of actor/explorer and the designers’ technological prowess. The story, characters and their actions, although important, are often perceived as secondary. Conclusions: The ecology of consumption
Violence, sexuality and vulgar language remained the primary concerns of our young evaluators when they were asked to assess the appropriateness of images on new and traditional screens. When we adopt the point of view of young people and observe their everyday lives, we can see how media and media content can be sources of concern but also means of learning forms of behavior, values (both positive and negative because they are intimately related to basic values and social consensus), knowledge, skills and tools for constructing identity and cultural belonging. Young people use entertainment media content primarily for recreation, excitement in a simulated or controlled environment
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(video games) and to experiment with emotions such as fear in fictitious situations (movies). They also use it to have the feeling of belonging to a shared “youth” culture, to develop and strengthen social networks, to experience competition, to face challenges and to free themselves of authority and family values. Media and media content on all screens, both new and traditional, are thus active parts of their culture. They do not determine the historical, social and cultural development of individuals, but rather play an active and significant role in that development. It is precisely this “fact” that underlines the importance of quality control and appropriateness of multimedia content. This link between ecology of consumption and social responsibility is therefore more than simply a concern of the experts: it is posed and even endorsed by parents and the young people themselves. The movie and video game rating systems are evidently the outcome of complex institutional assessment processes. These processes are sometimes invisible to consumers. The ratings posted on cultural products seem to erase the details and process that they are supposed to summarize and show. Some think, for example, that sexual content is necessarily linked with the aged based 13+ rating, while others speculate that this rating is mainly linked with portrayals of violence and drug use. These conjectures about ratings also seem linked with the many different rating systems circulating and crisscrossing in consumer spaces. For example, a number of television channels show the official governmental institution rating plus the broadcaster’s warning at the beginning and throughout the program. Audiences in Canada can also find three different ratings on some videocassettes and DVDs, including the American rating, a provincial one and the Canadian Home Video Rating System. These different ratings can create confusion. Evaluators naturally question the existing classification of products. By identifying their own viewing practices and their referents to determine the appropriateness of a cultural product, the young evaluators also call into question the forms and codes traditionally used in classification. They demonstrate a form of
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competence that allows them to consider methodological problems of classification. This exercise was also a process of hybridization of classification practices between the personal experience of youth and the institutional need to protect them. Indeed, the young evaluators underlined the need for “translation” of classification standards of media products. A new set of references is required. Adults are caught in the crossfire regarding the classification of media products, when facing the culture of youth whose language, referents and attitudes are different from their own. The value attributed to media products must be compatible with the “cultural foundations” of youth. It is then evident that this rift obliges evaluators to make decisions that must be questioned and adapted to achieve the desired communication effect. Young evaluators thus conserve a critical approach to examining existing classifications systems. For them, this classification system must be put into perspective with other references arising from their own experience, grounded in a social system such as education, and with others arising from discursive practices with their life story. Rosalie, age 14, comments on ratings in general: Well you have to be careful, even if there is a rating it does not mean that because you are 18 and that it is rated 18 that you can play it. I think you really have to be careful you have to know what we can take. You have to try and if you do not like it you have to stop. You cannot force it, force yourself to watch a movie for example at least that’s what I think. You should not solely rely on the ratings and you must be careful because even if it is 18+ he might not like it because even if he is 18 something similar happened when he was young he is not going to like it. It is going to remind him of that and he is going to be very sad and something bad could even happen.
The young evaluators never thought to question as such the
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pertinence of the classification system of movies and games. On the contrary, each participant recognized the importance of this classification for youth protection, to ensure that cultural products are fair and well suited to the audiences for which they were intended. Rating systems also lead adults to wonder about the possible impact of movies and video games on themselves as parents and educators, on their children and their children’s needs, identities and membership in a specific culture, and on society’s basic values. Parents thus have to reassert their roles constantly, for they are confronted with the cultural world of their children and their children’s peers. They are constantly rebuilding foundations and proving their relevance in a world of media that is always changing owing to new forms of behavior, visions of the world, thoughts, fashion, etc. Our study shows that movie ratings are not necessarily taken at face value. The audience reserves the right to perform a different evaluation, which defines a line of thought and challenges the institutionalized classification. For parents and children, the evaluation can result in an authorized “transgression” of the rating and the societal values that it represents. The fact that ratings are not complied with automatically could raise questions about their real effectiveness. Yet the system’s strength lies precisely in the gap between the classification and the decision, between the evaluation of others and one’s own action. Indeed, this gap guarantees that adults do not abandon their responsibility for emancipating and educating children and ensuring respect for family values. Movie ratings operate less like a highway code that defines what is permitted and prohibited, and more like a tourist guide that draws users’ attention to some products while giving them the freedom to choose them or not. The movie classification system has made it possible to construct shared knowledge and a culture of prevention well anchored in the family, and many parents are very knowledgeable about and are competent evaluators of movies. This enables them to form an idea about a movie from only a few details or rapid images, simply
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by zapping, scanning movie reviews and consulting synopses. Parents’ experience makes it possible for them to make decisions and resolve disputes concerning the appropriateness of media products for their children. However, in the realm of video games, parents who are not video game players admit that they do not know much about video game classification systems. Game ratings do not escape the culture of prevention. Even if parents are not aware of all the subtleties, many say they need a control mechanism adapted to the new media and its cultural context. Overall, parents and young people interviewed expressed a need for a descriptive movie and video game classification system that would take a number of dimensions into account, such as the level of violence, degree of realism, technical difficulty and narrative complexity. If a descriptive system is established to summarize the content of cultural products, it should contain information that would allow people to make wiser choices and encounter fewer surprises. Terminology that expresses levels with respect to controversial subjects and themes could make it easier to grasp what makes one product more appropriate than another. Descriptive complementary comments are considered strong solutions, and were mentioned by all participants in the study. While young people have adopted new screens almost instantly, because screens are active components of their cultural and social environment, they nonetheless live between two cultural worlds that are often in conflict: that of their peers, which is more open and often oriented toward transgression, and that of their families, which is often more defensive and anchored in stricter family values. So what does this tell about young people’s appropriation of entertainment content on new screens? Although Marshall McLuhan (McLuhan, 1967) is renowned for saying “the medium is the message,” with no offense to Mr. McLuhan, we should probably be more aware of and concerned about the content than about the medium, whether it is accessed on an iPhone, a home computer or an e-book. We all still need guidelines. Young people still refer to them although they might not always follow them.
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This need, given the new accessibility of these contents, does not diminish the responsibilities of parents and the industries. Underestimating the need for a new approach would amount to denying the primary feature of changes in both society and individuals, namely a process of co-determination between media and culture. This entails that young people’s development and well-being, as well as their cognitive and social fulfillment, identity and vision of the world, are dependent not only on their age, but particularly on the wealth of the social interactions specific to their experience and the mediation of surrounding semiotic mechanisms. Language, images, information conveyed in technology, texts, and so on are not simple backdrops, but rather are artefacts that make a difference in the progressive development of children as competent members of the community. For institutions concerned with protecting young people, it would thus be wise to consider the pertinence of information and intervention strategies, in schools, for example, in order to take into account young people’s most pressing needs with respect to media appropriation. Developing critical thinking and awareness training for older children with respect to consumption of images by their younger peers or siblings would, as our research has shown, be a promising avenue to explore, especially if it were combined with the involvement of parent and industry associations aware of the stakes in helping young people appropriate entertainment content on new and traditional screens.
References Anderson, C. A. & Bushman, B. J. (2001). Effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, physiological arousal, and pro-social behavior: A Meta-analytic review of the scientific literature. Psychological Science, 12(5), 353-359. Arnett, J.J., Larson, R. & Offer, D. (1995). Beyond effets: adolescents as active media users, Journal of Youth and Adolescence. 24(5), 511-518. Brown, J.D., Halpen, C. & L’Engle, K. (2005). Mass media as sexual super peer for early maturing girls, Journal of Adolescent Health, 36(5), 420-427.
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Caron, A. H. & Caronia, L. (2007). Moving cultures: mobile communication in everyday life. Montréal: McGill-Queen’s University Press. Recommanded by the American Library Association. Drotner, K. (1992) Modernity and media panics. In Skovmand M. & Schrøder K. C. (Eds.), Media Cultures: Reappraising Transnational Media (pp. 4262). London: Routledge. Egenfeld-Nielson, S. & Smith J.H. (2004). Playing with fire: How do computer games influence the player? Göteborg: Nordicom, Göteborg University. Escobar-Chaves, L.S., Tortolero, S.R., Markham, C.M., Low, B.J., Eitel, P. & Thickstun, P. (2005). Impact of the media on adolescent sexual attitudes and behavior. Pediatrics, 116, 303-326. Gauntlett, D. (2001).The worrying influence of “media effects” studies. In M. Barker & J. Petley (Eds), III Effects: The Media/Violence Debate (2nd Ed.) (pp. 47-62). London & New York: Routledge. Greenfield, P.M. (1984). Mind and media: The Effects of Television. Computers and Video Games, London: Fontana. Harris Interactive for the Business Software Alliance (2007). Survey suggests parental rules matter in encouraging good Internet behavior. Retrieved April 30, 2009, from BSA website: http://www.bsa.org/country/News%20 and%20Events/News%20Archives/en/2007/en-05222007-harrisstudyyouthdownloading.aspx Ipsos MediaCT (2008). Longer form content (movie/tv show) streaming continues strong growth. Retrieved April 30, 2009, from Ispsos MediaCT’s website:http://www.ipsosmediact.com/knowledge/pressrelease. aspx?id=4215 Johnson, S. (2005). Everything bad is good for you: How today’s popular culture is actually making us smarter. New York: Riverhead Books. Katz, E., Blumler, J. G., & Gurevitch, M. (1974). Utilization of mass communication by the individual. In J. G. Blumler & E. Katz (Eds.), The uses of mass communications: Current perspectives of gratifications research (pp. 19-32). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. Lenhart, A. & Madden, M. (2007). Teens, privacy and online social network. Washington, DC: Pew Internet and American Life Project. Lenhart, A., Kahne, J., Middaugh, E., Macgill, A. R., Evans, C & Vitak, J. (2008). Teens, video games, and civics. Washington, DC: Pew Internet and American Life Project. McLuhan, M. (1967). The medium is the massage: An Inventory of effects. New
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York: Bantam Books. Nathanson, A.I. & Cantor, J. (2000). Reducing the aggression-promoting effect of violent cartoons by increasing children’s fictional involvment with the victim. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 44, 125-142. Pool, M., Van der Voort, T.H.A., Beentjes, J.W.J. & Koolstra, C.M. (2000). Background television as an inhibitor of performance on easy and difficult homework assignments, Communication Research, 27, 293-326. Rideout, V. (2007). Parents, children & media. Menlo Park, CA: Kaiser Family Fondation. Sherry, J. (2001). The effects of violent video games on aggression: A Metaanalysis, Human Communication Research, 27, 409-431. Sorensen Holmes, B. & Jessen, C. (2000). It isn’t real: Children, computer games, violence and reality. In C. van Feilitzen & U. Carlsson (Eds.), Children in the New Media Landscap, Göteborg (Sweden). UNESCO International Clearinghouse on Children and Violence on the Screen. Valkenburg, P. M., & Van der Voort, T. H. A. (1995). The influence of television on children’s daydreaming styles: A One-year panel study. Communication Research, 22, 267-287. Vandewater, E.A., Park, S.E., Huang, X. & Wartella, E, A. (2004). “No—you can’t watch that”: Parental rules and young children’s media use. American Behavioral Scientist, 48(5), 608-623. Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of Practice. Learning, Meaning and Identity. Cambridge University Press. Wartella, E., Caplovitz, A.G., & Lee, J. (2004). From baby Einstein to Leapfrog, from Doom to the Sims, from instant messaging to Internet chat rooms: Public interest in the role of interactive media in children’s lives. Social Policy Report, 18(4), 3-19. Wartella, E., & Reeves, B. (1983). Recurring issues in research on children and media. Educational Technology, 23, 5-9. Williams D. & Skoric, M. (2005). Internet Fantasy Violence: A Test of aggression in an online game. Communication Monographs, 72(2), 217-233. Zamaria, C. & Fletcher, F. (2008) Canada Online! The Internet, media and emerging technologies: Uses, attitudes, trends and international comparisons 2007. Toronto: Canadian Internet Project.
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14 Media practices, connected lives Carlos Tabernero, Jordi Sánchez-Navarro, Daniel Aranda and Imma Tubella
Introduction In the network society, more than ever, life revolves around communication. In industrialized societies, a minority of the population has been in control of information dissemination – the mass communication media. While this is still true today, the degree of concentration has been easing as communication technologies (ICTs) are clearly opening the door wider and wider to the participation of individuals. The architecture of traditional media, whereby the flow of information has been essentially, unidirectional, from one or a few to many, is giving way to multimodal, interactive and dynamic and locally and globally intertwined connections among people, whereby the information flow is from many to many.. This, in turn, allows information production and exchange to be swift, constant and efficient and enables an increasingly large number of people to broadcast anything (themselves included) anywhere anytime. In fact, ICTs are becoming a powerful tool for their users to experiment with and develop ever-renewing communication channels, sometimes so quickly that is seems but bewildering. As a result, the development of ICTs, particularly the Internet as well as the explosion of global mobile communication, has brought about a new turn regarding the rules under which mass communication has been run to date. For one thing, this emerging media context leads us to think about communication in relation to
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social practices where each individual not only receives, but also produces all sorts of content, or at least has the possibility of doing so. Indeed, we delve into the possibility of a new paradigm of media research which understand media, not as text or structures of production, but as practice. [… T]his paradigm aims to move beyond old debates about media effects and the relative importance of political economy and audience interpretation, at the same time as moving beyond a narrow concentration on audience practices, to study the whole range of practices which are oriented towards media and the role of media in ordering other practices in the social world (Couldry, 2004, p.115).
Within this framework, we consider communication practices and the media within them as key elements in the building of social and cultural features. We argue that predictably these technologies and their applications are becoming basic instruments of sociocultural change. Theoretical and research quandaries Upon the aforementioned initial premises, it seems nevertheless imperative to reflect upon the difficulties researchers and theoreticians face in order to assume the speed of changes taking place in the realm of communication. Undoubtedly, the approach appears to be, more than ever, interdisciplinary, collaborative and in the medium term. At the beginning of the 21st century, the long history of debates between different schools of thought within the fields of the social sciences, communication studies, media studies and cultural studies, provides us with the basic expertise to definitely overcome interpretations of the construction of human societies which establish their citizens’ utter submissiveness to a framework of all-powerful mass communication media. Insofar as these media are strongly rooted in the political, institutional and economic structure of these societies, their owners and
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managers are supposed to be able to guide people’s behaviours, needs and attitudes. Indeed, these deterministic readings, linked to the analysis of traditional media – the press, radio, movies and television – have been and sometimes still are common, more or less explicitly, in official (and) academic discourses. According to these perspectives, if people’s only possible intervention in the general processes of communication is the passive consumption of content, their way to perceive the world in which they live is unfailingly subjugated to the rule of those who control technology and media. However, there is no doubt that active participation of each and everyone within a given community through individualized and everyday use of media and technology is an essential feature in the process of social construction today. Media, insofar as tools for human interaction, are crucial for the shared generation and development of a wide array of interpretations and re-interpretations of the realities and representations upon which human communities are built and sustained. With this in mind, we may consider that [t]he interlinked possibility for Internet users to contribute as well as access and consume information and content defines a horizontal flow of communication […], in a way that the up-to-now considered as merely consumers also become producers, not requiring the mediation of any institutionalized media organization […] This inevitably leads to the ultimate refutation of the traditional assumption of a passive, nonparticipant, submissive and dependent audience (watchers, listeners, and readers in a traditionally vertical flow of information), yet faithful-to-the-mediator (that is, the producer, distributor, interpreter and/or knowledge administrator), on which devices and media at large (well-embedded in the political, institutional and economic structure) exert a wideranging array of effects, and fittingly to the consideration of media users as active participants in the whole of technologymediated communication processes (Tabernero et al., 2008, pp.274-275).
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Thus, with the swift development and ever-expanding use of ICTs, we have an opportunity, unimaginable till not so long ago, to explore in detail the particulars of these processes, above all in relation to the nature and extent of personalized and specialized contribution, both individually and collectively, on the part of each and every community and their respective members. Around ICTs, and their applications and technical traits concerning the possibility for ubiquitous, multimodal and interactive management of information and content, we may reformulate questions regarding the extent and features of the contribution to communication processes by the distinct actors involved. We may in fact probe into a less deterministic interpretation allowing individuals and the communities they belong to (i.e. the familiar, social, work, ideological, political, historical and/or cultural contexts where their lives unfold) the capability to appropriate available technology and media and contribute to communication processes at large according to their needs and interests, either personal or shared. Indeed, there is no question that the organization of broadcasting as arranged in traditional media, especially television, is strongly and reciprocally associated with the scheduling of people’s daily times (i.e. their lives). Yet, the increasingly personalized and specialized communication practices developed around ICTs may be embodying a far-reaching break with the role of mass media broadcasting as an everyday social structuring force (Tabernero et al., 2009a; Dickinson et al., 2001). ICT-linked interactivity places individuals’ participation in technology-mediated communication processes beyond the meagre possibility to switch on or off different pieces of equipment. Among other aspects, [individuals’ possibility to directly contribute to content management processes] also entails a increasing requirement by users of improved levels of interactivity, namely: from what we might denote as consumption interactivity, already available as regards traditional media, insofar as its defining trait is the steady increase in the choice of content through the multiplication
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of channels, platforms and devices; to its coexistence with an exchange interactivity, which allows a more active input regarding content management through the customized sharing of all kind of available content, in terms of interpersonal communication as well as within different kinds of social networks, such as those defined by P2P file sharing applications; and finally leading to the development of a production interactivity, which requires the contribution of users’ creativity in order to directly participate at the level of content generation (Tabernero et al., 2008, pp.285-286).
Thus, the rules under which mass communication has been run to date are most likely taking a new turn as ICTs, particularly the Internet, as well as the explosion of global mobile communication have brought about a whole new communication framework. These changes arise from the interactions between content, technology, media and users/audiences, which may work either jointly or in direct opposition. In this context, theoretical and research approaches cannot be confined to the exploration and analysis of the impact of ICTs on industrial development or on the evolution of traditional audio-visual and media sectors. Theoreticians and researchers must, more than ever before, address the specific contexts of the users. Yet, in these sense, there is indeed a need to endorse a definitive “shift from the exclusive focus on conventional quantitative divides regarding the Internet, based upon absolute access ratios according to socio-demographic variables, to the increasing consideration of use concerns, assuming the Internet’s gradually approaching across-the-board occurrence” (Tabernero et al., 2008, p.275). The main distinction, given a trend of steadfast technological innovation, would then be “between the less experienced though mounting newcomers, who are not yet able to use these devices and applications at their full extent, and the long-connected, experienced users, who are able to make the most of technology, and, as it would seem, have successfully integrated Internet usage in their everyday lives” (Tabernero et al., 2008, p.275).
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People’s everyday lives The multiple uses and functions people individually and collectively attribute to the Internet bring about significant modifications in the quantity and quality of people’s participation in communication processes. The overall increase of Internet uptake worldwide comes together with a conspicuous growth in the intensity of its use, which, in turn, logically results in an overall increase of user experience. There are numerous social, economic and technological factors contributing to these developments, yet they are primarily linked to the increase of home access. This is of particular importance among the young, for the spreading of home Internet access implies the adoption of the Internet at increasingly early ages. In this sense, the Internet “gradually becomes a constitutive element, and no longer a novelty, for the younger generations, as also arguably occurred with television for various generations of the second half of the 20th century” (Tabernero et al., 2008, p.274). Furthermore, the growth of broadband connections, as well as of mobility and ubiquity of access, and the expanding development and supply of new services and applications also bring about a significant broadening of communication practices. These may range “from the opening out of innovative ways for multifaceted interpersonal communication as well as for the search and consumption of content and information of all sorts, to a noteworthy expansion of individual multimodal and multipurpose content creation, production and distribution practices” (Tabernero et al., 2008, p.274). In this context, the Internet is not just as a competitor to traditional media broadcasting, as a source of information and entertainment, but a powerful tool. This tool is not only a means of access to ever-renewing channels and platforms (also provided, in some cases, by those same traditional media conglomerates). It is also available for multimodal contribution on a theoretically equal basis – notwithstanding sensible aim, economic, technical and expertise gaps – by all actors involved in technology-mediated communication processes at large, including administrations, businesses, media corporations and organizations, and individuals.
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Ultimately, it is ”[a]long these lines [that] the Internet, as an allround means of communication, and as it has been the case with many other widespread media, is swiftly becoming embedded in the general texture of experience (Dickinson et al., 2001), gradually yet seamlessly integrated in the natural processes through which human beings [individually and collectively] build and sustain their communities” (Tabernero et al., 2008, p.274). Accordingly, it is essential to understand current patterns of transformation in communication practices in relation to the increasing incorporation of the Internet in people’s everyday lives. To begin with, as mentioned above, there is every indication that the rise of Internet access in the household environment plays a fundamental role in the development of this new framework for mass communication. In this context, a dynamic relationship between distinct social, technological and human communication factors takes place (Lin, 2003). Notwithstanding system and social factors, which provide the necessary social, political and economic structure for the diffusion of communication technology, it seems necessary to focus on audience, technology and use factors. These primarily revolve around the interconnection between people’s perception, comprehension, evaluation and adoption of communication technology according to their individual needs, beliefs and attitudes, and in terms of the perceived balance between expectations and gratifications in the use of any particular technology (Fishbein, 1980; Lin, 2003; Tabernero et al., 2008). We certainly know that the gradual intensification of the use of the Internet is bringing about changes related to the mounting range of possibilities for individuals’ contribution in a broad spectrum of technology-supported communication processes, yet we [need to find out] how these transformations are taking place (Tabernero et al., 2008, p.277).
Hence, a research approach exploring Internet usage from the standpoint of its bearing on users’ daily lives is crucial in order to fully understand the nature of the impact of the rise of Internet access on our societies.
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Revolution at home With all of the above in mind, and by probing a group of mostly experienced and intensive Internet users in a setting of intermediate Internet diffusion (Catalonia), we have shown (Tabernero et al., 2008) that regarding the different activities carried out online, users attribute a significant weight to the Internet as a source of information concerning immediate personal interests and in order to remain in touch with what is happening around. On the other hand, the high degree of aimless netsurfing (i.e. the unspecified, open-ended consumption of any kind of content online) and the remarkable use of the Internet as a tool for traditional media consumption also suggest a considerable importance given to the Internet as a source of entertainment. Furthermore, a trend towards efficient use of technical means offered by the Internet as a higher degree of individual contribution to the distribution and management of content has become apparent. It is also noteworthy the high level of activities based upon the direct and immediate contact with other people and groups who share the same type of interests or needs. Conversely, activities which imply a stronger will to actively contribute to communication processes, also requiring the development of a minimum of technical and content-generation skills, though not as common, are unmistakably significant. And finally, the increasingly intensive use of the Internet to carry out a wide range of daily tasks online, considered as a necessary control for the assessment of communication practices, confirms the growing importance of the Internet as a crucial tool for the execution of everyday responsibilities and practical chores. Taking all this into account, regression analyses considering the socio-demographic traits of the group, the participants’ Internet experience traits, and the participants’ answers on the activities carried out online, revealed an apparent correlation between intensity of Internet use, higher degrees of experience, and a more diversified and specialized contribution to communication processes. In this context, we were able to unmistakably identify the young (30-or-less participants) as more frequent and intense
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Internet users than their older counterparts. Moreover, according to our results, the young are leading in advanced use of Internet web 2.0 applications, which allow more active participation in content management. In view of the data, we argue that the introduction of ICTs and their related uses in the household environment implies a clash between the communication habits of the different family members, as a function of age (i.e. generation gap) and linked to individual and collective everyday scheduling and availability of time, as well as to the compatibility of the distinct activities (including both chores and leisure-related) that come into play within this setting. We may indeed situate in this context the complex relationship between the consumption of television and the use of computer/Internet, which we have designated as The War of the Screens (Tubella et al., 2008a). In this sense, together with, yet beyond interpretations bound to the displacement and enhancement hypotheses that are typically been used to address this complex scenario concerning people’s adoption of media and technology (Nie et al., 2002; Lee et al., 2006), we contend as well that: ►► the higher level of use of the Internet on the part of the young as a source of entertainment implies not necessarily a substitution, but a certain degree of modification of their elders’ previously established information and content consumption habits […]; ►► the young’s higher level of aimless netsurfing […] suggests that the Internet itself has become an ordinary, obligationfree source of entertainment, [and, in turn,] the epitome of a natural, constitutive way of introduction of this technology in everyday life […]; ►► [as opposed to] older-than-30 [users, who] have started their use of the Internet, and even brought it home, primarily in relation with their obligations and responsibilities, such as work-linked […]; ►► the young are also the forefront as regards the use of
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Internet applications allowing immediate contact with other users, as well as an active participation in the distribution and sharing of content, as in instant messaging, the sending of images, and the downloading of all kinds of content and applications, such as music, films, videogames and software, which entails, among other aspects, the use of P2P file sharing tools[…]; ►► [as opposed to users] living with their partners and children (i.e. mostly heads of households, parents) are the less active cluster among the participants concerning this kind of activities, while they lead the use of Internet as a substitute for the phone, once again linked to more strictly practical, daily communication habits […]; [and that] ►► the advanced use of the Internet for specific participation and content generation purposes comes out primarily as a function of age [where the young are also the forefront] (Tabernero et al., 2008, p.287). All in all, it appears that the young incorporate the Internet into their everyday lives in a seemingly constitutive and natural way, turning it, upon its technical traits and possibilities, into a “veritable media gateway, that is, both a window for them to the world and a window for the world to self-broadcasting, and always in accordance to their concerns and wants” (Tabernero et al., 2008, p.288). Consequently, given the prominence of technologymediated communication practices (i.e. including all kinds of media usage) in the socio-cultural evolution of modern societies, together with the increasing spread of ICTs worldwide and their relation with individual and collective interests and needs, we must, out of necessity, consider the significant input from the young to the development of innovative ways of content management. Young users’ patterns of media and technology appropriation of, always and naturally linked to “essential features of their daily endeavours, such as the development of social skills, identity traits and learning processes, and with regard to the self, the family and the different communities where their lives unfold” (Tabernero et
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al., 2008, p.288, discussing Bryant et al., 2006; Heim et al., 2007; Livingstone, 2003; McMillan & Morrison, 2006; Valkenburg et al., 2005; and Lee, 2005), are crucial for community development, on the one hand, for the information, communication and knowledge management processes they growingly contribute to through their use of ICTs, and of the Internet in particular, are fundamental for the construction and consolidation of the communities we live in; on the other, since their strong emergence as a widely diversified and efficient developing and modifying force of technology-mediated communication processes is nearly subversive, well understood: while they are citizens in their own right, they are usually left out of the social, economic and cultural management of our societies, as under aged, dependant, and somehow unproductive; and finally, because they develop their early communication practices in the home environment, where they may successfully question their elders’, and thus, society’s longestablished communication and cultural practices (Tabernero et al., 2008, pp.288-289).
Time management, the home and the young However, active participation takes time. In this sense, given that “[r]egardless of status and stature, everyone has only 24 hours in a day [, and so,] since time is a finite resource, many modernday innovations and services […] are aimed at helping people save time” (Lee et al., 2006, p.300), we need to take into account (Tabernero et al., 2009a) that: a. indeed, the incorporation of Internet usage in daily life takes place in a context where the value of time has an immense strategic importance, insofar as not widely available on account of necessary life activities (Nie et al., 2002); b. one main user expectation with adopted technology concerns
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improving the efficiency of communication, such as, among other aspects, in terms of saving time; c. another essential trait linked to the Internet-enhanced levels of personalization and specialization in communication practices lies on the generation and safeguarding of “free time”, theoretically “free” from obligatory demands (Mattingly & Sayer, 2006, p.206), e.g., for most people, in weekdays, the standard evening hours that lie between the two daily highest time-consuming activities, work and sleep, and correspond with the highest peak of television viewing at home, or prime time, which links the need for entertainment and media content consumption (Maslow, 1970; Blumler, 1979; as discussed in Lin, 2003). d. people’s incorporation of the Internet into their daily lives occurs in contexts already rich in communication technology and media, e.g., screens; e. Internet adoption, particularly in the household, takes place in a setting where the television screen has been paramount and largely unchallenged for decades; and that f. the usage of these technologies and media is reciprocally interconnected with an extensive and well-established array of habits, including, as abovementioned, the organization of broadcasting, e.g., around prime time (Bausinger, 1984; as discussed in Dickinson et al., 2001), within a typically highly-structured, activity-packed daily schedule. In this context, we may argue that the instruments, devices and technological applications we develop and eventually bring into play often carry a significant weight in our approaches to manage and arrange our daily times and spaces. In this sense, telecommunication technologies, in particular the Internet, may be considered as time-management tools, because speed, ubiquity, flexibility and simultaneity are some of the main traits usually and intuitively linked to their use. The ever-increasing use of the Internet and the associated relentless innovation regarding its multifaceted application to all sorts of communication processes
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may bear a momentous impact on time-related issues (Lee et al., 2006; Thompson, 1995; Castells, 1996). We have already mentioned the displacement and enhancement hypotheses that have typically been used to address people’s media and technology adoption patterns in a scenario like the one described above (Nie et al., 2002; Lee et al., 2006). Yet, polychronicity, or people’s preference for the carrying out different tasks as opposed to linear activities, which has been positively correlated with Internet use and skills and negatively associated with television viewing (Lee et al., 2006), may be alternatively probed, in terms of multitasking in communication practices, as a logical and expected outcome and solution within the empirical question of how the Internet is introduced in a media/device-rich, activity-packed milieu (Tabernero et al., 2009a). Moreover, in this sense, we must keep in mind, that the household, our main focal point thus far, is increasingly becoming a multi-screen environment, where displacement, engagement or multitasking in communication practices at large, may be referred to the capability to perform different activities at the same time using just one screen (e.g., the computer for multimodal, multi-faceted Internet use), or simultaneously in separate screens (e.g., multi-purpose Internet use in the computer, television viewing using the regular TV set, communicating or organizing one’s own agenda by means of the cell phone, etc.) In this context, as argued earlier, people’s adoption of technical innovations depends on the perceived balance between expectations and gratifications in the use of a particular technology. This in turn hinges on people’s needs, beliefs and attitudes within a wide array of well-established and highly-structured habits, as well related to people’s perception and interaction within and about media and their application for various tasks (Walther et al., 2005).
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Chapter 14 Interestingly, [in connection with] the above-mentioned displacement […] and [enhancement] hypotheses […], results have shown, in some cases, that an increase in the use of the Internet may reduce television viewing, but stimulate newspaper reading or radio listening (Lee & Kuo, 2002). Findings like this may point to a certain degree of incompatibility in the concurrent use of the Internet and television, suggesting that the principles around which this body of hypotheses revolves, which are highly focused on the time-spatial and functional traits of activities, need to be further characterized in order to address the complexity of Internet incorporation in beforehand all-inclusive (i.e. text-, sound-, and image-based) media-rich scenarios. And thus, […] we may as well pay special attention to the different media technical similarities and disparities (such as the need of a screen for their usage and consumption) as crucial features in their interaction and evolution within a given context (Lehman-Wilzig and Cohen-Avigdor, 2004; Lin, 2003). (Tabernero et al., 2009a, pp.3-4).
Indeed, by weighing Internet-related multitasking skills and other media usage carried out parallel to with daily high time-consuming activities (traditional television viewing, essential from the media and the home environment perspectives, and work and/or study, as control), we shown, initially, that users draw on the growing need to utilize the Internet for the completion of daily obligations to experiment with its functional versatility. Interestingly, on the other hand, we observed a similar pattern with traditional television watching, which seems to have paved the way for the introduction to and experimentation with the flexibility provided by the technical traits of the Internet. These results show how the way that Internet use has been introduced, either at work or at home, shapes the patterns of experimentation and familiarization with its flexible application to each individual’s everyday life, starting with the times at first specifically allotted for its use within a highly-structured and activity-packed daily schedule (Tubella et
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al., 2008a; Tabernero et al., 2009a; 2009b). However, bearing in mind that communication multitasking practices come across as commonplace both while at work and while at traditional television viewing, some drawbacks are observed in relation to the simultaneous use of different devices. The lower level of simultaneous use of the Internet while at traditional television viewing, together with the fact that image-based content consumption does not seem compatible either with working or studying, or with the consumption of any kind of content through any other medium, underscores a certain degree of technical/use (in) compatibilities, involving mainly the management of imagebased content, particularly by means of simultaneous utilization of separate screens (Tubella et al., 2008a; Tabernero et al., 2009a; 2009b). Taken together, all these results illustrate that multitasking, beyond its consideration as a natural feature in Internetlinked personalization of communication practices, emerges as a measure of the balance between two interrelated aspects concerning technology-mediated communication processes. First, Internet user/experience attributes develop in relation to the way of the introduction to its use. In this sense, people’s incorporation of the Internet and its functional versatility to their everyday lives is primarily linked to the carrying out of responsibilities and the correlated scheduling of “free time” and media use, as it happens above all with older-than-30 users and their less-than-18 children. And second, technical/ use (in)compatibilities. These mainly involve the simultaneous utilization of separate screens and provide additional insights into the contradictions brought forward by the displacement and engagement hypotheses, concerning in particular the consumption of image-based content.
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All in all, these multitasking traits […] offer a detailed perspective on the complexity of individuals’ processes of adoption of technology [and their] relation to Internet and media practices. Indeed, considering the role of Internet use in the gradual modification of personal daily times and activities, it seems essential to delve into Internet- and media-associated issues pertaining to individual time management. By showing distinct media and communication multitasking patterns, the most experienced and intensive Internet users […] (those between 18 and 30 years old) point at their gradual attainment of a more interconnected, specialized and flexible use of both traditional media and the Internet. To delve into these users’ technology-mediated communication practices, particularly at home, […] undoubtedly help[s us] to further understand key issues related to the ever-increasing incorporation of the Internet in people’s everyday lives, such as, for instance, how and why “television would be the Internet greatest casualty” (Lee et al., 2006, p.304). (Tabernero et al., 2009a, p.17).
Indeed, to set these data accurately in context, and considering the role of Internet use in the gradual modification of personal daily times and activities, it is essential to look into users’ management of their daily communication and media practices. In this sense, it is fundamental to point out that television watching is no doubt the media practice that suffers most from the incorporation of habitual Internet operation in people’s daily lives. In this context, interestingly, we found that, although predominantly doing their traditional television viewing at prime time, Internet users show a significant degree of migration of this practice to an anytime schedule, linked above all to the most experienced, active and intensive Internet users within the group, and again to the young. In addition, most other media practices, especially non-image-based such as Internet use, fall primarily within the anytime schedule. Conversely, whenever Internet use is not described as a ubiquitous
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and flexible activity, it is significantly situated at work hours and/or at prime time in the household within the daily schedule, especially, in this case, by the not-so-young and least experienced, frequent and intensive clusters of Internet users among the participants (Tubella et al., 2007; 2008; Tabernero et al., 2009b; 2009c). Thus, our research shows that flexibility with Internet and media practices, as a solution to daily time constraints and to technology and media technical/use incompatibilities, comes once again as a function of experience, intensity of use and age. Indeed, we may add that, despite a certain degree of parent-driven structuring of children’s daily schedules, as children grow and become more autonomous, these factors naturally and gradually challenge their parents’ traditional and long-established media practices (Tubella et al., 2007; 2008; Tabernero et al., 2009b; 2009c). We have so far identified the household as one of the main stages where traditional and novel communication practices coexist and evolve. In a context where daily schedules are highly structured and television viewing consumes a bulk of leisure time, the multiplication of devices and (particularly screens) and the increasing and related demand for active participation in technologylinked communication processes pose a challenge to traditional everyday schedules and habits. Furthermore, as we have seen regarding the importance of age, the simultaneous appropriation of distinct technological and media devices by the youngest members of families, together with their swift adoption, active exploration and efficient use of the technical traits and applications of ICTs, effectively question their elders’ traditional media-related communication practices. The young’s preferred option is flexible, interactive, personalized and specialized management of all sorts of activities, particularly regarding media and communication practices, over the role of traditional mass media “as a structuring force in the routines and patterns of everyday life” (Dickinson et al., 2001, pp.241-242). In this sense, the young are the real driving force for transformation in this respect, albeit according to the logical negotiation with their parents in relation to the organization and overall management of their lives (Tubella et al., 2007; 2008;
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Tabernero et al., 2009b; 2009c). Participatory, collaborative cultures As we have been arguing along this chapter, it is essential to consider users’ patterns of appropriation of media and technology, as we have described so far, in relation to basic features of their daily endeavours. Directly related to media and communication processes, we may primarily focus on the development and unfolding of social, professional and learning skills, individual and collective identity traits, and play and leisure practices. In these sense, we have verified the importance of the Internet in daily home practices, insofar as the coupling computer/Internet is by far the first device/media they switch on when arriving home, if it is not always on. Upon double-checking that Internet-linked or Internet-compatible (i.e. not requiring the simultaneous use of another screen) media multitasking is predominant, we are able to determine that Internet users attribute to the Internet information, entertainment and practical functions traditionally divided up among different media, which they link, as shown before, with an anytime way of operation (Tabernero et al., 2009b). Given this multimodal and multipurpose use of the Internet, it also seems necessary to probe the level of trust that users place in different media, not only with regard to content consumption, but in relation to their participative practices. Interestingly, in our research context, where Internet users show moderate but significant levels of production and distribution of content, both interest-driven and friendship-driven (Ito et al., 2008) use (including participation in forums, wikis and professional or media-related blogs, the use of self-presentation services such as holding personal web pages or blogs, being members of virtual communities, participation in other people’s blogs, or holding personal profiles in online social networks), the Internet at large, and the more personal sites in particular, boast the lowest level of trust compared with institutionalized sources of information such as traditional media, cultural activities in general, or administration and education websites, notwithstanding face-to-face relations. Such results
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point at a set of socially-established perceptions that restrict but do not prevent users’ experimentation with and adoption of active participation practices in Internet-linked communication processes (Tabernero et al., 2009b). Nevertheless, these practices are relevant in relation to the emergence of participatory and collaborative cultures, regarding the multi-layered production, sharing, consumption and use of all sorts of content, information and knowledge. In the process, people incessantly rebuild their relationship with these technologies and media, naturally according to their own personal and communal interests (Tubella et al., 2008b; Tabernero et al., 2009b; SánchezNavarro et al, 2009). Indeed, mass media organizations will increasingly have to operate in a collaborative culture context. In this context, on the one hand, some traditional media producers may adopt a collaborative approach, encouraging audiences’ participation whilst taking advantage of consumer-generated content. On the other hand, other media organizations may take on an opposing stance due to apprehension of loss of control over content production and distribution channels. These established entities will attempt to somehow shield what they consider their intellectual properties. Yet, in all likelihood, most mass media corporations and conglomerates will try to find a stable position between both ends in their attempt to form a brand new relationship with their audiences so as to maintain their loyalty while setting limits to the space audience participation. Web 2.0 uses will inexorably drive media production companies to gradually incorporate their already waning audience participatory impulse. Online Web 2.0 services, at the other extreme, depend entirely on user-generated content (Tubella et al., 2008b). But this dynamics bears a cultural, collective, participatory and collaborative trait, linked to an increasing demand for interactivity, rather than a mere technological-economic and market-driven predicament. Indeed, in this context, online networking activities, which may epitomize these developments, are relentlessly growing prominent in the Internet. Taken as a whole, online social networks support self-presentation as well as contact establishment. They
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uphold interest- or friendship-driven activities and include immediate communication channels, while allowing the uploading, sharing and consumption of any kind of content, whether selfproduced or retrieved from other sources. All these features comprise the skills needed and developed around ICT usage, upon which the traits of an emergent participatory culture crystallize – multi-layered affiliations, wide-ranging expressions, collaborative problem-solving and multi-modal circulations (Jenkins et al., 2008). In turn, all these skills seem to bear most of the Internet features identified as valuable by Internet users, who, unsurprisingly, as we found, actively engage in online social network activities, in effect showing a trend from initial weekly or sporadic use towards daily or permanent use. When asked about specific goals of their using these tools and services, the most widely cited important functions include establishing and keep contact with other people, self-presentation and self-promotion.. However, interestingly, Internet users probed by our research give an overall priority to entertainment purposes, or “to pass the time”, lending to these tools and services an undeniable scent of renewed media uses and practices. Indeed, in addition, contribution of content - either audiovisual or text-based - is also mentioned as an essential feature of online social networks. And furthermore, users also point to online networking activities not only as complementary to face-toface relations, as far as social, practical and identity purposes are concerned, but also noticeably to traditional media, in connection with information and entertainment aims. These, together with the increasing intensity of their use, which evidently contributes to the users’ relentless redefinition of their functions and applications, pinpoint online social networks as an emerging transformation factor, with a noteworthy bearing on communication processes at large, and thus, on current patterns of socio-cultural change (Tabernero et al., 2009b; Sánchez-Navarro et al., 2009). Media practices, connected lives: Ongoing research
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As we have argued so far, the lives of children and teenagers today unfold in an increasingly media- and technology-rich environment, where ICTs are paramount. Tools, devices and services such as computers, videogames, digital cameras, cell phones and the Internet are integral to their everyday endeavours. For them, communication means, most importantly among other aspects, SMS, instant messaging, sharing through P2P services, creating and contributing to online social networks, blogging or micro blogging, searching information with the help of Google or Wikipedia, etc. In fact, an increasing number of them have created and are actively maintaining one or several online self-presentation, contribution and communication spaces of some sort (Aranda et al., 2009). There is no question that this kind of activities, necessarily linked to their patterns of appropriation of all these tools, devices and services, has a significant bearing on their attainment and development of social and learning skills, that is, on the way they communicate, collaborate, work, study and solve problems. And indeed, we may argue that, as a result, the young are actually developing a multi-layered participatory culture – is a culture with relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations, and some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is passed along to novices. A participatory culture is also one in which members believe their contributions matter, and feel some degree of social connection with one another (at the least they care what other people think about what they have created) (Jenkins et al., 2008, p.3).
In fact, the young acquire online network capital (i.e. knowledge) from and through contribution to the community, by sharing their experiences as well as their varying frames of mind, while obtaining more knowledge and support, sociability and recognition spaces (Rheingold, 2002). Moreover, as far as the young are concerned, online networks can be seen as friendship-driven or interest-
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driven, non-formal and affinity-based participatory/collaborative learning spaces, where popular cultures are truly addressed in depth by their contributors, as they are sustained by communal, all-inclusive efforts, regardless of socio-demographic distinctions (Ito et al., 2008; Gee, 2004). In all, online networking and, by extension, ICT usage at large, particularly as shaped by young users, may be understood as both a multi-modal form of cultural consumption and a specific, everrenewing set of media practices. This definition further verifies the strong link between shared media consumption habits and the creation and development social interaction network (Couldry and Markham, 2006). Hence, as participative, social and cooperative media-related activities playing a fundamental role in present-day community building, identity formation, status negotiation and peerto-peer sociality, ICT usage, particularly the use of the Internet and mobile communication (mainly cell phones but also videogames since playing is, as Aranda and Sánchez-Navarro [2008] put it, a social activity based on cooperation with others and forms part of a network made up of people, tools and technologies) must be considered as potential educational tools, mostly and precisely in relation to the young. In this sense, we are in fact developing a new research project with the aim of building up methodologies and dynamics that would eventually allow the integration of the digital screens and devices young people are currently using within settings and processes of non-formal, leisure-based education (Aranda and Sánchez-Navarro, 2008, p.388).
References Aranda, D., Sánchez-Navarro, J. (2008). Understanding the use of videogames in non-formal education in Barcelona. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology – ACE 2008. New York, ACM.
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Aranda, D., Sánchez-Navarro, J., Tabernero, C., Tubella, I. (2009). Los alumnos del siglo XXI y la alfabetización digital [21st century students and digital literacy]. 6th Congress of Education Inspectors in Galicia. Lugo (Spain), 2009. Bausinger, H. (1984). Media, Technology and Daily Life. Media, Culture and Society, 6 (4). 343-352. Blumler, J.G. (1979). The Role of Theory in Uses and Gratifications Studies. Communication Research, 6: 9-36. Bryant, J.A., Sanders-Jackson, A., Smallwood, A.M.K. (2006). IMing, Text Messaging, and Adolescent Social Networks. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11, 577-592. Castells, M. (1996). The Information Age. Economy, Society and Culture. Vol. I: The Rise of the Network Society. Oxford; Malden, MA: Blackwell. Couldry, N. (2004). Theorising Media as Practice. Social Semiotics 14(2). 115132. Couldry, N., Markham, T. (2006). Public Connection through Media Consumption: Between Oversocialization and De-Socialization? The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 608: 251-269. Dickinson, R., Murcott, A., Eldridge, J., Leader, S. (2001). Breakfast, Time, and “Breakfast Time”: Television, Food, and the Organization of Consumption. Television & New Media, 2(3), 235-256. Fishbein, M. (1980). A Theory of Reasoned Action: some Applications and Implications. In Howe, H., & Page, M. (Eds.). Nebraska Symposium on Motivation 27, 65-116. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Gee, J.P. (2004). Situated Language and Learning: A Critique of Tradicional Schooling. New York: Routledge. Heim, J., Brandtzaeg, P.B., Kaare, B.H., Endestad, T., Torgersen, L. (2007). Children’s usage of media technologies and psychosocial factors. New Media & Society, 9 (3), 425-454. Ito, M., Horst, H., Bittanti, M., boyd, d., Herr-Stepehnson, B., Lange, P.G., Pascoe, C.J., Robinson, L. (2008). Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project. Chicago: The MacArthur Foundation.
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for the 21st Century. Chicago: The MacArthur Foundation. . Lee, L. (2005). Young people and the Internet: from theory to practice. Young 13 (4). 315-326. Lee, W., Kuo, E.C.Y.. (2002). Internet and Displacement Effect: Children’s Media Use and Activities in Singapore. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 7 (2). . Lee, W., Tan, T.M.K., Hameed, S.S. (2006). Polychronicity, the Internet, and the Mass Media: a Singapore Study. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11, 300-316. Lehman-Wilzig, S., Cohen-Avigdor, N. (2004). The Natural Life Cycle of media Evolution: Internet-media Struggle for Survival in the Internet Age. New media & Society, 6 (6). 707-730. Lin, C.A. (2003). An Interactive Communication Technology Adoption Model. Communication Theory, 13 (4), 345-365. Livingstone, S. (2003). Children’s use of the Internet: reflections on the emerging research agenda. New Media & Society, 5 (2), 147-166. Maslow, A.H. (1970). Motivation and Personality. New York: Harper & Row. Mattingly, M.J., Sayer, L.C. (2006). Under Pressure: Gender Differences in the Relationship between Free Time and Feeling Rushed. Journal of Marriage and Family, 68: 205-221. McMillan, S.J., Morrison, M. (2006). Coming of age with the Internet: a qualitative exploration of how the Internet has become an integral part of young people’s lives. New Media & Society, 8 (1), 73-95. Morley, D., Silverstone, R. (1990). Domestic Communication – Technologies and Meanings. Media, Culture and Society, 12 (1). 31-56. Nie, N.H., Hillygus, D.S., Erbring, L. (2002). Internet Use, Interpersonal Relations, and Sociability: A Time Diary Study. In Wellman, B., Haythornthwaite, C. (Eds.) The Internet in Everyday Life (pp. 215-243). Malden: Blackwell Publishers. Rheingold, H. (2002). Smart Mobs. The Next Social Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing. Sánchez-Navarro, J., Aranda, D., Tabernero, C., Tubella, I. (2009). Use and perception of online social networks. 5th International Congress Communication and Reality: Metamorphosis of the Media Space. Barcelona (Spain), 2009.
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Tabernero, C., Sánchez-Navarro, J., Tubella, I. (2008). The young and the Internet: Revolution at home. When the household becomes the foundation of socio-cultural change. Observatorio (OBS*) Journal 6: 273-291 . Tabernero, C., Sánchez-Navarro, J., Aranda, D., Tubella, I. (2009a). Screen Wars: Multitasking traits for Internet and television usage. International Journal of Communication (under review; draft pages: 1-18). Tabernero, C., Sánchez-Navarro, J., Aranda, D., Tubella, I. (2009b). Online networking as a growing multimodal and multipurpose media practice: a key factor for socio-cultural change. Webscience Conference 2009: Society On-Line. Athens (Greece), 2009 Tabernero, C., Sánchez-Navarro, J., Aranda, D., Tubella, I. (2009c). Evolving communication practices in increasingly multi-screen environments. 5th International Congress Communication and Reality: Metamorphosis of the Media Space. Barcelona (Spain), 2009. Thompson, J. B. (1995). The Media and Modernity: A Social Theory of the Media. Cambridge: Polito Press/Blackwell Tubella, I., Tabernero, C., Dwyer, V. (2007). Communication as a Change Factor in the Information Society: Internet in Catalonia’s Audiovisual Context. Barcelona: UOC. . Tubella, I., Tabernero, C., Dwyer, V. (2008a). Internet y Televisión: La Guerra de las Pantallas [Internet and Television: the War of the Screens]. Barcelona: Ariel. Tubella, I., Sánchez-Navarro, J., Tabernero, C. (2008b). Tàctiques i estratègies en els nous camps de batalla de la comunicació. Transformacions en l’ús, consum i producció de la informació a la societat xarxa [Tactics and strategies in the new battlefields of communication. Transformations in the use, consumption and production of information in the network society]. Tripodos 23: 119-133. Valkenburg, P.M., Schouten, A.P., Peter, J. (2005). Adolescents’ identity experiments on the Internet. New Media & Society, 7 (3), 383-402. Walther, J.B., Gay, G., Hancock, J.T. (2005). How Do Communication and Technology Researchers Study the Internet? Journal of Communication, 55 (3). 632-657.
IV The Politics of Internet: political expectations and elections
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15 Internet Usage, the Media, and Political Expectations: Results from WIP Chile 20032008 Sergio Godoy-Etcheverry
Introduction This article describes the impact of the Internet on media consumption and expectations, as well as on perceptions of political empowerment in Chile between 2003 and 2008, according to the local chapter of the World Internet Project, WIP1. We address questions such as how the Internet affects the usage of radio, TV, and newspapers; the factors that explain substitution and usage of these media and their credibility; and the influence of the web on fostering a more politically active citizenry. This will be done by analysing a selection of data drawn from the WIP Chile surveys from 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2008, and will be compared to selected WIP countries with frequent distinctions between web users and non-users. Additional findings from the complementary Business and Information Technology Project (BIT) concerning the state of the information economy in Chile will also be discussed as background. WIP/BIT Chile Project, funded by the National Fundo f Science and Technology (Fondecyt project Nº1050769), and executed by the schools of Communication, Sociology, and Engineering at Universidad Catolica de Chile, in partnership with the Santiago Chamber of Commerce. The WIP Chile team is integrated by Dr Soledad Herrera (Sociology), Dr Marcos Sepulveda (Engineering), George Lever (CCS), and Aldo Myrick (CCS). Co-ordinator: Dr Sergio Godoy (Communications).
1
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The ultimate purpose of this analysis is to attempt to cross check, in a tentative way, the view of authors who propose a new world order (named Information Society, Information Economy, and the like) caused by digital information technologies (IT) in general, in which the Internet plays a crucial role (Apte & Nath, 2004; Castells, 2000; Porat & Rubin 1977; UNICOM, 2000). For this purpose we focus on two specific sections from the WIP questionnaire: influence on media and political perceptions. Although WIP covers a much broader range of subjects, we focused on these two due to their relevance: three quarters of Chileans get their perceptions about reality from terrestrial TV newscasts. Together with radio, television is one of the two media forms with universal penetration (additionally, radio has the highest prestige and credibility in the country according to several public opinion polls). Besides, newspapers are highly influential in defining the news agenda of all the other media (Godoy, 2003; McCombs & Pla, 2003; McCombs & Reynolds, 2002). If the web affects the way people use these media, it may affect also political perceptions of political empowerment since users can circumvent these gatekeepers of information in order to mobilize collectively, speak louder to governments and the like. The chapter will start by explaining the main methodological aspects of the WIP Chile survey. Then it will situate the country within an international comparative framework of socioeconomic development, which is supposedly advancing towards an Information Economy. Next, it will describe the main characteristics of web usage in Chile according to WIP Chile data since 2003. This is to be followed by a discussion of major findings concerning media usage, as well as expectations of their information and entertainment value and credibility. The final section presents the results in the area of political perceptions. Methodology of the WIP Chile surveys The WIP Chile survey, which shares a common questionnaire with 26 other countries worldwide, is done locally on a face-to-face
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basis. Most other countries rely on computer assisted telephone interviews. Given the broad scope of WIP, the highest value of the data lies on the wide variety of subjects covered, their longitudinal evolution, and their international comparability. The questionnaire was upgraded by partners’ agreement in 2006/07, so some of the questions are not comparable before that date. Table 15.1 Details of the WIP Chile samples 2003-2008.
Table 15.1 depicts the main characteristics of the surveys executed in Chile since the beginning of the project. It is a multistage, random sample. It has been done in four different years: Fieldwork Total interviews Age Reach*
2003
2004
2006
2008
Oct-Nov 1200 12-60 years Santiago and regions Yes
July-August 1003 12-60 years Santiago and regions Yes
June-August 1017 12-60 years Santiago
Sept-Nov 640 12-60 years Santiago
Oversampling Yes No of users** *Geographic reach considers the capital Santiago (40% of national population) and the main cities of regions V (Viña del Mar/Valparaiso) and VIII (Concepcion/Talcahuano) in 2003-04. As regional results were too similar to those from the capital **Extra funding in 2003, 2004, and 2006 allowed oversampling of high income households, where users where more likely to be found. Data were afterwards weighed according to population distribution, based on government census and web access surveys.
2003 and 2004 (as a panel) and again in 2006 and 2008 (almost another separate panel, since less than 250 respondents from the first panel continued in the second row). Panel data have been analysed elsewhere, such as a follow-up of both web users and non-users between 2003 and 2004 and their respective probability to fall into the opposite category from one year to the next (Herrera, 2005, 2006). Panel data were also processed in a deeper analysis of broadband usage patterns (Godoy & Herrera, 2008). In 2003 and 2004, the survey was applied in Santiago, the capital city where 40% of the nation’s population lives, as well as in the next two largest urban areas – Valparaiso and Concepcion.
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The sample was restricted to Santiago since 2006 because little difference was found between the capital and the other two regions. Budgetary restraints implied a reduction of the sample size from nearly 1,000 cases per survey to 650 in 2008. Chile’s socioeconomic background within the Information Economy Table 15.2 compares Chile to other WIP countries according to UNDP’s Human Development Index and other welfare-related indicators, such as gender empowerment, life expectancy, GDP per capita, and literacy percentage of web users drawn from WIP data and the World Economic Forum’s Network Readiness scores are also depicted. All these figures show a relatively advanced position of Chile and Argentina in the region, comparable to some Eastern European and Mediterranean nations. This is consistent to its overall characteristics as a middle-income, small Latin American country of 15 million inhabitants in contrast to the 40 million Argentineans, 196 million Brazilians, 45 million Colombians, and 109 million Mexicans. The indicators depicted in Table 15.2 are related as well to the increasing importance of information both in society and in the economy. This fact underlies concepts such as the Information Society or the Information Economy. Within the business and economics side of the WIP/BIT project in Chile, we measured the size and structure of the information economy and its recent growth in comparison to South Korea and the US (Aviles, Godoy & Sepulveda, 2008; Aviles & Sepulveda, 2008). This work was based on Apte & Nath’s updated version of Porat & Rubin’s classic study of the US information economy in the 1960s (Apte & Nath, 2000; Porat & Rubin, 1977). Porat and Rubin divided the economy into two different but inseparable domains. The first one was conceived as the transformation of matter and energy from one pattern into another, while the second was the transformation of information from one pattern into another. This second dominion corresponds to the information economy, which was based on the concepts of
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“information” and “information activity.” These authors defined information as “data that have been organized and communicated,” whereas “information activity” was “all the workers, machineries, goods and services that are used in processing, manipulating and transmitting information” (Porat & Rubin, 1977). Table 15.2 Selected WIP countries ranked according to UNDP’s Human Development Index (HDI) and other welfare indicators. Sources: UNDP, World Economic Forum. For Internet penetration, WIP Project and Internet World Stats (for data about Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, China, Russia, Spain, and Portugal).
HDI rank 2009
Country
Web Life penetration expectancy Network Readiness (% at Barth (years) Index 2006/07 population)
Store
Rk
HIGH HUMAN DEVELOPMENT 15 USA 5.54 7
2008
2006
Adult literacy rate GDP per (% aged 15 capita (PPP and above) US$)
1999— 2006
2006
UNDP gender empowerment measure (GEM)
Rk
Value
72%
78.0
..
43,968
18
0.769
16
Spain
4.35
32
66%
80.7
97.4
29,208
12
0.825
20
New Zealand
5.01
22
77%
80.0
..
25,260
13
0.823
21
UK
5.45
9
66%
79.2
..
32,654
14
0.786
33
Portugal
4.48
28
73%
77.9
94.6
20,845
20
0.741
35
Czech Rep.
4.28
34
50%
76.2
..
22,004
31
0.650
38
Hungary
4.33
33
42%
73.1
98.9
18,154
54
0.586
40
Chile
4.46
31
48%
78.4
96.4
12,997
75
0.521
46
Argentina
3.59
63
49%
75.0
97.6
11,985
25
0.692
51
Mexico
3.91
49
25%
75.8
91.7
12,176
47
0.603
70
Brazil
3.84
53
21%
72.0
89.6
8,949
81
0.498
73
Russia
3.54
70
27%
65.2
99.5
13,205
65
0.544
MEDIUM HUMAN DEVELOPMENT 80 Colombia 3.59 64 23%
72.5
92.3
6,381
82
0.488
94
China
3.68
59
22%
72.7
93.0
4,682
72
0.526
132
India
4.06
44
7%
64.1
65.2
2,489
..
..
Sources: UNDP, World Economic Forum. For internet penetration, WIP Project and Internet World Stats (for data about Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, China, Russia, Spain, and Portugal)
Using Porat and Rubin’s framework, we found that information accounts for more than half of the aggregate Chilean economy. So, technically at least, it can be said that Chile belongs to the
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Information Economy. Yet this component remained almost static from 51.97% of GDP in 1996 to 52.42% in 2003. These results were lower and less dynamic than those in the US and South Korea (figure 15.1). Figure 15.1 The Information Economy in Chile, the US, and South Korea.
Thus Porat and Rubin’s say that the use of information in organizations and economies has marked a change in society as a whole. Economies have experienced a progressive transition from an industrial production model toward others based on the creation, processing, and application of knowledge. Our findings suggest that this proposal is occuring as well in a developing nation, and not only in the US (Aviles, Godoy & Sepulveda, 2009; Aviles & Sepulveda, 2008). Now we will check how far that assertion is consistent with people’s everyday life as studied by WIP. Main traits of the web usage in Chile Based on the CASEN governmental surveys complementary to WIP, we calculated that web users grew nationally from 18.7% in 2000 to an estimated 48% in 20082. As in the other WIP countries, web usage in Chile is biased towards the young (Figure 15.2) and 2 A web user is anyone who used the Internet at least once in the last 90 days, in any place.
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the wealthiest (Figure 15.3), a variable related to education. Our results since 2003 suggest that this income gap has been ameliorated by a series of public policy measures, notably an initiative from the Ministry of Education called Plan Enlaces, which consists on providing public schools (where the poorest attend) with PCs and Internet access: the poor and the young get access to the web both at public schools and/or public-access places such as cybercafés (Godoy et al., 2009). Figure 15.2 Web users in Chile according to age (2006).
This growth of Internet access is complemented by an important percentage of “proxy users”, non-users who rely on someone else (usually a close relative or friend) to check e-mails, download useful information, and the like. Given that proxy users get some degree of online experience, however imperfect, we have argued they are a relevant means to compensate the digital gap in Chile (Godoy et al., 2006, 2009). Figure 4 shows the evolution of users, proxy users, and wholly disconnected non-users since 2003 in Santiago, the capital. Being a proxy user is related to age and
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wealth: 5% of those aged 12-17 fall into this category in contrast to 59% of those aged 50-60, whereas the percentages for the richest ABC1C2 income group and the poorest D segment are 20% and 49% respectively (Godoy et al., 2009).
Figure 15.3 Percentage of web users in Chile according to income quintiles 2000-2006.
At the same time, broadband has been growing fast – especially among the lower-middle and lower income groups. In 2003, it reached 56% of household connections against 43% modembased ones. The corresponding proportions in 2008 were 81% and 12% respectively. Yet these figures should be handled with care: the definition of what exactly is “broadband” has been severely contested in Chile. Indeed, until fairly recently, many suppliers, as well as government agencies, considered broadband connections as slow as 128 Kbps instead of the 1.5 Mbps recommended by ITU and similar international entities. As respondents are unable to tell the difference when interviewed, we therefore prefer to speak about dedicated, “always on” connections, just as specialised regulatory agencies such as SUBTEL do (Godoy, 2008; Godoy & Herrera, 2008). In any case, the repertoire of online activities performed by the average user in Chile is predominantly related to entertainment, such as checking email, browse the web, or download music. Compared to countries such as the USA or Sweden, Chileans
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perform less frequently work-related activities and those oriented to make a more efficient use of time (Godoy et al, 2009).
Figure 15.4. Users and non-users in Santiago, 2003-2008.
Another important consideration to remember is that average Internet users are, as said previously, wealthier and more educated than those without access. That fact may explain many advantageous uses of the Internet we did not discuss in this article, such as productivity at work or school (which is not very evident, anyway. See Godoy et al., 2006). Wealthier users use a wider combination of technologies, such as sophisticated mobile phones, and are able to take more advantage of the web since most of them have broadband connections at home (a place of use in which technology can be better used, as it can be integrated to the most intimate space of persons). They also use computers actively at work, as their jobs are generally information-intensive. In contrast, poorer users access to cyberspace more frequently at school and at public places such as cybercafés than at home (Godoy et al., 2009), and perform jobs that require fewer information processing through computers and the web. Therefore many of the supposed advantages of the Internet can be in reality underpinned by preexisting socioeconomic advantages.
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Web usage and its impact on traditional media Despite the growth of the Internet as well as the online experience of users, the importance of traditional, “old” media cannot be underestimated. Aside from the fact that radio and television are present in all households and daily times of usage are among the highest of all type of activities except sleeping, more than two thirds of Chileans recur to television newscasts as the main source of news and information. Besides, many studies confirm an important influence of newspapers in the definition of the news agenda of the other media (Godoy 2003, 2004; Mc Combs & Pla, 2003). Figure 15.5 Hours per week of TV viewing in selected WIP countries, 2007/2008 (users and non-users). Sources: WIP Chile 2008, World Internet Project International Report 2009.
In any case, a few significant changes in usage and expectations concerning traditional media among web users and non-users have occured due to the growth of the Internet, while other factors have remained stable (Godoy 2005a, 2005b; Godoy & Herrera 2008, 2004). For instance, television viewing in Chile drops among users as elsewhere in the world. Yet from 2003 to 2008 exposure to all traditional media has increased in Chile –both among the online community and the disconnected (Figures 15.5 and 15.6).
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Simultaneously, weekly hours devoted to be online have also increased (Figure 15.7). In other words, users are devoting more time to all media, both “old” and “new”.
Figure 15.6 Hours per week dedicated to offline media by web users, 2003-2008.
Figure 15.7 Hours per week dedicated to offline media by web non-users, 2003-2008.
While data reveal substitution of radio and TV by the Internet since 2003 in Chile, there is no difference of exposure between web users and non-users concerning time spent reading newspapers offline. This is related to the fact that web users are, on average,
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wealthier and more educated than non-users and, thus, more prone to read, offline or online.
Figure 15.8 Hours per week dedicated to offline media and the Internet by users and nonusers, 2008.
Analysis according to age presented further distinctions between the two groups. Figure 15.8 compares exposure to TV by users and non-users according to age, while Figures 15.9 and 15.10 do the same for exposure to radio and newspapers, respectively. These data suggest that demographics seems to play a role of its own as well. Time devoted to radio and newspapers increases with age, while the opposite occurs with television – the young spend more time watching it than adults, despite the gap between web users and the disconnected of all ages. We will come back to this soon. As said in previous WIP Chile reports, contents also influence usage. A predominantly musical type of programming in radio broadcasting, such as Chile’s, is more likely to be substituted by the Internet, since downloading MP3 music files is one of the most popular online activities among Chilean users (Godoy et al., 2006; Godoy, 2005b).
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Figure 15.9 Weekly hours of TV viewing by web users and non-users 2008, according to age.
Figure 15.10 Weekly hours of radio usage by web users and non-users 2008, according to age.
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Figure 15.11 Weekly hours of newspaper reading by web users and non-users 2008, according to age. We cannot be sure if youngsters will keep their current media mix as they age, or if they will gradually modify it as lifestyles vary according to events such as marriage, or having children and taking care of them. On the one hand, it can be hypothesized that people used to a techology will stick to it throughout their lives. Yet there is also evidence of changes of media usage patterns depending on factors such as psychological development or changes of marital status. Additionally, the media and content creation industries are dynamic, and they need to adapt to changes in demand and new business models able to sustain them (Godoy & Herrera, 2004; Godoy 2007a, 2007b, 2007c).
Expectations about information, entertainment, and credibility Among other factors, usage of different media is related to expectations regarding the value of information and entertainment their contents provide, as well as the credibility they have in the eyes of the general public. This section examines these three aspects of media in a broad sense, contrasting radio, television, newspapers
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and the Internet as separate information and entertainment sources according to the WIP questionnaire, which also includes interpersonal relations in the comparison. Credibility is examined in a separate question. Due to changes in the way these questions were put to the subjects, we will compare results between 2006 and 2008 in most of the cases.
Figure 15.12 Percentage of users and non-users who consider different media as ‘important/ very important’ sources of information, 2006-2008.
We start with the information value attributed to these entities. From 2006 to 2008, the relevance of the Internet for non-users, as revealed by answering “important/very important” in a fivepoint Likert scale, fell from 63% to 44% (Figure 12). This does not necessarily mean a lower valuation of the web among the disconnected but rather a combination of factors, such as a more realistic assessment of the potentialities of this artefact, enhanced
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contents in other media, and/or a growing concentration of the people more reluctant to the Internet as non-users (as those better disposed to it become users over time). In any case, nearly 80% of users as well as non-users think that interpersonal relations is the most valued source of information. The two groups differ in regard to the second most important source: Users tick the Internet, while non-users choose TV. Another interesting point is a higher valuation of TV and newspapers by all respondents in 2008, while radio grew only among non-users. Users showed an increased appreciation of newspapers, the Internet, and TV in 2008, while their appreciation for radio and interpersonal relations stayed the same as in 2006. The differences in the information media mix between users and non-users is related to socioeconomic, education, and age factors. As said in previous WIP Chile reports, reading newspapers is positively correlated to higher incomes and levels of education in Chile, just as Internet access (yet there is a divergence concerning age: newspaper readers belong to older generations, and they may be gradually dying away without being replaced). Radio and television, which reach almost all households free of charge, overall offer contents that are more oriented to massive, popular tastes. In other WIP countries, and excluding interpersonal relations, the 2007/08 average user values the Internet most as a source of information (71%) followed by TV (56%), newspapers (55%) and radio (45%). Chileans are placed above those averages: 75% for the Internet, 59% for TV, 63% for newspapers, and 40% for radio (Godoy et al., 2009). But while a higher valuation of the Internet as a source of information is rather predictable among users, between 2003 and 2008 this perception declined in Chile for both users and non-users, as confirmed by the log scale line (Figure 15.13), although drop was more severe among the latter. Again, this may be caused by a more realistic assessment of the potentialities of the web by both groups, as well as the factors mentioned before.
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Figure 15.13 Percentage of users and non-users who consider the Internet as an ‘important/ very important’ source of information, 2003-2008 (with log scale).
As can be seen in Figure 15.14, there are some similarities between the valuation of the different media as sources of entertainment in Chile. First, interpersonal relations get the highest important/very important rates of response. The Internet comes next among users (rising from 17% to 58% between 2006 and 2008) and last among non-users (falling from 32% to 22% in the same period). Within non-users, the three “old” media improve their scores in 2008: radio and TV get nearly 70% each, and newspapers almost half of responses. Among web users, traditional media do not score badly. Although “other people” and the Internet are the most appreciated sources of amusement (they get nearly two thirds of mentions), both radio and TV show a strong increase over the two years. In
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Figure 15.14 Percentage of users and non-users who consider different media as “important/very important” sources of entertainment, 2006-2008.
contrast, newspapers lost a quarter of their appeal in 2008, perhaps unsurprisingly so as they are a traditional source of information and news. In contrast to its value as a source of information, the Internet’s entertainment value has increased among web users since 2003, as shown ini Figure 15.15 (which also illustrates the trend on a log scaled line). Non-users, on the other hand, have reduced their expectations in this respect.
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Figure 15.15 Percentage of users and non-users who consider the Internet as an “important/ very important” source of entertainment, 2003-2008 (with log scale).
Internationally, and excluding interpersonal relations, the averages shown by web users in the WIP countries in 2007/08 are 59% for television, 52% for the Internet, 43% for radio, and 32% for newspapers. In this case, Chileans are above the average concerning the web (58%, as in the USA) and radio (55%), and are below the average in terms of TV (57%) and newspapers (28%) (Godoy et al., 2009). Concerning credibility of different online sources, there are few changes since that question was added in 2006 (see Figure 15.16), except for those websites related to established communication media. The proportion of respondents saying that they “believe most/all” of the contents on these sites increased from 61% to 71%. Other changes are not statistically significant. In 2008, the most credible sources were the online encyplopedias /dictionaires
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(75%) and the search engines (74%), followed closely by news sites from traditional media, as mentioned above.
Figure 15.16 Percentage of users who believe most/all contents from different online sources, 2006-2008.
On average, the credibility of personal sites such as blogs (and fotologs, which have experienced a remarkable explosion in Chile) are well below these figures, with less than a fifth of mentions. This does not mean that some specific personal sites with a much higher credibility of their own may exist. It is rather that their main objective is related to self-expression and socialisation, rather than providing credible, verifiable, and impartial information. These figures may help explain why 23% of users say they have suspended a subscription to a newspaper or magazine given they can get the same content online. As this question was first included in 2008, it is hard to say if this percentage is high or low. Indeed most news organisations in Chile - newspapers and
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magazines included - provide the same contents online as they carry in their traditional means of distribution. This does not mean necessarily a cannibalisation of their conventional business model. For instance, Las Ultimas Noticias, an old tabloid belonging to the very traditional Mercurio newsgroup, not only turned its contents from crime and sports to local stars’ gossip and spectacles thanks to a very sophisticated administration and analysis of print and online readership, but has also maintained healthy advertising revenues by demonstrating its impact through both means of distribution – in fact, Las Ultimas Noticias deliberately presents the same contents in the two versions, by means of PDF files of each of its printed pages (Argandoña et al., 2008).
Figure 15.17 Percentage of users who have suspended regular subscription to a newspaper or magazine because of the availability of the same contents online, 2008. Source: WIP Chile, PUC-CCS.
In any case, loss of subscribers or churn is an old phenomenon both for print media and pay TV. Although churn figures in Chile are obscure, recent evidence suggests an increase in pay TV at least. Yet this phenomenon cannot only be related to the rise of the Internet as a substitute. Other very influential factors include restrictions on the public’s disposable income, poor customer service by providers, and/or their inability to keep an attractive portfolio of contents.
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Politics and the Internet The final aspect to comment in this chapter concerns the public’s perceptions of political empowerment due to their use of the Internet. They are measured by the degree of agreement or disagreement with a set of four questions that ask whether by using the Internet (a) politics will be better understood, (b) government will be more influenced by citizens, (c) public servants will care more for public opinions, and (d) individuals will gain more political power (in addition, a new question about the degree of interest for voting online was included in 2006). Considering wording consistency in the questionnaires, we will only compare the results from 2006 and 2008. At least in Chile, views on increase in citizen’s political control due to the web were more pessimistic in 2008 than in 2006, both among users and non-users (Figure 15.18). In contrast, interest for online voting grew from 22% to 67% of users, and was shared by 48% of non-users in 2008 (this question was not asked to this group in 2006). This strong interest for online voting may be related to recent discussions in Chile about a proposed new law ensuring automatic voter registration and non-compulsory vote. Nowadays it is the other way round: registration is voluntary for those aged 18 or older, yet voting is compulsory for those registered. If anyone fails to vote, they are fined. In recent elections, registration without really voting has grown so rampant that fines are impossible in practice. Online polls, however impractical in the real world, are therefore an attractive idea for everybody. Compared to other WIP countries, Chile seems rather sceptical about the ability of the Internet to empower citizens – especially compared to the results from urban China and Colombia (Figure 15.19). It is tempting to hypothesize about the influence of political factors such as instability (Colombia) or dictatorial experience (Hungary, Chile, China) in these perceptions about citizen political empowerment. Yet optimism or pessimism about the ability of the web to influence bureaucrats or governments is too varied: Hungary’s relative pessimism, for instance, is not far
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from traditionally democratic, wealthy Sweden. Optimism, on the other hand, is shared by very different countries such as Australia, China, Singapore, the US and UK, which lead the rankings in users’ positive response to questions about the Internet giving more political power to citizens. Figure 15.18 Percentage of users/non-users who agree/agree strongly with different statements about political empowerment due to the use of Internet, 2006/08.
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Figure 15.19 Percentage of users in selected WIP countries who agree/agree strongly with different statements about political empowerment due to Internet use, 2006/08. Sources: WIP Chile 2008, World Internet Project - International Report 2008.
Conclusions We analysed the influence of the Internet on both traditional media and people’s perception of political empowerment in Chile since 2003, in an attempt to check whether this technology is not only a tool that has changed society (and the economy) irreversibly and dramatically, but is also the main cause of changes. For this purpose we relied on specific questions from the rather descriptive, broad, and general WIP questionnaire. Despite some shortcomings, this survey has the advantage of
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being consistent over time and being internationally comparable. It also covers both users and non-users of the Internet. Many of the differences we found between these two groups of people, as well as other data we could not cover in this article, suggest a positive impact of the Internet,– perhaps unsurprisingly, as web users are wealthier than non-users, and the wealthier users generally take better advantage of new technology. Yet it is undeniable that IT is getting massive in Chile. Internet access reaches almost half of the population, one of the highest figures in the region together with Argentina’s. Mobile phones have grown even faster and reach almost 90% of the Chilean, a percentage quite similar to the addition of proxy users to those who access directly to the Internet. Broadband has grown very fast as well and thus represents 81% of domestic connections, the average bytes-per-second rate is well below the 1.5 Mbps recommended by ITU and probably would not qualify as broad enough except for the fact that they are “always on” links. Analysis of media usage and political expectations presented mixed results. We had expected web users to circumvent the traditionally centralised media as the main sources of information, while acquiring a stronger feeling of empowerment vis a vis politicians and the government. True, the substitution of television viewing time by the Internet is clear as in our first survey in 2003 (and elsewhere in the world), yet the gap has stayed rather constant. Besides, radio listening and newspaper reading is substituted in some countries only. Chile is one of the WIP countries where those who access to the Internet spend less hours per week listening to radio than non-users, but that is probably because its main contents, recorded international music, can be easily downloaded from cyberspace, which is one of the most popular online activities. In contrast, time spent reading newspapers in Chile is virtually the same for both groups. As usage of media is affected by people’s expectations about their perceived information and entertainment value (a changing perception, in any case), other factors such as contents and age are
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also influential. For instance, older respondents are more prone to reading newspapers, regardless their status as web users or nonusers. As youngsters read considerably less (at least offline), it is not clear if newspaper readers will simply die away and, therefore, make newspapers unfeasible in the future. At the same time, wealthier and more educated users are the ones who spend more time with this type of medium, so perhaps youngsters may end up devoting attention to papers as they grow in age, advance in education and become more affluent. As elsewhere in the world, the main newspapers in Chile have free online versions, and some of them successfully charge advertisers for their online readers as well. So it may well be the case that newspapers are adapting to an increasingly paperless environment, especially if they work upon the robust credibility of established media’s websites. The case of television is demographically different. TV viewing is mostly preferred by the young, both with and without access to the web. This is the same “net generation” which, simultaneously, steals time away from TV on behalf of the Internet. It is plausible they will stay as viewers as they age, being grown and fed by an intensive diet of moving images since the cradle. As with radio and newspapers, contents should be influencing the changes in TV viewing in Chile observed until 2008, as well as this technology’s perceived information and entertainment value. Yet, aside from the fact that the young multitask both online and offline, increasingly the media are putting their contents online. All this makes it harder to measure neatly usage and expectations of separate media, as they increasingly overlap as a result of technological convergence. In any case, the history of media suggests that most of them adapt to changes and are able to survive (from opera to radio, cinema, and terrestrial television), although with modified business models and usage patterns. The final aspect we analysed, the perceived political influence of the Internet, should also be interpreted with caution. Both users and non-users have become more sceptical about the possibilities of this technology to empower citizens and ensure more attention from government and its employees. This is not necessarily a
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bad thing, as it might be revealing more realism by respondents. Yet it may also indicate that expectations that IT by its own will automatically enhance democracy are, in the least, debatable. As contents can influence usage and expectations about the media, non-IT factors such as age, political institutions, and culture are too relevant to be ignored in politics. Even though there are powerful examples of citizen mobilisation in Chile triggered by spontaneous campaigns through mobile phones and the Internet (which have severely challenged the traditional agencies of power and information, at least momentarily), we simply do not have sufficient evidence to conclude that using the Internet empowers common citizens in a clear-cut way.
REFERENCES Argandoña, Luis; Arriagada, Eduardo; Pollak, Tomas (2008). Blogs. Medios Tradicionales y Nuevos Medios en el Chile 2.0. Santiago de Chile: Catalonia/ Facultad Comuncaciones UC. Avilés, Godoy & Sepulveda (2009). Size, structure, and growth of the Chilean Information Economy, in Karmarkar, U. & Mangal, V. (Eds.), The Business And Information Technologies (Bit) Project: A Global Study of Business Practice, Singapor & London: World Scientific Publishing Co, forthcoming 2009 Avilés & Sepúlveda (2008). Size and structure of the Chilean Information Economy, Cuadernos de Información, Vol. I, Nº 22, pp. 18-33 Apte, U. and H.K. Nath (2004). Size, Structure and Growth of the US Information Technology. Los Angeles, CA: Business and Information Technology Project/Anderson School of Business, UCLA. Castells, Manuel (2000). La era de la información: economía, sociedad y cultura, 2ª Ed. Madrid: Alianza Editorial. Godoy, Sergio (2007a). WIP Chile 2003-2006: Uso e impacto de Internet, Cuadernos de Información Nº20, 2007-1, pp. 67-77. - (2007b). 1988-1992: Los años de la siembra, en Acuña, Fernando (Ed.), Los primeros 50 años de la televisión en Chile. Santiago de Chile: Facultad
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Comunicaciones UC/El Mercurio/VTR/Canal 13, pp. 184-211. -(2007c). Televisión digital en Chile: aspectos regulatorios y modelo de negocio, Cuadernos de Información Nº21, 2007-2, pp. 74-81 -(2005a). Estudio WIP/BIT: Chile en el globo virtual, Revista Universitaria, Nº 87, pp. 62-65. - (2005b). Resultados WIP-Chile 2003-2004: ¿Cómo está y dónde va el uso de Internet en Chile?, Cuadernos de Información Nº18, pp. 101-111. -(2004). Propuesta UC, propuesta pública. Propuesta de proyecto de acuerdo para TVN, Cuadernos de Información Nº16-17, pp. 135-140 -(2003). Los medios de comunicación en las elecciones parlamentarias de 2001: ¿conspiración o simple mediocridad?, Cuadernos de Información Nº15, pp. 84-99 -(2000). Radio en la era digital: la relativa fragilidad de lo local, en UNICOM: Desafíos de la sociedad de la información en América Latina y Europa. Santiago: Lom ediciones, pp. 187-196 -(1999). Gestión de Radio y TV. Santiago: Ediciones Universidad Católica de Chile. Godoy, Sergio & Herrera Soledad (2008). Precisions About The Broadband Divide In Chile, en Handbook of Research in Global Diffusion of Broadband Data Transmission, Dwivedi Y.K., Papazafeiropoulou, A., and Choudrie, J. (Eds). Hershey, PA, USA: IGI Global. - (2004). Qué ocurre cuando se usa (y no se usa) Internet: resultados del World Internet Project-Chile, Cuadernos de Información Nº16-17, pp.7184 Godoy, S.; Herrera, S.; Lever, G.; Myrick, A.; Sepúlveda, M.: (2009). Los internautas chilenos y sus símiles en el resto del mundo: resultados del estudio WIP-Chile 2008. Santiago de Chile: Facultad de Comunicaciones, Instituto de Sociología y Escuela de Ingeniería UC; Centro de Estudios de la Economía Digital, Cámara de Comercio de Santiago. -(2006). Monitoreando el futuro digital: resultados encuesta WIP-Chile 2003, 2004 y 2006. Santiago de Chile: Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Instituto de Estudios Mediales, Instituto de Sociología y Escuela de Ingeniería; Centro de Estudios de la Economía Digital, Cámara de Comercio de Santiago, Santiago. Herrera, Soledad (2006). ¿Está Disminuyendo la Brecha Digital en Chile?, Economía & Administración Nº151 (diciembre/enero). 30-37. -(2005). Dropouts and New Users in the Internet Community, Santiago de
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Chile. Santiago de Chile: paper presentado en WIP/BIT Conference 2005, Facultad de Comunicaciones UC. McCombs, Maxwell & Pla, Issa L. (Eds.) (2003). Agenda Setting de los Medios de Comunicación. Sinaloa, Mexico: Universidad Iberoamericana / Universidad de Occidente McCombs, M. & Reynolds, A (2002). News influence on our Pictures of the World, in J. Bryant & D. Zyllman (Eds.), Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Porat, M.U. and M.R. Rubin, (1977). The Information Economy (9 volumes). Office of Telecommunications Special Publication, 77-12. Washington D.C.: U.S. Department of Commerce. UNICOM (2000). Primer Foro de las Comunicaciones: Desafíos de la Sociedad de la Información en América Latina y Europa. Santiago: LOM Ediciones.
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16 The Internet and The 2007 French Presidential Election Still The Time of Old Media? Thierry Vedel
1. Introduction With the development of the Internet, electoral campaigning is experiencing great changes. As more people connect to the Web the question is no longer whether candidates and parties should campaign online, but how and with what effects (Chadwick, 2006). First, is the Internet intensifying the process of electoral competition? It is often argued that minor or even marginal parties and candidates may use the Internet as a cheaper and more efficient means to reach out voters. They may bypass the mainstream media and establish a direct contact with citizens. Political organizations that lack organizational, financial or human resources may be able to circumvent in part these restrictions by going online. Second, is the Internet pulling more citizens into the electoral process? In this respect, many hopes have been placed in the Internet. The Internet is often seen as a means to empower citizens by giving them access to more diverse information sources, by providing forums for discussions alike to a new agora, by allowing data sharing or social networking. Yet, the democratic potential of the Internet needs to be tested against evidence. The 2007 French presidential provides a good
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case study. With 55% of French people over 11 years regularly using the Internet (Médiamétrie, 2007), the Internet has become a essential enabling technology for French politics. Each of the twelve candidates established a web site for the campaign. Hundreds of web sites that offered a wide array of information were available to voters, including special sections established by print media web sites, independent web platforms allowing to compare candidates platforms, research institutes or polling firms analyzing the campaign dynamics, political blogs set up by ordinary citizens, journalists or experts. However, did presidential candidates design their web sites so as to really exploit all the web functionalities; or did they just tend to replicate conventional ways of campaigning? Did French voters actually use the many sites offered to them; or did only those interested in offline politics engage in online political activity? 2. Theoretical background The discussion about the influence and potential of Internet during election campaigns has been developing for almost two decades now (Chadwick, 2006; Ward and Vedel, 2006). It started with a rather utopian vision of Internet as a revolutionary tool for democratization and a wide opening of the political process for a general but definitely more active public. At the eve of the 2000 US presidential election, Morris argued that the Internet would deeply transform elections and that politics would soon revolve around one-to-one virtual conversations between candidates and voters (Morris, 1999). Following the 2004 US presidential election, Trippi theorized the revolutionary role of the Internet in mobilizing and empowering citizens. (Trippi, 2004). Similar optimistic predictions have been made in France too. Crouzet claimed that, by allowing information sharing and social networking between people, the Internet would contribute to the decline of the so-called mainstream media and to the emergence of a Fifth Estate - what he called the connected people (Crouzet, 2007). Critics, however, claimed that Internet communication brings
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little change to the traditional communication flow between political actors and their public. The mainstream political actors would consolidate their position using the existing power resources. The political web would be mainly inhabited by those already active in politics and, as Pippa Norris put it, would mainly serve to preach the converted (Norris, 2003). The more the regular politics moves online, the more it tends to reduce the democratic potential of the Internet (Margolis and Resnick, 2000). These two approaches of the political impact of the Internet, known as the mobilization and the normalization (or reinforcement) thesis, have been widely described in the literature (Foot and Schneider, 2002; Norris, 2000). The aim of this paper is to test their validity in the case of the 2007 French presidential election. On the supply side, many studies have confirmed the normalization thesis. They have found that dominant parties and major candidates are more active online than minor parties and candidates. Because wealthier candidates and parties have larger and more qualified campaign staffs, they are able to establish web sites and Internet services which are more appealing to voters. However, Ward and his colleagues have found that, while major parties tend to dominate the web during electoral campaigns, minor parties can catch up between elections. They also underlined that, in a crossnational perspective, there is no clear connection between party resources and the level of sophistication of their web sites (Ward et al. 2003). On the usage side, early studies have demonstrated that Internet usage was highly skewed toward the more affluent and educated sectors of the society (Bimber, 1999; Norris, 2000). Even though access has widened since then and the so-called digital divide has begun to bridge (particularly in terms of gender and income, but not of age), recent studies have found that those engaging in online politics tend to be well educated and of higher socioeconomic status but also those who are the most interested and the most active in offline politics (Johnson and Kaye, 2003). Hindman suggested that there might be a political divide and disparities in Internet usage depending political attitudes (Hindman, 2003). However, Gibson
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and her colleagues offered a different picture (Gibson et al., 2005) While they recognize that going online for politics is still the fact of those who are the most predisposed toward civic engagement, they call for a re-evaluation of the normalization thesis. They argue that the Internet might expand the numbers of the politically active and reach inactive groups in offline politics. It is so if online political participation is not defined in narrow terms as a simple electronic replication of conventional political activities but encompasses the novel online participation opportunities provided on the Internet. 3. Candidates strategies on the web In modern politics, it seems mandatory for candidates to have a web site as a tool for self promotion. Each of the twelve candidates in the 2007 French presidential election fulfilled that requirement. However the execution of that task differed depending on each candidate’ financial resources and organizational support, as well as on the potential votes they could expect from citizens. Ideology also played a certain role in the on line strategies implemented by candidates. Table 16.1 shows the amount spent by each candidate for his/ her online activities in the 2007 and 2002 campaigns. Overall, Internet expenditure represented only a tiny part of candidates total spending. By contrast, candidates typically spent more than 60% of their budget for print materials and public meetings. These figures indicate that online activities were not a priority for candidates. Most of them focused their campaign on TV and on direct contacts with voters. Table 16.1 also shows a striking difference between major candidates and minor candidates. On average, major candidates devoted around 4% of their budget to Internet activities. For minor candidates Internet expenditure was almost symbolic (even though most of them had raised several millions euros for their campaign).
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Table 16.1 Proportion of spending on Internet activities in total campaign expenditure by all candidates*. Sources: Ministry of Interior, 2007 (% votes at 1st round)
Internet expenditure €
% of total spending
2002 (% votes at 1st round)
Internet expenditure
% of total spending
Royal (25,87)
866 220
4.2%
Chirac (19,88)
403 752
2.2%
Bayrou (18,57)
720 511
7.4%
Chevènement (5,33)
402 250
4,1%
Sarkozy (31,18)
675 571
3.2%
Jospin (16,18)
346 373
2.8%
Voynet (1,57)
130 172
9.0%
Bayrou (6, 84)
368 371
4.1%
Buffet (1,93)
107 604
2.2%
Hue (3,37)
84 812
1.6%
Le Pen (10,44)
29 741
0.3%
Madelin (3,91) 56 165
1.8%
Laguiller (1,33)
17 212
0.8%
Mamère (5,25) 45 711
1.1%
Bové (1,32)
8 859
0.7%
Boutin (1,19)
30 473
1.9%
De Villiers (2,23)
5 485
0.1%
Lepage (1,88)
24 317
3.2%
Besancenot 5 043 (4,08)
0.5%
Besancenot (4,25)
22 980
3%
Nihous (1,15)
2 543
0.3%
Le Pen (16,86) 6 518
0.05%
Schivardi (0,34)
664
-
Taubira (2,32)
4 467
0.3%
Laguiller (5,72)
3901
-
Gluckstein (0,47)
500
-
Saint-Josse (4,23)
144
*Candidates accounts as registered by the Conseil Constitutionel.
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Quite clearly, major and minor candidates did not perceive in the same ways the rewards that online campaigning might offer. Minor candidates often restricted their online campaign to setting up a web site, run by a small number of volunteers. Major candidates allocated more technological resources and staff to their online operations than minor candidates and established dedicated staffs led by professionals to operate more sophisticated web sites. The differences in the functionalities and technical /delivery features of candidates web sites are shown in Table 16.21. Table 16.2 Functional and technical scores of the candidates web sites as of April 2007. Source: Content analysis by Karolina Koc Michalska (Vedel and Koc Michalska, 2007). Bayrou Royal Functional score 0.62 Technical/ delivery 0.82 score Villiers Functional score 0.37 Technical/ delivery 0.59 score
Buffet
Sarkozy Bové
Voynet
0.66
0.53
0.65
0.5
0.45
0.61
0.73
0.55
0.53
0.58
Besancenot
Nihous
Le Pen
Schivardi Laguiller
0.34
0.38
0.28
0.3
0.27
0.55
0.53
0.56
0.3
0.32
Our content analysis produced two main outcomes. First, on average, the candidates’ web sites score better in terms of delivery than functionality. The general Functions Score is 0.439 for all the
See appendix 1 for methodology and details.
1
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candidates while it is 0.558 for the Technical/Delivery Score2. This indicates that campaign teams paid more attention to the appearance of web sites than to their content. As a matter of fact, many web sites did not provide resources for campaigning, discussions forums or contact details to join supporters groups. Some of them – notably those set up for Laguiller, Schivardi and Nihous – were even without the biographies or much other information about the candidates. By contrast, campaign teams were keener to implement some of the latest technological developments, including videos streams and RSS feeds. Secondly, there is a clear difference between web sites of the major candidates and those of their minor rivals. Web sites of Sarkozy, Royal and Bayrou not only provide more functionalities and information, they were also actively maintained and monitored by campaign staffers, who were continuously reacting to campaign events, responding to voters’ requests or questions, or staging online events (such as chats, petitions or contests). More importantly, major candidates did not restrict their online campaign to their web sites. They designed comprehensive strategies in order to optimize their visibility on the web and to spur an online grassroots support. More specifically, major candidates made efforts in two directions. They implemented a sort of systematic occupation of the web, so that any Internet user would inevitably get in contact with the candidate message, even though she or he had little interest in politics. As early as November 2005, the Union pour un mouvement populaire (UMP), Sarkozy’s party, made use of Google Adwords, to invite Internet users to discuss Sarkozy’s future manifesto. During the campaign, major candidates organized around their official web site (designated as the flagship) a network of supporter web sites or blogs (the fleet), which was generally arranged in three layers: (i) Affiliate web sites targeting at specific groups of voters (such as the Segosphere, who was dedicated to young voters; or “Supporters of Nicolas Even though the scoring systems differ, an opposite result was observed by Farmer and Fender (2005, p. 53) in their research for the 2000 US elections where the Functions score was higher than the Technical/delivery Scores.
2
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Sarkozy”, which imitated the esthetics of a soccer fan club); (ii) Web sites or blogs of the candidate’s party and local groups of official supporters; (iii) Blogs or web sites of individuals willing to support the candidate. To encourage blogs by individuals, blogging platforms and various digital resources, including banners, pictures, RSS feeds, video footage, were provided free of charge3. The second major outcome of our analysis is that major candidates promoted an online activism. For instance, online supporters of Royals were assigned different roles: e-debaters (to promote Royal’s message on other discussion forums or blogs available on the web), e-watchers (to identify Web resources which can be useful or harmful to Royals’ campaign), e-designers (to create visuals, banners, videos and other web materials for Royal’s campaign). Inaddition to the differences in resources, ideological orientations also played a role in the candidates’ online strategies. Leftoriented candidates were inclined to develop more participatory web sites or initiatives, whereas right-wing candidates tended to focus more on information provision4. In this respect, Royal and Sarkozy web sites were quite distinctive from each other. The Sarkozy site resorted to a top-down editorial model and was primarily oriented toward the dissemination of information, notably in the form of video streams. By contrast, the socialist candidate site was more bottom-up. A dozen of topical discussions groups (often developing into sub-groups) were hosted on her web site, and supporters were asked to contribute to her platform with ideas and proposals. Some 150,000 contributions were posted at the end of the campaign and were compiled into memos to the candidate by about 70 staffers (the so-called Mods). Overall, the Internet was only a marginal component of candidates campaign, in terms of both resources and strategies. Candidates mainly focused their campaigns on television and most of their At the end of the campaign, around 14000 blogs by individuals were listed on Royal web site. Using a slightly different methodology, Vaccari (2008) reached similar results. His content analysis shows that right candidates web sites performed better on the information index (scoring 0, 61 versus 0,55) but were outperformed by left candidates web sites on the participation index (scores 0,40 versus 0,33).
3
4
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activities were tailored for TV coverage. Many of public meetings or campaign events were designed so as to provide good images and sound bites for TV news. Even some of their online activities (e.g. candidates presence on Second Life, bloggers gathering around candidates) were part of their public relations efforts to achieve media coverage. This concentration on television can be explained not only by the popularity of this medium, but also by the French regulatory framework. When reporting on French politics in their newscast or other programmes, audiovisual media have to devote the same amount of airtime to the government, the majority political parties in the Parliament and the political parties standing for the opposition in the Parliament. During electoral campaigns a special regime applies (Vedel, 2005). In the initial period, which covers the so-called pre-campaign or non-official campaign5, broadcasters must ensure that all candidates for public offices have “equitable” access to the screen (generally understood as proportional to the public support gained by candidates in opinion polls). Then, during the official electoral campaign, an equal time provision applies and broadcasters have to devote equal amount of airtime to each candidate. Moreover, during the official electoral campaign, candidates are granted free airtime on public television in the form of electoral broadcasts. These regulations mean that all candidates have a sort of automatic, free access to television viewers. Minor candidates are especially advantaged since they are granted the same airtime as major candidates, even though they have received only a small percentage of support from polls or they are not as active as the major figures. However, the role assigned to the Internet in the presidential campaign revealed the emergence of new trends in French politics. First, it illustrated the increasing utilization of activation methods. As pointed out by Steven Schier (2006), activation is increasingly supplanting mobilization in modern campaigning. The two French electoral legislation only recognises an official campaign period, which usually starts three weeks before Election Day. However, in most cases, the real launch of the campaign process starts much earlier. Depending on the nature of the election, but also on the political climate, pre-election campaigns start from nine months to two months before Election Day.
5
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processes differ in their focus, agents and methods. Mobilization is “inclusive, seeking to arouse all possible voters to vote in response to a direct partisan message”, and mostly relies on party organizations and militants. By contrast activation is exclusive. Election campaigns finely target specific groups that are “most likely to become active on their behalf and then employ a variety of inducements to stimulate their action”. Activation is also indirect. It relies on opinion leaders, interest groups or influential individuals and uses the dynamics of social networking to convey targeted messages that appeal to those voters who may play a key role in the election. For a large part, Internet strategies deployed by the candidates in our study fit this model well as they aimed at activating specific groups of voters, generating discussions among them and capturing media attention on specific issues. Second, Internet campaign meets an aspiration to new forms of political engagement. By opposition to the traditional political activism, conceived as a permanent, ideological, even sacrificial commitment, new forms of political activism are more flexible, contractual and moral issues oriented (Ion, 1997). Internet campaign has sustained this trend, which started well before the emergence of the web. Through different initiatives (such as the discount rate online membership introduced by the socialist party, or by offering “à la carte” online campaigning tasks to their supporters), candidates made significant efforts to tap into this potential for new activism which, ironically, might accelerate a move toward parties without partisans (Dalton and Wattenberg, 2000). 4. Web usage for political purposes Throughout the campaign, a great majority of French voters cited television as their first or second source of information on presidential election (Table 3). Moreover, it is when the campaign entered the most intense stage, in April 20076, that the primacy of television peaked with 71% of voters citing it as their primary source 6
The first round took place on April 22 and the second round on May 6.
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of information (vs. 59% in previous months). This preeminence did not come as a surprise and reflects a virtuous circle: because they know that television is a popular medium reaching a large portion of the population and almost all social groups, candidates tend to focus their campaign on this medium, and that makes television the main forum for the campaign and leads voters to turn furthermore to TV in order to get news on the election. Compared to television, the Internet was a minor source of information, coming well after all other forms of media. Interestingly enough, it was only after the 2rd round of the election that the Internetwas more frequently cited as a source, which might suggest that the Internet is more of a tool for analyzing (and discussing) election outcomes. Table 16.3 First and second sources of information on the election. Source: Baromètre politique français. September December February April May 2006 2006 2007 2007 2007 Television
81 (58)
83 (59)
82 (59)
88 (71)
83 (61)
Radio
40 (17)
38 (16)
40 (17)
36 (10)
36 (14)
Regional dailies
31 (9)
33 (9)
29 (7)
23 (4)
29 (7)
National dailies
26 (10)
25 (10)
25 (10)
19 (7)
23 (9)
Internet
14 (5)
14 (5)
16 (6)
13 (5)
21 (8)
Free of charge dailies
4 (1)
4 (1)
5 (1)
5 (1)
4 (1)
First row of figures: % of French voters who cited this media as their first or second source of information on the election. Second row (in brackets). the % of
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voters who cited this media as their first source of information on the election.
As of January 20077, a significant share of French Internet users had a form of political activity online: 17% had visited often (or from time to time) a presidential candidate’s web site, 19% a political blog, 17% a web site providing to citizen forums for political discussion or spaces for publishing political comments. Yet, this share remains very modest in comparison to other online activities such as visiting a mainstream media web site (78% of French Internet users did so in January 2007) or a local authority web site (79%). Besides, getting political information online does not mean that one does not use other information sources. The figures somewhat changed during the campaign (Table 16.4). As of April 2007, 26% of French Internet users had visited the web site of a presidential candidate (+9 ppt), but the percentage of Internet users who had visited a political blog remained the same (18%). However a significant increase was observed in the number of Internet users who had watched a political video online – from 12% in January to 21% in April. Table 16.4 shows the profiles of Internet users depending by their web usage. Political factors appear to be strong predictors of visits to political web sites. Among those who visited a candidate’s web site often (or from time to time), 93% were very much or somewhat interested in politics, compare with 61% for Internet users in general and 48% for all French voters. Moreover, attitudes toward the political role of the Internet also impact political web site usage. For instance, Internet users who think that the Internet allows citizens to have a greater influence on politics tend to visit political web sites more frequently than others. The impact of socio-demographics on visiting political web sites is less clear. In comparison to the general population of Internet users, those who visited candidates’ web sites or other political web sites form a much more masculine group and tend to be more slightly higher in social status. But they are neither more educated Data drawn from a SOFRES survey among a sample of 1004 individuals representative of the population of French Internet users over 18 years.
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nor younger; they are actually older (people over the age of 50 made up 43% of all visitors to candidates’ web sites, but only 24% of all Internet users). This possibly surprising finding demonstrates again the impact of the “interest in politics” factor, which is strongly associated to age (the older people are, the more interested in politics they become). In other terms, older people, even though underrepresented among Internet users, tend to visit candidates’ web sites more frequently than their younger counterparts due to their stronger interest in politics. Table 16.4 Socio-demographic and political profiles of Internet users, by web usage (%). Source: IFOP survey among a sample of 987 indivudals representative of French Internet users over 18. General population of French voters
General population of Internet users over 18 yeas
Searched political information on line (44% of Internet users)
Candidates web sites
Watched a political videos on line (19% of Internet users)
Visited political blogs
48
52
50
57
64
54
18-24
11
17
19
19
24
15
25-34
19
23
23
27
22
27
35-49
28
33
30
26
30
30
50 -64
21
20
20
18
18
21
65 and more
21
7
8
10
7
8
69
30
23
27
24
26
Gender (Men)
(26% of Internet users))
(18% of Internet users)
Age
Education Lower than High School Final Exam
The politics of Internet High school exam
College or university
401
14
23
23
26
27
26
General population of French voters
General population of Internet users over 18 yeas
Candidates web sites
47
46
Watched a political videos on line (19% of Internet users) 50
Visited political blogs
18
Searched political information on line (44% of Internet users) 55
(18% of Internet users) 48
(26% of Internet users))
Social class/occupation White collars
13
13
19
13
17
13
Intermediate professionals
19
20
18
20
20
23
Blue collars
22
15
12
15
16
17
Employees Interest in politics (high or moderate)
26
19
15
19
16
14
48
61
67
90
65
88
To investigate furthermore the logics of visiting political and candidates web sites, logistic regressions were conducted (appendix). Model A predicts the use of political web sites in general (including government, parliament, political parties and candidates, political blogs and private web sites about politics) while model B presents the use of candidates web sites alone. Respondents who are interested in politics and those who are interested by political discussions are more likely to visit political and candidate web sites. However, political ideology has not a significant impact. Model A indicates that political web sites are more often used by the oldest group of respondents as seen above. In both models, A and B, it is the middle-age group (35-49) that uses the Internet for both
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purposes less frequently. Surprisingly, less educated respondents declare visiting the political and candidates web sites more often than those with the most education (college and beyond).This runs against the pattern of Internet usage for party web sites as shown by Norris (2003). We cannot offer a clear explanation for this finding, which does not seem to be linked to the overall lower education level of older people.8 Use of traditional media, it has mixed effects on the use of political web sites. Considering print media as an important information source is a positive predictor, radio is neutral, and TV is negative. This supports only in part the idea of the Internet as a complementary source of information to traditional media. Finally, those who primarily use the Internet as an entertainment tool tend to visit political web sites more often (regression not shown). That group consists mostly of young men with low income. They are intensive users of Internet, and somewhat or highly interested in politics. This finding could be important for those who would like to engage young people in political participation through the Internet. However, as we have noticed earlier in our content analysis, candidates’ web sites were not offering much entertainment content. 5. Conclusion and discussion More generally, adoption of ICT by political parties has been found to depend on three broad factors: technological development, sociopolitical environment (including electoral laws, types of elections, and party system structure), and internal variables (such as party resources, incentives, and philosophical orientation) (Nixon et al., 2003: 241). 8
This effect also persists if we insert into both models interactions (education*age). The interactions are statistically insignificant except for two: less than High School Final Exam x age (35-49) and less than High School Final Exam x age (50and more), both with a negative sign (respondents with the education lower than High School Final Exam and in the age groups above 35 are strongly less active on the political web sphere).
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Our study both supports and challenges the normalization theory. As it was demonstrated in the content analysis section, candidates are still using the Internet as a tool echoing the traditional communication schemes. They tend to replicate online the offline modes of campaigning. Candidates mainly use one-way flows of information instead of more extensive two-way and instant Internet communication. Yet, it should be observed that an interesting change in web campaigning has taken place. Some candidates, notably Sarkozy, have made an intensive use of video footage on their web sites and presented their political platforms and campaign in the form of TV stories. Ironically, it seems that, with the development of broadband connection, webmasters and Internet users have (re-) discovered the power and fascination of moving images. It should not come as a surprise that the extensive use of self produced audiovisuals brings a new quality to the substance of political web sites and is appealing to citizens. In most countries, TV images are the primary source of political information and, consequently, the main language of politics (Graber, 2001). This is how most citizens are in contact with their political leaders. The advantage of the Internet here is to allow people to become more autonomous and active in how they watch images. Incidentally, the move toward more audiovisual contents on political web sites raises methodological questions. As new content formats are added to the sites, analytical frames that have been used so far to characterize political web sites are no longer valid. They need to be refined to adapt to new functionalities being developed on the Internet. One can even wonder if it still makes sense to undertake content analysis. With tools such as RSS feeds and the social sharing of bookmarks, web usage patterns are becoming more fluid and less predicable. Users no longer need to enter web sites through their home pages; they may enter through a back door or get to a subsection directly. If we are unable to adequately measure actual web usage, there is no point in pursuing web site content analysis (apart from their symbolic role in the presentation of the self). Regarding web usage patterns, one of our most robust findings,
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in line with existing literature, is that visiting political web sites is strongly driven by interest in politics. However, the impact of other variables is less clear and, for some of them (especially age), our results contradict previous studies (e.g. Norris, 2003), which found that those using the Internet for political purpose are generally young or middle-aged, well educated and affluent people. Quite obviously, as Internet develops, the population of Internet users is changing and becoming more heterogeneous. People who have not necessarily the profile of political activists or who were not especially active in offline or conventional politics may engage in some kind of political activity, starting with visiting political web sites. It seems that the Internet, offering thousands of sites and sustaining various modus operandi (surfing, links, resources sharing, etc.), increases the chance of encountering political information. Whether this is a short-term effect due to the campaign excitement or a longer, more persistent effect remains unclear. Our study also shows that among the Internet users who go online for entertainment, many are interested in politics and inclined to visiting political web sites. This seems to reveal a need for combining entertainment with politics, two spheres usually not well matched in mainstream media. The Internet might be the only place where this combination is possible. It certainly provides interesting functionalities so as to invent new forms of interactions between politics and entertainment. The democratic potential of the Internet is not necessarily in the provision of more information, but perhaps in its capacity to disentangle and bundle existing contents in new fashions.
References Bimber B. (1999). The Internet and Citizen Communication with Government: Does the Medium Matter? Political Communication. Vol. 16, n° 4, pp. 409-
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428. CEVIPOF (2007a). Le Baromètre Politique Français, Series of reports, October 2006 through March 2007. CEVIPOF (2007b). Les Internautes et la Politique, Working paper, January 2007. Chadwick A. (2006). Internet Politics. States, Citizens and New Communication Technologies. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Crouzet T. (2007). Le cinquième pouvoir. Comment Internet bouleverse la politique. Paris, Bourin Editeur. Dalton R. and Wattenberg M. (eds) (2000). Parties without Partisans: Political Change in Advanced Industrial Democracies. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Farmer, R. and Fender, R. (2005). E-parties: Democratic and Republican State Parties in 2000, Party Politics, Vol. 11, pp 47-58. Foot, K.A. and Schneider, S.M. (2002). Online Action in Campaign 2000: An Exploratory Analysis of the U.S. Political Web Sphere, Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, Vol. 46, pp 222-244. Gibson, R. and Ward, S. (2000). A Proposed Methodology for Studying the Function and Effectiveness of Party and Candidate Web Sites, Social Science Computer Review, Vol. 18, pp 301-319. Gibson R. K., Wainer L. and Ward S. (2005) Online participation in the UK: Testing a ‘Contextualised’ Model of Internet Effects. The British Journal of Politics and International Relations. Vol. 7, N° 4, pp. 561-583. Graber D. A. (2001). Processing Politics. Learning from Television in the Internet Age. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Hindman M. (2003). The Liberal Medium? The Political Correlates of Web Use. Paper presented at Annual Convention of the American Political Science Association. Ion J. (1997). La fin des militants? Paris: Les éditions de l’Atelier. Johnson, T.J. and Kaye, B.K. (2003). A Boost or Bust for Democracy?, Press/ Politics, Vol 9, No 8, pp 9-34. Margolis, M. and Resnick, D. (2000) Politics as Usual. The Cyberspace “Revolution”, Sage Publication, Thousand Oaks. Norris, P. (2000) A Virtuous Circle. Political Communications in the Postindustrial Societies, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Norris, P. (2003) “Preaching to the Converted? Pluralism, Participation and Party Websites”, Party Politics, Vol 9, pp 21-45.
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Schier S. E. (2006). Aiming a Riffle and Missing Millions: Campaign Polling in Contemporary Politics. Paper presented at Conference on Polling and Campaigns, Hubert Humphrey Institute, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, February 27. Schweitzer, E. (2005). Election Campaigning Online: German Party Websites in the 2002 National Elections, European Journal of Communication, Vol 20, pp 327–351. Trippi J. (2004). The Revolution will not be Televised : Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything. New York: ReganBooks. Vaccari C. (2008). Surfing to the Elysée: the Internet in the 2007 French Elections, French Politics. Vol. 6, n° 1, April, pp. 1-22. Vedel T. (2005). “Television regulation, policy and independence in France”. In EUMAP (ed.) Television across Europe. Budapest, New-York: Open Society Institute, pp. 637-728. Vedel T. and Cann Y.-M. (2008). Internet. Une communication électorale de rupture? In Perrineau P. (ed.) Le vote de rupture. Les élections présidentielle et législatives d’avril-juin 2007. Paris: Presses de SciencesPo, pp. 51-76. Ward, S. and Vedel, T. (2006). Introduction: The Potential of the Internet Revisited, Parliamentary Affairs, vol 59, pp 210-225. Weare, Ch. and Lin, W. (2000). Content Analysis of the World Wide Web. Opportunity and Challenges, Social Science Computer Review, Vol 8, Fall, pp 272-292. Williams, A. and Trammell, K. (2005). Candidate Campaign E-Mail Messages in the Presidential Elections 2004, American Behavioral Scientist, Vol 49, pp 561-573. Wilson R.F. (2000). The Six Simple Principles of Viral Marketing, [online], http://www.wilsonweb.com/-wmt5/viral-principles.htm [17 March 2006]
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Appendix The content analysis of the candidates’ web sites follow the general methodology suggested by Gibson and Ward (2000). As in Farmer and Fender (2005), the functions and delivery of the web sites were operationalized by creating two indicators: the Functions Score (FS) and the Technical/Delivery Score (TS). Both are based on the presence or absence of each task enumerated by Gibson and Ward. Scores are calculated by ”dividing the number of indicators present by the total number of indicators of that task (…) and then averaged”(Farmer & Fender, 2005, p. 49). Finally the Average Party Web Quotient (PWQ) was calculated by averaging both previous scores PFS and PTS. We do agree with the authors that the major problem of such scoring is the arbitrary selection of indicators as well as the assignment of each indicator to the suitable groups of function or delivery features. However, this system allows for adding and deleting some of the indicators without “significantly affecting the overall score”. The Functions Score is based on five main functions of online performance: information provision, resource generation, networking, promoting participation and campaigning, elements of viral marketing (Williams & Trammell, 2005; Wilson, 2000). The Technical/Deliver Score consists of six components: presentation and appearance (”the glitz factor”), accessibility, navigability, freshness, responsiveness, visibility of the components (for other categorizations look at Schweitzer, 2005; Farmer & Fender, 2005, Norris, 2003). Our research included the content analysis of the first-level domain as well as second and third-level domains that were accessible from the first-level domain (Weare & Lin, 2000, p. 281). Content analysis research was designed and conducted between April 9 and 19, 2007, by Karolina Koc Michalska, research associate at the Center for americas at Sciences Po.
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Logistic regression for “Visiting political web sites”, “Visiting candidates web sites” Visiting political web sites (A)
Visiting candidates web sites (B)
B
Sig.
B
Sig.
age group 35 - 49
-.774
.029
-1.117
.004
age group 50 and more
1.283
.003
.840
.048
< than High School Final Exam
1.493
.002
1.525
.002
2 years of College
.351
.325
.487
.199
Demographic variables
Education
High School Final Exam Gender
Professional situation Retired
.577 .452
.238 .159
.664 .364
.192 .288
-1.093
.017
-.889
.046
Farmers
-1.707
.087
-1.665
.141
Intermediate professionals
-1.050
.005
-.865
.022
Unemployed Social class Artisans
Employee Workers Income
1.931
.092
-1.873 -2.098
.003
.877 .000 .000
1.359
.308
-2.072 -1.412
.029
.602 .001 .011
Low
.880
.091
.576
.297
Somehow high
.521
.175
.947
.021
Somehow low
Information source
.488
.281
.802
.096
Internet is a source of information
.904
.010
.536
.131
Print media is a source of information
1.152
.001
.953
.008
Television is a source of information Radio is a source of information
-.811
-.120
.006 .732
-.120 -.199
.710 .590
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409 Visiting political web sites (A)
Visiting candidates web sites (B)
B
Sig.
B
Sig.
Use Internet as source of entertainment
.214
.032
.123
.246
Use Internet for practical purposes
.224
.149
.226
.168
Internet usage patterns
Use Internet as utility tool Intensive use of Internet
-.438 -.429
.137 .255
-.465 -.535
.141 .165
Interest in politics
1.523
.000
1.315
.002
Liberal opinions on economics
-.160
.603
-.301
.349
French democracy works well
Interest in participation in the political debate
-.243
1.500
.399 .000
-.170
1.502
.569 .000
Political ideology
.242
.111
.304
.053
Constant
-3.871
.000
-4.036
.000
Visited general political web sites
x
x
x
x
V The Internet in Daily Life: we are all consumers and patients
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17 “Consumers Involvement in Organizations in The Era of Social Media: Open Research Questions” Andreina Mandelli and Silvia Vianello
The rise of social media Researchers interested in media and consumer behaviour often associate the recent changes in the Internet world to what is in general considered the main features of post-modern markets. In these market symbols, social rituals and the tribal dimension of consumption are more important than the rational relationship between consumers and products (Cova, 1996; Cova & Cova, 2002). It is worth here remembering with Bruno Latour (1993) that “we have never been modern”, meaning that rituals, social ceremonies and symbolic expressions have always been central in human society. What changes are the forms of these social practices. Internet caused the explosion of the reach and distant richness of human communication (Figure 17.1 & 17.2), because it is a global network of facilitated communication. Internet communication is now a complex bundle of content and interactions. As in all social collectives, the coordination requires a complex interlink of interpersonal/local conversations and distanciated texts (Weick, 1995; Mandelli e Snehota, 2008). Social media on the web (blogs, social networks, communities and other collaborative environments; see Gillin 2008) have increased
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Figure 17.1 Internet Users in the World by Geographic Regions.
Figure 17.2 World Internet Penetration Rates by Geographic Regions.
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Table 17.1 Top Social Networking Sites by Unique Visitors February 2009. Source: comScore, 2009.
Property
Total Internet audience Social networking audience MySpace.com Facebook Classmates Online MyLife.com Buzznet Yahoo Buzz AOL Community LinkedIn AIM Profiles Digg Bebo Tagged DeviantART Twitter hi5 Networks CaringBridge BlackPlanet.com Gaia Online AddThis SodaHead.com Multiply Friendster Xomba Propeller MSN Groups
February February Change 2008 (000) 2009 (%) (000) 185.017 192.187 4 N/A 122.29 N/A 67.957 32.436 13.051 N/A 5.23 2.957 76 3.316 7.96 5.546 N/A 1.704 3.71 340 2.728 1.713 2.03 1.685 407 777 1.139 2.496 967 2.489 2.941
70.303 57.375 16.247 15.345 8.661 7.955 7.261 6.948 6.928 6.917 5.789 5.396 4.77 4.033 3.67 2.483 2.381 2.325 2.02 1.801 1.754 1.689 1.591 1.464 1.327
3 77 24 N/A 66 169 9.513 110 -13 25 N/A 217 29 1.085 35 45 17 38 396 132 54 -32 65 -41 -55
Note: Audience is defined as all persons at U.S. home, work, college, and university locations.
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the importance of the social interactional component of this communication. They support interpersonal and group interactions through different platforms, which have been experiencing astonishing success lately (Table 17.1). On these social platforms the boundaries between news and entertainment, between private and public communication and between solidaristic and commercial practices tend to blur, transforming the web into a complex mix of social and commercial aggregations (“piazze del mercato”, in Mandelli, 1997 and 1998) bounded by interests and passions more than geographical proximity. This collaborative nature of the new social media is the starting point for understanding the new relationship that has been developing between the companies and their customers in the era of social media. Customers as innovators “Consumer involvement in organization” is a strategic new frontier of management, in global and networked markets (Kambil et al., 1999; Nambisan, 2002; Prahalad, et al., 2004). This issue is relevant within the theoretical debate on the shift toward new networked organizations (Powell, Koput, Smith-Doherr,1996; Dyer and Nobeoka, 2000; Schwartz, 2005), but also for its management implications in organizations that face the challenge of the new post-fordist and networked markets (Thomke et al., 2002; Hemetsberger and Pieters, 2001). Literature on strategy, organization, and product development all emphasize the importance of customers in the organizational innovation processes (e.g. Tapscott, 2006). Special mention should be given to the “Customer as Innovator” perspective (Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2000; Dyer and Nobeoka., 2000; Von Hippel et al., 2003; Chesbrough, 2003), with the idea that consumer knowledge is central for new product development and strategic competitiveness. The special value of the knowledge “absorbed” (using the notion of “absorptive capability” proposed by Cohen and Levinthal, 1990)
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and retreived from customers – in this perspective – comes from the possibility of combining this knowledge with the dynamic coporate capabilities in creativity and product development (Powell, Koput, Smith-Doherr,1996; Hargadom et al., 1997; Lee et al., 2006; Cox et al., 2008). Recognized as composed by three different dimensions, classified as knowledge for, from and about customers, the Customers Knowledge Management (e.g. GarciaMurillo et al., 2002) is considered as an ongoing debate among practitioners and academicians. This research program is consistent with the idea of learning organizations (Senge 1990; Edquist et al., 1998), which seeks to entitle organizations with the role of creating the bases for adaptation, in complex markets, through learning. Knowledge, in this approach, is seen as the engine for evolution (Tapscott et al., 2007). Organizational learning is described as an emergent, trialand-error process (Mintzberg, 1996; Rumelt, 1996; McAfee et al., 2006), “situated” in specific and culturally bounded social settings and communities of practice (Lave and Wenger, 1991; Brown & Duguid, 1991; Wenger et al., 2002). Communities of practice can be external, made by customers or other external business partners, who are willing to share their expertise on a relevant topic (Nambisan, 2002; Franke et al., 2003; Eikelmann et al., 2007). The biggest problem with the external communities is believed to be the difficulty for benefiting organizations (Szulanski, 1996) to develop a relational learning process and shared narratives to transfer their customers’ tacit knowledge into an organizational resource (Libert et al., 2007). Costumer involvement in organization and brand communities The role of product brand and brand symbols in consumer culture and behaviour has changed quite substantially in the last decades, as well as our understanding of the complexity of consumption (McCracken, 1986; Carr, 1996; Escalas, Bettman, 2003; Thomson et al., 2005; Arnauld and Thomson, 2005). Consumers are no
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longer regarded as rational decision-makers (Bauer et al., 2002). They subjectively and socially construct their consumption and branding experiences (Algesheimer et al., 2005). They buy symbols, along with and beyond products; and they value brands and products for what they bring to their social life (Cova and Cova, 2002). Brands become cultural icons, symbols of sets of ideas and values (Holt, 2003; Holt et al., 2004). Brands become means for self-expression. Marketing scholars have started to explore “… how consumers actively rework and transform symbolic meanings encoded in advertisements, brands, retail settings, or material goods to manifest their particular personal and social circumstances and further their identity and lifestyle goals. … From this perspective, the marketplace provides consumers with an expansive and heterogeneous palette of resources from which to construct individual and collective identities.” (Arnould & Thompson, 2005, p. 873). With the diffusion of the Internet, consumer communities have started to be considered as a way to facilitate stronger relationships between firms and these new consumers because they become very active online (Schouten et al., 1995; Brown et al., 2002; McAlexander et al., 2002; Dholakia et al. 2004; Sun et al., 2006). These communities develop in virtual and physical communication environments, around common interests related directly or indirectly to brands and products (Belk et al., 2002; Almeida et al., 2006; Feldstein, 2007). Within this perspective we do not distinguish between corporate brand and product brand, since what matters (in a product-related or brand-related consumer community) is the brand that becomes salient for the consumer in his/her encounter with the product (Flavian et al., 2005). The corporate and the product-specific values and symbols overlap (Bagozzi et al., 2006; Szmigin et al., 2005; Muniz & O’Guinn, 2001).
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Table 17.2 Three forms of intentional social action in consumer behavior. Source: Bagozzi and Dholakia, 2001 (unpublished paper). Brand Communities
Definition
Primary focus
Subcultures of consumption “A distinctive subgroup of society that self-selects on the basis of a shared commitment to a particular product class, brand, or consumption activity”(Schouten and McAlexander 1995, p. 43).
Network-based
Small groupbased “A specialized, A group of non-geographically consumers with a bound community, consciously based on a shared social structured set of identity, whose social relationships members act among admirers of jointly in group a brand” (Muniz actions to and O’Guinn 2001, accomplish group p. 412). goals and/or express mutual sentiments and commitments.
Relationship of an individual consumer to a brand, expressed idiosyncratically via identification with the brand and in a sense of personal spirituality and the holding of unique values. The individuals comprising the subculture hold more or less common personal identities but do not share a social identity and do not express their identities as part of a network or group. Individuality and self-transformation are paramount.
Network of relationships among consumers, organized around a brand and promoted typically via such non-faceto-face means as web-based virtual communities (e.g., chat groups), where intellectual and utilitarian support are primary, emotional support secondary.
Face-to-face interactions in small groups, where brandrelated activities intermingle with other social activities and emotional support among members is central.
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Role of psychological variables (e.g., attitudes toward brand, emotional attachment to brand, personal identity)
Egocentric
Weakly to moderately sociocentric
Strongly sociocentric
Role of social variables Self-awareness of membership in subculture or brand community
Very strong
Moderate
Strong
Low
Moderate to high
High
Affective commitment to subculture or brand community
Low
Moderate
High
Evaluative significance of membership in subculture or brand community
Low
Moderate
High
A brand community is defined by Muniz and O’ Guinn (2001) as “a specialized, non-geographically bound community, based on a structured set of social relationships among admirers of a brand” (Muniz & O’Guinn, 2001, p. 412). Bagozzi and Dholakia (2001) propose to distinguish between small groups and networks to conceptualize brand communities. Using the classification scheme proposed by Bagozzi and Dholakia (2001, see Table 17.1), it becomes easier to highlight the differences between brand communities and what we used to define as subcultures of consumption, but also to separate different forms of brand communities. Small-group-based brand communities (e.g. Harley Owners Group) are characterized by close relationship among members, strong group interaction, and a relational focus. Networkedbased community members are geographically and socially
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more dispersed and are more focused on functional exchanges (information and evaluations) among members, within short-term relationships (Dholakia et al., 2004). Usually the second type of communities are believed to be business oriented, while the first type are non profit (Porter, 2004). Brand communities have been intensively studied in consumer marketing, since they are believed to be critical for linking brands and consumers, beyond the traditional one-way and hierarchical communication practices based on advertising. Among existing research efforts are studies of river rafters (Arnould & Price, 1993); the Harley-Davidson subcultures (Schouten & McAlexander, 1995); Harley and Jeep Brandfests (McAlexander and Schouten, 1998); Macintosh, Saab, and Bronco brand communities (Muniz & O’Guinn, 2001); groups of in-line skaters (Cova,1997); Ducati community (Mandelli, 2005), and a Winnebago travelers’ club (Peters, Lee, & Grossbart, 2001). Most of the brand communities observed bring very different benefits to firms: valuable knowledge for new product development and loyal branded relationships in the first place. Studying the communities built around the brands of Ford Bronco, Macintosh, and Saab, Muniz and O’Guinn (2001) placed emphasis on social interactions that differentiate brand communities from individual-centred subcultures, even though they share important characteristics (e.g. shared ethos, acculturation patterns, status hierarchies). Shared consciousness, rituals, and a sense of moral responsibility is typical of communities. A sentiment of “we-ness” connects members to one another, beyond geographic boundaries, building a sense of belonging, a social identity and a collective sense of difference from those outside of the community (Muniz & O’Guinn, 2001). For Muniz and O’Guinn (2001), rituals and traditions are the “vital social processes by which the meaning of the community is reproduced and transmitted within and beyond the community.” The building blocks of this social brand meaning construction are (i) the shared consumption experiences with the brand and (ii) social narratives. “Storytelling is an important means of
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creating and maintaining community. Stories based on common experiences with the brand serve to invest the brand with meaning, and meaningfully link community member to community member” (Muniz & O’Guinn, 2001). This brand narrative includes the brand company, since brand stories may emanate from, but also influence, commercial texts and advertising. Through these stories and conversations consumers negotiate brand identity, often including adversarial nuances and challenges to the firm’s sense of ownership on the brand (Kozinets, 2004). This becomes very clear with the help of the description of Saab and Apple communities’ dynamics by Muniz and O’Guinn, 2001: “Saab drivers like to discuss Saab ads that make the link between Saab airplanes and cars. Apple members like to use the phrase “For the Rest of Us,” ad copy from the introductory campaign for the Apple Macintosh. This ad copy also ends up being part of the lingua franca of the brand community. Brand community members negotiate communal interpretation, further blurring the perhaps illusory line between writer (marketer) and reader (consumer). Brand community members are aware that these brands are made by corporations. At one level this is obvious, and at another deserves some further reflection. In the case of both Saab and Apple brand communities, corporate identity and ethos matter. With Saab, members feel that a more pure, even pristine, small Swedish company with a good consumer ethic was being taken over by a big American corporation (GM) known for its bigness and, in their view, incompetence and poor consumer ethic. In reaction, some brand community members spin out myths regarding how they think GM is largely “leaving Saab alone,” but were still uneasy about it. The phrase “pre-GM Saab” is common, as is a communal nostalgia. Similarly, Apple community members celebrate their anti-establishment roots. Most see John Scully’s resignation as CEO as what led Apple astray: “the guy was way too corporate, he wasn’t Apple.” The preservation of what the brand is and stands for is important to the brand community. Members often feel that they have a better understanding of the brand than the manufacturer does. In fact, brand community members feel that the brand belongs
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to them as much as it does to the manufacturer.” Communities are also characterized by shared moral responsibility – people’s sense of solidarity with other members of the community. These values support group cohesion and coordination, since they incentivate inter-consumer assistance. “One of the ways this assistance manifests itself is through actions to help fellow community members repair the product or solve problems with it, particularly involving specialized knowledge acquired through several years of using the brand. … In the Saab and Bronco brand communities, some of the assistance community members provide to one another includes information on recommended dealerships and parts suppliers, as well as sources for technical information. In some ways, the information provided by brand communities is more useful to consumers than information provided by marketers due to the lack of commercial self-interest. This again represents a “blurring of the marketer-consumer role boundary” (Muniz and O’Guinn, 2001). Communities construct their life and social identity through members’ social practices (McAlexander et al., 2001). Consumers participate in this symbolic construction, bringing their knowledge and rational expectations but also their individual and social emotions and dreams. In the Ducati brand community, hosted on the Ducati institutional website, the Ducatisti (the Ducati motorbike fans), exchange information about where to find mechanical parts for their bikes, but also discuss about what they think of the Ducati bikes’ performance in the races and championships, or plan trips and search for fellows. Ducatisti feel they are part of the “Ducati world” even when they do not own a Ducati bike and are sure they will never afford to own one in the future. They ARE the “Ducati world” because they build the rituals and the symbols around which the Ducati brand is constituted (Mandelli, 2005). McAlexander et al. (2002) propose to go beyond the conceptualization of brand community as the locus of the relationships between brand users and their relationships to the brand itself as a repository of meaning; they suggest abandon the
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vision of the brand community as exclusively a customer-customerbrand triad as in Muniz and O’Guinn (2001). A richer understanding of brand communities include the customer-customer-brand triad elemental brand community relationship within a more complex web of relationships: between brand community members and their common culture, their branded possessions and institutions that own and manage the brand. Brand community is “… customer-centric, … the existence and meaningfulness of the community inhere in customer experience rather than in the brand around which that experience revolves” (McAlexander et al., 2002). What counts is relationships and experiences. In fact, brand communities are not homogeneous organisms; they are plural bodies, made by different small aggregations and identities. Even in very large communities people interact regularly with only very few people (McAlexander et al., 2002). Information and idea exchanges very often do not emerge from an interest in the product itself but from an interest in the group and its symbols and rituals. Communities have an active interpretive function, transforming brand identity in a socially negotiated group identity, since “online consumers are much more active, participative, resistant, activist, loquacious, social and communitarian than they have previously been thought to be” (Kozinets, 1999, p. 261). This is very consistent with Cova’s (1997) assertion that “the link is more important than the thing” (p. 307). In Cova’s description, post-fordist consumer markets are made by tribes, networks “… of heterogeneous persons in terms of age, sex, income, etc. - who are linked by a shared passion or emotion; a tribe is capable of collective action, its members are not simple consumers, they are also advocates.” A tribe is not necessary a brand community, since its members are not necessarily connected around a specific brand. In Cova and Cova’s (2002) account, “society resembles a network of societal micro-groups, in which individuals share strong emotional links, a common subculture, a vision of life. Nowadays, these micro-groups develop their own complexes of
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meanings and symbols and form more or less stable tribes, which are invisible to the categories of sociology.” These tribes challenge the traditional notions of markets, consumption and brands, since their members can be commercially targeted only through community-based value-propositions, not products. Products have value only for their linking potential and their meaning. “In fact, the (re)construction or (re)possession of meanings through shared experiences and their enactment through rituals is the most potent form of maintaining tribal identity in our postmodern societies” (Cova & Cova, 2002). The negotiation of brand meaning Firms are supposed to benefit from launching or entering in relationships with existing consumer communities, around the social imagery of their brands, to fulfil business goals: increased sales, positive word-of-mouth, more effective market segmentation, increased website traffic, stronger brands; higher advertising and transaction fee revenue; better product support and service delivery (Geissler, 2001; Brown et al., 2003; Yao et al., 2003; Porter, 2004). The sense of belonging, a social identity and the collective sense of being different from others not in the community (Baumeister et al., 1995; De Cremer, 2002; De Cremer et al., 2003) are the basis of the social construction of brand identity. This sense of difference and oppositional brand loyalty, stemming from a sense of “legitimacy of cause”, builds what the brand is and what the brand is not, along with what the members are and are not. This socially negotiated meaning of the brand is strictly interlinked with experience and knowledge of the product (Muniz & O’Guinn, 2001). Creation of social meaning is, indeed, the core of the new relationship between firms and consumers. Consumers construct their life, not only brands, through symbols, and they bring to this brand-centred social sensemaking their history and their values, which are not necessarily consistent with the dominant and
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commercial narratives (Kozinets, 2004). Within this perspective it becomes easier to understand why even adversarial consumerism can be included in the organizational discourse, since it can become part of the brand-consumer conversation. Open research questions Social media use and the increasingly active role of consumers in digital markets have fostered ideas about a kind of consumption revolution, due to which there might be a shift of power from brands to consumers. Consumers are supposed to have the option to do better consumption choices, considering the information available on the network and the access to other consumers’ suggestions and opinions, reducing the power and control of brands (Zureik & Mowshowitz, 2005). This idea, that we label “empowered consumer hypothesis, depicts a future of consumption and markets in line with the so-called frictionless markets perspective on digital economy (Brynjolfsson & Smith, 1999). There are authors (e.g. Weber, 2007) who state that social media and brand communities will reinforce this direction of change. We think this hypothesis disregards important market frictions and power dynamics, due to information asymmetries and relational costs (the new transaction costs in digital economy, as termed in Mandelli, 2003). It is however worth exploring (though critically) the so-called empowered consumer hypothesis because, beyond the simplistic frictionless markets perspective, there is the need to study the impact of new information processing mechanisms and social media use on the power relationship between brands and consumers and the new forms of this relationship. Communities construct their life and social identity through dynamic processes, embedded in rich social contexts. Consumers participate to this symbolic construction bringing their knowledge and rational expectations but also their individual and social emotions and dreams. But the link between this rich social context and brand building does not seem so simple to researchers and practitioners yet (e.g. Kozinets, 1999; Nonnecke et al., 2006);
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as Bagozzi and Dholakia (2002) write: “Much effort in the last five years or so has gone toward creating virtual communities for commercial purposes. Early simplistic thinking of ‘build and they will come’ has given way to a less obtrusive, hands-off ‘nurture and cultivate’ approach – but even here, the focus of marketers has been on keeping the commercial topic (discussion regarding the product) as the underlying focus of the community. … such an emphasis may be somewhat myopic and misdirected. The group, not the product must be the object of nurturance, for virtual community builders” (Bagozzi and Dholakia, 2002, p. 18). It seems that understanding brand communities requires a new approach even to the definition of products and markets if consumers buy the social meaning of products instead of products per se. A new approach to markets defined as mediated conversations is the first step proposed by Mandelli and Snehota in 2008 for trying to address this new framework for explaining economic exchanges in markets. In this perspective markets appear as loosely-coupled organizations,self-reproducing by means of conversations, hyperconversation and highly distanciated metaconversations. Markets emerge from a narratively structured continuous iteration of text-conversations translations, that drives a scaling up and differentiation of mediation, using different generalized symbolic media and metalanguages. This new ontology of markets can have significant epistemological and methodological implications, particularly with regard to a new understanding of the relationship between consumers and brands. It could allow to study consumersto-consumers conversations, conceived at the same level of the customer-brand interaction, without giving up the idea that markets are structured by power. Another underexplored issue regards the influence of the so-called internal organization on the external (or enlarged) organization. It is relevant to understand how the knowledge/vision that emerges from internal organizational practices enters the life of consumer communities influencing the framing of consumers’ discussions and contributions. On the brand identity side it is a matter of relationship between formal brand communication (advertising)
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and this consumer-driven social sense-making. Knowledge and identity emerge from a complex dialectics between consumer narratives and corporate communication. This area of study has not been particularly active. It seems that neither consumer behavior nor communication scholars have found much interest in exploring the web of influences between firm-directed brand communication and brand community practices. We need to look into the issue if we want to understand the complex dialectics between control and emergence in the new “meaning-negotiating” forms of branding.
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18 Health and the Internet: Autonomy of the User Rita Espanha and Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva
1. Health and Media in the Information Era Modern societies are characterised, amongst other features, for having a high information diffusion and circulation. Information access and distribution are growing and the ways in which this information and knowledge democratization occur are scattered and diverse. Simultaneously, our societies are places where relationships among people, and among people and institutions, organisations and various systems are diverse, intense, and complex, proceeding mostly from information and communication technologies and their penetration in everyday life. Manuel Castells (2003a) focuses on what the information and communication technologies represent in modern western societies, relative not only to technologic transformations, but also to social organization and fundamental structural changes in societies. Those technologies connect the world and shape what Castells calls the “network society”. Images, sounds, wealth and power flow through ICT’s; they are dynamic and are at the base of the information and knowledge flow, making a new society model possible. A new model, where generating, processing and transmitting information becomes fundamental both for productivity and power sources. Information and communication technologies and the networks they generate, reveal the globalization process trends and also a
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reconfiguration of time and space. Through Internet – the most revolutionary information and communication technology in contemporary societies – we live the experience of being able to move through virtual space and time, allowing us the possibility of new ways of doing, being, and living in the present world, inducing deep changes in all domains of human action. But information and communication technologies also provide autonomy to individuals, involvingt their social and individual background, favouring a disposition to escape from traditional control, enabling individuals to face contradictions in modern society, without forgetting the relevance of networks in constructing new social movements, something possible only in a context of a wider use of information and communication technologies (Castells, 2003b). Therefore, the question to be addressed is what is the role of daily information and communication practices for individual health management? Individual health, and its daily management, are never more intimately tied to information as they are today. Great amounts of health information are available from multiple sources – whether professional specialists, public or private institutions or patient and/or consumers groups – through a multiplicity of information channels, from media to local or interpersonal base, interacting with doctors and other health professionals, family, friends, work colleagues, etc. This constant information flow encourages the individual to be responsible for his own as well as his family’s health (Kivits, 2004). In this framework of general health information access, the Internet has played a fundamental role. In the United States, according to WIP1 data, health information search is the seventh most common activity (50.6% of Internet users who claim to have accessed health information in the last year). Simultaneously, the constant presence of health related media coverage, on television or newspapers, leads us toward the need to build an analytical framework that links medical and 1
The Digital Future Report (2004), Annenberg School Centre for the Digital Future, WIP – World Internet Project, University of Southern California
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sociology studies with media studies. Medical information analysis is often confined to the relationship/ communication between doctor and patient. An “informed patient” concept begins to emerge in several debates, bringing to light the issue of doctors’ authority being “challenged” by their patients who are increasingly informed and aware of their own medical conditions. Even health promotion campaigns recognize that the use of media is influencing the “audiences” attitudes, their beliefs and behaviours regarding health issues (Kivits, 2004). The role of media in this context gives us a new research perspective, in understanding daily health information reception and perception scopes, where media presence prevails. At the same time, Internet growth as a health information source grants us an opportunity to analyse the growing importance attached to information in individuals’ daily life. Using Portugal as an example, and focusing on the “Network Society in Portugal” study (Cardoso & et al., 2005b), it is possible to acknowledge that, on average, 18% of Portuguese Internet users search for health information, although the number varies according to generations and academic qualifications. Amongst individuals aged 16 to 26 health search is 13.6%, as from 27 years old rates reach more than 20% of Internet users. Between subjects over 51 years old and the ones aged from 39 to 51 years old it is respectively the 8th and 9th subject most searched. This kind of information brings awareness to the importance of health issues in modern societies and in our daily practices, and to the need of understanding the use of media in the health domain, paying special attention to the relationship between public, media and health care providers. Furthermore, it is important to understand the use of communication strategies to inform and influence individual and collective decisions regarding health. Grasping the demands in health communication necessitates a multidimensional approach, which implies an empirical research on health communication, understanding health communication theories, risk and uncertainty communication and even ethical and legal issues. Since it is not possible to cover health communication
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themes leaving aside concepts such as “Information Society”, “Knowledge Society”, “Digital Economy”, “Virtual Reality” or “Cyberspace” and “Network Society” we must focus our attention on the meaning and consequences of these concepts and its appropriation in daily life. Data gathered in Portugal in 2003 show that the Internet has begun to arise as an alternative to traditional media. Questioned about what to do when they or someone else in their family become ill, most users (63.9%) - apart from an initial contact with their doctor - reported that they would get information by their own means, while this percentage is 52.6% for non users (Cardoso & et al., 2005b). The first mean used for health information search use in Portugal is talking to friends or family (44.2%), followed by reading specialised magazines (30.7%) and Internet (15.9%) (Cardoso & et al., 2005b). In comparison, the Internet non-users resort much more to talking to friends or family (61.6%); less to reading specialised magazines (18.3%); go more to the pharmacy (12.7%) and to other doctors or specialists (5%) (Cardoso & et al., 2005b). Two profiles are outlined: one of users resorting more to options specialised on reading or technological supports; and the other represented by the non-users, preferring personal contacts whether with friends, a pharmacist or doctors and general practitioners. Complementary information about media and roles of the Internet on health is obtainable through analysis of how the Internet users get informed when a new drug is prescribed. Those claiming to have read the information leaflet reach 80.6%, while only 9.1% of them actually use the Internet. Therefore it seems that using the Internet is the choice when it comes to look for information about diseases, but not when taking a new drug is necessary. However, reading medicine information leaflets is preferred and done by less 10% of individuals by non users case (70.1%) (Cardoso & et al., 2005b). Closely connected to the network societies problematic and a relevant health component in contemporary societies is the issue of understanding how the Internet and media contribute to subjects’
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autonomy. An autonomy project is, as suggested by Castells (2003a), a person’s statement of his/hers own thinking and acting capabilities according to his/her own standards, values and efforts. In Portugal, the individuals’ body control project reveals a pursuit for their own health control and autonomy regarding specialists and health institutions, being empirically defined as reading medicine leaflets and searching for complementary information sources. It is, nevertheless, important to notice that this kind of autonomy project presents clearly a higher occurrence amongst women, a distinct tendency in all age groups, although less clear in older people, since additional medical information search is rare amongst this last group. The apparent lack of interest of elderly persons in searching medical information, enabling them to understand information given by doctors, is certainly not connected to the absence of major health problems, a plausible argument to explain equal behaviour amongst younger men. On the contrary, this may be the result of a lack of schooling resources relevant to interpret information eventually given by other sources. Actually, the effectiveness of a “body control project” depends clearly on the possibility of using resources directly linked to longer schooling. Individuals with higher academic qualifications are the ones, regardless of their age or sex, presenting more likely to access and interpret alternative medical information sources. Those who do not have significant schooling end up being in greater dependency regarding medical and health specialists, essentially by having difficulties in controlling and validating information. They become more vulnerable to indications given by any other agents. Simultaneously, in modern western societies, there’s a general confidence in medical practices and treatments with an increasing need for information regarding scientific medicine - often along with a certain disenchantment concerning traditional scientific medicine. In this context, there’s an approach of medicine to the social domain and at the same time a social approach to medical practice, proceeding from access. Do medical perspectives about health, disease and the body still dominate the public and private speeches and daily social practices
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amongst the population? Are people problems still screened through the scientific medical eye, social problems being reduced to biomedical sciences rationality? According to Fernando Ruivo (1987:130), the medical profession,and the speech doctors have an important prominence in society, due mostly to medicine professionals’ success, its neutrality and social independence. During the XVIII century, medicine made the transition from caring about soul salvation to caring about body health, this transition process was described by Foucault. The author tells us that the years before, and immediately after, the French Revolution saw the birth of two great myths, whose subjects and polarities are opposite. Those were the myth of a nationalized medical profession, organised the clergy way and invested, at health and body levels, of powers similar to the ones clergy had over souls; and the myth of complete disease vanishing, in a society free from commotions and passionless, brought back to its original health (Foucault, Michel (1967) ‘The Discourse of History’ in (1989) Foucault Live, New York: Semiotexte, 11-33. quoted by Ruivo, 1987:130). Therefore, medicine has been acting as a moral authority that legitimates its intervention in the creation of ideas and values in society. A doctor is surrounded by prestige at the people’s eye – “Only medical profession is, therefore, qualified to formally speak about health and disease. Its exclusive cognitive base, coded and scientific knowledge constitute a starting point for a public admission of the professional good it brings…” (Ruivo, 1987:136). Similar views can be found in Noémia Lopes analysis, where is stated that the professional autonomy issue represents the domain where power terminology – in which professional strategies and trajectories are inscribed – takes on a major relevance. (Lopes, 2006: 109). Nevertheless, if we consider the “informed patient” concept by Kivits (2004), access to up-to-date and trustworthy health and healthcare information can be a goal shared by politicians, health professionals and health mobilization groups, beyond individual citizens, because all contribute towards the autonomy processes. Given that autonomy relations are built with third parties, it is
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fundamental in the health field to understand how doctors, in different specialties and contexts (medical centres or hospitals, public and private practices) deal with this interaction with different publics, and how they manage their own professional autonomy, resorting to new communication and information technologies, particularly Internet, in their clinical practice. Individual autonomy may be seen as self-determination, the ability to build up goals and own values, freedom to choose and plan, and to act according to these values and objectives. Autonomy is linked to a notion of freedom as self-determination, as a possibility of choice or lack of interference, and also to the concept of individualism and emancipation (Singly, 2005). According to Singly (2005), individualism is normally conceived from a market point of view and the struggle of one against each other, looking at the individual as motivated by rationality rather than ethics, as selfish and indifferent. But individualism also represents representative democracy and human rights. In this sense, individualism is not far from the social, since “emancipated individualism” is a form of humanism. An individual is built in the relationship with others; it is an individual journey in a collective context. Social recognition, the recognition of “others”, is a condition to individuality, autonomy and the ability to have his own world (Singly, 2005). Colombo (1993) considers new media as all means of communication, representation and knowledge with digitalization in its content, having multimedia and interactivity dimensions. Therefore media, and new media in particular, have a central role in building autonomy projects, as they have the capacity to provide fundamental information and knowledge for this process to be fulfilled, and are also able to become something more than just novelty in technological terms. Those are also technologies simultaneously promoting communication and new social and economic organization models, creating new audiences, new public and users, possessing a new language and new contents, facilitating new ways of knowledge dissemination (Cardoso, 2002). But new media can, and must, also be defined by changes they
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induce or produce from its diffusion and use. According to Manuel Castells (2004), technologies allow new forms of production organization, access to knowledge, economy and, consequently, new forms of culture. They lead us to a different time and space management in our connection networks, between work and organizations, between friends, between the state and its citizens, or between nations. Apart from that, it is also possible to state that these new media are introducing new audiences (with new uses) through changes in social appropriation and technology diffusion processes. According to Katz (2006), concerning new technologies in the health context, there are unresolved empirical questions, such as health information systems efficiency, the way people in different socio-demographic sectors really use them and use effects in different systems - as new information and communication technologies are developed, so are new e-health uses explored. Katz (2006) points out that information health system advances require not only empirical data, about each system specific reception by its users, but also a broader frame which understands the logic of personal interest and cultural foundations affecting each system in a wider context. Katz (2006) defined this perspective as syntopic (rejecting dystopic and utopic perspectives about information and communication social uses and consequences), an emphasizing how people, groups, organizations and societies adopt, use and reinvent technologies (Katz, et al. , 2004: 294). Whatever the information systems and technologies used, decentralized and interactive e-health uses seem to be playing an outstanding role in health care, adapting to the dominant technology use in the society and culture it is inscribed in. Identifying and understanding individual and professional autonomy processes in the health domain in a network society from media use and consumption, especially through ICT, theoretical resources and methodological approaches need to be developed. several sociologic fields of analysis intersect, ranging from medical and health sociology to communication sociology. As referred to by Graça Carapinheiro (2006), when “health
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sociology” designation is used, we must consider the notions of disease, its stereotypes and stigmas, proper of contemporary societies, where medicine became one of the most powerful social control instruments. Therefore, in this context, following the authors’ proposal in which sociology that considers health issues should be designated as health, disease and medicine sociology (in its various dimensions and levels) it is important to clarify that the approach presented here focused on the analytical dimensions of “Health Communication” (as defended by Ronald Rice and James Katz2), where the Internet and television assume privileged dimensions. When addressing the “Health Communication” approach we simply focus our attention on the communication strategies study used to inform and influence individual and collective decisions involving health issues and autonomy promotion, which necessarily connects health and communication fields in the sociology domain. During the research here described and discussed, two analytical dimensions were considered: 1) Patients and their autonomy construction in the health context through information and communication access; 2) Internet as health diffusion tools of information and communication. It is precisely in connection between these two dimensions and their knowledge deepening that it is possible to understand the importance of autonomy processes in contemporary societies, which must be understood as a statement of an individual’s ability to think and act according to his own standards, values and efforts, but also as an individuals empowerment regarding the health 2
Report, for example, to Rice and Katz, 2001 or to Katz, Rice and Acord, 2006. Other authors, like Kivitz (2004) use the “health information” concept, but in an Internet information search context, i.e., only from the user side (of information search) and not as much on the available contents side (information or communication offer). Therefore the empirical theory approach being considered, from the “health communication” concept, most fitted to the research developed within the doctor’s degree plan presented here.
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system, presenting himself before traditional systems “armed” with information found in the Internet, or acquired while watching a television series. He is a subject empowered by communication and information technologies, if empowerment is understood as in Friedmann’s concept (1996), i.e., individual autonomy in decision making, this ability depending always on information access. In this paper we will focus on the questions related directly to the internet use for health purposes. 2. Searching for health contents on Internet Internet Users and Health What kind of information do users search for on the Internet? What do they expect to find? And what would they like to find? Does anything change in their perception of health issues, in relation to the formal health system, and in their contacts with health professionals? Where does that change come from? And in what direction, if it does happen, is it going? As was said before, health information research practices have been undergoing deep changes, due to the emergence of new information and communication technologies, namely Internet, but also television, giving contents another kind of solutions in terms of speed, diversity and accessibility regarding more traditional means of research on the health field. Therefore it is fundamental, first of all, to understand the role the Internet takes on for medical and health information research in the Portuguese society as an example, considering that 35.5% of Portuguese had direct and regular access to the web in 2006. Data presented at such point are the results of the survey among the Portuguese population about ICT and Health – applied to a representative sample of the Portuguese population3. The survey makes it possible to identify social behaviour patterns and observe whether the Internet and television contribute to transforming The presented results were gathered by a questionnaire survey to a representative sample of Portuguese population, aged 8 or more, living in mainland Portugal, in the scope of a study about the Network Society in Portugal 2006 (CIES-ICTE), coordinated by Gustavo Cardoso (Cardoso, Espanha and Gomes, Network Society in Portugal 2006). Fieldwork was carried out during the 1st semester of 2006. In the case of specific questions about health and media the sample was reduced through a filter to the age group of 15 or more.
3
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this behaviour and in what conditions, i.e., understanding how Portuguese population deals with health issues and what is the role of ICT this relation. About 1/5 of Portuguese population aged 15 or more, claiming to be an Internet user, uses this platform to get information about medical and/or health issues. It was then possible to see that age groups where the proportion of this type of practice is higher are not exactly those who would have more health problems in principle but those who have more skills in using this kind of technological tools. Table 18.1 Use of the Internet in Portugal to search for medical/health information. Source: Network Society in Portugal survey, CIES-ISCTE, 2006.
% 19.6 79.7 0.7 100.0
Yes No N/A Total (n=589)
As seen on the following table individuals aged 25 to 44 are those claiming to use Internet to research for health related information. While we go further on the age groups this proportion tends to decrease, not because, as mentioned before, these persons do not have health concerns, but because they do not use this information support. Table 18.2 Internet use in Portugal to search for medical/health information according to age groups.Source: Network Society in Portugal survey, CIES-ISCTE, 2006. Age groups 16-17 years old
Yes
No
N/A
Total (n=589)
%
%
%
%
10.2
89.8
0.0
100.0
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Yes
No
N/A
Total (n=589)
%
%
%
%
18-24 years old
18.1
80.7
1.2
100.0
25-34 years old
24.1
74.7
1.2
100.0
35-44 years old
24.8
75.2
0.0
100.0
45-54 years old
11.7
88,.3
0.0
100.0
55 and more Total
16.6 19.7
83.4 79.6
0.0 0.7
100.0 100.0
This kind of research is done more by women (22% of women claim these practices) than by men (17.6% of men). At the same time individuals with a conjugal experience (married or living together) present slightly higher rates to the total of the global distribution over this question.
Table 18.3 Internet use frequency in Portugal to search for medical/health information. Source: Network Society in Portugal survey, CIES-ISCTE, 2006. %
Several times a week
2.2
Several times a year
22.1
Several times a month Once in a while N/A
Total (n=115)
16.9 56.7 0.1
100.0
With regard to the frequency of using the Internet to search for health information, the previous table shows clearly that the majority of those claiming this practice do it just once in a while, sporadically and irregularly (56.7%). Around 1/5 affirms searching for this kind of information several times a year (22.1%). Having even lower rates are those doing it several times a month (16.9%) and with a very residual proportion among those who claim to do
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it several times a week (2.2%). Even if it is interesting to understand what proportion of Portuguese population has this kind of practice and how regularly, it is also relevant to identify if the information they search is for themselves or for others, considering what was mentioned before. The majority of Portuguese look for medical and health information for themselves (83.1%), followed by a significant percentage doing it for someone close or in the family (66.2%). Having rates under 10% are the options to search for health information for work colleagues (8.9%) and also, having nonetheless some expression, for unknown persons whose request comes through friends or acquaintances (7.9%). Table 18.4 Medical/health information search recipients in Portugal. Source: Network Society in Portugal survey, CIES-ISCTE, 2006. Yes (n=115) (%) For himself
83.1
For someone close/family
66.2
For work colleagues
8.9
For unknown persons, whose request is made through friends and acquaintances
7.9
These rates reveal in some ways how the doctor-patient relationship has been reshaped. Not only because a great majority of Portuguese searching for medical and health information use the Internet to access more information for themselves, but also because they are doing it for others, with the emergence of a new information trend for a third party, which would not be possible in the personal relation with doctors, perhaps not for family, but certainly concerning strangers.
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Table 18.5 Medical/health information search reasons in Portugal. Source: Network Society in Portugal survey, CIES-ISCTE, 2006. Yes (n=115) (%) Because information access is fast
86.0
Because it is easy to find and search for information
82.0
Because there is a great amount of information available
81.6
Because information is free
78.4
Because research is private/confidential
56.7
Because I have the need to resort to several information sources
48.9
When it comes to search reasons, it is worth highlighting that main reasons presented concern, precisely, potential advantages of using a technology like the Internet: fast access, easy research and available information amount. Another valued aspect is the fact of being fundamentally free information. In his qualitative analysis, Kivitz (2004) presents as one of the reasons for the Internet health information searches the fact that doctors do not give patients the answers they need. As a health information source, the Internet offers a wide variety of sources and forms of health related information, as seen above, from commercial sites selling fitness products to science and medical magazines, peer-reviewed, with articles based on science research and news of the medicine field. Those searching on Internet seldom do it from just one source, general and commercial searches merge with medical searches at the same level, being given by the user the same importance, turning Internet consultation in the health field a very peculiar experience to the “informed patient”. On the following table it can be observed:
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Yes (n=115) (%) Search engine
84.5
Internet sites recommended by someone
43.2
Internet sites referenced on magazine articles, newspapers or books
37.8
Other means
9.6
Links from other sites or Internet advertisement
25.7
A great majority of searches about the health field are made using search engines, not other communication mediators. So, there is no mediation between the user and the information itself, which is personalised by health professionals, journalists or close persons. However the user faces difficulties stemming from this lack of mediation, the main one being referred to as “wanting more information and not knowing where to find it” (35.5%) or even “not having time to find all the required information” (31%). information costs are not perceived as a limitation, since the user looks mainly for free health information. On the following table major constraint forms found by users during health research are presented: Table 18.7 Medical/health information search characteristics in Portugal. Source: Network Society in Portugal survey, CIES-ISCTE, 2006. Yes (n=115) (%) Wanting more information and not knowing where to find it
35.5
Not having time to find all the required information
31.0
Making a great effort to find required information
20.9
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Getting worried about found information quality
14.1
Not having energy to find all the required information
12.9
Getting frustrated during the information search process Information having an unbearable price
10.8 3.1
To address the issue of which type of the Internet site has more users’ research on health matters.The questionnaire applied enabled respondents to short-list as most researched three main types which are general health sites, public health information sites (ex: gripe. net or saudepublica.web) and pharmaceutical companies sites. Less researched are online newspapers and non-scientific publications sites, non commercial medical organisations sites and commercial medical organisations sites. As for the most researched themes on health matters, it is possible to highlight everything concerning diseases and treatments description, specific insurance programs or health plans and Hospitals. Less researched themes are retiring homes or residences and, curiously, support groups’ information. Table 18.8 Medical/health information themes Internet search in Portugal. Source: Network Society in Portugal survey, CIES-ISCTE, 2006. Yes (n=115) (%) Diseases and treatments description
11.4
Specific insurance programs or health plans
8.3
Hospitals
8.2
National health system
7.9
Alternative medicine treatments
6.0
Doctors
5.8
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Yes (n=115) (%) Medical and scientific literature
5.4
Medical or health products (glasses, hearing devices, prosthesis, etc.)
4.2
Experimental treatments
4.0
Prescription drugs
3.9
Support groups information
2.5
Nursing-home or other healthcare provider institution
1.9
Retiring homes or residences
1.5
Concerning most researched information on health issues, consider the following table:
Table 18.9 Medical/health information search on Internet in Portugal. Source: Network Society in Portugal survey, CIES-ISCTE, 2006. Yes (n=589) (%) Fitness and physical exercise
16.2
Nutrition and eating disorders (ex: obesity, anorexia, bulimia, etc.)
11.7
HIV/AIDS
11.2
Drug, alcohol abuse and drug addiction
9.7
Sexually transmitted diseases
9.6
Allergies
9.4
Cancer
8.5
Depression or anxiety
7.3
Flews and colds
6.9
Heart diseases
6.8
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Birth control methods (ex: pill, condom, IUD, etc.)
6.1
Headache
5.9
Beauty and well-being (ex: plastic surgery, silicone implants, beauty products)
5.7
Childhood typical diseases
4.7
Diabetes
4.6
Osteoporosis
4.3
Fertility and pregnancy
4.2
Alzheimer
4.0
Mental diseases
4.0
Sexual capacity and performance
4.0
Asthma
3.9
Backache
3.9
Next day pill and voluntary interruption of pregnancy
3.8
Family planning
3.6
Insomnia
3.5
Prostate diseases
2.7
Menopause
2.5
Toothache
2.2
Andropause
1.7
Incontinence
1.5
Arthritis
1.5
The most searched information concerns Fitness and physical exercise (16. 2%), Nutrition and eating disorders (11.7%), HIV/ AIDS (11.2%), Drug, alcohol abuse and drug addictions (9.7%) and Sexually transmitted diseases (9.8%). This resonates with the discussion by Graça Carapinheiro, mentioned in the introduction,
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whether we should talk about health or disease sociology, and which are the privileged themes in contemporary societies, so medically defined. There must also be a reference to the importance of crossing age groups and health researches. Most appreciated themes here are also the ones most valued by users’ lower age groups searching for health information on Internet, the ones that are also the biggest users of this platform, showing a kind of “generation divide” in the “informed patient” concept. 3. From Basic Connected Citizen to Networked Citizen We will now identify and characterize the Internet users who access online information about health issues into the e-ready citizen to Network Society (Lupiáñez-Villanueva, 2009), on a global scale, using a selection of Internet users from the World Internet Project database 2007. Due to the amount of data and the amount of Internet activities collected in the database, non-hierarchical K-means cluster analysis was carried out to develop a typology of the Internet users to accommodate citizens according to their respective stages of development of their digital competences. This typology of Internet users could be understood as an e-readiness index to the Network Society. Four clusters were defined by using 30 variables (see Table 18.10) that significantly (p<.001) differ. The first cluster is likely to be at the bottom of the Internet uses while the fourth cluster is likely to be leading almost all online activities. Between them, two different clusters were defined as advanced uses although they are clearly behind the fourth cluster. The differences between second and the third clusters are not related to the number of online activities but the kind of online activities performed on the Internet.
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Table 18.10 A typology of Internet users1 (Non-hierarchical K-means cluster analysis, final clusters centres). Clusters 1. Basic Connected Citizen n= 2642 (31.9%)
2. 3. 4. Advanced Advanced Networked Connected Connected Citizen and Social and n=1292 oriented Individual (15.6%) Citizen oriented n=1666 Citizen (20.1%) n=2671 (32.3%)
ANOVA
ANOVA
Frequency of email usage Frequency of instant messaging
3 5
3 3
2 5
2 2
869.861* 1977.376*
Frequency of chatting in chat rooms Frequency of sending email with attachment(s) Frequency of making phone calls through the Internet
6 5 6
5 4 6
6 3 6
4 2 5
631.898* 1335.312* 426.068*
Frequency of writing blog Frequency of looking for news Frequency of looking for travel information
6 5 5
5 3 5
6 3 4
5 2 4
531.852* 1397.259* 577.793*
Frequency of looking for job/work Frequency of reading blogs Frequency of looking for humorous content
6 6 6
5 5 4
5 5 5
4 4 4
318.557* 1171.135* 926.273*
Frequency of playing games Frequency of downloading/listening to music Frequency of downloading/watching videos
5 6 6
4 3 4
5 5 5
4 3 3
751.419* 2034.490* 1799.012*
Frequency of looking at religious sites Frequency of listening to radio online Frequency of betting/gambling online
6 6 6
6 5 6
6 5 6
5 4 6
113.332* 620.856* 94.257*
Frequency of browsing the Web Frequency of looking at sites with sexual content Frequency of looking for information about products
5 6 5
3 5 5
3 6 4
2 5 3
1284.332* 426.380* 1300.256*
Frequency of buying things online Frequency of making travel bookings and reservations
6 6
5 6
5 5
4 5
976.519* 637.753*
Frequency of paying bills online Frequency of using online bank services Frequency of using the Internet to invest in stocks/bonds Frequency of looking up the definition of a word Frequency of finding/checking a fact
5 5
6 5
4 4
4 4
1205.358* 1370.625*
6
6
5
5
91.069*
5 5
5 4
4 4
3 3
933.463* 1244.003*
Frequency of getting information for school work Frequency of participating in distant learning Frequency of looking for health related information
5 6 5
4 6 5
5 6 4
4 5 4
472.112* 207.854* 342.740*
*p<.001
1
Categories (1: Several times a day; 2 Daily; 3- Weekly; 4- Monthly; 5- Less than monthly; 6- Never)
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454 Table 18.11 Characterization of the typology of Internet users (Frequency of online activity, % affirmation, chi-square test).
1. Basic Connected Citizen n= 2642 (31.9%)
Clusters 2. 3. 4. Advanced Advanced Networked Chi-square Connected Connected Citizen and Social and n=1292 oriented Individual (15.6%) Citizen oriented n=1666 Citizen (20.1%) n=2671 Chi-square (32.3%)
Email usage Sending email with attachment(s) Looking for news
88.0 60.7 62.1
93.0 78.8 85.7
99.9 96.8 96.1
99.7 98.5 98.1
.000 .000 .000
Looking for information about products Browsing the Web Finding/checking a fact
60.6 63.6 56.5
69.0 94.4 79.0
95.2 89.1 91.0
97.1 96.7 96.6
.000 .000 .000
Downloading/listening to music Instant messaging Looking for travel information
27.6 29.5 61.3
87.9 90.9 64.6
50.5 39.4 90.4
95.1 92.1 91.2
.000 .000 .000
Looking up the definition of a word Looking for health related information Downloading/watching videos
35.1 56.3 14.4
60.3 66.4 66.0
74.0 80.6 28.2
89.9 88.5 87.2
.000 .000 .000
Looking for humorous content Buying things online Using online bank services
23.1 32.8 33.7
66.1 37.3 33.2
41.0 78.9 86.6
83.3 82.4 81.3
.000 .000 .000
Reading blogs Paying bills online Playing games
12.6 27.8 23.5
52.3 24.2 69.3
30.5 81.3 28.8
80.7 74.3 72.6
.000 .000 .000
Making travel bookings and reservations Looking for job/work Listening to radio online
36.0 23.5 12.5
26.4 48.3 32.8
76.5 41.9 40.5
71.7 71.6 70.4
.000 .000 .000
Getting information for school work Looking at sites with sexual content
26.6 8.6
61.3 31.6
34.2 18.3
67.1 54.5
.000 .000
Chatting in chat rooms Making phone calls through the Internet Participating in distant learning
9.7 6.6 8.2
40.2 22.0 20.5
10.0 14.2 16.2
53.3 49.0 37.9
.000 .000 .000
Looking at religious sites Using the Internet to invest in stocks/bonds Betting/gambling online
11.0 8.8 3.8
19.0 10.6 8.4
19.7 25.5 6.8
35.7 27.3 20.5
.000 .000 .000
Since this typology could be understood as e-readiness of the citizen to the Network Society, clusters are labelled the following way:
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1) Basic Connected Citizen the buttom of the Internet use pyramid; 2) Advanced Connected and Social Oriented Citizen: multiple social and leisure activities; 3) Advanced Connected and Individual Oriented Citizen: multiple individual and personal activities; 4) Networked Citizen: leaders in all aspects of the Internet use. Once the citizens were grouped into clusters, we were able to find statistically significant similarities and differences between clusters contingency tables and chi-square tests were carried out (see Table 18.11)
Network citizens are likely to be leaders in almost all aspects of online activities: 99.7% of the Networked citizens use email; 98.5% send emails with attachment(s); 98.1% read news online and 97.1% search for information about products. On the other hand, focusing on the occasional online activities, Networked citizens also scored better than the rest of citizens: 20.5% use the Internet to bet or gamble online; 27.3% invest in stocks/bonds and 35.7% look at religious sites. The differences between the Advanced Connected and Social Oriented Citizen and the Advanced Connected and Individual Oriented Citizen are based on the kind of activities they performance online. Advanced Connected and Social Oriented Citizen use the Internet to download or listen to music; to chat through the chat rooms or the instant messenger; to read blogs; to play games or to participate in distance learning more than Advanced Connected and Individual oriented Citizens. In contrast, Advanced Connected and Individual oriented Citizens use the Internet more than the social oriented citizen to look for information about product; to look for travel information or to invest in stocks/bonds. Finally the Basic Connected Citizen is at the bottom of the Internet uses so this typology of the Internet user is at the bottom of the e-readiness index. Typology of the Internet user gender, age and country characterization
Those citizens who are more e-ready to Network Society are likely to be males and younger than the rest of the citizens. Furthermore
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there is a clear age gap between Social oriented citizens and Individual oriented citizens, which suggest that online activities are clearly embedded on the everyday life activities (see Table 18.12). Table 18.12 Characterization of the typology of Internet users (Gender and Age, chi-square test). Clusters
Gender Male
Female Age
Lower than 26
1. Basic Connected Citizen n= 2642 (31.9%)
2. Advanced Connected and Social oriented Citizen n=1666 (20.1%)
3. Advanced Connected and Individual oriented Citizen n=2671 (32.3%)
4. Networked Citizen n=1292 (15.6%)
Chisquare
44.2%
53.9%
46.5%
64.6%
.000
55.8%
46.1%
53.5%
35.4%
.000
11.8%
52.1%
8.8%
40.2%
.000
26-45
35.4%
35.2%
46.0%
35.4%
.000
46-65
39.9%
10.9%
39.4%
12.8%
.000
Higher than 65 39.9%
10.9%
39.4%
12.8%
.000
Furthermore, taking into account the limitations of the difference methodology surveys in each country, the distribution of the citizens in the typology of the Internet users shows a similar structure of e-readiness index around the countries.
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Table 18.13 Characterization of the typology of Internet users (Country, chi-square test*).
Country
1. Basic Connected Citizen
Australia Canada China Colombia Czech Republic Hungary New Zealand Singapore Sweden USA
38.5% 33.3% 22.6% 57.1% 25.0% 31.0% 8.8% 39.3% 34.2% 31.6%
Country
Clusters 2. 3. 4. Advanced Connected Advanced Connected Networked and Social Oriented and Individual Citizen Citizen Oriented Citizen 8.0% 11.7% 54.4% 34.9% 21.0% 32.5% 22.1% 31.3% 8.7% 6.9%
*p<.001; Valid cases 8148 (53.1%); Missing cases 7207
42.6% 39.6% 2.5% 4.7% 25.0% 21.5% 26.5% 18.3% 46.2% 49.7%
10.9% 15.5% 20.6% 3.3% 29.1% 15.0% 42.6% 11.1% 10.9% 11.9%
Total
Total 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
46.9%; Total cases 15355 100.0%
Typology of Internet users and health related information On the one hand, those who use the Internet to look for online health information 55.6% are females and 44.4% are males. On the other hand, 23.9% are lower than 26 years old; 41.1% are between 26 and 45; 28.9% are between 46 and 65 and finally just 6.1% are higher than 65 years old. So citizens who have more probability to be in worse health status due to their age are those who also have more probability to drop out or have a less intensive use of the Internet for health purposes. Empirical analysis shows a clear digital divide related to age as well as with e-readiness to the Network Society 56.3% of the Basic Connected Citizens; 66.4% of the Advanced Connected and Social Oriented Citizens; 80.6% of the Advanced Connected and Individual Oriented Citizen and 88.5% of the Networked Citizen look for health related information (see table 18.11 above). These variables also configure the components of what could be called the digital eHealth divide. One of the main findings from the multidimensional analysis is that individual health and its daily management has historically never involved as much information as today.
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Table 18.14 Characterization of the Online Health related information seeker (Gender and Age, chi-square test). Looking for health related information Gender Male
Female Age
44.4% 55.6%
Lower than 26
23.9%
46-65 Higher than 65
28.9% 6.1%
26-45
Chi-square .000
.000
41.1%
As Sarah Nettleton, Roger Burrows and Lisa O’Malley (2005) point out, there is the objective of understanding not only of how people use the Internet concerning their health, but specially, how health communication influences the practices and portrayals of health. We live in complex societies where information and communication, and consequently mediation, are increasingly present, and where through the Internet we live the unique experience of being able to experience both virtual space and time. We must recognize that all these specificities of our era cause profound changes on all human activities. One of these changes dwells precisely on promoting individuals’ autonomy towards social contexts. We reiterate, therefore, the initial question: what is the meaning of daily information and communication practices to individuals’ management of health problems? Data presented here show that the Internet appears as an alternative to traditional methods of obtaining health information. We witness a generalized confidence in medical practices and treatments, and at the same time an increasing need of information
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regarding scientific medicine, and often a kind of disillusion with traditional scientific medicine. This kind of information search along with a younger generation that focuses most on health themes (not so much on disease) shows that parallel to the “informed patient” concept, we must also consider the concept of “generation divide” and a e-readiness divide associated with health in our approaches.
References Annenberg School Centre for the Digital Future (2004). The Digital Future Report, WIP – World Internet Project, University of Southern California Burrows, Roger, et al (2005). The mundane realities of the everyday lay use of the Internet for health, and their consequences for media convergence, in Sociology of Health & Illness. UK: Blackwell Publishing Carapinheiro, Graça (Org.) (2006). Sociologia da Saúde: Estudos e Perspectivas, Coimbra: Pé de Página Editores Cardoso, Gustavo, Rita Espanha and Maria do Carmo Gomes (2006a). Network society in Portugal Survey, CIES-ISCTE Cardoso, Gustavo, António Firmino da Costa, Cristina Palma Conceição and Maria do Carmo Gomes (2005b). Network Society in Portugal, Porto, Campo das Letras Cardoso, Gustavo (2003). Internet; Colecção “O que é?”, Lisboa: Quimera Castells, Manuel (2003a). A Era da Informação: Economia, Sociedade e Cultura – O Poder da Identidade, Lisboa, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian Castells, Manuel (2003b). A Era da Informação: Economia, Sociedade e Cultura – O Fim do Milénio, Lisboa, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian Castells, Manuel (2004a). A Galáxia Internet, Lisboa, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian Colombo, Fausto (1994). Media e industria culturale, Milano, Vita e Pensiero Friedmann, J. (1996). Empowerment, Oeiras, Celta Katz, James, Ronald Rice and Sophia Acord (2006). Usos da Internet e de Tecnologias Móveis nos Sistemas de Saúde: Abordagens Sociais e Organizacionais num Contexto Comparativo, in Gustavo Cardoso e Manuel Castells (Org.) (2006), A Sociedade em Rede – Do Conhecimento à Acção
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Política, Lisboa: Imprensa Nacional Casa da Moeda Katz, James, Ronald Rice and Sophia Acord (2006). E-Health Networks and Social Transformations, in CASTELLS, Manuel (2004b). The Network Society – A Cross-Cultural Perspective, Massachusetts, Edward Elgar Publishing, Inc. Kivits, Joëlle (2004), Researching the ‘informed patient’: The Case of Online Health Information Seekers, in Information, Communication & Society, U.K., Routledge Lopes, Noémia Mendes (2006). Tecnologias de Saúde e Novas Dinâmicas de Profissionalização, in Carapinheiro, Graça (Org.), Sociologia da Saúde: Estudos e Perspectivas, Coimbra: Pé de Página Editora Lupiáñez-Villanueva, Francisco (2009). Internet, Salud y Sociedad. Análisis de los usos de Internet relacionados con la salud en Catalunya. http://www. ictconsequences.net/uoc/Internetsaludsociedad (available on line) Netlleton, Sarah (2004). Health e-types? An analysis of everyday use of the Internet for health, in Information, Communication & Society, U.K., Routledge Netlleton, Sarah, Roger Burrows e Lisa O’Malley (2005). The Mundane Realities of the everyday lay use of the Internet for health, and their consequences for media convergence, in Sociology of Health & Illness, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Rice, Ronald e James Katz (ed.) (2001). The Internet and health communication - experiences and expectations. Thousand Oaks/London/New Delhi: Sage Publications Ruivo, Fernando (1987). A construção de um projecto profissional: o caso da medicina, em Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais, nº23, pp 129-139 Singly, F. (2005). Le soi dénudé. Essai sur l’individualisme contemporain, in Collectif, Un corps pour soi, Paris, PUF
VI The Internet and Social Life: from sociability’s to social behaviour
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19 Internet Use, Family Relations and Conflict Resolution Alfred Choi
Introduction The Internet has grown at a phenomenal rate across the globe and the 21st century has been reckoned as the digital era. There are now over 1.5 billion Internet users across the globe and Internet adoption has increased by 342% from year 2000 - 2008, with over half of users coming from Asia (Internet Coaching Library, 2009). By 2006, 78% of Singapore households owned one or more personal computers and 71% of households had Internet access (Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, 2008). Not only are more people using the Internet, the time spent online is also on the rise. As much as the telephone in the early part of the 20th century and the television in the 1950s and 1960s, the Internet is rapidly changing the lives of people over the world. As a new technology and medium, it has brought forth not only an information highway but also a new dimension of interpersonal communication and connectivity. The Internet is now able to offer an unprecedented variety of content such as games, entertainment and pornography. It has also increased opportunities to make friends with people from all over the world or communicate with friends and family members via instant messaging, chat, e-mail, social networking sites and other online communications. Through the Internet, people can now manage day-to-day
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activities such as making appointments, looking for information, shopping, and making purchase or payments without physically meeting another human being. With today’s Internet users’ inclination to go online from home, the Internet may be evolving into a domestic appliance for social activities much like the telephone and television. This has led people to become increasingly dependent on the Internet not only as a medium to obtain information and for communication, but also for socialisation. Some even argue that the Internet also shapes the nature of social relations and networks among individuals in society (Wellman, 2000a; 2000b). Naturally, there have been concerns that the increase on time spent on the Internet and in reliance on computer-mediated communication (CMC) may adversely affect family relations and society at large. The concerns have triggered some studies of the impacts on interpersonal relationships, sociability and social capital (Katz & Rice, 2002; Robinson, Kastnbaum, Neustadtl & Alvarez, 2002). Literature Review There is no lack of literature that documents how technological changes have brought about immense transformations in economic and social life. There is also no question that the Internet will have huge impacts on society at large. It is a question of whether or not the Internet is improving or harming family and social relationships, and participation in community life. There are two contrasting schools of thought on this issue. The Pessimists/Sceptics Some critics liken the use of the Internet with watching television as they generally imply physical inactivity and limited face-to-face social interaction. When people use these technologies intensively for learning new software, playing computer games, or searching and retrieving information, they may spend more time alone, while reducing time spent with the family or outdoor activities (Vitalari et al., 1985).
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Critics of CMC such as Kiesler et al. (1984) and Beninger (1987) claimed that computer-mediated communities would not be able to foster genuine and substantive relationships and that people who submerged in CMC would more likely result in social isolation instead of connectivity. Likewise, Calhoun (1991) argued that online interactions lacked the kind of intimacy that occurred in the real world and did not think the Internet has the ability to produce meaningful social bonding. A study by Kraut and Lundmark (1998) attracted quite a bit of media attention and academic debate. The researchers at Carnegie Mellon University conducted a study on 169 individuals from 93 households in Pittsburgh before and after they started using the Internet in the first two years online. Based on the participants’ reports, the researchers inferred that heavy use of the Internet would result in decreasing social support and happiness, and increasing depression and loneliness. Although participants in the study used inherently social features such as e-mails, Internet chat, and ICQ more than they used passive information gathering such as reading or watching videos, they still reported a decline in interaction with family members and a reduction in their circles of friends corresponding to the amount of time they spent online. Kraut, Lundmark, Mukophadhyay, and Scherlis (1998) found a link between Internet use and reductions in social circles and communication within the family, and increases in depression and loneliness. They argued that relationships maintained over long distance without face-to-face contact did not provide the kind of support and reciprocity that typically contributed to a sense of psychological security and happiness. As more young people are turning to ICQ and chat rooms for online relationships, family bonds could further be unraveled. In a study conducted by Nie and Erbring (2000) at the Stanford Institute for the Quantitative Study of Society, it was reported that the use of the Internet is negatively associated with the time spent with friends and family. That is, the more time Americans spent on the Internet, the less time they spent in contact with others. The study overcame the shortcomings of the study by Kraut et al. (1998)
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by including both Internet users and non-users and enlisting a large sample of 4,113 adults in 2,689 households. About two-thirds of those surveyed and who had Internet access said they spent less than five hours a week on the Internet, and most of them did not report large changes in their day-to-day behavior. However, the other 36% who used the Internet for five or more hours a week reported significant changes in their lives. Up to a quarter of the respondents who used the Internet regularly felt that it had reduced their time, in person or on the telephone, to interact with friends and family or attending events outside the home. Internet time was taken out from the time usually spent on watching television, and also from time people devoted to talking with family and friends on the phone, or having a conversation with people in the room with them. Amongst the regular Internet users who used the Internet for five or more hours per week, about one quarter indicated spending less time with family and friends, either in person or on the phone, and 8% said that they spent less time attending social events outside the home. E-mail did not provide for more intimate relationships, even though it was a way to stay in touch with family and friends. The Optimists On the other hand, some researchers have pointed out that human needs and the opportunities for social contact will increase as technology develops further. Naisbitt (1982), maintained that the modern “high tech, high touch,” communication technology could serve not only as a mediator, but also as a substitute for traditional social contact. Despite the widespread usage of the Internet for entertainment and information, most studies have shown that interpersonal communication is the dominant use of the Internet at home. In this respect, the Internet may be more social than the television, and its impact would be more similar to that of the telephone. Some scholars such as Sproull and Kielser (1991) were of the opinion that CMC was a tool that could both enable and constrain communication practices and processes in the workplace. Koku, Nazer, and Wellman (2000) found that physical proximity
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still mattered despite technology and that e-mail was used as a complement to fact-to-face communication rather than as an alternative. Also the stronger the ties, the more communication occurred, both face-to-face and online. Several studies reported the positive impact that CMC had on social relationships. Hamman (1998) found that CMC served as positive reinforcement of offline relationships and asserted that the use of the Internet for communication could help cement preexisting offline bonds instead of displacing users’ offline social network ties. Likewise, Wellman and Hampton (1999) found that online relations were meshed with that of offline relationships and concluded that the Internet strengthened local links with neighborhoods and households. E-mails were often used to set up face-to-face meetings and served as an additional communication tool for individuals. Although relationships were rarely maintained through CMC alone, the Internet supported a variety of social ties (Wellman & Hampton, 1999). The study by Venkatesh (1996) suggested that the potential for family activities had increased along with the creation of new household activities, such as setting up family archives and medical histories, with the increasing usage of online technology. In their review of the literature on computer-mediated communication, Park and Floyd (1996) argued that the claims about the hostility and impersonality of CMC had been challenged repeatedly and that the Internet had been credited for the maintenance of relationships, for socializing purposes as well as receiving emotional support via e-mail. A study conducted by the UCLA Center for Communications Policy (October 2000) on the impact of the Internet on American society alleviated early fears that the Internet would lead to social isolation, communication, and interaction problems between family and friends. Cole et al. reported that the negative effects of the Internet could have been exaggerated, and that both Internet users and non-users reported no difference in the following: (1) the extent that family members listened to each other, (2) whether
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or not family members were too busy to talk to each other, and (3) the extent that family members shared ideas with each other. Their data showed that the Internet maintained or even extended family togetherness, and helped create and strengthen friendships. It also did not impede the children’s performance in school. The UCLA’s study reported that Americans who went online did so without encroaching into family time. The vast majority of Net users said that since connecting at home, members of the household spent the same, or more, time together. It appeared that when people go online, the activity that most of them cut back on was watching television. Another research by the Pew Internet & American Life Project (CNN.com, May 2000) produced findings similar to the UCLA study. According to its director Lee Rainie, the results showed an increase in communication within families and improvements in social connections. The results were based on telephone interviews conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates among a sample of 3,533 adults in the US from March 1st to March 31st, 2000. It found that 55% of Internet users said that e-mail had improved communications with their family, and 66% believed that contact with friends had increased due to the usage of e-mail. Among women, 60% reported better contact with their family and 71% with their friends. About 40% found e-mail bringing them closer to their family. While the Internet may have increased the frequency of contact between friends and relatives, most kept the content light such as e-mailing jokes, news tit-bits or family announcements. Wastlund, Norlander and Archer (2001) surveyed 500 students of Karlstad University in Sweden and reported that they did not find any relationship between Internet use and psychological wellbeing. The findings suggested that the Internet may have less impact on social life than claimed by earlier scholars. After reviewing 16 surveys, conducted between 1995 and 2003, on the effects of Internet use on social interaction, Shklovski, Kiesler and Kraut (2006) were of the opinion that Internet use did not have significant impact on social relationship or interaction. They
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concluded that “even though the Internet may have changed many habits, the effects of those changes on fundamental relationships and psychological well-being would likely be small, or at least, slow in emerging.” Conflict in the Family Family members generally spend more time with one another than with other groups of people (Galles & Cornell, 1990). During this time, interaction ranges over a wide spectrum of activities and often involves shared resources in different interests and priorities. Members have to negotiate disagreements, often relating to many mundane, everyday events or activities such as which television programmes to watch, the use of the telephone, or what food to eat. The relationship between parent and child becomes more complex over time as each continually learns from and responds to the other (Garbarino, 1992) and the change in relationship will lead to conflict and tension between the two parties. Conflict, an inevitable consequence of social life (Isenhart & Spangle, 2000), involves mutual opposition (Foster et al., 1997). The Internet is introducing new dynamics into family life. Teenagers are often the change agents of the family’s first foray into the Internet world and are the ones that end up teaching other family members how to use the new technology. This reverses the tradition of parents as teachers and children as learners in the parent-child relationship. This role reversal is taking place during the adolescent phase when children are more daring in testing their limits and move beyond the controls of their parents. Parents have concerns about the amount of time that their children spend online as well as with regards to the kinds of people and material that their children encounter in cyberspace. These worries prompt many parents to impose rules on Internet use. Conflicts could arise from this much contested control of the reins over materials found on the Internet. The role reversal, parents’ attempts to control, and children’s challenge to the parental control can possibly lead to family conflicts.
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Conflict Resolution Every family has its own ways of resolving conflict, but the three main methods of conflict resolution are: 1. Denial, Ignoring or Withdrawal: When family members withdraw from the conflict and do not acknowledge a problem exists, they are engaged in denial, ignoring state or withdrawal (Pearson 1989). 2. Negotiation – Persuasion: Negotiation, or compromise and sharing, refers to any form of dialogue between conflicting parties about issues on which their opinions differ, or between conflicting parties to resolve a question or issue (Herrman 1999; Fisher et al., 2000). It occurs when family members state their opinions and determine some middle ground (Pearson 1989). Persuasion, a form of negotiation, involves the undertaking of a course of action or the embracement of a point of view by means of argument, reasoning, or entreaty. 3. Power, Dominance or Coercion: If negotiation does not work, power is often used to settle such differences (Melamed 2000). Power may be vested in one’s authority or position, such as the father or an elder brother in a family, or it may take the form of a majority (as in voting) or a persuasive minority. Concerns and Need for Research Today, people are increasingly depending more on machines and less on direct human interaction to accomplish day-to-day activities. This can be detrimental to their acquisition of highly essential social interaction skills. As society advances, different countries or regions become increasingly linked with each other through the Internet, this social issue cannot be ignored (Low et al., 1999). With society surging ahead in the Information Age, it is vital for policy makers, academics, and other interested parties to have substantial research material identifying and highlighting the possible and probable implications accruing from new technologies on hand. This would help them to be better equipped to deal with
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these short- and long-term ramifications. There is a dearth of empirical studies that examine the impact of the Internet on the family. Studies concerning the impact of the Internet are mostly constructed around business-related topics or Internet usage for commerce such as Internet shopping behavior, Internet banking, and the viability of Internet retailing. In addition, most of the existing studies carried out to examine the Internet on social isolations are quantitative rather than qualitative. Much more research is needed to delve deeper into the lives of the families of Internet users in the examination of the Internet’s impact on the social lives of individuals, their families and communication processes so as to better understand the intricate social interactions. Objective This paper examines the two contrasting views in literature on the social impact of the Internet by focusing on a specific aspect of social relations - family relations. The aim is to see if the Internet has any adverse effect on this important social facet. It seeks to answer two research questions - (1) Does Internet usage facilitate or decrease contact, or change the quality of communication between the teenager and his family? and (2) Has Internet usage resulted in any conflict between the teenager and his family, and if yes, how are these conflicts resolved, and what are the outcomes? Methodology Unlike earlier studies which either gave anecdotal accounts or presented large-scale descriptive survey findings, this study employed both quantitative and qualitative methods. For quantitative research, multivariate statistical analysis was conducted on a national random sample of survey respondents. This is to enhance the generalizability of the empirical findings from the sample to the population. For qualitative research, ethnographic design was utilized in assessing the impact of Internet usage on
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the teenager-parent relationship. Such qualitative research can facilitate the collection of rich, descriptive, and contextually situated data in order to seek a deeper understanding of the human experience and/or relationships (Silverman 1999). By means of this multi-method triangulation, this study aims to secure an indepth understanding of the phenomenon and add rigor, breadth, and depth to investigation. Quantitative Research – National Survey of Singaporeans The survey data analyzed in this paper is drawn from the Singapore Internet Project (SIP) that examined people’s use of the Internet such as e-commerce, media use, and social relations and the impact it might have on people. SIP is a longitudinal project that was launched in 1999. Data from the survey done in year 2000 were used for the present analysis as the survey was conducted not long before the current qualitative study began. A stratified random sampling method was employed to randomly select 1 respondent from 1,000 households. Singaporeans aged 18 and above were selected as respondents for the survey. The sample closely matched the demographic characteristics of the Singapore population. One aspect of the study that merits special mentioning is that it solicited information from the respondents on the amount of time they spent on the Internet at work/school, at home, and other places. This is an important improvement over the majority of previous studies, which only looked at whether people use the Internet or the gross time spent on the Internet. Earlier studies did not differentiate where the time was spent on the Internet. The differentiation should be made because the amount of Internet time a person spends at work may not affect family relations at all, while the same amount of Internet time a person spends at home may displace family activities.
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Qualitative Research – Ethnographic Study of Families1 In the selection of participants for the qualitative study, the following factors were controlled for to enable a focused analysis of the Internet’s impact on parent-child relationship: (i) Nuclear, a two-parent family in which at least one parent is working; (ii) children between 11 to 20 years of age; (iii) There was one computer in the house used mainly by the child; (iv) The child belonging to the New Home Internet User group had only begun to use the Internet for not more than one year. The child in the Long-Term Home Internet User group had been using the Internet for more than one year and not more than five years; and (v) The targeted families all lived in the Housing and Development Board flats (the predominant mode of housing in Singapore). In-Depth Interviews These were divided into two parts: (i) Interviews with the individual child Internet user from each of the 10 families (five New Home Internet Users and five Long-Term Home Internet Users); and (ii) Interviews with one parent (either father or mother) of each Internet-using child. Two schedules of interviews were conducted altogether, one at the beginning of September 2001 and another one in late December 2001 in order to compare and contrast variations in family relations. Where appropriate, a cassette recorder was used to tape down the interviews. The interviewers gathered information from parents and teenagers on the following topics: (i) Household and respondent demographics (such as age, income, race, and gender); (ii) Online access locations (such as home, school, friends’ homes, and libraries); (iii) Online activities (such as Internet, e-mail, chat rooms, instant messaging, school research, and games); (iv) Other activities (such as reading, socializing, watching television, listening to music, playing outdoors, and doing arts and crafts); and (v) Parenting style (such as parental monitoring and online time limits). 1
The qualitative study was conducted in collaboration with my graduated student Teo Bei Bei. She was instrumental in conducting the in-depth interviews and collecting the qualitative data.
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While carrying out the in-depth interviews, ethnographic observations pertaining to the current relationships between family members were made discreetly whenever possible. Efforts were expended to observe the social setting such as noise levels, individual habits, location of the personal computer in the house, and how parents and teenagers interacted at the time of interviews. Personal Diaries Each child was required to record his or her online status and activities. This had to be done every time the child logged onto the Internet, and recorded down the activities in a personal diary that had been specially designed, one day a week, for a total of three months, from October 2001 to December 2001. They were asked to answer a few questions about their Internet usage, their interaction, and any conflicts with their parents at the end of every week as well. This information facilitated a clearer understanding of the time spent online as well as the quality of their relationships with their families with reference to their online activities. Data Analysis - Quantitative To understand if Internet use has an impact on family relations, Internet use was examined in three ways: (1) Comparing “Internet users” with “non-users;” (2) Comparing “Heavy users” with “Ordinary users;” and (3) The amount of time spent on the Internet. This means that Internet use was examined as a dichotomous independent variable between those who used the Internet and those who did not, and between those who spent a large amount of time and those who spent a small or moderate amount of time on the Internet. To treat Internet use as an interval-level independent variable, the total amount of time the individual spent on the Internet was used while a value of zero was assigned to Internet non-users. Since there is no established definitive rule on what constitutes heavy usage, the top 20% of users, who spent an average of 21 hours per week (3 hours a day) or more on the Internet, were
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classified as heavy users. Users who spent less than three hours a day on the Internet were classified as ordinary users. As pointed out earlier, a distinction between Internet time spent at work or school and at home should be made in order to better understand the impact of the Internet on family relations. Therefore the three ways of analyzing Internet use stated above were also employed to compare and examine: (1) Internet “Home users” vs “Non-home users;” (2) “Heavy home users” vs “Ordinary home users;” and (3) The varying amount of Internet time spent at home. Heavy home users were individuals who used the Internet for 12 hours per week (2 hours per day) or more at home. Those who used the Internet at home for less than 12 hours per week were denoted as ordinary home users. Family relations were examined primarily in terms of (1) average number of hours per week spent with family members face-toface and (2) family satisfaction. The Family APGAR (Sawin & Harrigan, 1995), a well-established instrument developed by G. Smilksteain, was employed. The five items of the index measured family satisfaction in five dimensions – namely, Adaptation, Partnership, Growth, Affection and Resolve. The five items were: “You are satisfied with the help that you received from your family when something is troubling you,” “You are satisfied with the way your family discusses items of common interest and shares problem solving with you,” “You find that your family accepts your wishes to take on new activities or make changes in your life style,” “You are satisfied with the way your family expresses affection and responds to your feelings such as anger, sorrow, and love,” and “You are satisfied with the amount of time your family and you spend together.” Respondents were to answer either “Hardly ever,” “Some of the time,” or “Almost always.” A reliability test was conducted using the data collected in th is study and found the measurement to be highly reliable (alpha = 0.91).
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Survey Findings The results of the bivariate analysis between Internet use and family relations are shown in Table 19.1. About 20% of Internet users used e-mail to communicate with family members, and heavy users were significantly more likely (about 10%) to do so than ordinary users. Internet users spent significantly less time socializing face-to-face with their family members compared with non-users. Although heavy users spent about two hours per week more than ordinary users in socializing face-to-face with their family members, the difference was not statistically significant. In terms of family satisfaction, there was no significant difference between Internet users and non-users. However, the level of family satisfaction was significantly lower for heavy users than for the ordinary users. Table 19.1 Internet Use and Family Relations (All Respondents). Internet Use Users
E-mail family members
t
Overall (n=437)
Heavy (n=89)
Ordinary (n=348)
19.9%
28.1%
17.8%
-
7.42*
-
-
32.6hrs
-3.98**
28.5hrs
26.6hrs
-
0.71
-
-
2.52
0.62
2.40
2.57
-
-2.94**
Time spent with 27.0hrs family members face-to-face Family Satisfaction
NonUsers (n=563)
2.54
* p ≤ .05, ** p ≤ .01
The next level of analysis focused on the Internet users, comparing their use of the Internet at home. As shown in Table 19.2. Internet home users were significantly more likely (about 10%) to use
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e-mail to communicate with family members than non-home users, bu they were not significantly more likely to send e-mails to family members than those in the latter group. For time spent with family members face-to-face, although heavy home users on average logged about three hours more per week more than ordinary home users, the difference was not statistically significant. With regard to family satisfaction, there was no significant difference between home users and non-home users, and between heavy and ordinary home users. Table 19.2 Internet Home Use and Family Relations (among Internet Users). Internet Use at Home
Non-Home t Users (n=61)
Home Users
E-mail family members
Overall (n=376) 21.3%
Heavy (n=74) -
Ordinary (n=302) -
11.5%
24.44**
-
23.0%
20.9%
-
0.80
-
-
30.4hrs
-1.24
28.7hrs
25.8hrs
-
1.10
-
-
2.58
-0.82
2.43
2.55
-
-1.77
Time spent with 26.4hrs family members face-to-face Family Satisfaction
2.53
* p ≤ .05, ** p ≤ .01
Although the bivariate analysis showed some differences between Internet use and family relations, one must bear in mind that the differences in family relations could be a result of differences in social background between Internet users and non-users, instead of use of the Internet. Internet users were younger and better educated than non-users. Regression analysis was conducted to examine the effects of Internet use while controlling for demographic differences. Gender and marital status were treated as dummy variables. For educational
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level, primary 6 or below was considered as “low,” GCE O-level and GCE A-level were recoded as “medium”, while university degree and above were recoded as “high”. Types of housing have been commonly taken as a rough indication of economic status in Singapore, as it correlates highly with household income. For the present study, public housing categorized as 1-, 2- or 3-room apartments were considered as “low,” while 4- or 5-room apartments were recoded as “middle,” and private housing (about 20% of the population) was treated as “high” status of housing. Four regression models were constructed to examine the effects of Internet use on time spent face-to-face with family members while controlling for the common demographic variables. Model 1 treated Internet use as a dummy variable to compare Internet users with non-users. Model 2 treated Internet use as a continuous variable and examined whether the time spent on Internet was inversely associated with the time spent face-to-face with family members. Model 3 compared individuals who used the Internet at home versus those who did not. The last model was similar to Model 2 except that it focused on the varying amount of time spent on the Internet at home. The results of the multiple regressions are shown in Table 19.3. All the four models in the regression analysis revealed that Internet use - be it measured in terms of adopting the Internet, amount of time spent on the Internet, home use of the Internet, or amount of time spent at home on the Internet - did not have any significant effect on the amount of time individuals spent socializing face-toface with their family members. Among the independent variables examined, only socioeconomic variables had significant effect. Specifically, Malays spent more time socializing with their family members than the Chinese. Individuals with high education and housing status spent less time with their family members than those of medium education and housing. Individuals who were married spent less time with family members than those who were single.
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Table 19.3. Regression Analysis on Time Spent Socialising Face-to-face with family members (Dependent Variable). Indep. Vars.
Model 1
Model 2
Model 3
β
t
β
t
Constant
31.16
9.51**
29.71
Male
-2.37
-1.61
Malay
5.58
Indian
t
β
t
10.57** 29.64
8.39**
30.16
10.67**
-2.52
-1.72
-2.33
-1.58
-2.48
-1.70
2.31*
5.44
2.25*
5.55
2.29*
5.53
2.29*
-1.18
-0.42
-1.19
-0.42
-1.16
-0.41
-1.22
-0.43
Age
-.07
-0.91
-.05
-0.69
-.08
-0.95
-.06
-0.77
Low Education
1.07
0.53
1.48
0.76
1.07
0.54
1.32
0.68
High Education
-3.97
-2.10*
-4.68
-2.51*
-3.90
-2.07*
-4.30
-2.35*
Low Housing
-3.21
-1.89
-3.20
-1.89
-3.23
-1.90
-3.22
-1.90
High Housing
-10.12
-4.11**
-10.23
-4.15**
-10.06
-4.08**
-10.22
-4.14**
Married
8.01
4.0**
8.25
4.16**
8.0
4.01**
8.23
4.13**
Internet User
-.57
-0.28
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
0.08
1.15
-
-
-
-
Home User
-
-
-
-
0.83
0.43
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
0.06
0.56
Internet Time Spent
Home Internet Time Spent
β
Model 4
* p ≤ .05, ** p ≤ .01 + R2 = 0.085, 0.087, 0.085, 0.086 for Model 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively; n=888.
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480 Table 19.4 Regression Analysis on Family Satisfaction (Dependent Var.)
Indep. Vars.
Model 1
Model 2
Model 3
Model 4
β
t
β
t
β
t
Constant
2.28
28.46**
2.38
34.41**
2.45
28.30** 2.38
34.24**
Male
-.04
-1.24
-.04
-1.0
-.05
-1.25
-.04
-0.98
Malay
.01
0.22
.01
0.17
.01
0.23
.01
0.17
Indian
-.003
-0.04
.002
0.04
-.001
-0.02
.003
0.04
Age
.004
1.85
.003
1.30
.004
1.76
.003
1.27
-2.92**
-.17
-3.63**
-.16
-3.22**
-.17
-3.63**
-.03
-0.63
.004
0.09
-.02
-0.53
.001
0.03
.04
0.87
.03
0.84
.04
0.88
.04
0.85
.05
0.80
.05
0.85
.04
0.72
.05
0.88
Married
.19
3.81**
.17
3.53**
.18
3.72**
.17
3.48**
Internet User
.09
1.85
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-.001
-0.69
-
-
-
-
Home User
-
-
-
-
-.07
-1.54
-
-
Home Internet Time Spent
-
-
-
-
-
-
-.002
-0.77
Low Educa- -.15 tion
High Education
Low Housing
High Housing
Internet Time Spent
β
t
* p ≤ .05, ** p ≤ .01 + R2 = 0.041, 0.038, 0.040, 0.038 for Model 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively; n=894.
A separate regression analysis was conducted to see if Internet use had any impact on family satisfaction. Like the analysis on time spent with family members, four models of multiple regression were constructed. As shown in Table 19.4, very similar findings were obtained. Internet use did not have any significant
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effect on family satisfaction in any of the four regression models examined. The data showed that Internet use (measured by Internet adoption, total amount of time spent on the Internet or more specific measurement of home use and amount of time spent at home on the Internet) did not have significant effect on family satisfaction. Only two demographic variables had significant effect. Individuals with low level of education had higher level of family satisfaction than those with medium level of education. Individuals who were married had higher level of family satisfaction than those who were single. In the survey, respondents were asked how much the use of the Internet had changed their time spent with family members faceto-face. The data collected from this question was analyzed to cross-reference with the findings from the regression analysis. As tabulated in Table 19.5, among the Internet users, 88.3% reported no change while 4.8% reported spending less time and 6.9% reported spending more time with their family members face-to-face. However, when heavy users were compared with ordinary users, the data showed that only about 79% of the heavy users reported no change in time spent with family members, as compared to 91% of the ordinary users. Interestingly, while 9% of the heavy users reported a reduction in time, 12% reported an increase of time spent socializing face-to-face with family members. Table 19.5 Time Spent with Family Members after Using Internet. (All Internet Users) Total Internet Time (Users)
Less
Overall (n=437) 4.8%
Heavy (n=89) -
Ordinary (n=348) -
-
No change
88.3%
-
-
-
More
6.9%
-
-
-
Less
-
9.0%
3.8%
10.91*
Chi-Square
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Total Internet Time (Users) Overall (n=437)
Heavy (n=89)
Ordinary (n=348)
Chi-Square
No change
-
78.7%
90.8%
-
More
-
12.4%
5.4%
-
*p≤.05
Moving away from general Internet use to zoom in on the use of Internet at home, Table 19.6 tabulated the percentage of respondents who reported spending less time, no change, or spending more time with family members face-to-face. Home users did not differ significantly from non-home users in this respect and vast majority of respondents reported no change in time spent socializing with family members (home users 88% and non-home users 92%). Significant differences between heavy home users and ordinary home users could be found. Only 77% of the heavy home users reported no change while 90% of ordinary home users reported no change. Of the heavy Internet users, about 10% claimed that they spent less time and about 14% claimed that they spent more time socializing with their family members. Table 19.6 Changed in Time Spent with Family Members Face-to-face after Using Internet (Home Users). Internet Use at Home
Less
Home Users Overall Heavy (n=376) (n=74)
Ordinary (n=302)
NonHome Users
Chi-Sq
7.01
4.8%
-
-
4.9%
No change
87.8%
-
-
91.8%
More
7.5%
-
-
3.3%
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Internet Use at Home Home Users Overall (n=376)
Heavy (n=74)
Ordinary (n=302)
NonHome Users
Chi-Sq
12.42*
Less
-
9.5%
3.7%
-
No change
-
77.0%
90.4%
-
More
-
13.6%
5.9%
-
*p≤.05
Data Analysis - Qualitative For a more systematic analysis, the following guidelines were used as a basis for analyzing the data: Awareness - Parents of the families under study were deemed to be of high awareness if the Internet usage time that they quoted of their teenager matched approximately the usage time indicated by the child in the interview as well as the time recorded in the child’s personal Internet diary. Parental Discipline Style - Parents were strict in their discipline style when they: (a) Placed a low limit on the time the child was supposed to use the Internet; or (b) Regularly warned the child not to use the Internet for too long if the child was a heavy Internet user; or (c) closely monitored what the child was doing on the Internet, such as installing Internet tracking devices like Net Nanny, or placing the computer in the living room. Usage - The child was deemed to be a heavy user (i.e., high usage) of the Internet if he or she used the Internet for more than 14 hours a week, or more than two hours each day. This cut-off point was derived from the average Internet usage time of the children under study. Types of Conflict - Material and normative conflicts are defined as: (a) Material Conflict – If the family engaged in disagreements over any physical or material thing(s), such as quarrels or arguments over high telephone bills and the use of the telephone
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line; (b) Normative Conflict – If parties in a family differ over how each other should behave or act, in terms of factors such as fairness, equality, and values. For instance, the parents might think that their child should spend his or her time on more worthwhile activities such as studying instead of going online, or they might disallow or limit the use of the ICQ/IRC of their child for fear of negative influence. Intensity of Conflicts – A conflict was classified as high intensity if: (a) The parents and child got angry, upset or were resentful of one another; (b) There were unpleasant encounters, such as quarrels, shouts, screams or things being thrown around. Family Interaction – Quantitative as well as qualitative interaction between parent and child were assessed. (a) Quantitative Communication – analysis was based mainly on two questions asked in the interview: (1) “Does your child (do you)2 ever turn down the opportunity to socialize with the family or loved ones in order to use the Internet? How many times approximately has the child (have you) done this?” (2) “How much time does your child (do you) usually spend with you and your spouse (your parents) before the Internet?” (b) Qualitative Communication – analysis was based mainly on three questions asked in the interview: (1) “How will you describe your relationships with your child (your parents) before the Internet, in the last year? What about now?” (2) “Do you think your child’s (your) Internet usage has changed the quality of communication between him and you and your spouse (you and y our parents)?” (3) “After trying to resolve the conflict, do you think that your relationship with your parents (your teenager) has improved, remained unchanged, or worsened? If it has improved or worsened, in what ways has it been so?”
Words in parentheses refer to questions for the teenagers.
2
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Table 19.7 Family Categories – Usage, Awareness, Style of Parenting and Conflict.
Family
Usage
Awareness
Conflict
Style of Parenting
Severity
Type
Type of Home Internet User
Lees
Hi
Hi
St
Hi
Material
Angs
Hi
Hi
St
Hi
Normative
Gwees
Hi
Hi
St
Hi
Normative
Chans
Hi
Lo
St
Lo
Material
Ngs
Lo
Lo
St
Lo
Normative
LongTerm
Huangs
Lo
Lo
St
Lo
Normative
LongTerm
Tans
Hi
Hi
Lax
Lo
Material
Wangs
Hi
Lo
Lax
Lo
Material
Wees
Hi
Lo
Lax
Lo
Normative
Lims
Lo
Lo
Lax
Lo
Material
New New LongTerm New
New LongTerm New LongTerm
Note. Hi – High; Lo – Low; St – Strict; New denotes New home Internet user, while Long-Term denotes Long-Term home Internet user.
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Usage, Awareness, Style of Parenting and Conflict Adhering to the guidelines for analysis listed above, each family under study was then categorized according to the child’s intensity of Internet usage, parents’ degree of awareness of their teenager’s Internet usage, parenting style, as well as the intensity of conflict caused by the child’s Internet usage (see Table 19.7). For instance, the Lees, Angs, and Gwees fell into the “High Usage, High Awareness, Strict Style of Parenting, and High Conflict” family group, while the Lim family was placed under the “Low Usage, Low Awareness, Lax Parenting Style, and Low Conflict” category. The data revealed that the type as well as intensity of family conflict was not contingent on whether they were new or long-term users. Instead, they seemed to be affected by the child’s degree of Internet usage, parental awareness and parenting style. For ease of comprehension, Table 19.8 was constructed to highlight the relationships. Table 19.8 Relationships Between Usage, Awareness, Parenting Style and Conflict.
High Awareness Strict Parenting Style
High Usage
Low Usage
Lax Parenting Style
Segment 1 High Conflict e.g. Lees, Angs and Gwees
Segment 2 Low Conflict (e.g. Tans
Segment 3
Segment 4
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Low Awareness
Strict Parenting Style
High Usage
Segment 5
Segment 7 Low Usage
Low Conflict e.g. Huangs, Ngs
Lax Parenting Style Segment 6 Low Conflict e.g. Wangs, Wees, Chans Segment 8 Low Conflict e.g. Lims
(i) High Usage, High Awareness, Strict Parenting Style → High Conflict Overall, the interview results showed that if the child used the Internet a lot, and the parents were highly aware of the child’s Internet usage and assumed a strict style of parenting with rules and reminders, high conflict usually ensued, as illustrated by the Lees, Angs, and Gwees (see Segment 1 of Figure 2). Their child, Junior Ang’s high Internet usage, together with the Angs’ high awareness and strict style of parenting, led periodically to tense conflict such as Mr Ang beating up the child when, once, he saw his son still on the Internet at 2 o’clock in the morning. (ii) High Usage, High Awareness, Lax Parenting Style → Low Conflict If the child indulged in heavy Internet use, and parents were keenly aware but adopted a lax parenting style, the family would experience low conflict (Segment 2). An example was the Tan family.
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(iii) High Usage, Low awareness, Lax Parenting Style → Low Conflict Three families, the Wees, Wangs, and Chans, fell under this category (Segment 6). For instance, the Wees, who assumed a lax parenting style, were not aware that their child, Junior Wee, had been using the Internet frequently. As a result, conflict was low because of this unawareness and lack of supervision. In the Chan household, Mrs Chan thought that her only son Manfred, or Junior Chan, was not addicted to the Internet, giving “more than two hours or so” of Internet usage as too much. However, according to Junior Chan himself, he used the Internet for four to five hours each day. Mrs Chan’s ignorance of her son’s actual high level of Internet usage (as she had to look after her own grocery business all day) resulted in low conflict between them. (iv) Low Usage, Low Awareness, Strict Parenting Style → Low Conflict If both parents were not aware of their child’s Internet usage (Segment 7), but still monitored and supervised the child closely in his or her daily activities, low conflict would be the result if the child’s Internet online time was sparse. The Huang and Ng family exhibited such a pattern of behavior. (v) Low Usage, Low Awareness, Lax Parenting Style → Low Conflict The interviews results also showed that if the child used the Internet sparsely and the parents were not aware that their child had been surfing the Internet, and parents did not impose strict Internet usage rules on the child, there would be little conflict (Segment 8). For instance, Junior Lim was a long-term Internet user but did not use the Internet too often, she only encountered little conflict as her parents did not watch or monitor her Internet activities closely.
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Consolidated Findings Table 19.9 combined Table 19.7 with the type of conflict resolution method and resolution outcomes in terms of the quantity and quality of family interaction and whether or not the conflict remained after conflict resolution attempts. In other words, all the main data were collated and presented together in one table. Several key findings can be generated from the consolidated data and a theoretical model is constructed and shown in Figure 19.1. (I) Use of the Internet Itself Does Not Necessarily Result in Conflict - Conflict in the home, in terms of types and severity, depended on the following factors 1. Internet Usage of the Teenager - Conflict would be low if the child did not use the Internet heavily. For instance, low Internet users like Junior Ng, Junior Huang, Junior Tan, and Junior Wangs did not experience high or severe conflict with their parents. 2. Awareness of the Parents - Even if the child’s Internet usage was high, there would tend to be little conflict as long as the parents were not aware of the time their child spent online. The Chans, who spent most of their time at their grocery store, were not aware of Junior Chan’s heavy Internet usage and, as a result, conflict was low. 3. Style of Parenting - Even if the child’s Internet usage was heavy, conflict would tend to be low if the parents exhibited a lax parenting style. If the parents did not keep a close watch or monitor their child’s activities carefully, they typically experienced little conflict with the child. The Ngs and Huangs were two good examples. Families (e.g., the Lees, Angs, Gwees) whose computers were in the living room or in their parents’ room had a higher chance of encountering high (and mostly) normative conflict. On the other hand, families who had the computer in their child’s own room (e.g., the Tans, Wees, Chans, Ngs, Lims, Huangs, and Wangs),
Hi
Hi
Hi
Hi
Hi
Hi
Lo
Lo
Lo
Angs
Gwees
Tans
Wangs
Wees
Chans
Ngs
Huangs
Lims
Lo
Lo
Lo
Lo
Lo
Lo
Hi
Hi
Hi
Hi
Awareness
Lax
St
St
St
Lax
Lax
Lax
St
St
St
Style of Parenting
Lo
Lo
Lo
Lo
Lo
Lo
Lo
Hi
Hi
Hi
Severity
Material
Normative
Normative
Material
Normative
Material
Material
Normative
Normative
Material
Type
Conflict
Resolved
Ignoring →Negotiation Negotiation and Persuasion Persuasion →Ignoring Persuasion
Resolved
Present
Resolved
Resolved
Resolved
Resolved
Present
Negotiation
Persuasion
Coercion → Ignoring Negotiation
Present
Present
Negotiation → Coercion ** Coercion
Outcome of Resolution: Presence of Conflict*
Main Method of Conflict Resolution
No Change
Decreases
No Change
No Change
No Change
No Change
Improves
Decreases
No Change
Decreases
Quantitative: Family Contact
No Change
Decreases
No Change
No Change
No Change
No Change
Improves
Decreases
No Change
No Change
Qualitative: Interaction *
Outcome of Family Interaction
Note. St = Strict parenting; * There are no contradictory answers from parents and teenagers in these categories. All answers from both parties are uniform; ** Negotiation was first used as a method of conflict resolution, after which the family tried using coercion to resolve the problem.
Hi
Lees
Family
Usage
Table 19.9 Consolidated Depiction of Family Conflicts and Resolutions.
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Figure 19.1 Conceptual Model of Internet Use, Family Conflict and Conflict Resolution.
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where the teenager could have easier access, would not encounter high conflict and most of the conflicts were of a material type. (II) Conflict Resolution Method Is Related to Types and Severity of Conflict Different families used different approaches in their attempt to resolve conflict. Mrs Chan said that when there was a conflict, both her husband and she would ignore it first (ignoring), because they would usually talk again a few hours later. However, if the conflict was serious, the couple would try to talk to the child (negotiation). Their teenager, Junior Chan, said he would look at the situation before deciding what to do about the conflict. He would either ignore it (ignoring) or try to talk to his parents (negotiation) and “buy them things to eat.” In general, methods in handling conflict were found to be related to the types and severity of conflict: 1. Coercion and Ignoring: High, Normative Conflict Families Families that used coercion or ignoring to resolve conflict were mostly from high conflict families. For instance, both the Angs and Gwees had experienced high and normative conflict and they used ignoring and coercion to settle their conflicts. 2. Negotiation and Persuasion: Low, Material Conflict Families - Families that used negotiation or persuasion as their methods of conflict resolution were mainly from low, material conflict families such as the Chans, Tans, Wangs, and Lims. For instance, the Tans looked at the immediacy of each other’s needs, and negotiated for the use of the phone line. (III) Outcomes of Resolution is Related to Types and Severity of Conflict and Methods of Conflict Resolution The outcomes of conflict resolution (i.e., family interaction and the presence or absence of conflict) depended on the type and severity of conflict in each family, as well as how each family tried
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to resolve the conflict. 1. High, Normative Conflict and the Use of Coercion - High, normative conflict that was resolved using coercion either led to no change or a reduction in family interaction. Also, conflict would still be present. Examples were the Gwees and the Angs. In the Ang family, the father used scolding, shouting, and caning as a way to control his teenager but there was no change in the quantity or quality of family interaction and conflict was not resolved. In the case of the Gwees, high, normative conflict resolved using coercion (Mr Gwee often shouted and scolded his daughter) led to a decrease in family interaction. Junior Gwee, saw the relationship between them worsen while conflict persisted. 2. Low, Material Conflict and the Use of Negotiation and Persuasion - Material conflicts that were settled using negotiation or persuasion had a higher tendency to result in no change (in the case of the Chans, Wangs, and Lims) or even an improvement in the quantity and quality of family interaction (the Tans). Also, conflict could normally be resolved this way. (IV) New Conflicts are but Accentuation of Existing Ones Most of the time, conflicts in the family already existed, and were not caused by the child’s usage of the Internet. For instance, the Gwees already had a communication problem before the Internet came into their lives. According to Junior Gwee, “…we already got communication problems... because my mum seldom bothers to talk to me... and I don’t care either.” Mrs Gwee had the same thoughts. She said, “…our relationship has always not been very good… so the Internet doesn’t make much of a difference… maybe it has aggravated the situation a bit.” Most of the time, conflict that happened in the family was not due to the child’s Internet usage but rather, other factors such as the child’s homework or outings. In the case of the Lees, Mrs Lee conceded, “But I think most of the conflicts are not because of
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the Internet... sometimes… about his homework… and his going out without telling us… etc. He will sometimes disappear without reason… then we reprimand him.” The Internet, in these cases, merely accentuated the conflict. Similarly, for the Ng family, Mrs Ng said that most of the time, conflict with her daughter was not because of her Internet usage, but because of “other things, such as her homework, and her chatting on the phone all night, etc.” Junior Ng supported this conclusion when he said, “But actually, the Internet is not the only reason we have conflict lah… other times my mom scolds me too… like when I watch the television for too long … and I didn’t clear the table after meals...like that lor…But actually, we also quarrel even without the Internet… sometimes ... when I come home late at night, I also get scolding from them.” CONCLUSION Following the debate as to whether or not the Internet leads to social isolation, the present study examined Internet use and family relations in Singapore. Internet use was measured in different ways – Internet adoption, amount of time spent on the Internet in general, the use of Internet at home, and the amount of time spent on the Internet at home. The results indicate that Internet use has neither significant effect on the amount of time spent socialising face-to-face with family members, nor on family satisfaction for the majority of the people. The findings from the quantitative research did not support the pessimistic view of negative effects of Internet use on family relationship. However, it should be noted that the Internet has become a pervasive new medium in Singapore only in recent years and family satisfaction is a product of long standing social interactions among family members. Therefore, a longer period of observation is necessary to reveal or show any long-term effects of the Internet. The qualitative research of families with teenage children provides a complete picture of the dynamics between Internet use and family conflict. The study showed that Internet use alone
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does not necessarily lead to parent-child conflict. The interaction of Internet use, parental awareness and parenting style influence the level of conflict, and the method of conflict resolution helps shape the final outcome of the parent-child conflict. This important finding, while cannot be definitive in generalization, points to the limitation of earlier studies which did not factor in the parents’ awareness and parenting style. Future research needs to pay attention to family dynamics in examining the effects of the Internet on family conflict or relationship.
References Beninger, J. (1987). Personalization of mass media and the growth of pseudocommunity. Communication Research, 14: 352-71. Calhoun, C. (1991). Indirect relationships and imagined communities: Large scale social integration and the transformation of everyday life. In J. Coleman and P. Bourdieu (eds) Social Theory for a Changing Society. Boulder, CO and San Francisco: Westview Press. Chesebro, J., and Bonsall, D. (1989). Computer-Mediated Communication : Human Relationships on a Computerized World. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. Cole, J. I., Suman, M., Schramm, P., Van Bel, D., Lunn, B., Maguire, P., Hanson, K., Singh, R., & Aquino, J. S. (2000). The UCLA Internet Report: Surveying the digital future. University of California at Los Angeles, Center for Communication Policy. Garton, L., and Wellman, B. (1995). Social impacts of electronic mail in organizations: A review of the research literature. Communication Yearbook, 18: 434-53. Hamman, R. (1998). The online/offline dichotomy: Debunking some myths about AOL users and the effects of their being online upon offline friendships and offline Community. MPhil thesis, University of Liverpool, Dept of Communication Studies, http://www.socio.demon.co.uk/mphil/index.html (accessed September 1, 2001). Hampton, K. N., and Wellman, B. (1999). Netville online and offline – Observing
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and surveying a wired suburb. American Behavioral Scientist, 43(3). 47592. Haythomthwaite, C. and Wellman, B. (1998). Work, friendship, and media user for information exchange in a networked organization. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 49(12). 1101-14. Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (2006). Annual Survey on Infocomm Usage in Households and by Individuals for 2004. http://www. ida.gov.sg/Publications/20061205100233.aspx (assessed on January 2, 2008) Internet Coaching Library (2009). Internet World Statistics: Usage and Population Statistics http://www.Internetworldstats.com/stats.htm (assessed on May 15, 2009). Katz, J. E. and Aspden, P. (1996). Friendship formation in cyberspace : Analysis of a national survey of users, http://www.nicoladoering.net/Hogrefe/katz. htm (assessed on May 15, 2009) Katz, J. E., & Rice, R. E. (2002). Social Consequences of Internet Use. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Kiesler, S., Siegel, J., and McGuire, T .W. (1984). Social psychological aspects of Computer-Mediated Communication. American Psychologist, 39(10). 1123-34. Koku, E., Nazer, N., and Wellman, B. (2000). Netting the scholars: Online and offline,http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman/publications/index.html (assessed on August 2, 2001). Kraut, R., and Lundmark, V. (1998). Internet paradox: A social technology that reduce social involvement and psychological well-being. American Psychology, 53(9). 1017-31. Kraut, R., Mukhopadhyaya, T., Szczppula, J., Kiesler, S., and Scherlis, B. (1996). Communication and information: Alternative users of the Internet in household, http://www.acm.org/owsbin/dl/ows/dl.rearch (assessed on January 1, 2001). Nie, N. H., & Erbring, L. (2000, February 17). Internet and Society: A preliminary report. Reprinted in IT&Society, 1(1), 275-283. Parks, M., and Floyd, K. (1996). Making friends in cyberspace. Journal of Communication, (46)1: 80-84. Robinson, J. P., Kastnbaum, M., Neustadtl, A., & Alvarez, A. (2002). The Internet and other uses of time. In B.Wellman & C. Haythornthwaite (Eds.), The Internet in Everyday Life, 244-263. Oxford, England: Blackwell.
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Romm, C. T., and Pliskin, N. (1999). The office tyrant - social control through e-mail. Information Technology and People, 12(1). 27-43. Sawin, K. J., and Harrigan, M. P. (1995). Measures of family functioning for research and practice. New York: Springer Publishing. Venkatesh, A. (1996). Computers and other interactive technologies for the home. Communications of the ACM, 39(12). 47-54. Wellman, B. (1996). An electronic group is virtually a social network. In Cultures of the Internet, ed. S. Kiesler , 179-205. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Wellman, B. (2000a). Changing connectivity: A future history of Y2.03K. Sociological Research Online, 4(4), http://www.socresonline.org.uk/4/4/ wellman.html (assessed on January 1, 2001). (2000b). Physical place and cyberplace: The rise of networked individualism, http://www.chass.utoronto. ca/~wellman/publications/individualism/article.html (assessed on January 1, 2001). Wellman, B., and Hampton, K. (1999). Living networked in a wired world. Contemporary Sociology, 28(6). http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman/ publications/index.html (assessed on July 31, 2001). Wastlund, E., Norlander, T., & Archer, T. (2001). Internet blues revisited: Replication and extension of an Internet paradox study. Cyberpsychology & Behavior, 4(3), 385-391.
Annex General Profile of Participating Families 1. New Home Internet Users (i) The Lees Both the Lees are white-collar administrative workers, and both hold a working day of nine-to-five. They have a teenage boy, Alvin (Junior Lee), aged 15 years old, as well as a six-year-old daughter. Junior Lee, a frequent Internet user who uses the Internet for two to three hours each day, has access to the technology both at home and in school. He has been using the Internet in school for
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about one year, and at home for about eight months. He mainly surfs the Internet to play games and to chat in the chat rooms. He also watches television and do some sports in his spare time. Both the Lees are well aware of their son’s high Internet usage as the computer is placed in the family’s living room, and they supervise his activities online closely. As a result, conflict, most of the time material, is high, especially when the father receives expensive telephone and Internet bills due to the son’s heavy Internet usage. Most of the time, the family uses negotiation as the main tool of conflict resolution; although sometimes Mr. Lee has to use force or coercion on his son before he would listen and obey. However, conflict would most often than not still be present after the Lees tried to settle their disagreements through these two methods. Also, the family reported a decrease in contact between parents and teenager after Junior Lee started using the Internet, although they see no change in the quality of communication. (ii) The Tans Mr. Tan is in a marketing job while Mrs. Tan is an administrative clerk at a shipping company. They have two daughters, Faith (Junior Tan), aged 15 years old, and Fanny, eight years old. The family lives in a three-room HDB flat, and the computer is situated in the room that Junior Tan shares with her sister. Junior Tan is considered a heavy Internet user. She had access to the Internet both at home and in school for about five months, and she sometimes accessed it from Internet cafes too. She uses the Internet mainly for research. Besides the Internet, she listens to music and swims. Both the Senior Tans are aware of Junior Tan’s Internet usage, although they chose not to keep a tight rein on her, as they deemed her to be mature enough to know the limitations. As a result, conflict was sparse, and most of the time, was material, such as when Mrs. Tan and Junior Tan both wanted to use the telephone line. Because of the nature of the conflict, negotiation was often used to solve the problem, which was most of the time settled swiftly.
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The family saw an improvement in the quantity and quality of communication among family members after the Internet invaded their lives as, according to the mother, Junior Tan often shared with them what she saw on the Internet. (iii) The Angs Mr. Ang is a working professional in the computer industry, while Mrs. Ang is a housewife. They have three children, a 16-year-old boy Benedict (Junior Ang), a 12-year-old girl, as well as another two-year-old girl. The family lives in a four-room HDB flat, and the computer is in the living room. Junior Ang, a heavy Internet user, has online access in school, and also recently at home. However, he has been using the Internet since Secondary One, or two years ago. He mainly uses the Internet to chat, as well as to search for information. Besides the Internet, Junior Ang cites sleeping as his favorite pastime. Both the Senior Angs are aware of Junior Ang’s heavy Internet usage, and also monitor his activities carefully. As a result, conflict is abundant, and most of the time, it is of the normative type. Mr. Ang usually uses power and coercion to settle the quarrels and disagreements between him and his son. Consequently, conflicts are often not resolved. The Angs also saw no change in the quality and quantity of communication after Junior Ang started surfing the Internet. (iv) The Wees Both the Wees are white-collar workers. They have two daughters, Linda (Junior Wee), a 19-year-old, and May, a 16-year-old. The family lives in a five-room HDB flat. The teenager under study, Junior Wee, is considered a heavy Internet user, and she accesses the Internet from the computer that is placed in her own room. She sometimes gets online in school too, mainly to check her e-mails and to surf sites for entertainment and projects. She also watches the television, shop, and play badminton regularly.
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Both Junior Wee’s parents do not supervise her Internet activities, and are therefore not aware of the time she spends online. As a result, the family has less conflict, which is mostly normative. Negotiation is used to solve conflict, which is usually resolved. The Wees also see no change in the quantity and quality of communication before and after their teenager went onto the Internet. (v) The Chans The Chans run their own grocery business. They have an only son, Manfred (Junior Chan), 16-year-old, and live in a five-room HDB flat. Junior Chan is a very heavy Internet user who knows how to assemble his own desktop computer. He accesses the Internet at home and in school, as well as from Internet cafés and libraries. He has been using the Internet in school for one year, but only recently got a computer at home, which he set up in his own room. He usually spends his time online e-mailing, chatting on ICQ and IRC, and surfing websites for study and for entertainment. Besides the Internet, Junior Chan also likes to play with model airplanes and cars. The Senior Chans, both of whom have to work all day in their grocery shop, have no time to supervise Junior Chan in his online activities and usage. Conflict is low, and if any, is mainly of a material nature. The family usually acknowledges conflict by first ignoring it. But if such a method does not work, they would turn to negotiation as a second method of conflict resolution. Besides this, the family detected no change in the quantity and quality of communication before or after their son started using the Internet. 2. Long-Term Home Internet Users (i) The Gwees Mr. Gwee is working as a technician, while Mrs. Gwee is a housewife. They have an only child, Xiaofeng (Junior Gwee), a female who is 17 years of age. The Gwees live in a three-room
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HDB flat. Junior Gwee is a heavy Internet user who has access to the Internet at home, in the library and at Internet cafes. She has been using the Internet since she was in Secondary one. She uses the Internet mainly for research, and also searching for MP3 songs. But her favorite activity online is playing games such as neopets. Junior Gwee also spends her time sleeping, swimming, and watching television. Mrs. Gwee, a housewife, usually keeps a watch on Junior Gwee when she is at home, and nags her occasionally when she stays in front of the computer for too long. Because of this, conflict between parent and child happens frequently. As the computer is placed inside the parents’ bedroom, Junior Gwee often incurs the wrath of her father when she surfs for too long, especially at night when the parents want to sleep, but she is still online. Mr. Gwee often shouts at his daughter if that happens, and Junior Gwee would retaliate by shouting back or throwing things around. Other times, both parents would try to negotiate for a settlement with their daughter. Often, conflict is not resolved despite attempts to settle them. Also, the Gwees saw a decrease in the quantity and quality of communication between them after Internet usage of Junior Gwee. (ii) The Ngs Mr. Ng is in a senior marketing position, while Mrs. Ng works in a factory. Together with a son aged 22 years old, and one teenage daughter Huiyi (Junior Ng), 19 years old, the family resides in a four-room HDB flat. Junior Ng, who has been using the Internet for four years but uses it only occasionally, logs onto the Internet from her school and at home mainly to check her mails, chat online with friends, or research for information for her school projects. She also likes to read, watch television, listen to music, and go shopping, dining and movies with her family and friends. The Senior Ngs are not too aware of Junior Ng’s Internet usage, as the computer is kept in the child’s own room. As a result, conflict
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is low and of the normative type, and is usually settled through negotiation and persuasion. The Ngs also noticed no change in the quantity and quality of communication between themselves as a result of Junior Ng’s Internet usage. (iii) The Lims Mr. and Mrs. Lim are both in business development jobs. They have a female child, Xuan Xuan (Junior Lim) aged 14 years old, a 20-year-old son in National Service and another 22-year-old son who is working in England. The family resides in a five-room HDB flat. Junior Lim is not a heavy Internet user. She has access to the Internet both at home and in school and has been using the Internet for about five years. Her main uses of this technology are to download MP3 songs, chat on IRC and ICQ, e-mails as well as research. The family subscribes to broadband and sometimes leaves the computer online for almost 24 hours a day. Junior Lim also listens to music when she is not tinkling with her computer, which is placed in her own room. Mr. and Mrs. Lim are lax in supervision of Junior Lim, and hence not aware of her Internet usage time. Therefore, conflict due to the child’s Internet usage is little, and if any, is of the material type. Conflict is normally resolved through persuasion. Besides, the Lims see no change in the quantity and quality of communication between the members of the family as a result of Junior Lim’s Internet usage. (iv) The Huangs Mr. Huang is a blue-collar worker, while his wife stays at home to take care of their teenage boy Boon Yong (Junior Huang) of 18 years old, and a 15-year-old daughter. The family lives in a fourroom HDB flat. Junior Huang, who is not a heavy Internet user, has been using the Internet for about two years, accesses the Internet at home
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through a computer in his own room. He uses it for entertainment, research, as well as neopets, an online game. Besides the Internet, he watches television, listens to music, and goes out with his girlfriend. Junior Huang’s parents are not aware of his online usage and activities, and conflict, mostly normative, is low. Conflict resolution is usually attempted through persuasion between the parties and ignoring the conflict, but most often that not, conflict still remains unsettled despite the attempts. The family also noticed a decrease in the quantity and quality of communication due to the teenager’s Internet usage. (v) The Wangs Mr. Wang is in the transport industry while his wife works at the neighborhood supermarket. They have a 22-year-old daughter who is a student in the university, and a teenage son aged 18, Ah Qiang (Junior Wang). The family lives in a three-room HDB flat. The computer is situated in a room, which the teenager shares with his sister. Junior Wang, a heavy Internet user, has Internet access at home, and has been using it for about three years. He usually uses it to chat, and to check out entertainment news. His other pastimes are watching television and playing games on his playstation and the computer. Mr. and Mrs. Wang are lax in their supervision of Junior Wang, and are not aware of his online usage time or activities. Conflict is low, and often material. Conflict resolution through persuasion is often successful, with the conflict being resolved most of the time. As well, the family sees no change in the quantity and quality of communication before or after Junior Wang’s Internet usage.
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20 ICT’s for Interpersonal Communications in China Guo Liang and Gai Bo
Introduction It has been 20 years since the first email was sent from Beijing to Germany in September 1987. In 1995, the first commercial Internet service was provided in China, and the Chinese people have experienced the Internet’s rapid growth and strong influence ever since. According to the official report from the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), by 31 December 2008, the total number of Chinese Internet users had reached 298 million, making China the largest Internet country in the world. Most Internet users in the country are using broadband. The number of broadband users (including leased line users) has reached 27 million, or 90.6% of the total number of users.1 The mobile phone is also diffusing rapidly in China. According to Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, mobile users in China numbered only 47,500 in 1991, but the number has expanded rapidly, to 660 million as of February 2009, the highest among all nations in the world. One of the most revolutionary changes in the past year was mobile Internet access. The total number of mobile Internet users has reached 117.6 million, and the mobile phone is becoming a popular way to access the Internet in China.2 Compared with the large number of users, the penetrations Source: http://www.cnnic.net.cn Source: http://www.cnnic.net.cn
1 2
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of the Internet and of the mobile phone have just reached or near the average penetration in the world. By the end of 2008, Internet and the mobile-phone penetration was 22.6% and 48.5%, respectively.3 The Internet not only increases the frequency of communications among people who know each other, but also provides more opportunity to develop new relationships. The low cost of mobile phone and its communication fee, especially for Short Messaging Service (SMS), is making the technology a most important tool in daily interactions in China. Both the Internet and mobile phone are providing a new style of interpersonal communication, and may in turn change the structure of personal social networks. Different people communicate each other differently according to their relations and the tools they are using. The China Internet Project (CNIP) paid particular attention to the social impact of the Internet from an interpersonal communications perspective in 2007. How urban Chinese are using the Internet in their daily interactions to maintain various types of social ties? Do they use ICT tools equally to communicate with each other? What ICT tools do they prefer to use when they communicate with different groups of people? This paper, based on the survey conducted in urban China in 2007, will discuss how ICT users are establishing and maintaining their personalized social networks. By comparing the use of different methods to maintain different relationships, we try to present a more detailed picture of how the Internet may be changing daily interaction in China. Methodology The earlier CNIP surveys were based on door-to-door interviews in selected larger cities. In recent years, due to growing security concerns among urban residents, and in particular the growing use of access control systems in apartment buildings, it has become Source: http://www.cnnic.net.cn and http://www.miit.gov.cn
3
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much more difficult to conduct door-to-door surveys. Taking advantage of the growth in landline phone users, we decided to initiate telephone survey in 2007. The survey was conducted in seven major Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Changsha, Xi’an and Shenyang, through the Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) system from March 21 to April 14, 2007. The respondents were randomly chosen by Random Digital Dial (RDD) and were limited to urban residents who had lived more than half a year in the surveyed cities and were between the ages of 15 and 59 years old. The response rate was 16.45%, and the number of final valid cases is 2,035. The weighted sample size was 2,001, including 1,315 Internet users and 686 Internet non-users. In the survey, different ways of communication are studied. Computer-mediated communications were classified into three categories: email, MSN, and QQ (ICQ) 4. Because of the relatively high penetration of mobile phones in the urban China, we also study mobile-phone communications, both via voice and text. In addition, we include more traditional communication methods, such as face-to-face and landline-phone calls to compare to the new ICTs. Chinese social relations are quite complicated. In addition to the work or study ties, such as colleagues, classmates, and business connections, family ties and social ties are also explored in this research. The contacts from children to parents and from parents to children are separated because different means may be used for communications of different directions. Husband and wife or boyfriend and girlfriend are put together as cohabitants. So we have five different family ties, including parents, children, cohabitants, siblings, and other relatives. Chinese like to call each other “friends”. Someone who has met only once could be a “friend” but the way to communicate 4
MSN (Microsoft Network) and QQ are communication tools for instant online chat and file transmission. MSN refers to a series of Internet based services, which includes a search engine, email (Hotmail), instant messaging, personal space (blog), and a portal with news, information and shopping. In the Chinese context, MSN is mainly used for instant messaging. QQ, a Chinese version of ICQ, meaning “I seek you”, provides Chinese user-friendly online chatting service. Both are very popular in urban China nowadays.
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with close friends and with casual friends are different. Online friends in the virtual world are also special relations compared with friends in reality. And the relation between non-cohabiting lovers also differs from that between couples in a cohabiting or stable relationship. Five different social ties are examined. They are close friends, casual friends, online friends, non-cohabiting lovers, and neighbors. In the survey, respondents were asked what communication tools they use to contact different groups of people. Communications with different ICT Tools Before the emergence of ICTs, people would communicate faceto-face, by post or by landline phones. With the development of ICTs, new communication tools emerged. Using mobile phones, people can communicate with others anywhere, anytime by voice or text messaging. On the Internet, people can interact across space using email, chat room, BBS, Blog, ICQ, MSN and so on. In this paper, we will mainly focus on the new communications tools of mobile voice calls and text message, as well as email, MSN and QQ through the Internet. Usage of these tools by mobile phone users and Internet users is shown in Figure 20.1. The mobile phone is the most widely used form of communication Mobile text message
90.9%
Mobile voice call
90.3%
80.2%
E‐mail
73.0%
ICQ/QQ
MSN
37.4%
Figure 20.1 Usage of various communication tools among Internet/mobile phone users. (Internet users N=1309, Mobile phone users N=1756)
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in China, both for voice calls and for text messages. The rates for personal use by mobile subscribers are 90.3% and 90.9%, respectively. (In our survey, we exclude the use of mobile phone for business purposes). It is interesting that more than 90% of the mobile users in our survey use text messages, a percentage likely to be much higher than in most other countries in the world. It is even more interesting to find that nearly 10% of the mobile subscribers do not use their mobile phones for voice calls. Email and QQ (ICQ) have been widely used among netizens. The usage rates are 80.2% and 73.0%, respectively. In China, MSN is becoming popular recently. Over one third (37.4%) of Internet users now use MSN services. These data demonstrate that various communication tools, both offline and online, are being internalized into daily interactions of large numbers of people in Chinese urban areas. Mobile phone voice call and text message According to data released by the Ministry of Information Industry of the People’s Republic of China, as of October 2007, China had 370,683,000 landline-phone subscribers and 531,447,000 mobilephone subscribers. The majority (over 60%) of those who use mobile phones make calls to their close friends, spouses or romantic partners, and current colleagues/classmates/business connections/people within the same profession. Mobile voice call communication is also frequently used to contact siblings, parents, casual friends, children and relatives. The figure below shows the proportion of heavy mobile voice call users, who make mobile phone calls at least 10 times on an average day. Although text messages are widely used to contact close friends (48.6%), non-cohabiting lovers or boyfriends/girlfriends (45.9%), they are less frequently used than mobile voice calls in communication with family members. As a whole, the number of text messages sent and received on an average day is higher than that of mobile voice calls.
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67.5%
Close friends Non-cohabitant lovers or boyfriends/ girlfriend Current colleagues, classmates, people with the same profession, or business partners Cohabitant spouse or boyfriend/girlfriend in a stable relationship
64.4% 63.1% 60.2% 54.1%
Siblings
40.3%
Parents
37.2%
Casual friends
34.9%
Children
32.1%
Relatives
19.8%
Online friends Neighbors
6.9%
Figure 20.2 Proportion of heavy use of mobile voice calls by relationship.
48.6%
Close friends
45.9%
Lovers or boyfriends/girlfriend(not living together) Current colleagues, classmates, people with the same profession, or business partners Cohabitant spouse or boyfriend/girlfriend in a stable rela9onship
35.2% 33.8% 27.1%
Online friends
26.6%
Siblings
25.1%
Casual friends
17.6%
Children
15.4%
Parents
13.9%
6ela9ves Neighbors
3.4%
Figure 20.3 Proportion of heavy use of mobile text message (6 average message sent/ receive per day) by relationship.
The adoption of modern information communication technology challenges traditional communication modes. According to statistics from the Ministry of Information Industry, the volume of
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landline-phone calls during the first half of 2007 was 4.6% lower than the volume during the same period in 2006, the time spent on intra-city mobile calls was 35.7% longer than last year, the revenue of mobile communication was 17% higher, and the revenue of mobile data services was 32.5% higher than in the previous year. Email In Western countries, email is the most widely and frequently used communication tool on the Internet. In China, email is less popular although its rate of use has fluctuated in recent years. According to our survey in 2003, most Internet users were young, well-educated males with relatively high incomes. In 2005, a large number of young people began to use the Internet for the first time, turning mostly to entertainment, not email as their major online pursuit. The percentage of Internet users using email actually dropped from 80% in 2003 to 63% in 2005. By 2007, however, users were turning again to email, and the percentages of users was rising, reached 81%. Email communication is more common among impersonal or professional acquaintances than among personal friends and family. Some 34% of Internet users frequently use email to communicate with their current colleagues, classmates, business connections and people within the same profession, 26% with close friends, and 20% with online friends. In China, few people frequently use email for communications with neighbors, parents, relatives and children. MSN MSN is a relatively new Internet communication tool in China, and its popularity is increasing. We reported in 2005 that 24.4% of Internet users are MSN users. Our survey in 2007 reveals that the proportion of Internet users who use MSN has risen to 37%. Almost one fifth of Internet users use MSN at least once a day.
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Current colleagues, classmates, people with the same profession or business connec
33.7% 26.0%
Close friends
19.9%
Online friends
15.3%
Casual friends
13.3%
Lovers or boyfriend/girlfriend
12.4%
Cohabitant spouse or boyfriend/girlfriend in a stable rela
11.7%
Siblings
7.2%
Children
6.3%
:ela
3.1%
Parents
2.0%
Neighbors
Figure 20.4 Proportion of email users who frequently use email to communicate with different social relations.
44.3%
Close friends Current colleagues, classmates, people with the same profession, or business connec?ons
41.2% 35.0%
Online friends
29.5%
Lovers or boyfriend/girlfriend(not living together)
24.6%
Casual friends Cohabitant spouse or boyfriend/girlfriend in a stable rela?onship
22.9% 14.7%
Siblings
9.5%
>ela?ves
8.2%
Children Parents Neighbors
4.1% 2.3%
Figure 20.5 Proportion of MSN users who frequently use MSN to communicate with different social relations QQ (ICQ).
Better educated Internet users are more likely to be MSN users. Employment status is another factor affecting the use of
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MSN. White collar workers, professionals, senior executives and employers are more likely to use MSN than blue collar workers, the retired, the laid-off, full-time housewives and the jobless. In addition, single Internet users are more likely to use MSN (42.7%) than married Internet users (31.5%). While email is more widely used within professional or impersonal relationships, MSN is more popular for communicating with close friends. A little over 44.3% use MSN for communication with close friends, the single largest group among MSN users. Some 35% of users frequently use MSN to communicate with online friends. More detailed findings in this respect are presented in Figure 20.5. QQ(ICQ) In China, QQ is the most popular instant messaging software. According to an industry report issued in the summer of 2007, the largest number of people using QQ at any given time had reached 30 million, and the total number of registered users was 270 million5. Our 2007 survey found that some 73% of Internet users are now QQ users, up from 66.6% in 2005. Among QQ users, some 62.2% use QQ at least once a day. The scope of the QQ communications network is also different from the scope of the MSN network. Almost 80% of MSN users use MSN mainly to communicate with individuals from within an established network of social ties, and 19% of MSN users use MSN to communicate with both an established group of acquaintances and strangers. By contrast, 63% of QQ users use QQ mainly to communicate with an established network of social ties, and 36% use it to communicate with both people in an established social network and strangers. Online instant messengers, especially QQ, are helping people to communicate with individuals they haven’t met before as well as to maintain their existing social relationships. This suggests that as the Internet is integrated into the daily life in 5
Source: http://tech.163.com/07/0820/11/3MBB1LK9000915BF.html
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China, the boundary between the cyber and the physical spaces are getting blurred. One of the reasons is that MSN requires approval before contact, while QQ not only allow people to contact those they do not know but also provide a search engine to seek those they are interested to chat with. 71.7%
Online friends
66.0%
Close friends Current colleagues, classmates, people with the same profession, or business connec?ons
59.9% 54.8%
Casual friends
51.6%
Non‐cohabitant lovers or boyfriend/girlfriend
36.6%
Siblings Cohabitant spouse or boyfriend/girlfriend in a stable rela?onship
33.5% 22.6%
>ela?ves
12.2%
Children Neighbors
10.3%
Parents
10.3%
Figure 20.6 Proportion of Internet users who frequently use QQ to communicate by social relationship.
80.4%
ICQ(QQ) MSN
62.6% 36.0%
18.5%
1.3% Both
0sta345she7 so85a4 9es
1.1%
strangers
Figure 20.7 The scope of MSN communications and QQ communications (NQQ=912, NMSN=407) Communications with different groups of people.
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In this study, social networks were divided into 11 different groups of friends, family, and acquaintances. We attempt to explore use of the Internet and of the mobile phone, as well as the use of the landline phone and face to face contact, as tools of communication among these different groups. Family Ties In Chinese culture, “family” and domestic politics are always very important. Over the last few decades, in the process of modernization and urbanization, the extent of family has shrunk rapidly and some family values have been redefined. Nevertheless, family ties still play a highly significant role in social networking among the Chinese. 1. Parent-child relationship Of the 1,868 respondents, 56% have frequent face-to-face communication with their parents. Over 40.3% of mobile-phone users frequently communicate with their parents by mobile voice calls. The figures suggest that landline phones and face-to-face communication are still the two major means of communication between parents and children, followed by mobile voice calls. 59.5%
The landline phone
55.5%
Face to face
40.3%
The mobile voice call
15.4%
The mobile text message
10.3%
ICQ(QQ)
MSN
Email
4.1% 3.1%
Figure 20.8 Heavy use of different tools for communicating with parents.
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There are 1,074 respondents who have children in our survey. Of these, 73% have frequent face-to-face communication with their children. A little over 36% of landline-phone users frequently call their children using the landline phones, while 34.9% of mobile voice call users do that via mobile phones. The Internet is not often used by parents in communications with children. And mobile voice call is preferred to text messages for communication with children. In general, parents and children use the same communication tools to communicate with each other. 73.1%
Face to face
36.1%
The landline phone
34.9%
The mobile voice call
17.6%
The mobile text message
ICQ (QQ)
MSN
Email
12.2% 8.2% 7.2%
Figure 20.9 Heavy use of different tools to communicate with children.
2. Cohabitant spouse or boyfriend/girlfriend in a stable relationship 6 In this study, we considered communication between cohabitant heterosexual relations and spouses together. The details are shown in the following figure. It is suggested that the use of communication tools within this group of people is quite different from that between parents and children. The most significant difference is that the Internet is more actively used in communication within this group. Another interesting phenomenon is that mobile voice calls tend to 6
Here, by “boyfriend/girlfriend in a stable relationship”, we mainly refer to cohabitant lovers or fiancé/fiancée. We classify this relationship into this category because their behaviors are much more like couples although they are not married.
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be used more often than landline phones. Sixty percent of mobile voice call users have frequent mobile voice communications with their spouses or cohabiting romantic partners, whereas only 36% of landline-phone users have frequent landline phone communications with the same group.
62.0%
Face to face
60.2%
The mobile voice call
36.0%
The landline phone
The mobile text message
33.8%
ICQ (QQ)
33.5% 22.9%
MSN
Email
12.4%
Figure 20.10 Heavy use of different communication tools to communicate with cohabitant spouse or boyfriend/ girlfriend in a stable relationship.
3. Siblings There are 1,554 respondents in our survey who have brothers or sisters. Thirty-six percent of them often have face-to-face communication with their brothers or sisters. Of mobile-phone users, 54% have frequent mobile voice communications with their siblings; among landline-phone users, 46% do so via landline phones; and among QQ users, 36.6% often use the technology to contact their siblings. This suggests that although face-to-face communication with siblings is not as frequent as that with parents, children or spouses, both traditional and new communication tools help people keep in touch with their siblings.
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54.1%
The mobile voice call
46.1%
The landline phone
36.6%
ICQ (QQ)
36.0%
Face to face
26.6%
The mobile text message
14.7%
MSN
11.7%
Email
Figure 20.11 Heavy use of different tools to communicate with siblings.
45.0%
The landline phone
32.1%
The mobile voice call
22.6%
ICQ (QQ)
20.4%
Face to face
13.9%
The mobile text message
MSN
Email
9.5% 6.3%
Figure 20.12 Heavy use of different tools to communicate with relatives.
4. Relatives We found that respondents do not often have face-to-face communication with relatives. Landline phones are the most important tool in keeping frequent contact between relatives, with 45% of landline-phone users regularly making calls (via landline phones) to their relatives. Mobile voice calls are also used to
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maintain these ties – 32.1% of mobile voice call users frequently talk with their relatives through the mobile phone. In addition, 22.6% of QQ users keep regular contact with relatives by means of QQ. Work Ties Work ties include current colleagues, classmates, people within the same profession and business connections. The use pattern of communication tools for this category is similar to the use pattern for communication with close friends. Mobile phone voice call and QQ are the two most important communication devises. Sixty percent of QQ users frequently communicate with this group of people via QQ, and 63% of users have regular contacts with this group of people by making mobile voice calls. The proportions of heavy use of email, MSN, SMS and landline phones among users to communicate with this category range from 30-40%. In addition, 41.1% of respondents who have this category of social tie keep in touch through regular face-to-face communication. 63.1%
The mobile voice call
59.9%
QQ
MSN
41.2%
Face to face
41.1%
The mobile text message
35.2%
The landline phone
34.7%
Email
33.7%
Figure 20.13 Heavy use of different tools to communicate with current colleagues, classmates, people within the same profession and business connections.
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Social Ties 1. Non-cohabiting lovers or boyfriends/girlfriends QQ and the mobile phone (both voice call and text message) are heavily used in communications within this category of romantic relationships – QQ is used frequently by 51.6% of QQ users for this purpose, 45.9% of SMS users regularly send messages and 64.4% of mobile-phone users frequently make voice calls to their lovers or boyfriend/girlfriend By contrast, only 36% of respondents meet their lovers or boyfriends/girlfriends regularly.
64.4%
The mobile voice call
51.6%
ICQ (QQ)
45.9%
The mobile text message
36.0%
Face to face
29.5%
MSN
24.8%
The landline phone
Email
13.3%
Figure 20.14 Heavy use of different tools to communicate with non-cohabiting lovers or boyfriends/girlfriends.
2. Close Friends We divide friends into close friends, casual friends and online friends. Here, we will first discuss the use of different communication tools in communication with close friends. We found that QQ and the mobile voice calls tend to be used most in communication with close friends. The proportions of frequent users of each communication tool for the purpose of communicating with close friends are: (i) 66% for QQ users, (ii) 67.5% for mobile voice call users, (iii) 48.6% for SMS users, (iv) 44.3% for MSN,
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and (v) 41.6% for landline-phone users. Additionally, of the 1,951 respondents who have close friends, 46.7% make frequent faceto-face communications with them. The mobile phone and the Internet have already become two of the most important ways of communication to maintain close friendship. 67.5%
The mobile voice call
66.0%
ICQ (QQ)
48.6%
The mobile text message
46.7%
Face to face
44.3%
MSN
41.6%
The fixed phone
Email
26.0%
Figure 20.15 Heavy use of different communication tools to communicate with close friends.
3. Casual Friends A significant difference between communication with casual friends and communication with close friends lies in the frequency of face-to-face communication. Less than 15% of respondents with common friends say they frequently communicate with these friends face-to-face, whereas 46.7% of respondents with close friends say that face-to-face communication is frequently ised between them and their close friends. QQ is the primary route of communication between common friends. The proportion of heavy use of QQ in communications with common friends is 54.8%. A quarter of MSN users frequently use the devise to communicate with their close friends. Since the frequency of faceto-face communication with common friends is lower than with close friends, new communication tools appear quite important in maintaining these relationships.
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54.8%
QQ
37.2%
The mobile voice call
25.1%
The mobile text message
24.6%
MSN
20.5%
The landline phone
15.3%
Email
14.8%
Face to face
Figure 20.16 Heavy use of different tools to communicate with casual friends.
44.7%
Face to face
12.2%
The landline phone
10.3%
ICQ (QQ)
6.9%
The mobile voice call
The mobile text message
3.4%
MSN
2.3%
Email
2.0%
Figure 20.17 Heavy use of different communication tools to communicate with neighbors.
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4. Neighbors Our survey found that communication tools, such as the Internet, the mobile phone, or the landline phone, are not used frequently to communicate with neighbors. Face-to-face communication is still the most common way. The detailed data are shown in the following figure. 5.Online Friends Through the Internet, people are able to make new friends in cyber space, thus enlarging their social networks. It is therefore important to consider online friends as a new category of social relationship. In China, QQ is the most popular online communication tool that helps people meet strangers and make new friends. 71.7% of QQ users often communicate with their online friends by QQ. MSN is another important tool to make online friends, and 35% of MSN users have regular communication with online friends through MSN. Almost 20% of email users keep regular contact with their online friends through email. An interesting point is that online friends can also become friends in the offline world. It is shown that the Internet and the mobile phone are complementary in daily interactions with this new type of social ties. 35.0%
MSN
71.7%
ICQ (QQ)
19.9%
Email
27.1%
The mobile text message
19.8%
The mobile voice call
The landline phone
Face to face
7.7% 5.1%
Figure 20.18 Heavy use of different tools to communicate with online friends.
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Although some people develop their relationship with online friends by keeping communications with them in the physical world, most Internet users are not likely to have face-to-face contact with their online acquaintances. The Internet is still the major medium to maintain online social networks. Conclusion We found that children mainly communicate with their parents in a face-to-face manner, which is probably a result of the generation gap in the adoption of new communication tools. Since the adoption rates of SMS, email, MSN and QQ are lowest among older groups, face-to-face is possibly the most convenient way to communicate with parents. However, parents who are users of specific new communication tool do not use SMS, email, MSN and QQ as frequently as other tools such as landline phones, mobile voice calls or face-to-face communication. Thus, these new communication tools are probably still playing a complementary role in parentchild communications, supplementing more traditional methods like face-to-face contact. Mobile voice calls are more likely to be frequently used in communication with four kinds of social relationships: (i) spouse, (ii) romantic relationships, (iii) close friends, and (iv) current colleagues, classmates, people within the same profession or business connections. Thus, it is possible that mobile voice calls are used most in daily communications among users. The mobile voice call helps people to connect with others anytime anywhere. In addition, placing a mobile call does not require much skill, and thus is more widely used among people across demographics. This is a plausible reason that may explain why mobile calls are more often used in communications with most social ties than other new tools such as SMS, email, MSN and QQ. QQ tends to be used frequently in communication between peers. More than 60% of QQ users who have close friends often communicate with them using this tool. The adoption of QQ is still specific to particular socio-demographic categories despite
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its increasing penetration rate in recent years, and thus QQ users should consider whether this new communication tool is also accessible to the recipients of their communications. This perhaps could explain why QQ seems more popular in communications with peer-like ties rather than with parents. Generally, people tend to use various communication tools to maintain and strengthen close ties. Consequently, in communication with close friends and peers, QQ is widely used. In addition, the high percent (71.7%) of frequent use of QQ to communicate with online friends shows that QQ has been a regular tool to maintain online social networks. The following figure roughly shows how different communication tools are used within different social relations. However, the role of these tools in maintaining social networks is rather complex, and thus deserves further investigation.
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Figure 19 Use of different communication tools in contacting different social relationships
explanation for the following figure: heavy use: > 60% Medium use: 36% ~ 60% low use: 15% ~ 35%
Parents Children
Cohabitant spouse or boyfriend/girlfriend in a stable relationship
Face to face
the landline
siblings Mobile voice call Close friends Casual friends
Mobile text message
relatives online friends
Current colleagues, classmates, people with the same profession or business connections non-cohabiting lovers or boyfriends/girlfriend
email
Msn
QQ (ICQ)
neighbors
Figure 20.19 Use of different communication tools in contacting different social relationships.
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21 Effects of the Internet on Our Social Lives Yair Amichai-Hamburger
The Internet is a decentralized network of computers around the globe. Initially, the number of Internet users was small, but it has been expanding continually and it is estimated there are over one billion users worldwide today (Internet World Stats at http://www. Internetworldstats.com). In fact, the Internet has integrated so well into people’s lives that, for many, it is very difficult to imagine life without it. People conduct various activities in cyberspace, these include shopping, receiving information, planning their trips, taking part in virtual work teams,and playing games in a virtual community. One of the main issues arising from the use of Internet is its impact on our social lives. In this chapter, we will start by discussing the leading psychological components that influence people’s behavior on the net and then go on to describe the debate between those who believe that the Internet is conducive to an active social life, and those who argue to the contrary. We will then discuss the results of the World Internet Project (WIP) as they pertain to the Internet-social life connection. The Internet is a creation of a continuous stream of computers linked together to one net, but, more importantly, it is animated through hundreds of millions of human beings interacting with one another. The Internet creates a unique psychological environment for its users. Below we describe some of its components.
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The major psychological factors of the Internet Internet use involves special factors that in combination create a unique psychological setting for the user. Four major features were highlighted by McKenna, Green, and Gleason (2002), which distinguish Internet interaction from face-to-face interaction: 1. Greater anonymity; 2. The diminution of the importance of physical appearance; 3. Greater control over the time and pace of interactions; and 4. The ease of finding similar others. Greater anonymity: On the Internet, people can easily maintain their anonymity. They can choose a false name and fake or hide other personal and identifying details. This secrecy around their identity encourages some people to express themselves more freely and sincerely than they do in face-to-face interactions, since they are not subject to the usual social rules and norms (Turkle, 1995). The Internet itself may, in fact, play a major role in encouraging people to hide or falsify their identities, since they know that they will remain undetected. Even when users use their real names or disclose other personal information, they still subjectively experience relative anonymity (McKenna & Bargh, 2000; McKenna et al., 2002). Two strangers meeting on the train may well open up to one another and reveal intimate secrets, since they are unlikely to meet again. Rubin (1975) termed this process the “strangers-ona-train” phenomenon. A similar process of feelings of openness between strangers leading to self-disclosure has been found to occur on the web. Joinson (2001) found that people who interacted through email disclosed a more direct and intimate information and perceived the interaction as more valuable as compared with those who interacted face-to-face. Diminution of physical appearance: Physical appearance is one of the focal determinants of the way in which we are perceived by others. Cialdini (1984) suggested that attractive people have an
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enormous social advantage in our culture; they are better liked, more frequently helped, and seen as possessing better personality traits and intellectual capabilities. This advantage is bestowed due to what is termed the halo effect (Thorndike, 1920). This occurs when one positive characteristic of a person, such as attractiveness, dominates the way a person is viewed by others. Just as the halo effect plays in favor of the physically attractive, the reverse is true for people who are physically unappealing. The first physical impression is likely to set the course for the rest of the interaction (Fiske & Taylor, 1991) and will play a large part in determining the outcome of any kind of association, be it a working relationship or a romantic one (Hatfield & Sprecher, 1986). Since a typical Internet social interaction is solely text-based, the physical characteristics of the participants remain undisclosed. This is particularly significant for people with unsightly or unattractive physical characteristics who are likely to suffer from discrimination in their face-to-face interactions. On the Internet they have opportunities to present themselves any way they choose. They may hope that if and when the interaction progresses to face-to-face, the impact of their negative physical traits will have been negated by the positive effects of the online communication. This process is in fact complex, because in many cases those people displaying negative physical traits will have accepted and internalized the negative perceptions of those around them. This internalization will have a serious negative impact on their selfesteem which may lead them to fear face-to-face interactions to such an extent that they may choose to limit the interaction to online only. Alternatively, it may lead them to be so certain of failure that they create a self-fulfilling prophecy and inadvertently cause their face-to-face meetings to conclude unsuccessfully. Interestingly, Ben-Ze’ev (2005) points out that the reverse may be true, that the physical anonymity of the Internet encounter is enjoyed by people who are very attractive and concerned that their appearance is the only reason that others wish to get to know them. For such people, the obscurity provided by cyberspace interactions brings freedom and a release.
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Greater control: During a normative face-to-face encounter, people who are socially inhibited, very shy, or without social skills may frequently feel a lack of control and even fear. Those same individuals will probably experience greater control when they communicate through the Internet. This is due to several factors: first, the timing of the encounter is in their hands - each individual decides when he or she will write a message and when he or she will reply. Moreover, there are endless opportunities to review the missive before it is sent and it will only be sent, if at all, when the writer is satisfied with it. This thought and review process is unattainable in face-to-face encounters that take place in real time. The process of writing an email and then reviewing it on the screen creates the potential for high self-awareness on the part of the writer, since he or she observes him/herself as an object. This, in turn, leads writers to create their messages with the aim of giving the impression for which they are striving (Duval & Wicklund, 1972). This impression may contrast with the persona they hold in everyday life. For Internet surfers, the whole interaction is taking place in an environment of their choosing and this factor, unique to the Internet, may well be a source of security and comfort. Internet users are able to “go out to meet the world” from their own living rooms; they may encounter strangers, but remain in their safe havens, with their feet up, sipping their tea; and naturally they can pull out of the encounter at any time with no ramifications. This ability to terminate the interaction at the press of a button with no social consequences is something that remains in the realm of fantasy in a face-to-face interaction. Perhaps surprisingly, this ability to pull the plug on a conversation at will creates a stimulus for powerful romantic relationships. As Ben Ze’ev (2005) explains, significant self-disclosure springs from the fact that participants feel tremendous control over the interaction, secure in the knowledge that they have the ability to end the exchange at will and vanish into oblivion. Finding similar others: The Internet is accessed every day by many millions of users, all of whom have various interests. This,
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together with the ease of finding details of the different interests and services offered by the net, make it exceptionally easy to discover like-minded others visiting the same site. Moreover, having discovered like-minded others, it is exceptionally straightforward to join them and their group online. This factor of Internet use may be of tremendous importance to people who belong to stigmatized groups and who may not even identify themselves as such offline (McKenna & Bargh, 1998). When people join such groups on line and post to their newsgroup, they may well experience elevated self-esteem, self-acceptance, and reduced feelings of loneliness. In many cases, their online involvement may lead them to feel confident enough and motivate them to make their stigmatized identity a social reality by revealing it to family and friends. As illustrated above, the highly protected setting provided by the Internet affects people in different ways. In some cases, it releases the individuals from the “normative persona mask” they wear in face-to-face interactions and may provide them with opportunities to explore and experiment with diverse aspects of their identity (Turkle, 1995). For some people, what they perceive as a highly supportive net environment may facilitate their reaching the deepest level of their personality, known as the true self (McKenna & Bargh, 2000). For some people, this may lead them to express different forms of aggression against others on the net, while other people may feel motivated to help other users in the knowledge that the protected environment of the Internet enables them to determine their limits. Some users utilize their feelings of security to quicken the process of the initial stages of a potentially romantic relationship and speedily reach a subsequent phase of intimacy and closeness (Cooper & Sportolari, 1997; McKenna & Bargh, 2000). Interaction on the net leads a user to become part of a huge social network. A pivotal question arising from this is how far does Internet use impact users’ social lives.
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Does the Internet bring about loneliness? Internet interactions are a highly appropriate form of communication for our modern lifestyle. The ability to send and answer emails at a time of one’s choosing, in the knowlege that the the recipient is able to receive the message almost instantaneously, enables people to support and maintain their social contacts. This is particularly important since, for many people, kin and friendship networks are spread throughout the world. The resources offered by the Internet may significantly assist certain groups in society, for example, those with special needs, to lead an independent life. This help is given in ways that traditional services are unable to provide. For example, such people may now carry out tasks, for example, shopping, paying fees to local authorities, and banking over the Internet. This clearly has a great impact and tremendous potential for the self-efficacy of previously socially excluded and marginalized communities. Nevertheless, the advent of the Internet was initially regarded by many scholars as a dubious social development. Kraut and his colleagues (1998) studied 169 individuals from 93 diverse households in Pittsburgh during their first two years online. They recorded each participant’s Internet use by employing customdesigned logging programs and self-report measures. The level of social involvement and psychological well-being of participants was measured before they went online andsubsequently a year later and two years later. Results showed that increasing use of the Internet was associated with a decline in participants’ communication with family members within the household, a reduced social circle, and a rise in levels of loneliness and depression. Kraut and his colleagues published their findings under the heading “Internet paradox” in order to underline the fact that, despite all the social components promoted by the Internet such as chat and newsgroups, ironically Internet use leads to a decline in the social lives of users (see also Brenner, 1997; Stoll, 1995; Turkle, 1996). Kraut et al.’s (1998) findings were emphatically reinforced two years later by Nie and Erbring (2000). They reported the results
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of a national representative survey, carried out in the US, which showed that Internet users reported spending less time with family and friends than non-users and, as the amount of Internet use increased, there was a commensurate decline in time spent with kith and kin. A follow-up study three years later (Nie, Hillygus, & Erbring, 2002) found similar results: The more time people spend on the Internet at home, the less time they spend with family and friends. When these results were further assessed, it was found that for each minute participants reported spending on the Internet during the previous 24 hours, there was a reduction of approximately one third of a minute spent with family members. The same held true for work: The more time people spent on the Internet at work, the less time they spent interacting with colleagues. For each minute spent on the Internet, the average person spends about 7 seconds less with friends and 11 seconds less with colleagues. Despite what may seem overwhelming evidence of the antisocial effects of the Internet, the situation is actually more complex than it may appear at first sight. Hamburger and Ben-Artzi (2000) raised two major objections to Kraut et al.’s (1998) study: (1) The omission by the authors that there is a wide diversity of services on offer on the Internet, and that for a comprehensive understanding of the impact of the Internet on individuals’ well-being, it is essential to consider the interaction between the different individuals and their choice of services. Hamburger and Ben-Artzi (2000) believe that the vast range of services on the Internet should be divided into three main categories: social, work, and leisure. (2) In their study, Kraut et al. (1998) regard Internet users as a single entity, claiming that they all have the same motivations and needs; Hamburger and Ben-Artzi (2000) argue that to study the impact of the Internet on individuals and society, it is a necessary preliminary to understand the personality of the user, since what is good for one user is not necessarily good for another. In short, Hamburger and Ben-Artzi argue that Kraut et al. (1998) ignored the richness and diversity of both the Internet services on offer and of the users’ personalities. In their own exploration of this topic, Hamburger and Ben-Artzi (2000) found that it is neurotic and introverted women who tend to make the greatest use of the social services on the Internet. The
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authors suggest that this is because such women have higher levels of self-reflection and a greater willingness to reach for the support that the Internet can provide. Kraut and his colleagues (2002) carried out a follow-up survey on 208 of the participants of their first study, three years later, they found that the negative effects of Internet use had largely disappeared. Kraut et al. also published the findings of a longitudinal survey carried out between 1998-99 of 406 purchasers of new computers and televisions. In their replies to questions as to their levels of communication, social involvement, and well-being, respondents generally reported positively. This was particularly apparent in the case of extroverts and people with social support. In light of these results, Kraut suggested a “rich-get-richer” model arguing that, for people who are already strong socially, the Internet provides them with yet another platform to enhance and display their skills. These results create a whole new range of research questions. However, for the scope of this chapter, it is important to focus on the current results and note that most of the negative effects of Internet use had vanished in the second study. Amichai-Hamburger and Ben-Artzi (2003) compared Nie and Erbring’s (2000) hypothesis that Internet use leads to loneliness with an alternative hypothesis that people who are already lonely are more likely to be drawn toward Internet use. They found that the latter is, in fact, the case: lonely people do tend to be drawn toward Internet use. This is consistent with research on Internet motives that found that lonely users were generally more sociable online than offline (Morahan-Martin & Schumacher, 2003, p. 665). A few years later, Amichai-Hamburger (2005) proposed that today there is a general understanding that the Internet comprises numerous components and that, in fact, it creates opportunities for the “poor to get rich.” In other words, the protected environment created by the Internet produces a situation in which people who cannot express themselves through the more traditional channels of communication find themselves able to do so on the net. McKenna and her colleagues (2002) showed that, while some people express their true selves in face-to-face contact, for others the only place that they can express their true selves is online.
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They use the concept of the “real me” to refer to a version of the self that someone believes is the truth, but that they find difficulty in expressing. This idea is derived from the “true self” concept used by Rogers (1961) to describe the feelings of patients after successful therapy, when they become more truly themselves. McKenna et al. (2002) show that there are people who locate their real me on the Internet – that is, reveal their real selves over the net, while others find their real me in face-to-face relationships; that is, they prefer to reveal their real selves in traditional offline relationships. McKenna and her colleagues conclude that the location of the real me is an important indicator as to the placing of people’s significant relationships, that is, online or offline. People who reveal their “real me” on the Internet are expected to have their more significant relationships over the net than those people who reveal their “real me” in offline relationships. For those people who reveal their real me on line, McKenna and her colleagues (2002) believe that the unique secure, protective environment found on the Internet is likely to have a positive effect on their net relationships. They argue that the unique atmosphere created by cyberspace allows people to share self-relevant information in a way that they would be unwilling to in the offline world. McKenna and her colleagues (2002) carried out a series of three experiments. Their results showed that people who found it easier to express their true selves in cyberspace reported that they swiftly formed relationships online and these relationships endured over time. Their results also showed that people who are socially anxious and lonely express themselves more effectively on the Internet than in offline relationships. Social anxiety and loneliness are linked to relationship intimacy by mediation of the location of the self. There is no direct relationship between social anxiety and loneliness, on one hand, and intimacy and closeness on the other. The researchers also found that people whose significant relationships take place online will endeavor to move those significant relationships to their offline world, so as to make them into a social reality. The question of whether Internet use leads to a decline in social interactions and community involvement is becoming increasingly
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important as, throughout the world, the number of Internet users multiplies and the impact their Internet use is reflected worldwide. One significant method of clarifying the position is through analysis of the data from the World Internet Project (WIP) which includes representative samples from 12 member countries. Results and Discussion An analysis of the degree of Internet users’ social contact with others who share their hobbies or recreational activities revealed that, for most of the participants in the majority of countries, the level of such social contact remained as it had before they became Internet users. For others covered by the project, the level of contact actually increased (see Figure 21.1). These results reflect the psychological factors involved in Internet use, discussed earlier. This is particularly true in the case of finding similar others on the Internet,something that is especially important when it comes to hobbies and interests, particularly those that are specialized, exceptional or, in some cases, socially unacceptable. In such cases, users may choose to maintain their anonymity, but whether they choose to do so or not, the Internet may well provide a means to increased social contact. .nternet /se0 Effect on Cont1ct 23t4 5eo67e 84o 941re /sers: ;o<<3es or =ecre1>on17 ?c>@3>es A.nternet /sers ?Be CD 1nE F7EerG
Somewhat Decreased
Somewhat Increased
Greatly Increased
Remained The Same
Australia
Canada
Urban China
Colombia
Czech Republic
Hungary
Israel
Macao
New Zealand
Singapore
Sweden
United States
90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
Country
Figure 21.1 Internet Use: Effect on Contact with People Who Share Users’ Hobbies or Recreational Activities (Internet Users Age 18 and Older).
Effects
Greatly Decreased
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People throughout the world continue to build relationships and maintain contacts with others who share their political opinions (see Figure 21.2) and/or religious beliefs (see Figure 21.3). This is consistent with the fact that, in the main, we are attracted to people whose attitudes and beliefs on major issues are akin to our own (Byrne, 1971). Conversely, dissimilar attitudes may well lead to avoidance and dislike. This is particularly the case with regard to religious and political beliefs, and was also found to be the case with regard to romantic attachments. Since people prefer that their romantic partners have similar characteristics, including religious background, political orientation, and socioeconomic status (Buss & Barnes, 1986). In sum, it appears that individuals tend to connect with others of a similar background, including religious and political beliefs, and that this phenomenon remains true both online and offline. .a0le 23 Internet Use3 Effect on Contact 67t8 9eo:le ;8o <8are Users= 9ol7>cal Interests (Internet Users Age 18 and Older) Somewhat Decreased
Somewhat Increased
Greatly Increased
Remained The Same
Australia
Canada
Urban China
Colombia
Czech Republic
Hungary
Israel
Macao
New Zealand
Singapore
Sweden
United Kingdom
United States
100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
Effects
Greatly Decreased
Country
Figure 21.2 Internet Use: Effect on Contact with People Who Share Users’ Political Interests. (Internet Users Age 18 and Older).
When it comes to professional interactions, perhaps unsurprisingly, most countries reported a large increase in such contacts. This may be attributed to the modern work environment in
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which the Internet and other technological communication devices feature prominently. This ability to be in contact with colleagues all over the world is a trend that creates increased expectations. Internet Use: Effect on Contact with People who share users religions Somewhat Decreased
Somewhat Increased
Greatly Increased
Remained The Same
Australia
Canada
Urban China
Colombia
Czech Republic
Hungary
Israel
New Zealand
Singapore
Sweden
United Kingdom
United States
100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
Effects
Greatly Decreased
Country
Figure 21.3 Internet Use: Effect on Contact with People Who Share Users’ Religion (Internet Users Age 18 and Older).
In many cases today, the old borders of work and home have dissolved and employees are expected to work without set hours and be willing to accommodate the needs of associates in different time zones. Internet Use: Effect on Contact with People Who Share Users' Profession Somewhat Decreased Greatly Increased
Remained The Same
Australia
Canada
Urban China
Colombia
Czech Republic
Hungary
Israel
New Zealand
Singapore
Sweden
United Kingdom
United States
90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
Country
Figure 21.4 Internet Use: Effect on Contact with People Who Share Users’ Profession (Internet Users Age 18 and Older who are Employed).
Effects
Greatly Decreased Somewhat Increased
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Internet contact with family is also on the increase, except in China, where it is declining (see Figure 21.5). This increase is especially notable among participants from Australia and New Zealand. Table 5: Internet Use: Effects on Contact with the Users' Family Somewhat Decreased
Somewhat Increased
Greatly Increased
Remained The Same
Australia
Canada
Urban China
colombia
Czech Republic
Hungary
Israel
Macao
New Zealand
Sweden
United States
90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
Effects
Greatly Decreased
Country
Figure 21.5 Internet Use: Effects on Contact with the Users’ Family (Internet Users Age 18 and Older).
There are several explanations for this trend, including the fact that both countries have high proportions of immigrants, for whom family contact with those abroad is important. Both countries are also exceptionally large in contrast to their populations, which may account for Internet contact with kith and kin within the region. As illustrated in Figure 21.6, a similar phenomenon is found with regard to contact with friends where again, with the exception of China, there is a marked increase in communication over the Internet. This trend appears to blur the boundaries as to whether Internet use leads to social isolation or whether contact with friends and family actually increases as a result of intensified Internet contact. When we compare time spent socializing face-to-face with friends outside of school or office hours, comparing Internet users to non-users (cf. Figure 21.7), the pattern of the results discussed
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above was further enforced. It was found in all countries (besides Australia, where there was no change) that Internet users spent more time socializing face-to-face with friends. Table 6: Internet Use: Effects on Contact with the Users' Friends Somewhat Decreased Greatly Increased
Remained The Same
Australia
Canada
Urban China
colombia
Czech Republic
Hungary
Israel
Macao
United States
Sweden
New Zealand
90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
Effects
Greatly Decreased Somewhat Increased
Country
Figure 21.6 Internet Use: Effects on Contact with the Users’ Friends (Internet Users Age 18 and Older). Table 7: Time Spent Socializing Face‐to‐Face with Friends Outside of School or Outside of Office Hours Non Users
Australia
Urban China
Czech Republic
Hungary
Israel
Macao
New Zealand
Singapore
Sweden
United Kingdom
United States
16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0
Country
Figure 21.7 Time Spent Socializing Face-to-Face with Friends Outside of School or Outside of Office Hours (Internet Users vs. Non-Users Age 18 and Older: Weekly Hours).
Time Spent
Users
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When the time spent socializing with family face-to-face by non-Internet users as opposed to users is assessed, the picture is complex. As illustrated in Figure 8, in seven out of 10 countries, users spent more time than non-users socializing face-to-face with family members. In three countries, the reverse was true. That is, non-users spent more time than users socializing face-to-face with family. Table 8: Time Spent Socializing Face‐to‐Face with Family Users
Non Users
25 20 15
Time Spent
30
10 5
Australia
Urban China
Czech Republic
Hungary
Israel
Macao
Singapore
Sweden
United Kingdom
United States
0
Country
Figure 21.8 Time Spent Socializing Face-to-Face with Family (Internet Users vs. Non-Users Age 18 and Older)
Last Word In the main, the results clearly show that the Internet does not have a negative impact on the social lives of users and, in some aspects, may even have positive effects. These findings contrast with those of Kraut et al. (2002) and Nie et al. (2002). It is worth noting that these findings, based on the largest and most representative worldwide study to date, belie the pervading pessimistic predictions with regard to the severely negative impact of Internet use on society. There are, however, two important points that should be borne in mind: First, these findings are the results of self-reporting by participants. It is recommended that a longitudinal study be carried
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out to further validate these issues. One optimal method may be to provide participants with a log where they could record their daily activities and so increase their awareness of the impact of the Internet on their social lives. Secondly, the participants’ definition of contact is not wholly clear. This is particularly important in the light of some of the brief and shallow contacts that pass for friendship on sites such as Facebook, where users frequently report having five-hundred or more friends (Amichai-Hamburger & Barak, 2009). It is, therefore, important both to delineate a clear definition of contact and a measure with which to assess the impact of the Internet on the quality of relationships with others.
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Nie, N. H., Hillygus, D. S., & Erbring, L. (2002). Internet use, interpersonal relations, and sociability: A time diary study. In B.Wellman & C. Haythornthwaite (Eds.), The Internet in Everyday Life (pp. 215-243). Oxford: Blackwell. Rogers, C. (1961). On Becoming A Person. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Rubin, Z. (1975). Disclosing oneself to a stranger: Reciprocity and its limits. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 11, 233–260. Stoll, C. (1995). Silicon Snake Oil. New York: Doubleday. Turkle, S. (1995). Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. New York: Simon and Schuster. Turkle, S. (1996). Virtuality and its discontents: Searching for community in cyberspace. The American Prospect, 24, 50-57. Thorndike, E. (1920). A constant error in psychological ratings. Journal of Applied Psychology 4, 469-477.
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22 Comparing Addictive Behavior on the Internet in the Czech Republic, Chile and Sweden David Šmahel, Petra Vondrackova, Lukas Blinka, and Sergio Godoy-Etcheverry
Introduction Many reports of addictive behavior on the Internet first appeared in popular press, citing anecdotal evidence (Rheingold, 1993; O´Neill, 1995). The phenomenon of addictive behavior was mentioned in the clinical context for the first time by American clinical psychologist Kimberly Young in 1996 (Young, 1998a). From that time on, many experts, particularly in the US (e.g. Scherer, 1997; Suler, 1999; Beard, 2005) and Asia, such as Taiwan and South Korea (e.g. Chou et al., 2005; Chen & Hsiao, 2000; Kim et al, 2008), have been focusing their attention on this topic. Until today there remain many unanswered questions regarding this phenomenon - the concept of addictive behavior on the Internet has not been fully developed, and perhaps is still in its infancy (Yang & Tung, 2007). The open question persists as to whether addictive behavior on the Internet is a disorder itself or whether it is a manifestation of another mental disorder (Grohol, 2005; Mitchell, 2000; Yang &Tung, 2007). In fact, it has been proven by many experts that excessive Internet use can negatively affect an individual´s life and result in physical, psychological and other problems (MorahanMartin & Schumacher, 2003; Young, 2007). After a series of 10 pulmonary-related deaths in Internet cafés and a murder related
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to online games, South Korea has come to even regard addictive behavior on the Internet as one of their most serious public health issues (Block, 2008). China is also greatly concerned about this type of addictive behavior, which has resulted in the ratification of a law that discourages more than 3 hours of daily computer game use (“The more they play, the more they lose”, 2007). The issue of addictive behavior on the Internet is also new within the World Internet Project (WIP), the first questions on this topic having been asked in the Czech Republic in 2007. This article reports on the results of a second questionnaire from 2008. The purpose here is to present a comparison of two symptoms of addictive behavior on the Internet in Sweden, Chile and the Czech Republic. The two symptoms are, namely, conflict (when Internet use causes serious problems between individuals) and mood change (when Internet use leads to significant mood changes). The second task is to show the current prevalence of addictive behavior on the Internet in the Czech Republic. This was assessed based on the general symptoms for addictive behavior as described in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM- IV revision), adjusted for the specifics of the Internet environment. Theoretical Background Terminology and definition of the addictive behavior on the Internet. Over the brief academic history of addictive behavior on the Internet, one of the most challenging tasks has been to arrive at a comprehensive definition of this phenomenon. Different terms to describe this are used in literature, such as “Internet addiction” (Chou & Hsiao, 2000; Young, 1998a), “Internet pathological use” (Morahan-Martin & Schumacker, 2000; Davis, 2001), “compulsive Internet use” (Black et al., 1999), “Internet addiction disorder” (Chou et al., 2005) and “addictive behavior on the Internet” (Li & Chung, 2006). Each of these terms reflects a different understanding of the nature of excessive or problematic use of the Internet. In
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this text we are going to refer to this phenomenon as “addictive behavior on the Internet”. The reason is that this type of behavior was not included in DSM-IV (the fourth revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) and is not going to be included in DSM-V either. Therefore, it is not regarded as a real mental disorder (Grohol, 2007). On the other hand, we agree with Griffiths (2000) who assumes technological addictions to be a subset of behavioral addictions that feature the core components of addiction (salience, mood modification, tolerance, withdrawal, conflict and relapse). Many definitions are available for this phenomenon. Beard & Wolf (2001) define “problematic use of Internet” broadly as use of the Internet that creates psychological, social, school and work difficulties in a person´s life. Shapira et al. (2000) characterize “problematic Internet use” as an individual´s inability to control his or her use of the Internet, which leads to distress or/and functional impairment. Mitchel (2000) describes “Internet addiction disorder” as the compulsive overuse of the Internet and irritable or moody behavior when the individual is deprived of it. According to Young (1998a), addictive behavior on the Internet is a broad term covering the following five basic subtypes: cybersexual addiction (compulsive viewing or downloading of online pornography), cyberrelational addiction (over involvement in online relationships), net compulsions (obsessive online gambling or shopping), information overload (excessive web surfing and database searches) and computer addiction (compulsive playing of computer games). If we look at current research on addictive behavior on the Internet, it covers three main areas: (i) online gaming – mainly research on multi-user virtual worlds (“MMORPG”), and (ii) excessive online communication – online relationship and cybersex activity overload (Šmahel et al., 2009). Why does addictive behavior on the Internet deserve attention? Although addictive behavior on the Internet does not cause the same type of serious physical problems as do other addictions such
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as alcohol and drug abuse, it has started to attract the attention of many experts from the mental health area due to the similarity in social consequences. Case studies and results of surveys have uncovered the negative ramifications of addictive behavior on the Internet and can be divided into three basic areas: a) Academic and occupational impairments Among the serious consequences of addictive behavior on the Internet, concerning mainly students’ learning difficulties resulting in poor grades, missed classes, and problems staying attentive during classes because of sleep deprivation (Chen & Peng, 2008; Wainer et al., 2008; Douglas et al., 2008). Addictive behavior on the Internet in the case of working people can be reflected in lower efficiency that can result in job losses for some individuals (Young, 1998a). In the context of other financial losses, often mentioned were perpetual computer upgrades and phone bills related to fees for Internet services (Douglas et al., 2008; Young, 1998a). An example of how addictive behavior on the Internet has a negative influence on academic performance can be illustrated in the case of a 16-year-old girl who began to isolate herself after the divorce of her parents in her room to join chat groups with other teenagers whose parents had divorced. Gradually she began spending most of her available time with her online friends. Her online time escalated to the point where her schoolwork was affected and she began failing in three subjects (Hall & Parsons, 2001). b) Psychosocial impairments The most common psychological impairments associated with addictive behavior on the Internet include depression, loneliness and social isolation (Young & Rogers, 1997; Chen & Peng, 2008). Some surveys have confirmed that addictive behavior on the Internet could negatively impact relationships in that some individuals spend less time with people in their lives, thereby resulting in impatience, arguments and strains on the relationships (Yang & Tung, 2007; Lin & Tsai, 2002). As a case study in this context, there is the example of a 15-year-old boy who, according
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to his mother, had always had problems socially and had suffered from an inferiority complex and a lack of confidence when dealing with peers, which led to a depressed mood. His behavior worsened upon getting his own computer, as he started to spend his time on the computer at the expense of family and friends (Griffiths, 2000). c) Physical impairments Addictive behavior on the Internet can affect the physical state of the user. Chou (2001), in his online interview study with college students, reports that the major physical complaints stemming from students’ Internet use were eyesight deterioration and sleep deprivation. Among others, the college students mentioned sore shoulders, backs, hands and fingers, and fatigue. Suhail and Bargees (2006) focused on the effects of excessive Internet use in their study and found out that students most frequently mentioned physical problems such as migraine/headache, less sleep and backaches because of Internet use. Rotunda et al. (2003) adds to these negative consequences disrupted sleep. Addictive behavior on the Internet in the context of mental health Among those who encountered addictive behavior on the Internet are professionals in mental health care dealing with this problem in the treatment of their clients. Reacting to this new phenomenon, some of these professionals have tried proposing diagnostic criteria for the behavior by modifying the DSM-IV-TR criteria for pathological gambling or based on the symptoms of impulse control disorders (Young, 1998b; Beard & Wolf, 2001; Shapira et al., 2003). Nevertheless, none of the diagnostic criteria for addictive behavior have been recommended for inclusion into the DSM-V (Grohol, 2007). Griffiths (2000, 1996) uses the six core components of addictive behavior defined by Brown and transforms them for addictive behavior on the Internet. To be classified as addictive behavior on the Internet, all of the following must be present in the individual.
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a) Salience happens when the particular activity turns out to be the most important activity in the person’s life and governs his or her thinking (preoccupations and cognitive distortions), feelings (cravings), and behavior (e.g. decline of socialized behavior). b) Mood modification is subjective experience influenced by the pursued activity c) Tolerance is the process whereby increasing amounts of the particular activity are required to achieve the former effects. d) Withdrawal symptoms are defined as unpleasant feeling states and/or physical effects (e.g. the shakes, moodiness, irritability) that come about when the particular activity is discontinued or suddenly limited. e) Conflict refers to the disagreements between the addict and those around them (interpersonal conflict) or from within the individuals themselves (intrapsychic conflict) that is associated with the particular activity. f) Relapse is the tendency for repeated decline of earlier patterns of the particular activity, and for even the most extreme patterns typical at the height of the addiction to be quickly restored after a period of relative control. These components and earlier mentioned diagnostic criteria were used by experts in the construction of assessment methods for addictive behavior on the Internet. The first one, IAT (Internet Addiction Test) was designed by Young (1998). From that time on a limited number of standardized tests have been developed (e.g. CIAS - The Chen Internet Addiction Scale, OCS – Online Cognition scale) for assessing addictive behavior on the Internet (Ko et al., 2005; Davis et al., 2002).
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Who is endangered by addictive behavior on the Internet? Internet users are not a homogeneous group. Soule et al. (2003) stated several groups of Internet users who were more vulnerable to addictive behavior on the Internet, such as young males, singles, college students, middle-aged females, gays and the less educated. Yang and Tung (2007) discovered that students with psychological characteristics such as low self-esteem, dependence, extreme shyness and depression had a greater tendency to develop addictive behavior on the Internet. Cheng and Peng (2008) report that heavy Internet users were more likely than non-heavy users to be depressed, physically ill, lonely, and introverted. Ceyhan and Ceyhan (2008) arrived at a similar result, and have added computer self-efficacy to the list. Shapira et al. (2000), on the basis of his evaluation study of 20 individuals with problematic Internet use, concluded that the onset of this type of behavior is associated with subjective distress and psychopathology. Why do people tend to be addicted to the online world? The cause of addictive behavior on the Internet is still not clear. Experts have been trying to answer this question from two different perspectives – from the character of the Internet itself and from the nature of its users. Regarding the topic of addictive potential of the Internet, they have speculated that the source of addictive behavior on the Internet could stem from some aspects of Internet use such as speed, accessibility, and the intensity of information accessed online (Greenfield, 1999). Lin and Tsai (2002) reported that college students particularly appreciate the anonymity that encourages verbal disinhibition, lack of face-to-face contact, content (e.g. pornography) and online social activities (e.g. chat rooms, e-mail, multiplayer games). In particular, applications that allow for twoway communication, such as the mentioned MMOGs, e-mail or chat rooms, are the ones that have been determined as the most likely to be abused (Tsai & Lin, 2003; Young, 1998a).
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While contemplating the question as to why some people tend to develop addictive behavior on the Internet, experts have focused particularly on a psychological explanation. Davis (2001) proposes that addictive behavior on the Internet is the result of distal and proximal contributory causes. Distal causes contribute to the origin of addictive behavior on the Internet. Among them, Davis places psychopathology of the user, the Internet itself and situational cues like, for example, positive reinforcement of the Internet behavior. Maladaptive cognitions, social isolation and lack of social support are defined by Davis as proximal contributory causes that lead to the exacerbation of addictive behavior on the Internet. Caplan (2005) integrated research on social skills and self-representation into the previously mentioned Davis model. He states that computer-mediated communication is less risky, easier and gives people greater flexibility in self-presentation than faceto-face communication, which is particularly attractive to lonely and depressed individuals who hold a negative view of their social competence. The consequences of online interpersonal interaction preference for these individuals are excessive and compulsive online interactions, which, at the same time, decrease their social competence and affect problems at home, school or employment. Liu and Kuo (2007), in their explanation of the origin of addictive behavior on the Internet, proposed that a negative relationship with parents positively correlates with an individual´s interpersonal relationships with peers and that complicated relationships with peers lead to an increased level of social anxiety which facilitates the origin and maintenance of addictive behavior on the Internet. Prevalence Up to now, several surveys focusing on the prevalence of addictive behavior on the Internet have been done. Prevalence rates vary widely from study to study (see Table 22.1). In order to find out prevalence, community surveys and online surveys were employed. The disadvantages of these surveys are the low uniformity of the definitions employed, assessment methods used and number of
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subjects in the study. The prevalence estimates of online surveys are considered to have lower validity because of the limited representation of the population. All these facts strongly affect prevalence estimates. A significant part of the studies has been centered on the younger generations, particularly college students (e.g. Zhang et al., 2008; Cao & Su, 2006). A possible explanation for this may be the assumption that addictive behavior on the Internet is primarily a problem affecting young people, as well as the fact that students are the most available group for researchers. Prevalence estimates range from 0.3% (Aboujaoude et al., 2006) to 5.7 % (Greenfield, 1996) in the general population and from 1.6% (Kim et al., 2006) to 38% (Leung, 2004) in the population aged 16 – 24 years. An online survey in the general population of S. Korea produced an estimate 3.5% (Whang et al., 2003). The most methodologically rigorous study was carried out by Aboujaoude and his colleagues (2006) in the US. This study involved a random telephone survey of 2,513 adults aged 18 years and older. The prevalence ranged from 0.3% to 0.7%. Until now, not many prevalence studies on the international level have been carried out. Zhang et al. (2008) conducted a comparative study of addictive behavior on the Internet among 314 college students in the US and China. The results indicate that Chinese students experience a higher rate of Internet addiction (14% heavily addicted, 64% slightly addicted) than their US counterparts (4% heavily addicted, 23% slightly addicted). Addictive behavior on the Internet appears to be more common among men than women (e.g. Niemz et al., 2005; Johansson & Gotestam, 2004). Morahan-Martin and Schumacker (2000) explain the preponderance of men by the fact that men are most likely to express interest in information technologies in general and further express interest in Internet applications with addictive potential, as is with games, pornography and gambling. Among prevalence surveys, just a few have focused on the general population (Bakken et al., 2009; Aboujaoude et al., 2006). As was mentioned previously, regarding age, the highest prevalence of addictive behavior on the Internet is among the younger population, aged 16–29 years in particular (Bakken et al., 2009).
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Table 22.1 Review of surveys on the prevalence of addictive behavior on the Internet.
Survey
Year
Location
Sample
Greenfied
1996
US
Online, 17, 251 respondents aged 8 – 85 years 531 college students 227 college students
Scherer MorahanMartin & Schumacker Chou & Hsiao Wang et al. Leung
1997 2000
US US
Prevalence (%) 5.7 13 8.1
2000
Taiwan
910 college students
2003 2004
S. Korea China
3.5
Johansson & Gotestam Simkova & Cincera Niemz et al. Kim et al. Aboujaoude et al. Pallanti et al. Cao & Su
2004
Norway
2004 2005 2006 2006
Czech Republic UK S. Korea US
Online, 13 588 respondents 699 respondents aged 16 – 24 years 3237 respondents aged 12 – 18 years 341 college students
18 1.6
2006 2006
Italy China
Zhang et al.
2008
Park et al. Bakken et al.
2008 2009
China US S. Korea Norway
Online, 371 students 1573 students 2513 respondents aged 18 or over 275 students 2620 students aged 12 – 18 years 143 college students 171 college students 903 adolescents 3,399 respondents aged 16–74 years
5.9
38 2 6
0.3 – 0.7 5.4 2.4 14 4 10.7 1
Country profiles To give the reader a basic overview of the countries in the form of a presented comparison, we show a table of country profiles. See Table 22.2:
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Table 22.2 Country profiles of three countries for comparison. Chile1
Czech Republic
Sweden
Land Area
756,096 sq km2
77,276 sq km2
450,295 sq km2
Population
15,116,435
10,235,455
9,259,8283
19.9
132.4
22.4
3.2%4
–0.1%
-4.9% 5
Ethnicity/race
Original ethnic groups (Mapuche, Rapa nui, Aimara, other). 4.6% Mixed, European: 95.4%
Czech 90.4%, Moravian 3.7%, Slovak 1.9%, other 4%
Not defined for Sweden6
GDP per capita
$12,997
$18,100
$37,5267
Density per sq km GDP Growth rate
Sweden is a rich Scandinavian country traditionally open to new technologies. The Internet first appeared in the beginning of the 1990s. The fastest growth of Internet users took place in 1998. By 2000, Internet penetration in Sweden had reached 50%. The Czech Republic is a post-communist country that reached independence in 1989. In the 1990s, the Internet was restricted to Sources for Chile: National Statistical Institute (www.ine.cl), based on the 2002 census. Economic data from Banco Central de Chile, UNDP, America Economia. Geographical information excludes the Antartic territory (1,250,000 sq km). GNP per capita figures at 2006 purchasing power parity values. 2 www.norden.org 3 www.scb.se (31 January 2009) 4 GDP growth 2008. 5 www.scb.se (quarter 4 2007 – quarter 4 2008) 6 Ethnicity is not defined in the statistics on Sweden. While there are statistics on how many peopleare born outside of Sweden, ethnicity is difficult to define. The minority group in Sweden is the Sami people - the native people of Sweden. There are about 17 000 Sami people in Sweden. 7 www.sv.wikipedia.org; www.riksbank.com (1 USD = 6.4173 SEK (January 2008) 1 USD = .1064 SEK (January 2009) 1
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academic use and computer-related industry. In 2000, only 10% of the population used the Internet, but the rate expanded rapidly in the following years. By 2005, 50% of the population was connected to the Internet. Chile is a developed South American country where 40% of the population live in the capital Santiago de Chile. The number of Internet users has been growing slowly.. In 2000, 26% of the population used the Internet; in 2008, that figure rose to 48%. Methods The survey was part of the World Internet Project (WIP), organized by the Center for the Digital Future at USC Annenberg in the US and comparing over 20 countries. The data were obtained in 2008 via face-to-face interviews from Chile and the Czech Republic and via telephone interviews and Internet surveys in Sweden, in which the interviewers marked their answers on a prepared questionnaire. The basic set of WIP questions was supplemented with questions related to addictive behavior on the Internet. The data analyzed in this paper were collected and are owned by the following institutes: (1) Chile: The survey was executed by Universidad Catolica de Chile’s Division of Sociological Studies (DESUC) by request from the WIP/BIT-Chile team (composed of the schools of Communications, Sociology and Engineering). (2) Czech Republic: Institute of Children, Youth and Family Research, Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Brno. (3) Sweden: World Internet Institute. We developed a 10 a 10-item scale (see Table 22.3) evaluating the following dimensions of excessive Internet use: cognitive and behavioral salience, tolerance, withdrawal symptoms, conflicts, and problems with limiting time online. Our scale is based mainly on the research of Beard and Wolf (2001), who have modified DSM- IV criteria for Internet use, and from Griffiths (1996, 2000),
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who has defined the basic dimensions of addictive behavior on the Internet al. l of the six criteria were included with two small changes - withdrawal symptoms fell within mood modifications (3rd question) and relapse within time restrictions (9th question). This instrument measured addictive behavior on the Internet on a 4-point Likert scale (1- Never to 4- Very often). Table 22.3 Factors of addictive behavior on the Internet.
Salience
Mood modification
Tolerance
Conflicts
Time restrictions
Do you ever neglect your needs (like eating, sleeping) because of the Internet? Do you ever imagine you are online when you are not? Do you feel unsettled or irritated when you cannot be online? Do you feel happier and more cheerful when you finally get to go online? Do you feel like you are spending ever more time online? Do you ever catch yourself surfing without being really interested? Do you ever argue with your close ones (family, friends, partners) because of the time you spend online? Do your family, friends, job or hobbies suffer because of the time you spend online? Have you ever tried unsuccessfully to limit time spent online? Does it happen to you that you stay online for a longer time than originally planned?
All 10 questions were used only in the Czech Republic, and we demonstrate the use of the whole instrument in Chapter 6 “Revealing dimensions of addictive behavior on the Internet: the Czech Republic”. Six questions were used in Chile and only two of these items were used in Sweden. All three countries have two common questions, one on conflict dimension and one on mood modification. Because we wanted to compare all three countries,
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the relevant results are given in Chapter 5 “Two dimensions of addictive behavior on the Internet: Comparing Chile, the Czech Republic and Sweden”. Sample description Samples of comparison data among the Czech Republic, Chile and Sweden We present data on population samples aged 16 and up; samples in Sweden and the Czech Republic are representative of each country. For Chile, the sample represents the population of the capital, Santiago (5.8 million inhabitants, 38% of the country’s population), aged 12 - 60 years. Table 4 shows more information about each data sample: Table 22.4 Basic information about sample and data collection in the three countries. Country
Chile
Czech Republic
Sweden
No. of all respondents aged 16+
Data collection
Method
Representativeness
592
SeptemberNovember 2008
Face- to- face interviews, probabilistic
Representative for: sex, education, age, income level, and the size of the respondent’s domicile in Santiago.
1381
September 2008
Face-to-face interviews
Representative for: sex, education, age, region, and the size of the respondent’s domicile
2057
FebruaryApril 2008
Telephone interviews and Internet surveys
Representative for: sex, age, education, region and the size of the respondent’s domicile
Table 22.5 shows the numbers of respondents in three samples concerning gender and age.
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Table 22.5 Sample description. All 16+ years (N)
Males (N)
Females 16-19 (N) years (N)
20-29 years (N)
30-45 years (N)
46 and older (N)
Chile
592
237
355
87
140
179
186
Czech Republic
1381
669
711
125
204
389
663
Sweden
2057
1011
1046
150
325
577
1005
Age groups reflect the following developmental stages in life: (i) Adolescents: 16-19 years old; (ii)Young adults: 20-29; (iii) Middle adults: 30-45; and (iv) Middle and late adulthood: 46 and older. We could not create a group of older respondents (such as 60 and older) because there are not enough Internet users in Czech and Chile. Table 22.6 presents percentages of Internet users in the relevant groups of samples. Table 22.6 Percentages of Internet users in the relevant sample groups. All 16+ years
16-19 years
20-29 years
30-45 years
46 and older
63.5% 75.1% 55.8%
87.4%
87.9%
60.9%
36.6%
Czech 52.4% 53.1% 51.8% Republic
89.6%
72.1%
67.4%
30.5%
Chile
Males
Females
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80.2% 82.3% 78.2%
97.3%
96.3%
92.7%
65.3%
While the proportions of Internet users in Chile and in the Czech Republic regarding age are similar, Sweden shows a much higher percentage of Internet users for all age groups. One interpretation of this difference could be the slowed digital development in Chile and the Czech, explained by their overall degree of socioeconomic development measured in terms of income per capita. By this measure, more similarity was found between Czech and Chile than between Czech and Sweden even though the latter two are both European countries. In Table 22.7, we present the average hours spent weekly online at home on a wired computer in relevant groups. We show only the average hours weekly at home (not hours from work or school) because home Internet use seems to be the most important in the context of addictive behavior: the highest correlations exist between hours at home spent weekly online and items on addictive behavior. There are no significant correlations between hours at work and questions on addictive behavior. The dates from the table indicate that compared to Swedes and Chileans, Czechs spend significantly less time weekly at home online. Table 22.7 Average hours spent weekly online at home on wired computer.
Chile
All 16+ Males Females years (hours) (hours) (hours)
16-19 20-29 30-45 46 and years years years older (hours) (hours) (hours) (hours)
10.0
10.7
9.3
12.7
11.5
8.0
7.2
Czech 7.4 Republic
8.1
6.7
11.2
9.5
6.2
5.4
Sweden
11.2
9.1
15.6
15.5
9.8
6.7
10.2
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Sample of addictive behavior prevalence in the Czech Republic In Czech, all together 1,520 respondents took part in the study, all aged 12 or above (including 1,381 aged 16 and older). The sample was representative of the Czech population with respect to gender, age, education, region and place of residence. Additionally, data on 695 respondents aged 12-30 were gathered later, and this sample was also representative with respect to this age group. Overall, the study covered 2,215 respondents. But data on addiction were only extracted from Internet users in the sample (N=1,470). We present data on prevalence of addictive behavior in the Czech Republic on this full sample of 2,215 respondents because we want to point out an important difference in the 12-15 years age group and also show the most accurate results. Two dimensions of addictive behavior on the Internet: comparing Chile, the Czech Republic and Sweden As stated earlier, we will examine results on two dimensions of addictive behavior on the Internet: conflict and mood change. Conflict dimension The conflict dimension was measured by the question “Do you ever argue with your close ones (family, friends, partners) because of the time you spend online?” In Table 22.8, percentages of individual responses according to country are given. Table 22.8 Do you ever argue with your close ones (family, friends, partners) because of the time you spend online? Never
Rarely
Often
Very often
Chile
69.4%
21.1%
7.9%
1.6%
100.0%
Czech Republic
62.9%
27.8%
6.8%
2.5%
100.0%
Sweden
85.8%
11.8%
1.9%
0.5%
100.0%
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It can be seen that the conflict caused by Internet use is lowest in Sweden.About 10% of Czech or Chile Internet users experience conflict “often” or “very often” as opposed to only 2.4% of Internet users in Sweden. What could the reason be for such a difference? If we look at the proportion of Internet users in Sweden, we find it is much higher than that in either Czech or Chile. We suspect that the Swedish sample of Internet users contains more “low Internet users” because there is a higher share of older and also less-educated people. This difference may be the reason for the reported less Internet use-related conflict among Swedes. If we look at average hours spent on the Internet among age categories (Table 22.7), however, Swedes of all ages are the most intense Internet users compared with their counterparts in the other two countries except in the oldest age group. Furthermore, when we tested answers on relevant questions only for heavy Internet users, Swedes again reported the least experience of conflict or mood change (see the next chapter). Figure 22.1 depicts conflict with family, friends or partners according to age. Differences between countries are significant not only among adolescents (p = .61), but for people of all age groups (p < .001). Figure 22.2 gives a picture of the distribution of conflict with family, friends or partners according to the gender of the respondent. Men and women do not differ significantly, except in Chile, which is interesting because the biggest gender gap in Internet use is also found in this country. But the main gender differences in Czech and Sweden are in the answer “rarely”, which is not usually considered as problematic with relation to addictive behavior. Country differences are significant in all cases – Swedish men and women reported experiencing less conflict than other countries.
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46
and
older
30
‐
45
years
20
‐
29
years
16
‐
19
years
Graph 1. Conflict with family, friends or partners according to the age. Chile
54.7
Czech
Republic
32.0
42.3
Sweden
39.6
63.7
Chile
18.0
25.3
67.5
Czech
Republic
13.3
11.0
20.8
51.7
11.7
36.7
Sweden
11.6
86.8
Chile
11.2
77.6
Czech
Republic
16.8
67.9
Sweden
23.7
Chile
76.1
76.0
Sweden
14.1
16.4
20%
40%
Rarely
2.1
EFen
G
very
oFen
7.5
20.0
4.0
7.0
0.8
92.2
0%
2.0
5.6
8.4
83.7
Czech
Republic
Never
60%
80%
100%
Figure 22.1 Conflict family, friends ororpartners according the age. Graph 2.with Conflict with family, friends partners according to theto gender. 68.4
Female
70.3
20.1
11.5
Chile
Male
22.1
7.7
Sweden
Czech
Republic
Never
Male
55.6
33.9
10.5
Rarely
Female
69.9
21.9
8.2
EFen
G
very
HFen
Male
82.5
Female
89.2
0%
20%
40%
2.4
15.2
8.4
60%
80%
2.4
100%
Figure 22.2 Conflict with family, friends or partners according to the gender.
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Mood change dimension The dimension of mood change was measured by the question “Do you feel unsettled or irritated when you cannot be online?” Table 22.9 shows the proportions of responses in the three countries. We note again that Internet users in Sweden reported much less unsettled or irritated feelings than their counterparts in Czech or Chile. Table 22.9 Do you feel unsettled or irritated when you cannot be online?
Chile
Czech Republic Sweden
Never
Rarely
Often
Very often
60.9%
22.1%
11.3%
5.7%
64.4% 86.3%
27.5% 11.7%
6.4% 1.7%
1.7% .2%
100.0%
100.0% 100.0%
Figure 22.3 displays mood change according to age. All differences in terms of age among countries are significant. Congruently, with the results in the previous dimension, in comparison to other countries, Swedes feel less unsettled or irritated when they cannot be online. Figure 22.4 illustrates the distribution of mood change according to gender. Gender differences are significant only in the Czech Republic (p= .036). It is observed that gender difference is less obvious in terms of mood change compared to the conflict dimension. Now we will look more closely into the possible reasons for Swedes to score lower than in Czechs and Chileans in conflict and mood change dimensions. We will also present the possible risky applications that exist in the context of addictive behavior on the Internet.
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16
‐
19
years
Graph 3. Do you feel unsettled or irritated when you cannot be online according to the age. Chile
45.3
Czech
Republic
30.7
53.2
20
‐
29
years
Sweden
30
‐
45
years
11.7
81.5
Chile
13.0
5.5
60.7
Czech
Republic
20.5
56.5
Sweden
18.9
29.3
18.7
61.1
Czech
Republic
24.1
67.9
Chile
11.4
1.1
78.8
20%
EFen
G
very
oFen
12.1
9.1
21.5
40%
6.5
8.4
1.2
90.3
0%
Rarely
4.2
27.9
72.0
Sweden
3.3
14.8
87.5
Czech
Republic
Never
14.3
78.0
Chile
Sweden
46
and
older
24.0
35.1
60%
80%
100%
Figure 22.3 Mood modification due to impossibility to be online.
Sweden
Czech
Republic
Chile
Graph 4. Do you feel unsettled or irritated when you cannot be online according to gender Male
60.8
23.3
10.2
Female
61.0
21.0
12.3
Male
59.3
32.2
Never
6.5
Rarely
Female
69.4
23.0
6.3
Male
85.8
12.6
1.2
Female
86.8
10.8
2.2
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
Figure 22.4 Mood modification due to impossibility to be online.
100%
DEen
F
very
GEen
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Dangerous activities online We further examined which activities on the Internet bear the highest correlations with the sum of the presented two questions – this sum can be perceived as a simple addiction score. The highest (Pearson) correlations with the addiction score were found in the following activities on the Internet: chat rooms (r = .18 in Chile, .35 in Czech, .22 in Sweden), instant messaging (r = .19-.25) and online games (r = .35 in Chile, .34 in Czech, .22 in Sweden). These results correspond to theoretical assumptions that online addiction is mainly created in environments for communication and also in online games (Tsai & Lin, 2003; Young, 1996b). Two surprising activities showing high correlations with online addiction in all three countries are: “downloading / listening music” and “downloading / watching videos” (r = .22-.30). Both activities show similar results in all three countries. This leaves a question for future research and analysis to answer: what causes one of the highest correlations between downloading music/video and proneness to addictive behavior. These connections have been demonstrated in our earlier research (Šmahel et al., 2009) and are now validated in the threecountry comparison. It should also be noted that the correlations between online activities and addiction scores were similar in all three countries – therefore, it cannot be said that one country differs much from the others. It seems that addictive behavior on the Internet is very likely associated with similar behaviors and use of applications on the Internet in different countries. In Figure 22.5 shows the frequency of use for each of the most “addictive” applications and two “practical” applications on the Internet. We can see that all four applications with the highest correlations to addictive behavior are least used in Sweden. Fifty percent of Swedes reported not instant messaging, 88% not visiting chat rooms, and 63% not playing online games. It is highly likely that the reason for Swedes to score low in the two dimensions of online addictive behavior lies in their infrequent use of “addictive applications”. On the other hand, two practical online activities using online banking services and shopping online - are most used in Sweden. It seems that Swedes tend to access the Internet more
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for everyday activities and less for entertainment. Nevertheless, such hypotheses should be confirmed in more detailed analysis of patterns of Internet use in the three countries, which would be beyond the scope of this study.
Buying
things
online
Using
bank's
Downloading
online
/
listening
Online
games
Chat
rooms
services
music
Instant
messaging
Graph 5. Dangerous and practical activities online in compared countries. Chile
23
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31
12
Sweden
11
53
6
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Chile
17
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Weekly
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+
monthly
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Never
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16
8
1
5
0
3
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Figure 22.5 Dangerous and practical activities online in compared countries.
Revealing dimensions of addictive behavior on the Internet: The case of Czech This chapter concentrates onthe prevalence of addictive behavior on the Internet in the Czech Republic. First, Figure 6 shows the frequencies of the 10 questions used regarding the phenomenon. The number of affirmative responses increases for questions arranged from top to bottom in the figure.
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!"#$%&'(&)"*+,*-./*0&12&/3*40&1-7/.67*&8*%#7/1"&1-&3%*&9-3*"-*3& Do you ever imagine you are online when you are not?
83
Does your family, friends, job orhobbies suffer because of the time you spent online?
12 3 1
70
Do you feel un?e@led or irritated when you cannot Ce online?
25
62
Do you ever argue with your close ones (family, friends, partners) because of the time your spent online?
29
60
29
55
Dave you ever Ceen un?ucce??fully trying to limit Eme ?pent online?
4 1
7 2
8 3
31
13 2
Never Rarely KLen
Do you ever catch yourself surfing without being really interested?
53
9 2
36
Mery KLen
Do you feel happier and more cheerful when you finally get to go online?
47
Do you sometimes neglect your needs (e.g., food or sleep) because of the Internet?
36
44
Do you feel liHe you are ?pending more and more Eme online?
44
35
Does it happen to you that you stay online for longer time than orignally planned?
24 0%
40%
18 3
26 60%
2
10 2
44
44 20%
14
80%
7 100%
Figure 22.6 Frequencies of items on addictive behavior on the Internet.
Most Czech Internet users agreed that they stay online more often than they had originally intended (in sum 33% answered “often” or “very often”). About 16% of Internet users agreed that they “often” or “very often” feel happier and more cheerful when they get online. On the other hand, only 4% stated that they “often” or “very often” imagine they are online and 5% agreed that their family, friends or jobs suffer because of time spent online. Figure 7 shows the prevalence of five dimensions representing addictive behavior on the Internet. We described earlier (in the Method section) how the 10 questions measure the five dimensions. A dimension is present if the respondent answered “often” or “very often” to at least one question for the dimension.
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Graph 7. Prevalence of dimensions of addictive behavior on the Internet. Time
36.3
63.7
restric@ons
Conflict
12.1
Mood
change
Saliance
26.2
73.8
13.6
0%
Not
present
79.9
20.1
Tolerance
Present
87.9
86.4
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Figure 22.7 Prevalence of dimensions of addictive behavior on the Internet.
The most frequently present dimension is “time restriction”, which probably least represents the phenomenon of addictive behavior on the Internet. As we saw in the previous figure, every third Internet user agreed that he or she has ‘”often” stayed on the Internet longer than originally intended. “Tolerance” is also found to be highly prevalent – an overwhelmingly large portion of Internet users said that they spent increasing amount of time online. The least present dimension is “conflict” – 12% of Internet users experience conflicts with their close social environment due to the use of the Internet. However, as Beard and Wolf (2001) also stated, conflict is probably the most important dimension of addictive behavior on the Internet. Next, we look at the prevalence of addictive behavior on the Internet among Czechs. We label an Internet user as exhibiting “addictive behavior” if all dimensions of online addiction are present (the Internet user scored high in all five dimensions). We label Internet users as “endangered by addictive behavior” if conflict plus at least three dimensions are present (that means that one dimension, excluding conflict, can be missing). The prevalence of addictive behavior on the Internet among Czech Internet users is 3.4% - this percentage of users scored in all dimensions of addictive behavior. In addition, 7.1% of Internet users are endangered by
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online addictive behavior as they scored high in conflict and in at least three dimensions. The difference between men and women is not significant in terms of tendency towards addictive behavior on the Internet or being “endangered users”. In Figure 22.8, we present the proportions of Internet users with “addictive behavior” and groups “endangered by addictive behavior” according to age. Graph 8. Prevalence of addictive behavior on the Internet. 15.0
11.4
7.2
4.5
5.0
7ddi9:ve
behavior
9.2
8.0
%
10.0
5.3
4.7
2.9
1.9
1.5
1.5
Endangered
by
addi9:on
0.0
12
‐
15
years
16
‐
19
years
20
‐
26
years
27
‐
35
years
36
‐
49
50
and
years
more
years
Figure 22.8 Prevalence of addictive behavior on the Internet.
Younger adolescents (12-15 years) constitute the biggest group of users with addictive behavior, with 8% of younger adolescents demonstrating all symptoms of addictive behavior. Additionally, 15% in this youngest group are endangered by addiction as they scored high in conflict plus at least three other dimensions. The shares of Internet users prone to addiction are lower in older groups, with 4.5-5.3% users showing all symptoms of addictive behavior for groups between 16 and 26 years, and the percentage decreases as age increases. Least prone to addictive behavior on the Internet are the oldest age group, 50 years and older. Discussion and Conclusions The current study sought to investigate the incidence of two dimensions of addictive behavior on the Internet (conflict and mood change) among the general population of Chile, the Czech
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Republic and Sweden and to examine the prevalence of addictive behavior on the Internet in a sample of the Czech population. When comparing these dimensions of addictive behavior on the Internet in Chile, Czech and Sweden, we came across some interesting findings. First, respondents in Czech and Chile showed similarity in their responses to the two questions concerning conflict and mood change, but Swedes appeared to be quite different. Second, Swedes showed a lower incidence of dangerous activities online. What can explain the uniqueness of Swedes? We found that certain Internet applications are more closely associated with symptoms of addictive behavior than others. There are moderate correlations between the symptoms and frequency of visiting chat rooms, playing online games, using IM and downloading music and videos. Internet users in Sweden access these risky activities (with respect to addictive behavior) less often than their counterparts in Chileor Czech. At the same time, the Internet in Sweden is used for more mundane affairs like Internet banking, shopping, and making reservations. Therefore, we can assume that Internet usage has been intetrated more into everyday life in Sweden than in Chile or Czech, which is in part due to the slower digital development of the latter two, as can be partially explained by the lower degree of socioeconomic development in these two countries compared to Sweden. The proportion of Internet users in the population 16 years and older is lower in Czech (52.4%) and Chile (63.5%), and the Internet is used more by younger individuals (16-29 years of age) in these two countries. Youngsters are generally more attracted to risky activities (e.g. chatrooms, online gaming) and therefore are generally more susceptible to addictive behavior on the Internet (Bakken et al., 2009; Cao & Su, 2006). Furthermore, we can speculate that adult Internet users in Chile and Czech outside of this study are more likely to be fans of Internet use and thus are more endangered by addictive behavior on the Internet as well, in comparison to their counterparts in Sweden. Another explanation to this, though one that’s hard to verify, is cultural difference, particularly the mentality of each nation, which differs in all three countries due to their different geographic locations, cultural
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traditions and social norms. Unfortunately, this explanation is beyond the scope of the current study and would call for further investigation. Gender difference regarding conflict dimensions in both Czech and Sweden is significant and slightly higher in favor of males. This distinction could be explained by the assumption that men have a higher proclivity towards conflicts in general and therefore score higher (e.g. Noakes & Rinaldi, 2006). On the other hand, it is also possible that men are more often endangered by addictive behavior on the Internet as they spend more hours in front of computers and therefore have more conflicts with their families or partners. It is also a question for further research. Regarding age differences in the case of all three countries, the results in both dimensions correlate negatively with age. The highest scoring respondents were 16-19 years old and the ones aged 46 and above showed the lowest score. When we suppose that scores in these two dimensions correlate with addictive behavior on the Internet, these findings confirm the results from previous research in that the highest prevalence of addictive behavior on the Internet is among the younger population (Soule et al., 2003; Widyanto & Griffiths, 2006; Bakken et al., 2009). Compared with the dimension of mood change, the conflict dimension score is slightly higher for respondents aged 16-19 years in Czech and Sweden. This may be partly due to the fact that a higher tendency towards conflict behavior is an integral part of the adolescent period (Macek, 2003). It has been also reported that the presence of computers in families increases family tensions between generations (Mesch, 2006 a,b), so the conflict criterion might be overestimated and is not necessarily indicative of addictive behavior. We can also speculate that conflict between adolescents and parents is in general higher in modern Euro-American culture than in more traditional cultures such as Latin American. The findings in the Czech Republic showed that only 43% of the population 12 years and older did not use the Internet (in September 2008), 3.7% of Internet users were at risk for addictive behavior on the Internet and a total of 3.4% could be described as having
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developed addictive behavior, making a total of 7.1% - a quite high number of risky Internet users. In comparison to other surveys (see Table 22.1), the prevalence of addictive behavior on the Internet in Czech in the general population is somewhat higher. This may be due to the methodological inconsistency of the definition and the criteria used to measure addictive behavior on the Internet, which is typical for this phenomenon as was mentioned in the theoretical background (Yang & Tung, 2007). International research on common questions of addictive behavior on the Internet is needed and WIP could be such an opportunity to evaluate and compare this phenomenon worldwide. As we have mentioned in the theoretical background, the highest prevalence of addictive behavior on the Internet is among the younger population, particularly students (Soule et al., 2003; Widyanto & Griffiths, 2006; Bakken et al., 2009) and findings from this study confirm this. In our research, the lowest age group, which included young adolescents aged 12 – 15 years, showed the highest incidence of Internet users endangered by addictive behavior (7%) as well as of individuals with developed addictive behavior on the Internet (8%). In contrast, the prevalence of addictive behavior in the oldest group in this research (respondents aged 50 or over) was lowest (1.4%). This confirms our previous finding that addictive behavior on the Internet is negatively correlated with age. The question remains as to what the results for even the younger individuals would be. The higher incidence of addictive behavior on the Internet in the adolescent group can be explained by the fact that they belong to the first generations which experienced the boom of the Internet, along with the greater availability the development of applications with addictive potential (e.g. chat rooms, downloading, online games) and social networking sites which are used mainly by this age group. The attraction of the above mentioned applications for this age group can be partly explained by the adolescent developmental period. This period is typified by the search and formation of a new identity (Erickson, 2002) separate from family, and the creation of interpersonal relationships and the first romantic and sexual relationships. For example, using chat
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rooms and instant messaging allows users to create interpersonal and sexual relationships with their peers and therefore facilitate the process of separation from family, particularly from parents. On the other hand, the higher prevalence figure could have been distorted by the fact that conflict, particularly with parents, is an integral part of this developmental stage (Macek, 2003) and that using computers in families leads to more parent-child conflicts in general (Mesch, 2006a,b), as already touched upon. A special questionnaire distinguishing the type of conflict should be developed for adolescents in future research. This study has focused on the prevalence of conflict and mood change dimensions of addictive behavior on the Internet in the Chile, Czech Republic and Sweden. Several limitations should be considered in this study: first, we compared only two questions of two dimensions, which cannot provide the entire picture of addictive behavior prevalence in all three countries. In future research, utilization of all questions would provide more information concerning this topic. Such data would be the first to provide comparable data on general populations across more countries considering the fact that it is very difficult to compare results of already carried-out prevalence studies due to inconsistent methodology. Second, the questionnaire we used has not been standardized and furthermore, the phenomenon of addictive behavior on the Internet needs to be refined to improve the reliability and validity of the questionnaire. Third, the methodology of this study doesn’t provide information how different online applications connected with addictive behavior really are – simple correlations do not answer this question. Further research should answer the question as to how the use of exact applications influences addictive behavior on the Internet. We, for example, repeatedly found high correlations between addictive behavior on the Internet and downloading or listening or watching music and videos online, but we do not know if downloading is an application which truly implicates addictive behavior or if it is just a characteristic which many heavy users exhibit. The presented research also revealed enormous differences
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between countries in proneness to addictive behavior on the Internet. It cannot be simply said that heavier and longer use of the Internet generates a higher share of users endangered by addictive behavior, as is shown in the case of Sweden. The proneness to addictive behavior seems to be closely adherent to applications and patterns of Internet use in different countries. In the case of Sweden, a longer tradition of Internet use seems to create highly developed connections between daily life and Internet use (such as paying bills). These interconnections lead to an increase in the number of hours spent on the Internet by Swedes, yet they seem to have very little relation to addictive behavior on the Internet. As already mentioned, we have introduced the results only on two dimensions of addictive behavior. Further research is needed across more countries. Acknowledgements The Czech Republic: We acknowledge the support of the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MSM0021622406 and 1P05ME751) and Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University. Chile: National Fund of Science and Technology (Fondecyt), the Santiago Chamber of Commerce (CCS), and the Universidad Catolica de Chile’s schools of Communication, Sociology, and Engineering. Sweden: World Internet Institute thanks its members, partners and funders for their support and engagement.
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Widyanto, L., & Griffiths, M. (2007). Internet adiction: does it realy exist? In: Gackenbach, J. (Ed.) Psychology and the Internet: Intrapersonal, Interpersonal and Transpersonal Implications. Amsterdam, Boston: Academic press, 141-163. Zhang, L., Amos, C., & McDowell, W. C. (2008). A comparative study of Internet addiction between the United States and China. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 11, 727-729.
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VII The Internet and Social Change: from the global to the local
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23 From “Locals” to “Expats”: Patterns of Internet usage in UAE, a Multi-Group Society. Ilhem Allagui and Tim Walters
Introduction The remarkable Internet development in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) came along with the political and strategic vision to place the UAE among the world’s most developed countries in technology. The UAE recognized the economic potential of the Internet as early as other Western countries and has implemented an Internet infrastructure that helped the federation to enjoy a leading position in the Arab Middle East with respect to ICT in general and the Internet in particular. This chapter provides a contextualization of the technological and social development of the Internet in UAE. It also examines the institutional role in helping its popularization in UAE. Following an overview of UAE demographics, economic situation, and IT infrastructure, we will provide an analysis of the Internet use and social integration among the UAE population. Overview The UAE is relatively late in its declaration of independence from Britain in 1971. Situated on the Arabian Gulf between Oman and Saudi Arabia, the UAE covers a land of 30,000 square miles and counts a population of about 4,621,0001. The UAE is a multi-ethnic Estimate of 2008 as per Internet world stats (www.Internetworldstats.com)
1
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Arab country . The majority of its population is South-Asians (50%), followed by Arabs (42%). Others expatriates, Westerners and East-Asians, count for 8%; UAE nationals (also called locals or Emiratis) count for 19%2 while other Arabs and Iranians take up 23% of the population. The dominant religion in the country is Sunni Islam as 96% of the residents are Muslims; other important religions are Christianity and Hinduism. While it is the official language, Arabic is not the first spoken in the country; Urdu and English are the most commonly spoken languages. The literacy rate is high in UAE (79.2% of the population). All children 15 year-old and above can read and write. Females are slightly higher (79.8%) than males (78.9%).3 The UAE has a federal government comprising seven Emirates. Abu Dhabi, the capital, boasts the highest population of 1.85 million; Dubai 1.3 million; and Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah, Ajman, Fujairah and Ras al-Qaywam respectively of 650,000, 250,000, 240,000, 130,000 and 80,000 people. Considered as a “late developer”, the UAE economy is based on oil and gas whose price fluctuations determine the nation’s wealth. The government has been encouraging a GDP based on privatization and creation of free zones accompanying the vision of a free, open market. Among the seven emirates, Abu Dhabi is the wealthiest thanks to its oil and gas production and has more than 90% of the country’s reserves; With less reserve of oil and gas, Dubai has tried a different business model based mainly on entrepreneurships and extra-national partnerships for mutually beneficial relations. The attraction of investment to Dubai relies almost 100% on foreign business ownership in free zones, tax-free corporate earnings, exemptions from customs duties and full right to repatriate profits. In some measure, the attraction is also due to Dubai’s status as the first Emirate to enable foreigners to own housing that is accompanied by residency visas.
Some other statistics estimate nationals at 12.5% of the population (Al-Alkim Hassa, (2007) UAE country study guide, Washington DC: International Business publications p.138) 3 According to UAE Country Study Guide, 2007 2
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The UAE telecommunications and Internet infrastructure The UAE has a sophisticated telecommunication system with the highest voice connection and broadband Internet connectivity capacity in the Arab world. The IT infrastructure also is the most advanced in the MENA region. In 2007, the UAE counted4 1,366 million telephone lines in use, 7.6 million telephone mobile subscribers and 337,092 Internet hosts5. The number of Internet users was estimated at 2,260 million in 2008 with a penetration rate of 48.9% (Internetworldstats.com). The number of the broadband subscribers is estimated at 240,600 with a broadband penetration rate of 5.2% of the population (2007, as per ITU). The broadband connectivity has been fast growing in the UAE; it increased from 35% of Internet subscriptions in 2006 to 42% in 20076. The actual number of Internet users is higher than the number of subscribers because there’s an estimated number of 2.5 users per Internet subscription. The UAE is connected through fiber-optic services, and, for the domestic connection, through micro-wave radio relay, fiber optic and coaxial cable micro-wave. In March 2009, Etisalat, the public telecommunication corporation in UAE introduced fiber-to-home technology that allows users to benefit from an increased speed of the Internet (16 Mbps and 8 Mbps) for better and faster web navigation experience. The UAE is connected to the Internet through two earth stations and international carriers, all links terminate in the United States. The three international links to the Internet are SEA-ME-WE-4 (South-East Asia- Middle East- Western Europe 4) submarine, SEA-ME-WE-3 (South East Asia- Middle East – Western Europe 3) and FLAG (Fibre Optic Link Around the Globe) cable system connecting Europe to South-Asia via the UAE. The FOG (Fibre Optic Gulf) connects UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain with a capacity of 10 Gbps per fibre pair. Source:TRA annual report 2007, http://www.tra.ae/annual_report.php, retrieved on March 25 Source:The United Arab Emirates. The Europa world Year Book. Europa Publications. 6 Source:TRA annual report 2007, http://www.tra.ae/annual_report.php, retrieved on March 25, 2009. 4 5
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Etisalat, the telecommunication company reined the telecom market in UAE until 2006 when a second and new Internet service provider, du was introduced. Du, a public-private telecom company of which UAE government owns 40%, is still struggling in its competition with Etisalat (60% government owned and 40% owned by UAE nationals) which has retained the lion’s share of UAE telecom market. The cost of Internet connection is similar between du and Etisalat up to a connectivity of 8 MBps for which du is more expensive than Etisalat. The regular Etisalat DSL connection at 256 Mbps costs DHS 149 (US$40.6) monthly; the 4 Mbps costs DHS 499 (US$136). The FTTH (fiber optic to the home) is also DHS499 per month for 8 Mps and the new high connectivity at 16 Mbps costs DHS 549 (US$ 149.59). The highest du connectivity is 12 Mbps which costs DHS 749 (US$204.08). These prices do not include devices prices. Although Internet cafes are very popular in some Arab countries, especially of North Africa, Jordan or Egypt, community-based Internet centers are not widespread in the UAE despite the cheap price, which ranges from 2 to 5 DHS (US$ 0.54-1.36) per hour to navigate the Net. UAE spending on IT was about $2.99 billion in 2008, second in the MENA region after Saudi Arabia. The IT hardware accounted for about 60% of the total spending; IT products accounted for 36% of the total (Cherrayil, 2008). Theoretical background The emergence of new media has introduced what is known as the “network society” (Castells, 2000), a phenomenon new to mass media and society. From a deterministic perspective, new media networks have changed the structure of society across many dimensions. For example, as a result of the introduction of new media such as the Internet, users have been found increasingly to interact with one another, as opposed to the more passive, subjective experience the heretofore traditional, unilateral mass
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media engenders. Interactivity and decentralization, characteristics of the network society, have enabled a societal shift from supplyside media use to demand-side, thus, from the producer to the consumer of mediated information (van Dijk, 2006). The uses and gratifications approach (Blumler and Katz, 1974), which dwells on the active use and selection of media by consumers, helps in understanding the appropriation of media by the users. Users choose the media that best fulfill their needs. Guided by this perspective, this chapter investigates the needs and practices that the UAE’s populations have sought and fulfilled by using the Internet. While almost no research has been done on gratifications with respect to the Internet, some research has looked at Arab media usages and gratifications with respect to television (Al-Abd (2005), Sayyid (1999), Yussif (1996), and Shahin (1996) in Hafez (2008)). Not only have the users (mainly households and individuals) massively adopted the new technology, they’ve also found themselves empowered by involvement in the Internet. It has been established that the more users use the Net the more they get involved (Chen et al. , 2002). Motivational access (van Dijk, 2006) is another important factor examined here. For example, some people cease their usage of the Internet while others increasingly use it. Some use the new media for interpersonal utility while others employ it for economic productivity. The younger generation is known to have shifted from television viewing towards spending more time on the Internet (Ferguson and Perse, 2000 in Rice and Haythornthwaite, 2006); other studies discuss a relative or partial replacement of old media by new media (Huysmans, 2004 cited in Dijk, 2006). Finally, speculations on the impact of the Internet on Arab societies have accrued, some pessimistic, others more optimistic. Ultimately, few have adopted the uses and gratifications approach to explain Internet usage and patterns of use in UAE or other Arab countries. While a sizeable body of research has studied the implication of the Internet penetration on Western and developed societies,
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little research has been conducted concerning societies in the Arab region. Arab countries adopted the Internet later than others due to a combination of the dominance of the Latin alphabet, high access costs, low literacy rates, and restrictive government policy. But, economically advanced Arab countries, especially GCC countries such as the United Arab Emirates were fast to catch up. Even so, little is known about its usage by UAE or Arab consumers. Thus, this chapter will provide some light about UAE Internet users. One practical consideration of UAE population is its heterogeneity. The country comprises different population subgroups from different national origins, and it is a sense of community that binds UAE population subgroups together. For example, the Indian community, Levantine community, and UAE nationals are all subgroups of populations. Each Diaspora has its own particularities, traditions and attachments genres to its home country. Palestinians share the loss of their home land memory with politics continually occuping an important place in their lives. East South-Asians are labour immigrants who travel to UAE to work for low wages and send money to their families in their home countries; they share poverty and live under difficult conditions. Westerners and native English speakers live privileged lives, are considered contributing in the country business development, and are paid the highest salaries in the country. Often they meet after work day in the Irish village or other bars/pubs/hotels to socialize, most often with friends from within their community. The media play an important role in the process of making this working place a “home”. The Internet in particular allows one to keep in touch with one’s home country while being away from home. It makes acculturation possible and eventually easier by accessing information about the host country online or interacting with host country residents. Internet usage in UAE Internet usage in UAE varies greatly among different subgroups
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of the population, often by nation of origin. Thus, the origin of the UAE population, being constituted more of “foreigners” than of “nationals”, has great implications on Internet use. A great disparity exists between UAE literates and non-literates. A large portion of UAE residents are Indian or other Asian workers, an illiterate population with no access to the Internet because of income, location, or language among other reasons. Furthermore, because the government promotes the education role of the Internet, Internet usage is high among students and in schools and universities. Warf and Vincent (2007) reported that 60% of Internet users in the UAE are Asians. The users’ composition was 40% private, 20% schools, 30% businesses and 10% government agencies (Warf and Vincent, 2007). A body of literature concerned with the students’ adoption of the Internet in UAE has been developed. Piecowye (2006) examined the impact of computer-mediated communication on the culture of the UAE. When surveying female student population, he found that this population was concerned with ‘consumerism as a culture dominating the Internet’ rather than as a technological culture. Walters et al. (2006) found that the Internet mainly fulfills personal relationship needs by helping the students to keep in touch with family and friends. The UAENational student population was shown to be highly connected to the Internet compared to the general UAE-Emirati population. While 90% of Emiratis students were found to be connected on a daily basis, only 16% of Emiratis in general were found to be connected to the Internet on a daily basis (Walters et al. , 2007). A research jointly conducted by Zayed University, International Advertising Association UAE chapter and the Pan Arab Research Center in 2006 found that Native English speakers had a higher connectivity rate to the Internet than any other group in UAE. For instance, 85% of the residents from the British Isles, Canada and the United States constituting the native English speakers sample had access to the Internet from their homes while only 63.4% of nationals, 54.9% of expat Arabs, 53% of Indians and 37.4% of other Asians did. A high proportion of the same group also owned
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laptop computers (about 59.3% of native English households), but the same figure drops to 15.1% for the National households and less than 10% for each other sub-population group. Nationals and expats Arabs showed a relatively high percentage when it came possessing desktop computers, this being 77.2% of nationals and 69.9% of Arab expats. Respectively, only 58.5% and 39.7% of Indians and other Asians owned a desktop PC. The native English speaker group also used the Internet much more often than any other UAE subgroup. About 60.2% of them used the Internet on a daily basis while only 23.9% of Indians, 19.9% of expat Arabs, 15.9% of nationals and 14.5% of other Asians did. The research also showed that Indians and other Asians were more likely to surf the Internet in their native language rather than English. Furthermore, young people were more likely to surf the Internet and more English websites than were older people, regardless of origin. Among the different UAE subgroups, the Internet was never mentioned as top source of information on a variety of topics, except for the native English speakers and specifically two topics: the stock market and the UAE education issues. UAE nationals and Arab expats relied almost exclusively on Al-Jazeera TV channel as their source of information while Indians and other Asians read newspapers. Normally, expats turned to the media using their native language and supporting their native culture, because they wanted to be updated on issues of home interest first and foremost. In general, the UAE residents rarely resort to the Internet for current affairs. Among all UAE residents in the 2006 sample, only Westerners (native English speakers and other language speakers, most of them French and Romanians) represented a relative high percentage of the population using the Internet for current affairs. However, the current affairs they were interested in were mostly those related to their home country. For instance, respectively 36.2% and 20.5% of Westerners consulted the Internet as a source of information for current affairs dealing with European topics and US topics. And even for current affairs dealing with UAE topics, Westerners, and more specifically native English speakers,
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represented the highest portion of population relying on the Internet for their information. Less than 10% of Asians go to the Internet for current affairs, but when they did, most were primarily interested in Asian topics. Arabs and UAE Nationals seemed not to be interested at all in Asian matters despite the government efforts lately to increase trade and improve relationship between East and West Asia. As shown in Table 23.1 below, only about 5% of Arabs in the sample, including Nationals, used the Internet as their source of information. And when they did, they first showed interest in local topics and Arab topics. The same pattern was observed when it came to social issues. Westerners were interested first in social issues dealing with Western Expatriates. Even if they showed interest in local social issues, Westerners were not interested at all in regional social issues. In general, Arab expats were more interested in all social topics, including UAE social matters than UAE nationals. As Table 23.2 below shows, only when religion was involved did UAE nationals show a relatively higher interest. The most important usage of the Internet among Asian population was to be informed about Asian entertainment. Furthermore, Asians were more interested in western entertainment than Arabs, and Westerners were only interested in western entertainment only. Once more Westerners showed highest percentage of the population using the Internet as a source of information for business topics, whether international or regional or stock investment related. Asians were slightly more interested than Arabs in local and international business, when Arabs are slightly more interested in topics related to stock investment than Asians.
1.5
2.9
2.7
3.9
Arab-Israeli conflict
Asian Topics
EuropeTopics 9.5
USA Topics
7.6
0.6
2.3
Muslim World Topics
4.6
3.3
4.2
2.5
Iraq Topics
5.4
5.9
5.5
2.9
%
%
Arab Topics
UAE topics
Total Arabs
Total Sample
2.6
0.9
-
3.0
2.6
3.0
3.4
5.2
%
3.3
2.0
1.2
6.1
4.1
5.3
7.3
6.5
%
Nationals Expat Arabs
6.1
4.4
7.7
0.5
1.5
1.0
0.5
2.9
%
Total Asians
5.6
3.4
8.5
0.4
0.4
0.4
0.4
3.4
%
Indians
6.7
5.6
6.7
0.6
2.8
1.7
0.6
2.2
20.5
36.2
3.6
2.7
1.8
1.8
1.8
9.4
Other Total Asians Westerners % %
23.0
35.4
5.3
4.4
2.7
3.5
3.5
12.4
Native English Speakers %
Table 23.1 UAE subgroups having the Internet as a source of information for current Affairs dealing with.
18.0
36.9
1.8
0.9
0.9
-
-
6.3
Other Language Speaking %
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3.0
1.6
2.9
4.8
4.6
8.1
Arabs
Asian Expats
Western Expats
Religion
Education
6.5
6.9
1.0
0.4
2.9
4.0
%
%
Emiratis
Total Arabs
Total Sample
6.5
7.8
0.4
0.4
1.7
3.4
%
Nationals
6.5
6.1
1.6
0.4
4.1
4.5
%
Expat Arabs
6.1
3.1
1.9
6.3
0.7
1.2
%
Total Asians
5.1
1.7
1.7
7.3
-
1.3
%
Indians
7.3
5.0
2.2
5.0
1.7
1.1
%
Other Asians
15.2
2.2
18.3
1.8
0.4
4.0
Total Westerners %
Table 23.2 UAE subgroups having the Internet as a source of information for UAE social issues dealing with.
23.0
2.7
15.0
1.8
0.9
4.4
%
Native English
7.2
1.8
21.6
1.8
-
% 3.6
Other Language
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1.3
3.4
7.9
Asian Entertainment
Western Entertainment
1.0
-
1.9
%
%
Arabic Entertainment
Total Arabs
Total Sample
-
-
1.7
%
Nationals
2.0
-
2.0
%
Expat Arabs
5.3
9.0
1.0
%
Total Asians
5.6
9.0
0.4
%
Indians
Table 23.3 UAE subgroups having the Internet as a source of information for Entertainment.
5.0
8.9
1.7
%
Other Asians
27.2
0.4
0.4
Total Westerners %
25.7
0.9
0.9
%
Native English
28.8
-
% -
Other Language
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3.6
6.4
5.9
International Business
Stock Market
4.0
2.1
2.1
%
%
Regional Business
Total Arabs
Total Sample
3.9
0.9
1.3
%
Nationals
4.1
3.3
2.8
%
Expat Arabs
3.6
5.3
2.9
%
Total Asians
2.6
4.7
3.0
%
Indians
Table 23.4 UAE subgroups having the Internet as a source of information for Business news.
5.0
6.1
2.8
%
Other Asians
14.3
17.4
8.0
Total Westerners %
15.9
22.1
7.1
%
Native English
12.6
12.6
% 9.0
Other Language
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Internet usage among young UAE residents The student population in UAE is in general highly connected to the Internet. The UAE has made a priority of connecting universities since the early days. Today, the student population is almost all connected to the Internet, with estimates at 90% of College age Emiratis use the Internet daily (Walters, 2005). To become aligned with the WIP process, a small pilot study of student users was conducted from February to March 2008 with questions drawn from the WIP stock. This pilot was deemed necessary because of potential cultural sensitivities in the multicultural UAE environment. The data of this pilot survey which sampled 60 student respondents revealed several things. University students, who averaged 20.5 years of age, were novices with respect to the Internet; they had been using the Internet for an average of 8 years. Their first year of experiencing the Internet was at about 12.5 years old. Almost half of them had experienced online purchasing, although more than 40% said that they were extremely concerned with security regarding secure transactions over the Net. More than 70% of users used wireless devices; 17% of them used wire devices from home. The Internet on mobile was still not widely used. For instance, users declared spending about 2 hours per day using the mobile web when they spent about 10 hours on wireless computers. Most of the time, respondents used one medium at a time; when they rarely did more than one activity at a time, they multitasked by watching TV and surfing the Net. With respect to this group, the Internet was shown to enhance social networking. Respondents saw the Internet as a tool that helped increase their relationships with their friends, professional contacts and family. The Internet was not perceived as having much of an influence when it came to contacts with whom they shared hobbies, religion or political interest. Respondents reported that the Internet did not have a great impact upon face-to-face relationships with friends and family. The findings showed that the Internet neither decreased nor increased the amount of time
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respondents spent with them. When it came to work, a positive correlation existed between work improvement and use of the Internet. This seemed to suggest that the Internet helped both performance and productivity. These university student respondents reported that while the Internet did not change their political power, it did help them understand politics, and they believed that the Internet would eventually get politicians to know their opinions about political matters. Although they presented concerns about Internet reliability, they cited the Internet as their primary source of information. The pilot survey also showed that respondents regularly used the Internet for their emails and instant messaging, but they used it less than monthly to participate in chat rooms, to phone call over the net or to use blogging. Almost monthly, they used the Net for news, but less frequently for services like joking, health information, traveling or finding jobs. The following table shows different entertainment activities of respondents, who ranked such activities from most regular (6) to least regular (1). Table 23.5 Scale distribution for entertainment activities.
Surf or browse the Web Download or listen to music Download or watch videos Play games Look at religious or spiritual sites Read web-logs Listen to a radio station online Bet, gamble, or enter sweepstakes
(6 being several times a day and 1 never)
5.09 4.73 4.69 3.41 2.48 2.07 2.04 1.61
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They also used the Internet weekly to get information about products, although they rarely bought online, made reservations online, or even paid their bills online. Users employed the Internet to get information for their studies and to look for definitions but rarely engaged in distant learning. Concluding remarks These various studies suggest a “standard pattern” of Internet use. On the one hand, Internet users in UAE do not differ much from their counterparts in other parts of the world. For instance, Rice and Haythornthwaite (2006) showed that respondents use the Net first and foremost to do research, then to communicate with friends and family, get information about products to buy, get news and health information. This data also concur with the results of Chen, Boase and Wellman (2002, p.109) who concluded that “Internet use worldwide will follow the North American development path. In part, this is an outgrowth of North American cultural domination of the content and tools of the Internet (….). The many international similarities in the uses of the Internet suggest that users behave in similar ways wherever they may live and log on”. On the other hand, UAE household users have displayed specific patterns, largely reflecting the population subgroup from which they come. Surveys of UAE households showed that Westerners, particularly native English speakers, are heavier users of the Internet than other UAE residents. Knowing that the expatriates are the heaviest users of the Internet in UAE (as shown above), it is imprecise (and even incorrect) to talk about advancement of Arab internet usage without being precise about whose usage one is talking about, Arabs, Asians or Westerners. The data showed a huge gap between Westerners’ usage of the Internet and that of other UAE residents including the Nationals. Many do have equal access to the Internet. But Westerners seem to have brought with them their home Internet usage pattern. In UAE, expatriate Westerners households are the main drivers of the positive trend of Internet usage in UAE and are the ones
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contributing to attenuate from the phenomenon of digital divide in terms of usage (and not access since access is widely distributed in UAE). This might conflict with the finding of Chen, Boase and Wellman (2002, p.109) when they wrote, “the more economically developed a region, the more developed the Internet in that region and the more experienced its users”. In the case of UAE, the most economically developed country in the region, the Internet seems to be driven by Westerners expat usage and not that of Arab expatriates or UAE locals or Asians despite the government efforts to improve infrastructure and increase penetration. Thus, the willingness to use the Net and the culture of the Internet or even the lack of Arab “individual awareness” (Al-Nawawy, 2000) must be looked at to understand the reasons of such usage disparities in Internet households. The Emirati Internet Project, the UAE version of the WIP will provide a better understanding of the social change under new media development in UAE. The results of this large-scale study, well under way now, will be available by June 2009.
References Blumler J.G. and Katz E. (1974). The uses of mass communications: Current perspectives on gratifications research. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. Castells M. (2000). The rise of the network society, London: Wiley-Blackwell; 2nd edition, 595 pages Chen W., Boase J. and WellmanB (2002). The global villagers, comparing Internet users and uses around the world, in Wellman and Haythornthwaite (Eds.) The Internet in everyday life, UK: Blackwell Publishing, pp.74-113. Cherrayil N. K. (2008). Saudi Arabia, top IT spender in the region. Gulf News Sunday, October 19, p. 43 El-Nawawy, M. (2000). Profiling Internet Users in Egypt: Understanding the Primary Deterrent Against Their Growth in Number. Retrieved August 26, 2005 from http://www.isoc.org/inet2000/cdproceedings/8d/8d_3.htm#s14
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Europa Publications (2008). The Europa World Year Book, Volume 2, 49th edition, Routledge. Kai H. (2008). Arab Media. Power and Weakness. USA: Continuum Publishing. Dijk J.V. (2006). The network society, London: Sage publications, 292 pages. Piecowye J. (2006). Habitus in transition? CMC use and impacts among young women in the United Arab Emirates, Journal of Computer-MediatedCommunication, 8 vol. 2. Rice and Haythornthwaite, (2006). Perspectives on Internet use: Access, Involvement and interaction in Lievrouw and Livingstone (Eds.) The Handbook of new media, pp 92-113, GB: Sage publications. Walters, T. Walters, L., Jendli, A., Graber, G. (2006). Pain and delight: Social consequences of Internet use in the United Arab Emirates. A podcast of a written presentation. Retrieved on Oct 3rd, 2008 from http://www.zu.ac. ae/podcast/mp3only.html. See also, Walters, T., Quinn, S., & Jendli. A New Roadmap to Life: Media, Culture, and Modernity in the United Arab Emirates. In G. Chen & Y Tang (eds.), Intercultural Communication Studies XV: 2, 2006, 150-163. Walters, T. Bhati, T. Fakhreddine, J. Gulovsen, R.J. Hassall, P.J. Walters, L.M. (2007). Islands in the Stream: Media Usage Patterns in the United Arab Emirates, Intercultural Communication Studies, 16 (2).260-276. Warf, B. and Vincent, P. (2007). Multiple geographies of the Arab Internet, Area, 39 (1). 83-96.
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24 From nowhere to somewhere? – The Development of the Information Society in Hungary Tibor Dessewffy and Anna Galácz
Introduction In essence, this study marks the summation of an era. The Hungarian research team has been participating in the World Internet Project (WIP) study series almost since the beginning. The first survey was conducted in 2001, and data gathering lasted five more years since then. The study is still going on in 2009, as the current paper is being prepared. As such, the first objective of this study is to present how the overall picture, as emerging from the ensemble of phenomena examined by WIP, has changed. In other words, we seek to show how the information society, particularly Internet use and associated developments, has evolved. Secondly, this paper strives to delineate a course of thinking and research – issues of particular poignancy for the Hungarian research team throughout these years, the answers found and the direction these answers led to. Finally, as a third objective, we also attempt to offer our views formed over the past few years of research on methodological issues. That is, we will also discuss how research in this area might progress in the future. For us, one of the most inspirational characteristics of the WIP was that it did not seek to examine technological change in itself as an isolated phenomenon, but rather scrutinized it in its social
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context and the ongoing mutual interplay with this context. To anticipate the results we elaborate below, the underlying assumption was verified to the utmost: the particular social context, communal experiences and preexisting knowledge all have a decisive impact on the diffusion and use of a given technology, in this case the Internet. As sociologists, we might see this insight as anything but remarkable. Yet in the discourse surrounding the Internet, we often encounter the view that the impact of technology and its imprints will be automatically transplanted into society. It is, however, less self-evident – and definitely runs counter to the intuitions and arguments that characterize the early phase of the diffusion of the Internet – that in terms of the determinants facilitating or curbing the diffusion of the Internet, financial and material factors prove to be less important than cultural and value structure-related issues. This is all the more surprising as previous surveys on value revealed Hungary, like other post-communist societies, as a country with preference for material values (Inglehart-Baker, 2000; SágváriDessewffy, 2006). Our study begins with a brief presentation of the social context in which Internet technology first appeared in Hungary. It then offers a quick overview of the main characteristics of the Hungarian WIP research. The subsequent part is a descriptive account of the most important phenomena of the past decade in this area, followed by a discussion of the most important research problems and results. Finally, we formulate a set of hypotheses and research approaches that may shape our future investigation revolving the Internet and may hopefully be of sufficient interest to result in joint studies going forward. The beginnings of the Information Society in Hungary It was emphasized often and by many that the proliferation of new information technologies in the 1980s proved fatal for the communist states. One view on this is that, these states, caught up in the stranglehold of the bureaucracy overseeing innovations, –were incapable of competing with countries that operated on the basis of market principles. At the same time, paradoxically, the
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emergence of new communication technologies (fax, PCs, Xerox machines) made it impossible for the central power to efficiently monitor the population. As a result, a new public sphere emerged featuring greater independence than any in the past. This is all the more ironic as during the Cold War years the West used the CoCom embargo to impede the proliferation of information technology instruments – PCs among others – in the the Eastern Bloc nations, Hungary included. Considering that among the residents of the Communist Bloc, Hungarians were allowed to travel most freely in the 1970s and 1980s, the government practically promoted the so-called “private imports” (Wessely, 2002). This peculiar form of shopping tourism meant that Hungarians would purchase, mostly from Austria, all the components of a complete computer, and then, upon returning home, sell the wares to state enterprises or used-goods merchants who specialized in computer technology, in return for a healthy profit. At the same time many, especially the youth, not only traded computers but also retained them. One effect of the private importation of computers was the emergence of the so-called Commodore 64 subculture. The Commodore users cracked the codes for games produced for this type of computers and distributed them for free. They created international contacts and wrote “demos” that flashed before the beginning of a cracked game as a kind of personal introduction, a digital signature of sorts. Many of those who were part of this subculture eventually became hackers in the 1990s, while others, unsurprisingly, tried their luck in the information sector, with varying degrees of success (Vésey, 1999). The lesson of this brief and nostalgic digression is that many of those who lived in the allegedly monolithic communist societies exhibited a pronounced affinity and ability for obtaining new information technologies. This diversity in social development was only enhanced by the fact that from the 1980’s onwards, the communist state apparatus did not prohibit but rather supported (or at the very least tolerated) in various forms the mastery and diffusion of computer science skills. Still, at the time when the “Short 20th
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Century” came to an end in 1989, the overwhelming majority of Hungarians did not know PCs and eyed them suspiciously. Studies from the time show that even the very teachers who ought to have been responsible for introducing the use of the new technologies exhibited negative attitudes (Csákó, 1997). This phenomenon can partly be explained by the natural conservatism that sets in when, in times of rapid change, a society clings to the things it is well-accustomed to. The Hungarian and other post-communist societies had to grapple not only with the shocks of adjusting (idealogically) to the introduction of market economy and democracy, but also with other dimensions of the socalled dual transition or dual regime change. This other dimension is not particular to Central Europe, but – beyond a certain level of development – it marks a general trend across the globe: postindustrial transition (Dessewffy, 2005). While we often talk about post-communist transition, in the course of which the change in the political regime from a oneparty system to a democracy was concluded while the economy simultaneously underwent a transition from a planned to a market economy, we tend to be forgetful of the fact that a rather significant cultural change took place also at the same time, along with a technological transformation that triggered the information revolution (Castells, 1996). The parallel onset of these two changes (i.e. the dual transition) delineates an interpretive space that is both very exciting and heavily burdened by tensions (Dessewffy, 2005). It is of course important to emphasize that the connections between the individual areas are improbably complex and indeed grow increasingly so. After all, in the course of technological transformations, the economy, politics and culture will also undergo profound changes. In other words, these areas are not isolated from each other. At the same time, it is also important to recognize that the compulsion to adjust – induced by the dual transition and the necessity to live up to requirements of the transition – is a crucial process in the development of post-transition Hungarian society – something that we cannot ignore when presenting the local history of the evolution of information society.
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This is therefore the environment in which the Internet appeared in Hungary, and as we shall see below, our small digression on social history and mentality will by no means be superfluous in analyzing the process described below. About the Hungarian WIP project The year 2001, which saw the launch of the WIP, is certainly not the starting point of the diffusion of the Internet in Hungary. Nevertheless, at that time, the proportion of Internet users was so low (17%) and the infrastructure so underdeveloped that it would be no exaggeration to assert that we launched our research project at the dawn of the transformation. The initial sample used in the research was very large, encompassing 5,000 persons, because this was the only way to ensure that a sufficient number of Internet users be included. Since then we have been able to lower the number significantly, and in 2009 we only surveyed half as many (2,500 persons) during the first phase of this study. The methodology has remained fundamentally unaltered over the years, though we were only able to sustain the panel research character of the study until 2003. In each case the sample was compiled with a multilayered random sampling method, while the interviews were conducted face-to-face.1 The Hungarian WIP questionnaires are rather lengthy and extend to several areas apart from Internet use and non-use, such as for instance media consumption and other lifestyle issues. Even though several innovations and changes took place over the years, we retained the section on values throughout. Containing some 30 questions, this portion gauges the respondents’ attitudes towards trust, helplessness and self-confidence, among others. The evolution of information society in Hungary Diffusion The technologies that entered Hungary around the time of regime In all the years in which the study was conducted, data collection was performed by the TÁRKI Zrt. For more information on the methodological approach, the history and participants of the Hungarian WIP see the webpage www.ithaka.hu/Kutatas/wip.
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transition and continually afterwards are significant different in terms of their diffusion paths. There are veritable success stories among them - the VHS, MP3 player and digital camera quickly reached relatively wide swaths of society. The most outstanding diffusion path, however, belongs to the cellular phone: the number of subscribers rose over fifty-fold between 1994 and 2001, and by 2007 over 80% of the Hungarian population had cell phones (Map of the Digital Future, 2007). Today, the number of cell phone subscriptions exceeds the number of residents by 20%.2 The proliferation of Internet use, in contrast, is relatively slow: when the WIP research began in 2001, 17% of those over 14 years of age used the worldwide web with some regularity. By 2007, this ratio had increased to 45%,3 denoting a rather flat growth curve with annual growth rate of merely 4.5%. Figure 24.1 shows the diffusion of the Internet together with that of DVD players. It is clear that even though only a small number of people owned DVD players in 2001, within a couple of years, DVD players became more widespread than Internet use. 70
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Figure 24.1 The diffusion of the Internet and the DVD player in Hungary between 2001 and 2005. Source: WIP 2001-2007.
Statistics from the National Communications Authority: rhttp://www.nhh.hu/?id=hir&cid=7432 Based on preliminary data, the ratio of Internet users in 2009 is around 50%.
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As a result of the slow diffusion, Hungarian Internet penetration indicators are among the lowest in Europe and, in fact, in the entire surrounding region as well. As shown in Figure 24.2, among countries partaking in the WIP cooperation, only Columbia has lower penetration indicators, while the Czech Republic – which, like Hungary, also has a history of state socialism – has 8% more Internet users. 90
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Figure 24.2 Internet penetration in the WIP countries in 2007 (% of users among the population 18 years old and older). Source: WIP International Database.
The low penetration of the Internet in Hungary also implies that digital inequality is very substantial and that to this day certain social groups are in a distinctly disadvantaged position when it comes to Internet usage. Looking at this issue from a demographic perspective, it can be stated that inequality is mostly influenced by educational attainment, income and, to a lesser degree, by the area of residence. Furthermore, as Figure 24.3 shows, the differences between the individual groups have remained more or less constant between 2001 and 2007.
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Figure 24.3 Rate of Internet users in different demographic groups (education, financial status, age, place of residence), 2001-2007.
Usage Internet usage in Hungary also exhibits some other interesting features. If we take a look at the surfing habits of Hungarian Internet users in contrast to their counterparts on other countries, we will find that in some areas the Hungarians are pronouncedly less active than users in other countries in general. Few Hungarians engage in blogging, for instance. What is even more remarkable is that Hungarian Internet users turn to transaction services in distinctly lower numbers – very few people bank or shop online (Figure 24.4). 90
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Figure 24.4 Popularity of different forms of Internet usage in different countries (% of users aged 18+ in Internet users for specific purposes at any frequency), 2007.
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On the basis of the 2007 WIP data, four groups of users can be distinguished in Hungary: the active, the information oriented, the entertainment and communications oriented, and the inactive.4 Of these groups, the active users are those who use the Internet for transactions (in addition to other things as well, of course). Active users also form the smallest group: only 14% of users fall into this category. Most Hungarian surfers use the web for obtaining information or for entertainment purposes. At the same time, there is also a significant proportion of users who only use a few basic functions (e-mail, news, etc.) (Gerhardt, 2007). Barriers and incentives: whence comes the Internet user? At first glance, the Hungarian information society exhibits the following features: (i) The pace of diffusion is slow; (ii)The circle of users is relatively small and homogenous; (iii) Certain Internet applications are extremely uncommon. A significant portion of the analytical work performed in the context of WIP sought to identify the essential features that define the diffusion of the Internet. For a long time, the generally accepted view in Hungary was that the high prices of telecommunication services were responsible for the slow proliferation of the Internet, and the former in turn were the result of a special market situation. However, this view was already refuted by the first set of WIP data, which showed that material reasons are nowhere near the powerful explanations for non-use. Moreover, their prevalence has even declined over the years. Since 2003, the group of non-users who declared that they do not surf because they are not interested in the Internet or because they do not find it useful was markedly greater than the group indicating that they do not use the Internet for lack of money. This is yet another characteristic that makes Hungary unique among WIP countries. Nowhere else is the proportion of non-users attributing their inactivity to disinterest as high as in Hungary (50%-plus). (Figure 24.5). 4
We identified these groups using cluster analysis. More information on the method is available in the 2007 WIP report (Map of the Digital Future, 2007).
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Figure 24.5 Reasons for not using the Internet (% among non users), 2007. Source: WIP International Database
Starting from the assumption that material barriers play a less significant role, we sought to identify those factors that keep non-users away from the Internet. If we wish to break down the reasons behind non-use into categories, we can distinguish the following groups: (i) Resisters – individuals who decide of their own volition not to use the Internet; (ii) Rejecters – individuals who have used the Internet but ultimately decide to cease surfing; (iii) The excluded – individuals who have never used the Internet because they have not had the opportunity; and (iv) The expelled – individuals who have some experience with the web but have been forced to stop using it in spite of their desire to continue with it (Wyatt, Thomas & Terranova, 2002). According to Bill Dutton and his co-researchers, non-users in the first two categories are those who exercise digital choice, that is they decide freely not to use the web. Dutton et al. suggest that a precondition for such choice is that the individual disposes of the financial resources and technical skills necessary for use, so that s/he may conceivably opt for a different choice (Dutton-Shepherd-Di Gennaro, 2006). Among Hungarian non-users, this applies to a very small group of people: for one, the proportion of those who have already used
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the Internet and have since ceased doing it is very small (1-2%), and most of these have stopped surfing because they lost access on account of leaving school or the workplace where they had access (in other words they ought to be considered expellees rather than rejecters). A majority of Hungarian users are thus excluded, though not necessarily on account of their financial circumstances. Starting from the train of thought outlined above, we first examined what other factors may be responsible for someone not using the Internet. Based on the theories of different forms of capital and cognizant of the traditionally vast cultural gap in Hungary, we took a closer look at the effect of cultural capital, which we examined in various ways. We included not only educational attainment in the cultural capital variable, but also language skills and certain cultural consumption patterns. As we outlined in a previous study, the results showed that cultural capital has a substantially greater direct effect on Internet usage than one’s material circumstances (Figure 24.6). The above effect was obtained even if we included the age variable in the model (Dessewffy, Galácz & Rét, 2008), which is to say that our study unequivocally showed that the use of the Internet requires a great deal more than merely satisfying certain financial preconditions.
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0.51
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Figure 24.6 Path model explaining Internet use. Source: Dessewffy, Galácz & Rét (2008).
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Several diffusion theories that help to explain the factors underlying the shape of the diffusion curve also point this out. In his Diffusion of Innovations, Everett M. Rogers identified differences between various adoption groups not only in terms of economic behavior, but also with regard to attitudinal and communication behavior (Rogers, 2005), which shows that such factors, too, are important incentives in shaping the willingness to try out new things. In examining groups of users and non-users in Hungary, similar differences can also be made out. Thus, for instance, users tend to have more friends and maintaining a host of other, weaker interpersonal relations is also more typical of them (Galácz, 2006). Benefits stemming from the use of a new technology are often conveyed through personal relations. These relations increase the visibility of such advantages and therefore play a key role in furthering the use of a given technology. The importance of this component is also emphasized by the analysis in which we examined to what degree the various factors impact usage. In the principal component5 designed expressly for this purpose, the variables with the greatest impact pertained to visibility are: (i) whether there is a computer or Internet in the respondent’s home, and (ii) whether s/he has a family member who has used these and tried to persuade the respondent to use them as well (Fábiát et al., 2008). Observability and triability are also key factors in the previously mentioned diffusion theory. One of Rogers’ important observations is that from the perspective of potential users, diffusion also depends on certain characteristics of the given innovation. He identifies five groups of characteristics that potential users assess when it comes to a given innovation, which consequently influence the pace of proliferation: the abovementioned observability; triability, which is closely connected to the former; relative advantage; complexity; and, finally, compatibility (Rogers, 2005). If we evaluate the various innovations on the basis of these characteristics, we can shed 5
The study’s methodology is presented in detail in the cited paper.
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light on the reasons underlying the differences between diffusion curves. The success of the cellular phone in Hungary, for example, is easily explained by these factors, since it fares well no matter which dimension we measure it by. Thus the relative advantage it enjoys over its predecessor is obvious (it is mobile), its use is fairly facile (low complexity), its benefits are readily apparent, and there are numerous opportunities for trying it risk-free. Maybe even more important, however, is that the cellular phone also exhibits excellent characteristics in terms of compatibility! On the one hand, compatibility refers to how well an innovation harmonizes with existing knowledge: the fewer novel things have to be learned to make use of a given innovation, the quicker it will spread, naturally. And cellular phones work basically just like landlines: one dials a number, the connection is signaled by a ringtone, while a busy line is signaled by a repeatedly interrupted tone. Yet the term compatibility also encompasses other concepts: the compliance with the values that characterize a community, how an innovation meshes with the dominant choice of values. It would be difficult, for example, to spread a new contraceptive method in a conservative community that is fundamentally averse to the concept of birth control. The compatibility with a value system is not always readily apparent, of course, but in Hungary the cellular phone did not run into barriers in this regard either (Dessewffy and Galácz, 2004). But how does the Internet fare in these dimensions? Several questions arise when we seek to answer this question. For example, what is the Internet’s predecessor, compared to which the relative advantages might be weighed? The Internet as an innovation is difficult to grasp because it allows for a whole variety of uses, a replacement for or a new form of the following: a letter, a newspaper, a phone, or a board game (Dessewffy and Galácz, 2002). Nevertheless, examining the categories described above may make sense; of these, we place an especially great importance on the compatibility with values. To slightly rephrase the issue, we put forward our question as follows. Do the values that characterize Hungary have impact on the domestic diffusion of the Internet?
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The value factor: a hypothesis and a glance into the future The values and value characteristics of a given community tend to exert a substantial influence, even in spheres that at first glance appear to function overwhelmingly rationally, such as economic performance or competitiveness (see for example Phelps, 2006 or Florida, 2005). By introducing value compatibility, Rogers also integrated this factor in his explanation of diffusion phenomena. Major studies on international values carried out over past decades showed that Europe is nowhere near homogenous when it comes to dominant values. Based on the value plurality of the continent, countries in Europe were grouped according to a variety of classifications (see for example Gupta, 2002 or Inglehart & Welzel, 2005). For the most part, there is an agreement among scholars that with regard to values, post-communist states display numerous similarities and constitute an obviously distinct group within Europe (Inglehart & Welzel, 2005). Among the key elements of the post-communist value system is the unhappiness factor described by Inglehart – Residents of countries belonging to this group tend to report unhappiness in far greater proportions than one would expect based on their general economic circumstances (Inglehart & Baker, 2000). The pervasive pessimism and negative attitude constitute a well-known and frequently mentioned phenomenon in the context of Hungarian society. It was documented in numerous Hungarian value studies (see for example Beluszky, 2000). Another important characteristic is the prevalence of materialism: the individual’s perception of the future and his/her contentedness are primarily shaped by the availability of material goods (Inglehart & Baker, 2000). This approach, which runs counter to the trend of post-material values gaining ground in Europe (as demonstrated by Inglehart and his fellow researchers), is also accompanied by a substantial risk-aversion in Hungary (Hofstede, 2005). A comparative study of the countries of the region has shown that the proclivity to avoid risks is generally greater in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe than in Western Europe; at the same
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time, among the countries compared (Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Hungary), this attitude is most prevalent in Hungary (Kolman et al., 2002). A third, rather important characteristic is the low level of confidence vested in political and other public institutions. International surveys show that since the mid-1960s citizens’ confidence in governments and political institutions has continuously declined in industrialized nations (Blind, 2006). Though there are significant differences between countries in terms of how much they are affected by this trend, the tendency is nevertheless general (the only exception being the Netherlands, where the level of political confidence grew between 1970 and 1990). A global survey undertaken by Gallup International in 2005 found that 65% of respondents in Western Europe were dissatisfied with their government, while the proportion of those similarly inclined was 73% in Eastern Europe, 60% in North America, and 65% in East Asia6. This suggests, therefore, that the loss of confidence in politics is not identical in the various regions, obviously as a result of the current political situation and the effects of the historical past. Another study also calls attention to these differences by showing that the confidence in parties and parliaments is the lowest among Eastern European countries that have recently acceded to the EU, while it is highest in East Asia and the old EU member states. A Swedish study arrived at similar conclusions. It revealed that in Europe, the level of political confidence is highest among citizens of Northern European countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Sweden and Norway), regardless of whether one measures macro or micro–level political confidence (in addition to the countries mentioned above, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Belgium were also frequently among the top achievers). In contrast, decidedly negative indicators were characteristic of the countries of the former Communist Bloc: Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Czech Republic were always at the 6
www.gallup.com
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bottom of the “confidence list” (Listhaug – Ringdal, 2007)7. There are complex historical and social reasons underlying the emergence of the values described above, and these were analyzed in numerous outstanding studies by Hungarian researchers (see for example Csepeli, 1991 or Hankiss, 1977 and 2002). Still, it is also important to point out that a value system would consist of numerous other components as well (and even in the case of Hungary, not all of these trend in a negative direction). Here we only emphasized those that, in our interpretation, may have an impact on the process of adopting technologies. Our hypothesis suggests that through the mechanism of value compatibility certain values can significantly affect the diffusion of some technologies. As an extension of this hypothesis, we assume that the values discussed above have an adverse influence both on the proliferation of the Internet in Hungary and on the patterns of use that emerge among Hungarian Internet users. These assumptions further emphasize our opinion – already expressed on other occasions – that the use of technologies is not merely a function of objective technological possibilities, but also depends on the particular characteristics of the adopting environment In other words, it is also socially determined (Dessewffy and Galácz, 2004). The assumption underlying our hypothesis is that a lack of confidence, a foul public disposition, and a predilection for avoiding risks make it more difficult to adopt innovations that, on the one hand, convey openness and fundamentally serve the purposes of communication while, on the other hand, require relatively significant investment of time and energy. Moreover, we believe that in order to engage in online transactions, users must have some confidence in interpersonal relations and institutions. The proliferation of innovations may be significantly impeded if the said confidence is at a low level in a society. 7
An interesting result of the research was that the ranking that generally applies was turned upside down when the respondents were asked regarding their confidence vis-à-vis the European Union. In that case, the Scandinavian countries (e.g. Sweden) exhibited a marked lack of confidence, while some Eastern European states (for example Hungary) displayed a greater confidence in the EU than in their domestic institutions.
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Unfortunately, even though the Hungarian WIP survey contains a values section that allows us to measure the composite effect of the abovementioned values and thus test our hypothesis, the scarcity of items in this valued section makes it extremely difficult for us to do that. What can be observed, however, is that Internet users – albeit by a small difference – tend to be consistently characterized by a more positive outlook along the lines of the values described above. This may of course be caused by an intervening variable, most likely age. To ensure that this is not the case, we constructed a simple model, primarily to examine whether this line of thought offers possibilities for further research. Of the conceivable value dimensions, we choose negative outlook on life, for that allowed for the construction of a composite variable. We therefore created the principal component8 entitled “bad disposition” and we examined its effect on Internet use. We investigated the impact of bad disposition on Internet usage with the help of a linear regression analysis, and when it appeared alone in the model we found a significant negative effect between the two variables. That is, the more one was prone to a negative disposition, the less likely one was to use the Internet.9 This may of course also be the effect of age, since bad disposition is generally more typical of the elderly, who – as we noted above – also tend to use the Internet significantly less. To control for this effect, we also integrated the age variable in our model. The results showed that the model itself had a high level of explanatory force, explaining 30% of the variance in the Internet usage variable. The results suggest that both variables independently exerted a significant effect on the elements we sought to explain. The greater effect was naturally associated with the age variable, where The principal component was constituted by the amalgamation of the following attitudinal questions: “My life could be happier than it is now”, “There were more ruptures in my life than in that of an average person”, “The life of the average person has recently taken a turn for the worse”. The main component retained more than 70% of the informational content of the original variables. 9 Due to requirements of a lineal regression method, we integrated Internet into the model as a socalled dummy variable. 8
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the beta value (.49) was very high and, as expected, revealed a negative relationship between age and Internet use: Increase in age is associated with decrease in Internet use. However, the effect of the principal component, bad disposition, was not negligible either: – the beta value in this case was -.17 (Table 24.1). Table 24.1 Results of the linear regression model. Adjusted R Square (Explained portion). 0.302 Variables Age Bad disposition
Regression Coefficients (Beta)
Significance
-.49
.000
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.000
The analysis thus showed that the variable signaling a bleak outlook on life does indeed impact the probability that an individual uses the Internet, and it hence adversely affects the dependent variable: the more pessimistically an individual views his/her situation, the less like s/he is to be an Internet user. In other words, the value orientations that manifest themselves in personal attitudes may play a role in how the diffusion of the Internet ultimately develops in Hungary. We have to emphasize the conditional nature of this statement: the effect is only presumable and not unequivocally present, given that the model above is infinitely simplified. Of course, other, hidden variables may impact this relationship as well, and several other values may also affect the adoption of a technology. Still, we believe that the results certainly justify the validity of raising this question.
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Conclusion In the past years we have primarily dealt with the adoption of technologies and related issues (for example, digital exclusion) in the framework of the WIP project. Since some of our other research programs have also pointed to the crucial importance of values (Dessewffy and Ságvári, 2006; Koltai, Ágoston and Galácz, 2009), what we find most promising for continuing our investigation is to examine the role that value choices play in this area. We must point out, however, that for quite some time the Hungarian WIP questionnaire was not suitable for thoroughly measuring the relevant value dimensions, and hence it was also ill suited for the creation of the adequate analytical tools. In the 2009 questionnaire, we have included questions that considerably widened the scope for such analyses. In addition to the partial successes of our attempts hitherto, we also learned that some of the values prevalent in Hungary are rather homogenous, spanning across the traditional social groups that are defined by demographic cleavages (such as groups defined by age or educational level). Due to their small variance, therefore, it is difficult to show their effect, since they apply on an overall, national level. This is part of the reason why we believe that including them in the WIP’s international analyses would prove very fruitful. The differences in the value choices of various regions would be fascinating in and of themselves, but their relationship to the capacity for innovation is an area that has been hardly explored heretofore. As far as there is an opportunity in the framework of a comparative research project to use as independent variables some fundamental, culturally-determined and value-related variables, it would be possible to examine the differences between these variables and how they are connected to diffusion and usage characteristics. In our opinion, such an analysis would enrich social science knowledge on people’s adoption of technologies and yield rich results.
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References Beluszky, Tamás (2000). Értékek, értékrendi változások Magyarországon 19451990, (Values and their changes in Hungary between 1945 and 1990), Coral - Journal for Social History (1/2000. Blind, P. K. (2006). Building Trust in Government in the Twenty-First Century: Review of Literature and Emerging Issues, UNDESA, http://unpan1.un.org/ intradoc/groups/public/documents/UN/UNPAN025062.pdf Castells, Manuel (1996). The Rise of the Network Society, The Information Age – Economy, Society and Culture. I., Blackwell, Oxford. Csákó, Mihály (1997). Az általános iskolai pedagógusok és az iskolai számítógépek használata (Elementary School Teachers and Computer Usage in Schools), Új Pedagógiai Szemle, 2007/1. Csepeli, György (1991). Competing patterns of national identity in postcommunist Hungary, Media, Culture and Society, Vol. 13, p: 325-339. Dessewffy, Tibor (2005). Bevezetés a jelenbe (Introduction to the Present), Nemzeti Tankönyvkiadó, Budapest. Dessewffy, Tibor and Galácz, Anna (2002). Mobilkommunikáció és társadalmi diffúzió (Mobile communication and social diffusion), in: Nyíri, Kristóf (eds.). Mobilközösség és mobilmegismerés, MTA Filozófiai Kutatóintézete, Budapest, p: 233-248 Dessewffy, Tibor and Galácz, Anna (2004). Revolution Postponed, Review of Sociology, 2004/2 Dessewffy, Tibor, Galácz, Anna, and Rét, Zsófia (2008). The Diffusion of Information and Communication Technologies: Subjective and Objective Obstacles, Observatorio, Vol. 2, No.3 Dutton, W.H., Shepherd, A. and Di Gennaro, C. (2006). Digital inequalities and digital choices, in: in: Dessewffy Tibor - Fábián Zoltán (ed.). Internet.hu 3, TÁRKI, Budapest, p: 205-228. Fábián, Zoltán, Bernáth, Anikó, Galácz, Anna, and Ságvári, Bence (2008). Esély és digitális írástudás: médiafogyasztási- és digitális eszközhasználati státuszcsoportok Magyarországon (Chance and digital literacy: media consumption and digital equipment user status groups in Hungary), Információs Társadalom, Vol. 8. Number 3. Florida, Richard (2001). The Rise of the Creative Class, New York: Basic Books Galácz, Anna (2006). “A Te barátod az enyém is” - Interperszonális hálózatok
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és a személyes társadalmi tőke szerepe az Internet diffúziójában (The role of interpersonal networks and social capital in the diffusion of the Internet) in: Dessewffy, Tibor and Fábián, Zoltán (ed.). Internet.hu 3, TÁRKI, Budapest, p: 51-68. Gerhardt, Erik (2007). User Groups among the Hungarian Internet users, Hungarian WIP Working Paper No. 3, Ithaka Gupta, V., Hanges, P. J., & Dorfman, P. (2002). Cultural clusters: methodology and findings. Journal of World Business, 37(1) Hankiss, Elemér (1977). Értékek és társadalom (Values and Society), Magvető, Budapest. Hankiss, Elemér (2002). New Diagnoses, Osiris, Budapest. Hofstede,Geert (with Gert Jan Hofstede) (2005). Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind Revised and expanded, 2nd Edition, New York: McGraw-Hill Inglehart, Ronald and Baker, Wayne E. (2000). „Economic levels of 65 Societies, superimposed on two dimensions of cross-cultural variation”, American Sociological Review, Vol. 65, Issue 1. Inglehart, Ronald and Welzel, Christian (2005). Modernaization, Cultural Change and Democratization: the Human Development Sequence. Cambridge University Press Kolman, Ludek, Noorderhaven, Niels G., Hofstede, Geert, and Dienes, Elisabeth (2003). Cross-cultural differences in Central Europe, Journal of Managerial Psychology; 2003; 18, 1-2 Koltai, Júlia, Ágoston, László, and Galácz, Anna (2009). Value changes and value stability among generations in Hungary (forthcoming) Map of the Digital Future – The Hungarian Society and the Internet in 2007 (2007), ITHAKA, Budapest, http://www.ithaka.hu/Letoltheto Miller, A.H. – Listhaug O. (1990). Political Parties and Confidence in Government: A Comparison of Norway, Sweden and the United States, British Journal of Political Science, 20, July, 357-386. Phelps, Edmund S. (2006). Economic Culture and Economic Performance: What Light is Shed on the Continent’s Problem?, CCS Working Paper No.17, Center on Capitalism and Society, Columbia University, New York, July. Rogers, Everett M. (1995). Diffusion of Innovations, Free Press, New York (4th edition) Ságvári, Bence, and Dessewffy, Tibor (2006). On Creative Economy - Europe and Hungary in the Creative Age, Demos, Budapest, http://www.demos.hu/
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Letoltes Vésey, P. (1999). “Yikes it Rulez” The Hacker Frontier in Hungary, (manuscript) Wessely, Anna (2002). Travelling People, Travelling Objects, Cultural Studies, Vol. 16, Issue 1. Wyatt, Sally, Thomas Graham, and Terranova, Tiziana (2002). They came, they surfed, they went back to the beach: Conceptualizing use and non–use of the Internet, In: Steve Woolgar (ed.) Virtual society? Technology, cyberbole, reality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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25 Internet Use in New Zealand: Implications for Social Change Ian Goodwin, Nigel Smith, Kevin Sherman, Charles Crothers, Jennie Billot, and Philippa Smith.
Introduction It is now commonplace to argue that the Internet plays a central role in contemporary forms of social change. Indeed, given its ability to “distribute the power of information throughout the entire realm of human activity” (p.1), Castell (2001) argues that the Internet is now central to the very “fabric of our lives” (p.1). Yet, despite the power of the technology, the social changes wrought by increasing Internet use are not technologically determined. Rather, the technology itself is socially shaped by economic and institutional contexts, legal systems, policy decisions, and cultural understandings that are contextually dependent and vary from nation to nation. Within any given societal context, Internet use therefore “adapts to existing patterns, permits certain innovations, and reinforces particular kinds of change” (DiMaggio, Hargittai, Neuman & Robinson, 2001, p. 307). This makes identifying and mapping the particularities of Internet use within different national contexts a top priority. However, this task is inherently difficult, given the scale of the changes underway and the sheer variety of ways the Internet is used. Moreover, the rise of the Internet to prominence has been so swift, that studying Internet use is often akin to trying to hit a moving target.
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Given the complex and dynamic nature of the task, this chapter (and the WIP reports on which it is based) marks a key step forward in ‘New Zealand Internet studies’ by mapping the broad contours of Internet use in New Zealand. For the first time, a wide-ranging and comprehensive picture has been obtained of the demographic characteristics of Internet users and the ways in which they engage with the Internet across a broad range of activities. Additionally, the WIP’s emphasis on measuring the demographics, attitudes and perceptions of non-users, as well as users, provides further novel sources of information. Taken as whole, the first New Zealand WIP survey provides a useful benchmark against which current and future research into the social implications of Internet use within New Zealand can be assessed. This chapter first describes the current status of the Internet and Internet research in New Zealand, highlighting in particular what we currently know about key ‘sectoral’ developments in the Internet and how New Zealand Internet users have engaged with them. State, commercial, educational, and broader social/ cultural applications and uses of the Internet will be considered in turn, and then existing research into how the digital divide impacts on Internet use as a whole will be reviewed. Following this introductory section, the New Zealand component of the WIP, and the methodology used to conduct it, will be introduced and the major results presented. In light of the introductory overview, these results will highlight key societal trends in Internet use, specifically comment on Internet use in the ‘sectors’ described above, and examine the current status of the digital divide in New Zealand. These trends in Internet use are significant in a country which is of a small scale, geographically distant from other countries and contains an ethnically diverse population. In addition, the dispersed nature of the rural sector within an often mountainous terrain and the low suburban densities of urban areas both serve to act against the ready roll-out of broadband. Finally, in light of the identified trends in Internet access and usage, a series of broad conclusions will be drawn relating to the Internet’s major implications for contemporary social change in New Zealand.
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The Internet in New Zealand: An Overview New Zealand first became connected to the Internet in 1986, when Victoria University of Wellington began providing dial-up access to international USENET services. In 1989, Waikato University established a connection to ARPANET via UCLA. Both Victoria and Waikato initially acted on behalf of other Universities and third-party users, until the establishment of commercially based ISPs in the early 1990s (Newman, 2008). Since then, government statistics demonstrate that Internet technology has diffused rapidly within New Zealand. For example, according to census data, by 2006, 60.5% of New Zealand households had Internet access (Statistics NZ, 2007a). In that same year, 69% of individuals had used the Internet from any location in the past 12 months, with those aged 15-24, in particular, going online in large numbers (84.5%) (Statistics NZ, 2007b). Although the adoption of the Internet in general has spread relatively rapidly within New Zealand, the growth and use of broadband has been - by contrast - slow by international standards. It was not until 2007 that broadband subscribers (at 19.6 per 100 inhabitants) outnumbered dial-up subscribers (at 15.9 per 100 inhabitants) (Statistics NZ, 2008a). During 2008 the use of broadband continued to grow, albeit at a declining rate, and the latest government statistics suggest 59.2% of all subscribers use broadband technology (Statistics NZ, 2008b). The reasons behind this relatively slow rate of broadband growth are complex and contested. However there is general agreement that New Zealand’s largest, incumbent telecommunications company - Telecom NZ (formerly government owned) - has held too much sway in the marketplace, and has under-invested in technical infrastructure, since its privatisation in 1990. As a consequence, there remain considerable issues with the performance and coverage of the central telecommunications network outside of the CBDs of the main urban centres, where there is a lack of fibre and an overreliance on ageing copper cables. In the general absence of fibre, the dominant broadband technology remains DSL which limits
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data speeds, and over 90% of broadband subscribers have a data cap on their accounts (Statistics NZ, 2008b). Despite ongoing broadband issues offsetting the high Internet penetration, the technology has become central to New Zealand life in a range of areas. In the first instance, the State itself has become an enthusiastic adopter and promoter of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in general, and the Internet in particular. Mirroring international trends, successive New Zealand governments have placed ICTs at the heart of State sector reform and policy development culminating in the release of the Digital Strategy in 2005, and its successor the Digital Strategy 2.0, in 2008 (Ministry of Economic Development, 2005, 2008). In order to “capitalise on the profound changes and opportunities offered by ICT and digital technologies” (Ministry of Economic Development, 2008, p. 4) the current strategy seeks to facilitate the provision of effective national digital networks through governmental research and development in collaboration with business and community sectors. These ambitious policies aim to use ICTs to ‘transform’ government to “meet the needs of the information age” (Ministry of Economic Development, 2008, p. 11). That is, via uses of ICTs, the plan is for the disparate arms of the State bureaucracy to become better coordinated via ‘joined-up government’, and to offer new channels of electronic interaction with the public, thereby putting government in a better position to provide more responsive services to businesses, communities, and individual citizens. Ninety seven percent of all government organisations now have a website, with 56% of these sites containing interactive content and 26% offering online transaction services (Statistics NZ, 2007c). Moreover, this growing shift towards more interactive websites marks a historical break, as most previous analyses of ‘e-government’, at both a local and national level suggest that websites have focused on relatively static forms of information provision and have been difficult to navigate (Cullen & Houghton, 2000; Deakins & Dillon, 2002; Dillon, Deakins & Chen, 2006). Such initiatives are opening up new ways for citizens to interact with government. However, in
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the New Zealand context we know very little about what uses are made of e-government services by citizens and groups, nor much about these users themselves (see Lips, 2008), and the few studies that do exist suggest online services have had only a marginal impact on citizens’ relationship with government to date (Cullen & Hernon, 2004; Curtis, Vowles & Curtis, 2004). Indeed, Lips (2008) argues that the ICT-driven, grand reform objectives of the government need to be treated with considerable caution, as the “transformational potential for government is certainly there, but not at all evident to us at the moment” (p. 21). This governmental focus on ICTs has had considerable consequences for Internet use in New Zealand. Simultaneously, the broader uptake of the Internet has been actively encouraged via targeted funding initiatives announced as part of the Digital Strategy. Despite Lips’s (2008) concerns, the government remains committed to becoming a key ‘enabler’ of a New Zealand ‘knowledge society’, which is in turn linked to nothing less than environmentally sustainable economic, cultural, and democratic revitalisation (see Goodwin (2007) for a critique of these ambitious and integrative goals). Outside of the State sector, commercial uses of the Internet have grown rapidly, particularly in the last few years. In one of the first large-scale studies of ‘e-commerce’ in New Zealand, Clark, Bowden & Corner, (2002, 2003) reported that the adoption of websites by New Zealand businesses grew from 55% in 2001 to 64% in 2002. However, this diffusion of Internet technology varied according to company size, with smallest companies (44%) being much less likely to have a website than the largest (87%). Moreover, the uptake of Internet technology varied across industry sectors, with the tourism, export, and ‘business services’ sectors being the biggest adopters. A more recent Statistics New Zealand (2007c) study found a similar variation in terms of these variables, but a much higher business take-up overall (91%), and found the top users to be in the electricity, finance and ‘wholesale trade’ industries. Such baseline figures say little about the specific uses to which the Internet is being put, or to what extent it has transformed
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business practices (see Ramsey & McCole (2005) and Al-Qirim (2007) for studies of detailed issues surrounding Internet adoption by New Zealand businesses). However, more specific sectoral studies have confirmed the growing importance of the Internet to conducting business successfully in New Zealand, particularly in terms of banking (Gan, Clemes, Limsombunchai & Weng, 2006; Shergill & Li, 2005). As is the case with the State sector, while business adoption of the Internet seems to be growing rapidly, in New Zealand we know little about Internet users’ engagement with these new developments. Much e-commerce, including website development, is bound up with facilitating business-to-business (as opposed to business-toconsumer) transactions, and may have only minor consequences for the end user/customer. However the few studies available suggest that New Zealanders have engaged with e-commerce to a far greater degree than e-government. For example, Doolin, Dillons, Thompson & Corner, (2007) found that 60% of Internet users had made an online purchase in the last 12 months, although they tended to buy online relatively infrequently (with only 11.5% purchasing at least monthly). Several studies of such transactions have highlighted the importance of building ‘trust’ to encouraging the growth of online purchasing (Corbitt,Thanasankit & Yi, 2003; Doolin et al., 2007; Shergill & Li, 2005). Much of this online behaviour is likely to involve transactions with foreign companies. However the trend towards nearubiquitous use of Internet technology by New Zealand businesses remains extremely important to understanding New Zealanders’ overall Internet use. Not only do 91% of businesses now use the Internet, but 46% of their staff accessed the Internet from work (Statistics NZ, 2007c). This issue is particularly pertinent in a New Zealand context, given that 83% of businesses were found to have a broadband connection (Statistics NZ, 2007c), a figure above the level of broadband penetration in New Zealand homes. Internet penetration in the commercial sector has accelerated only in the past few years. However, the educational sector in New Zealand has, since the Internet’s origins in the country, been a key
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user of the technology and a driver of its development. For example, by 2005 100% of New Zealand schools were connected to the Internet, over 78% via broadband (Johnson, Kazakov & Švehla, 2005). In tertiary education, not only were universities the early pioneers of the Internet in New Zealand, but their contemporary involvement in research networks such as Building Research Capability in the Social Sciences (BRCSS) now provides these institutions with access to one of New Zealand’s highest speed (10 Gb/sec) networks, known as KAREN (Kiwi Advanced Research and Education Network) (Research & Education Advanced Network New Zealand Ltd, 2007). Aside from such infrastructural issues, a number of studies have documented the benefits, impediments, pedagogical issues and detailed outcomes of innovative educational uses of the Internet in New Zealand secondary schools (Lai & Pratt, 2004), libraries (Carnaby, 2005), and universities (Johnson & Walker, 2007; Scott, Gilmour & Fielden, 2008; Suddaby & Milne, 2008; Uys, 2007; Wells, De Lange, & Fieger, 2008; Zolezzi & Blake, 2008). These studies often draw cautious conclusions as to the benefits of the technology, however this breadth of enquiry equally demonstrates the extent to which the Internet has already begun to restructure educational practices in New Zealand. Beyond the educational sector, far less is known about broader social and cultural uses of the Internet in New Zealand. In particular we know little about the extent to which the Internet is changing social relations and impacting on cultural identities. The few studies that do exist are highly suggestive of important changes underway. For example they indicate that the Internet is implicated in transforming diasporic and national senses of identity for Pasifika New Zealanders (Franklin, 2003; Spoonley, Bedford, & MacPherson, 2003), as well as being bound up with new ways of managing gender identities (Henrickson, 2007). There has also been some work completed on examining effective uses of the Internet for community connectivity at the local level (Ashton & Thorns, 2007; Williams, Sligo, & Wallace, 2005), and on uses of the Internet in the community and voluntary sectors (Williamson & Dekkers, 2005; Zorn, Li & Lowry, 2007). In combination,
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these studies indicate that New Zealanders are engaged in a broad range of social and cultural activities on the Internet. However, there remain a range of key areas, such as youth online social networking, lacking sustained attention. Overall, the consequences of social and cultural Internet use remain under-explored. Internet penetration and use is far from uniform in New Zealand and remains socially stratified in a number of ways. In general a consistent range of findings suggest access to the Internet is influenced by age, location (rural versus urban), ethnicity, income and educational achievement. More specifically, studies suggest Maori and Pasifika people have significantly less access to the Internet than other groups (Crump & McIlroy, 2003; Cullen, 2001, 2002; Maharey & Swain, 2000; Parker, 2003; Weaver, 2005). Meanwhile access to the Internet in general, and to broadband technology in particular, is influenced by regional differences, with the main urban centres consistently having higher rates of access. For example, a recent survey suggested 72.7% of Wellington households have Internet access, compared to just 54.1% of those in Gisborne/Hawkes Bay (Statistics New Zealand, 2007c). This disparity between Internet access for urban and rural people in New Zealand remains a matter of public debate, fuelled by the strategic importance of the agricultural industry and the difficulties of funding costly infrastructure investment across difficult terrain with a low population base (Barton, 2003). Mirroring international trends, several studies in New Zealand have also shown that the higher a household’s income and educational achievement, the more likely the household is to have Internet access (see in particular Statistics NZ, 2004). Finally, older people are less likely to be users of the Internet in New Zealand (see Richardson, Weaver, & Zorn, 2005 for a detailed summary of this issue). This brief overview of the Internet highlights the extent to which the technology has, in a relatively short space of time, become central to New Zealand society and a contributor to social change across a broad range of areas. The next sections focus on the survey undertaken in New Zealand and some of the findings which highlight issues deemed pertinent to the current political, social
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and economic environment of the nation. In addition to identifying the data itself, use will be made of the WIP New Zealand (WIPNZ) report (Bell, Crothers, Goodwin, Kripalani, Sherman, et al., 2008), the WIPNZ international comparisons report (Bell, Billot, Crothers, Goodwin, Kripalani, Sherman, et al., 2008) and a recent paper compiled by the research team (see Smith, Smith, Kripalani, Goodwin, et al., 2008). The World Internet Project New Zealand Building on the platform offered by these previous studies, the WIPNZ survey provides the first analysis of the broad range of issues relating to the social impact of the Internet in New Zealand. By providing knowledge that covers a wide variety of areas within one study, the WIPNZ creates an important contextual overview for interpreting the issues raised by earlier analyses, as well as offering new insights. Based on a comprehensive engagement with individual users and non-users, the WIPNZ focuses on demographic patterns in Internet use and non-use, perceptions of the Internet and other media, user engagement with e-government and e-commerce, the Internet’s connection to social relationships, the Internet’s cultural influence, and online content creation. Before describing the survey’s major results in these respects, a brief review of the methodology is provided. Methodology The WIPNZ contributes to the World Internet Project as a whole, enabling international comparisons. As with other of the 30 project partners, a survey is conducted every one or two years and contains WIP common questions. In addition to the 24 common questions (including sub-questions), there are 35 further questions (including sub-questions) designed specifically for New Zealand. These New Zealand-specific questions were developed by the WIPNZ team through a process that included a pilot survey. The full range of questions within the WIPNZ survey are available from the WIPNZ
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website: http://wipnz.aut.ac.nz. The WIPNZ survey data was collected during July and August 2007 via telephone, and was conducted by an independent contract surveying company. A random sample of 1200 New Zealand adults was selected, together with a booster sample (of 300) made up of Maori, Pasifika and Asian populations, and 12-15 year olds. The data set was weighted to reflect both the sampling design and the characteristics of the New Zealand population at the 2006 census. The analysed sample comprises 1430 respondents aged 16 years and above. For the overall sample, the 95% confidence interval (for percentages in the 30-70% range) is +/- 2.3%, and for the users subset +/- 3.4%. All findings reported are included only after rigorous statistical testing. The WIPNZ Results Basic Access Patterns Over three-quarters (78%) of New Zealanders use the Internet. Of the 22% who do not currently use the Internet, some are ex-users (6%) but most have never used it (16%). Non-users are generally older people, live in rural areas, or have lower incomes. These respondents generally indicate that the Internet is not interesting or useful to them, or that they lack a computer or Internet connection, or the necessary ‘know-how’. On the other hand, despite never going online, a surprising 6% of non-users rate the Internet as important. The reason for this is not readily apparent. Around a third of all users spend at least 10 hours a week on the Internet. The largest category (34%) use the Internet at home for less than 4 hours in the week, while 17% use it for 5–9 hours. Fifteen percent of users report never using the Internet at home, accessing it only from work, school or public sites such as libraries. Nearly half (46%) of users have been using the Internet for 5–9 years, and 21% have been online for less than four years. With 27% using the Internet for 10–14 years, there are few (5%) who have been online for over 15 years (see Figure 25.1).
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Figure 25.1 Years of Internet use amongst NZ Internet users.
Two-thirds (66%) of users with a connection at home have broadband, compared to 31% with dial-up. New Zealanders tend not to leave their computers on all the time; 50% of users always shut down their computer when not using it. Overall, the WIPNZ results for basic access patterns reflect, and build upon, previous analyses. New Zealanders are online in relatively high numbers, have often been using the Internet for several years, and are using the Internet for noteworthy amounts of time. However, by international standards, a low proportion of New Zealanders access the Internet via broadband. Broad Societal Trends in Use: The Internet Embedded in Everyday Life In line with data on basic access patterns, a review of WIPNZ results further demonstrates the extent to which the Internet has become integrated into New Zealand society. When all participants were asked about the importance of the Internet to everyday life, a majority
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rated it as important or very important (54%). In comparison, 30% rated the Internet as not important, or not important at all, with the remainder neutral. Perhaps more tellingly, those who use the Internet appear to rely on it heavily. When asked what the effect would be on their lives if they lost access tomorrow, the majority (61%) felt this would be a problem, while only 2% thought this would make life better (see Figure 25.2).
Figure 25.2 Effect on Internet users “if they lost all Internet access tomorrow”
More specifically, the Internet is rated highly as a source of information. Indeed, perhaps surprisingly given the comparatively short space of time in which it has been available, as a source of information 61% of New Zealanders rate the Internet as important.
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This compares to 54% who rate television that way, with the corresponding proportions for newspapers and radio being 54% and 46%, respectively. Moreover, more people rate the Internet as an important source of information, compared with interpersonal sources such as family and friends (57%).
Figure 25.3 Comparative importance of media as an information source.
This latter result is particularly striking given that interpersonal sources of information have traditionally been seen as more important than media sources, and the difference the Internet has made here becomes more pronounced when users are considered alone. That is, 71% of users rate the Internet as an important source of information, with the corresponding figure for interpersonal sources being 56%. For non-users, however, the pattern predictably
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remains more in line with historical patterns (see Figure 25.3). Users rely on the Internet to access a variety of information. For example, 77% look for travel information and 63% use the Internet to find health information. However, looking for news is the most frequent information seeking activity online; 59% of users look for news online at least weekly, with 34% doing so daily. New Zealanders are, however, fairly divided over the reliability of information on the Internet. While only a few (3.2%) believe that all the information is reliable, 85% think that half or more is reliable. By contrast, 15% feel that only a small portion, or none, of the information is reliable, and 54% think that no more than half is reliable. As far as entertainment is concerned, New Zealanders value the Internet as a less important source than they do for information. Forty-one percent rate the Internet as important for entertainment, compared to 36% who consider it not important. This pattern is similar to that found for newspapers as an entertainment source (where the comparative figures are 43% and 32%). On the other hand, comparatively more people rate both television (55%) and radio (53%) as an important source of entertainment. Perhaps the only caveat here is the age differentials involved. That is, 60% of those in their teens and 67% of those in their 20s rate the Internet as an important source of entertainment, with these figures then dropping consistently by age category (for example only 29% of those in their 60s rate the Internet as an important source of entertainment). This suggests that the Internet’s significance in this respect may well increase with time. The types of entertainment activities undertaken are also interesting. At least weekly, 21% of users download or watch videos, 29% download or listen to music on the Internet, and 17% play games online. Whilst the data for accessing information and entertainment point to the Internet as integrated into daily life in important ways, there is also a significant minority of New Zealanders actively involved in generating online content. Over a quarter (27%) have posted messages on discussion or message boards, 34% have posted pictures, photos or videos, while 8% have posted audio materials
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(see Figure 25.4). Moreover, 13% of users maintain their own website and 10% keep their own blog. Younger New Zealanders are more likely to keep a blog than older New Zealanders, with 19% of those aged 16-19 doing so, while only 6% of those 40 -50 do so.
Figure 25.4 Proportions of users posting online.
Specific Sectoral Trends: State/Civic, Commercial, Educational and Broader Social/Cultural Internet Use The WIPNZ results indicate that the Internet is beginning to influence public and civic life in New Zealand by changing the ways significant minorities of users engage with local and central government, across a range of activities. In the most common online civic activity, 47% of users access information about government or council services. Moreover, 33% have used the Internet to
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gain policy information and 15% have sought out information on political parties or MPs. Payments such as rates, taxes or fines are made online by 21% of users, and 9% had sent an email to their MP. Whilst such numbers are noteworthy, the majority of users remain unengaged with government online, and interactive dealings with government are comparatively rare. This aligns with the caution of Lips (2008) that the unrealised potential of ‘e-government’ in New Zealand is justified. Indeed, only 13% of New Zealanders have even heard of the government’s ‘transformational’ plans in the Digital Strategy. In relation to claims that the Internet will transform their relationship with government, more users are sceptical than express agreement. Forty-six percent of users disagree with the statement that, due to their Internet use, “people like you will have more say about what the government does”. Meanwhile, only 27% agree, with the remainder being neutral. Similarly, 45% disagree with the statement that “public officials will care more about what people like you think”, only 22% agree. In line with earlier studies, such as Doolin et al. (2007), the WIPNZ results confirm that New Zealand Internet users are highly engaged with commercial uses of the Internet, much more so than they are with civic uses. There is considerable evidence that New Zealanders are making use of the Internet to conduct their everyday business. Getting product information and online banking are the most common, and most frequent, uses. That is, 83% of users have sought product information online, with 10% doing so daily and 33% doing so weekly. Similarly, the figures for online banking are also high, as 68% of users have accessed their banks’ online services, with 15% doing so daily and 38% doing so weekly. This latter result suggests that a majority (53%) of users are accessing banking services at least weekly, reinforcing claims that – at least for particular industries – the Internet is becoming essential to the conduct of business in New Zealand (see the studies of online banking conducted by Gan et al. (2006) and Shergill & Li, (2005)). Whilst they do so less frequently, a majority of users have also made an online purchase (61%), used the Internet to book travel (64%), and used the Internet to pay bills (52%) (see Figure 25.5).
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Figure 25.5 Frequency of financial transactions online.
The WIPNZ also confirms that the Internet has become firmly embedded in educational practices in New Zealand. Significantly, 55% of the users surveyed had used the Internet to find information on school- or university-related course work – although it is unclear from the survey whether they had done so for themselves or for others. Perhaps most interestingly, 31% of users had participated online in distance learning for an academic degree or job training. Indeed a notable minority of users seem to rely on the Internet for this purpose, as 11% used the Internet to participate in distance learning at least weekly. Moreover, 81% of the students included in the survey sample had used the Internet during class at school or university, with 52% of students doing so at least weekly. More generally, 59% of all Internet users had gone online to look up a definition of a word, while 76% had used the Internet to check a
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fact. Overall, the WIPNZ results confirm the impression derived from the studies outlined in the introduction: that the Internet is becoming central to changes in education, and the educational sector, in New Zealand.
Figure 25.6 Comparison of effect of Internet on general and face-to-face contact time.
Given the relative dearth of information currently available on social and cultural uses of the Internet in New Zealand, the WIPNZ results are perhaps most intriguing in this regard. Most importantly, they indicate that socialising comprises a major use of the Internet. That is, 77% of users check their email every day. At least weekly, 34% do instant messaging and 28% participate in social networking sites such as MySpace or Facebook. This latter activity is overwhelmingly concentrated in those under 30 years, with a high percentage of Internet users aged 16-19 (78%) and in
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their 20s (71%) engaged in social network sites, compared with, for example, only 17% of those in their 40s. More generally, most users say that the Internet has increased their contact with other people, especially overseas (65%). Few believe there has been a decrease. Most users say the Internet has increased their amount of contact overall with friends (64%) and family (60%), few say it has decreased. On the other hand, 22% report that since they connected to the Internet, they spend less time face-to-face with the family with whom they live (see Figure 25.6).
Figure 25.7 Perceptions of Maori and Pasifika users on whether the Internet helps keep their languages alive.
A noteworthy minority of New Zealand users have developed entirely new social relationships online, some of which have been followed up in face-to-face meetings. That is, 25% of users report having made friends online, with 51% of this subgroup going on to meet these friends face-to-face. Males are significantly more likely than females to go on to meet an online friend face-to-face (61%
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vs. 39%). Although younger people are the most likely to be active in social networking, the 16-19 year old age group have the lowest rate (36%) of meeting up with someone they first met online. This finding compares to nearly 80% of those in their 30s who have met an online friend in person. Culturally, a strong minority of respondents believe the Internet has increased their sense of national identification with New Zealand (34%), and 19% feel their identification with their ethnic group has increased. Only 3% in each category feel their sense of identification has diminished, with the majority (63% and 78% respectively) feeling their identification has stayed the same. Of respondents who speak Maori and Pasifika languages, more (51%) believe the Internet is helping keep their languages alive than the reverse (23%) (see Figure 25.7). An Overview of the Digital Divide in New Zealand The preceding sections demonstrate that the Internet has permeated the New Zealand society, and is bound up with important societal changes in a number of areas. However, the WIPNZ data also confirms the results of earlier studies that suggest access to the Internet is socially stratified. Overall, the data suggests the younger, wealthier, and more urban people are, the more likely they are to have access to the Internet. This holds true for Internet access in general and for broadband access in particular. For example Figure 7 demonstrates the demographic impact of age. The effect of area is slightly more complex, but in general with increasing ‘ruralness’ there is a gradual fall off in Internet use. In the main urban centres, 82% have Internet access, while the comparable figure for rural localities is 69%. It should be noted that while this trend is observed for Internet access itself, on some other measures, for example the importance of Internet in daily life or the effect if Internet access is lost, rural participants’ responses did not fit neatly into this general trend. In terms of the effect of ethnicity on Internet access, the trends in the WIPNZ data are not as clear as earlier studies. What is evident is that those of Asian ethnicity have higher overall access (94%) than Pakeha (77%), Pasifika (72%) and Maori (62%).
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Figure 25.8 Proportion of population who use the Internet by age.
Beyond basic issues of access, the WIPNZ data shows similar patterns in terms of self-rated ability to use the Internet. The younger, wealthier, and more urban people are, the more likely they are to rate their ability as high, with ethnicity once again showing a more complex pattern – the clearest result being that a larger proportion of those of Asian ethnicity rate their ability as high, in comparison to other ethnic groups. For example, there is a modest but significant positive correlation between household income and self-rated ability. At the extremes of income distribution, this trend results in particularly stark differences, as only 21% of households with an income of less than NZ$25,000 rate their ability as very
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good, but the comparable figure for households earning more than NZ$100,000 is 59% (almost three times the proportion). Moreover, the same data patterns in regards to age, income, and ethnicity are evident in the degree of importance New Zealanders attach to the Internet in their daily lives. For example Figure 25.9 demonstrates the complex effect of ethnicity in this regard.
Not Important Neutral Important
Figure 25.9 Importance of the Internet in daily life by ethnicity.
Whilst the preceding data clearly points to the persistence of important forms of inequality, gender makes very little or no difference to Internet access, attitudes, self-rated ability and behaviours. For example, Figure 25.10 shows the almost identical profiles of self-rated ability to use the Internet for both genders
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Very Good
Figure 25.10 Self-rated ability to use the Internet by gender.
There are some small caveats to this otherwise highly consistent pattern. For example, women are more likely to see other people as an important source of information (65% vs. 55%). While observed differences between men and women in making friends online were not significant, men are more likely to go on to meet those friends in person (61% vs. 39%). Conclusions: The Broad Contours of Internet Use and Societal Change in New Zealand In a relatively short space of time the Internet has become deeply embedded into New Zealand society. Despite internationally low levels of broadband uptake, New Zealand has high overall Internet access figures and the Internet is used for substantial periods of time in homes, schools, and workplaces. New Zealanders rate the
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Internet as an important medium, while users have come to rely on the Internet and would find it problematic were access to be lost. In this sense, the Internet has become an essential part of everyday life for many New Zealanders. This integration of the Internet into daily affairs is manifesting itself in important changes to the way New Zealanders access a broad range of information, including the use of the Internet to keep abreast of news and current affairs. Additionally, young New Zealanders in particular value the Internet as an important source of entertainment, going online to download or watch videos and listen to music. Aside from accessing online content, a significant minority of New Zealanders have also used the interactive potential of the Internet to become content creators. That is, they engage in online discussions, post pictures, photos, videos, and audio material, and maintain their own websites and blogs. Whilst nascent at present, should this trend continue, the longer-term impact of a shift to popular forms of everyday content creation would be difficult to gauge, but it is likely to have an impact on New Zealand’s politics and popular culture. In terms of the social shaping of Internet technology within a New Zealand context, both the commercial and educational sectors seem to be having a significant influence at present. New Zealand businesses have gone online in increasing numbers, especially in recent years. Online space is being used frequently by New Zealanders for commercial purposes, with users regularly going online to find product information and engage in online banking. They also use the Internet to make online purchases, book travel, and pay bills. The educational sector in New Zealand has played a part in the Internet’s development since its initiation and today the Internet has become a key part of the educational experience of New Zealand students. The Internet is also part of broader changes in the educational sector, with a significant minority of users going online for distance education. While the State is involved in the educational sector, and to that extent is key to the development of the Internet in New Zealand thus far, the use of the Internet to engage with government for ‘civic’ purposes lags behind commercial and
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educational uses of the technology. This is particularly so in terms of more interactive services, and many New Zealand Internet users are sceptical about the power of the technology to transform their relationships with government. There is, then, potential here for the government to fall behind in relative terms and a ‘democratic deficit’ to emerge in their push towards a ‘knowledge society’. More broadly, however, the interactive potential of the Internet has been taken up with enthusiasm by New Zealanders and socialising online has become a major Internet use. The WIPNZ dataset provides some of the first insights into this broader social impact of Internet use, with the data demonstrating that New Zealanders go online to maintain contact with family and friends, and to make new friends. This increasing popularity of online socialising, which introduces new dynamics to social life, deserves further scrutiny. Moreover Internet use seems to have a strong cultural dimension as, for example, more Maori and Pasifika language speakers tend to believe the Internet is helping keep their languages alive than the reverse. Finally, the use of the Internet, whilst widespread, remains socially stratified in New Zealand. Data from the WIPNZ supports earlier studies in suggesting that a digital divide persists in terms of access, use, and self-rated ability. Given the fact that income inequality in New Zealand remains well above the OECD average (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2008), perhaps the most worrisome element of this divide relates to the consistent correlation of income with access and ability, as there is a real danger of a two-tier ‘knowledge society’ developing, where those households on higher incomes benefit most. However, the significant differences found in terms of age, ethnicity and area/ location warrant attention. Indeed, each of these factors may require individual consideration if inequalities are to be avoided and it may well be better to speak in terms of closing digital divides within New Zealand society. This issue seems set to remain significant for New Zealand, given that the analysis as a whole highlights that the Internet, as in other national contexts, is central to extensive, locally inflected social changes.
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Future phases and intentions for further research To date, the WIPNZ has focused upon the implementation of the survey and the acquisition of data that provides a broad understanding of the adoption and use of the Internet in New Zealand. The intention is to now identify salient and critical issues for further research. Interested parties, both governmental and commercial, have prioritised their own issues of concern and in some cases there is resonance between them. As the phenomenon of globalisation requires that national policies acknowledge global trends, the WIP’s (international) findings provide benchmarks against which New Zealand findings can be evaluated and their implications noted. However, the social consequences of global transformations (such as those exemplified through technological development, such as the use of Internet) are “mediated through local interpretations” (Dempster, Freakley & Parry, 2001, p. 2). The link then between theoretical explanation and reality, as defined through experience and identified through the WIPNZ survey, is the specificity of context. Hence how the Internet is effecting (and affecting) social change in New Zealand, will be a reflection of its past history, social structure and the character of current behavioural changes. As with many nations in the world, the population profile of New Zealand is changing rapidly. High levels of immigration and the differing growth rates of ethnic groups are creating increasingly diverse communities, and this is certainly noticeable within New Zealand. Responses to this diversity can be seen in the emergence of changes, from the speed with which commerce operates, through to the increased inclusion of online learning within the school curriculum. It is apparent that the Internet, as a medium for e-commerce, education, governmental organisation and individual socialising, offers benefits for ease of transaction and the enhancement of international integration, connectedness and communication (Rizvi & Lingard, 2000). At the same time, there is a need to examine digital divides to assess any relationship between the use of the Internet as effective technology and the
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possible exacerbation of social inequality. Further quantitative and qualitative New Zealand studies at both a macro and micro level can assist us in facilitating that assessment. The origin and implementation of the WIP acknowledges the global recognition of the speed at which social change can occur. New Zealand is a small country with just over 4.5 million people (Statistics New Zealand, 2006) and historically its geographical isolation has had an impact on cultural, social and economic development. However, the advent of new communication technologies such as the Internet has shown it to be no less a dynamic context than larger nations as time and space have been significantly reduced. Hence, while the longitudinal studies within the WIP provide the opportunity to view what is happening globally, the WIPNZ can identify the impact of the Internet at a national level. The combination of both studies provides insights to the impact of the Internet and places New Zealand policy-makers in a position to use the findings to work proactively rather than reactively, to both support and alleviate challenges arising from the use of the Internet. To date, the WIPNZ findings highlight a number of areas worthy of further investigation. The challenge now is to resource additional and more focused studies that, in concert with the WIPNZ, will inform relevant stakeholders to develop effective public policy in New Zealand.
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Index
A “ABC” groups of digital literacy, 244–247 academic performance, 184, 191, 547, 575 access divide, 35, 130, 133, 140-141, 143 addiction, 450-451, 545-546, 549, 552, 560, 565, 568, 575-578 addictive behavior, 18, 544-552, 555559, 565-576 à la carte, 397 AMIPCI (Mexican Internet Association), 79 Apple, 422 attitudes, 73, 110, 113, 149, 152, 174, 224, 247-248, 250-251, 255, 277, 282, 300-302, 325, 329330, 333, 337, 343, 390, 399, 436, 536, 604-605, 619, 645 autonomy project, 434, 438, 440
B
bad disposition, 618, 619 barrier of Internet uasge, 610–611 bivariate analysis, 183-184, 189, 190, 476 brand communities, 417, 420-428 brand identity, 422-427 brands, 418, 421-422, 425-430, 433 broadband, 8, 12, 30-31, 89, 95, 107-109, 202, 210, 228, 262, 268-269, 272, 276-278, 285, 288, 294, 361, 366, 383, 403, 504, 625, 626, 627, 629, 630, 634, 643 656
broadband Internet, 12, 48, 95, 107, 268, 585 broadband uptake, 646
C
candidates strategies, 391 change trajectories, 124 China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), 504 classification systems, 147, 327 closing up, 244-246 cluster analysis, 247, 250, 255, 263, 452-453, 610 collaborative cultures, 348-349 communicational society, 26 communication models, 24, 47 communication practices, 332-347, 355 communicative autonomy, 28 communities of practice, 330, 417, 433 compatibility with values, 614 complement, 7, 48, 51, 59, 70, 183, 186, 467 compulsive Internet use, 545, 576 computers at school, 196 conditional correlation, 192, 196 conflict in the family, 469 conflict resolution, 16, 17, 489-490, 463, 470, 490-492, 495, 498, 500, 503 constant connectivity, 28 consumer involvement in organization, 416 convergence, 78, 91, 384, 459, 460 creative innovation, 268 critical thinking, 13, 297, 305, 328
Index cross country comparison, 51 cultural capital, 247-257, 265, 612 customers as innovators, 416, 433
D
DANE, 231 demographics, 219, 232, 370, 399, 473, 523, 583, 625 dial-up, 269, 272-293 dial up internet, 268 diffusion, 62, 68, 73, 93-96, 107-115, 121, 131, 144-145, 150, 153, 159, 171-173, 180, 222-223, 269, 278, 293, 337-338, 386, 418, 434, 441, 602, 605-606, 610-620 digital competences, 452 digital divide, 35, 49-50, 74, 97, 107- 108, 129-138, 142-143, 146, 156, 175-176, 204-205, 209-211, 220-223, 231, 236, 241-242, 262-263, 457, 599, 625, 643, 648, 651-653 digital divide after access, 215–219 digital environment, 89 digital exclusion, 9, 127, 146-155, 160, 165, 171-175, 620 digital illiteracy, 242, 251 digital indicator, 138 digital library, 23, 651 digital literacy, 32, 214, 241-252, 255, 258-262, 269, 353, 621 digital media, 32, 75-76, 107 digital strategy, 627-628, 639, 652 distribution inequality, 142 divide indicators, 138 Du, 586 Ducati, 421-423 dynamic disequilibria, 142
E
E1, 89
657
ecology of consumption, 323-324 e-commerce, 34, 43, 472, 628-629, 632, 649 econometric analysis, 191, 198 economically disadvantaged, 160 eHealth divide, 457 email, 37-38, 45, 140, 431, 508, 510 emerging technologies, 73, 224, 296, 330 Emiratis, 584, 589, 593, 596 entertainment source, 103-105, 274, 293, 373, 637 equality of opportunities, 179, 183, 198-199 “equitable” access, 396 e-readiness, 456 ethnicity, 164-165, 173-174, 631, 643-644, 554, 648 Etisalat, 585-586 evaluative skills, 304 evolving pattern, 129-143 excessive Internet use, 544, 548, 555, 578 expats, 583, 590-591, 593
F
factor analysis, 101, 102, 120, 165, 177, 208 family interaction, 302, 484, 489-493 family practice, 304 family relations/relationship, 16-17, 243, 463-464, 471-477, 494, 577 family satisfaction, 475-477, 480481, 494 family ties, 514–518 financial status, 247-248, 251-260, 609 Financial status, 256, 263 FTTH broadband service, 8, 10,95
658
G
GCC countries, 588 Gini coefficient, 133-142, 155-156, 164, 171-172 globalization, 434 guidelines, 327, 483, 486, 654
H
haves and have-nots, 6 health communication, 436, 442, 458, 460 health information, 37, 43, 435, 637 Health information system efficiency, 441 human capital, 202, 242, 268 hypermediacy, 75
I
ICT, 130, 131, 134-137, 140-145, 180-184, 187-197, 254, 331, 334-335, 339-341, 347, 350351, 504-507, 583 see also information and communication technologies, 175, 296, 434-435, 441, 621, 627 ICT related divides, 130 ICT use, 130, 191 immediacy, 75 i-mode, 94, 107 Individual Digital Opportunity Index (IDO), 255, 258-260 individual level of divides, 143 individual level of divides, 129 individuals empowerment, 442 inequalities, 35, 133, 136, 148, 151, 155, 202-204, 241, 621, 648 information acquisition, 139, 141, 243, 249 information economy, 270, 359-364, 385-387 information society, 26
Index information superhighway, 23 information technologies, 25 information use, 446 informed patient, 16, 436, 439, 447, 452, 459, 460 intentional social action in consumer behavior, 419 interactivity, 27, 88, 91, 315, 334335, 349, 440, 587 international comparison, 48, 73, 174, 220, 224, 330, 632, 651 Internet access, 135-143, 179-183, 186-189, 190, 193, 196-197, 204, 214, 222, 256-258, 264, 272, 277-279, 285, 336-337, 365, 374, 383 Internet Archetypes, 23, 50 Internet cafe, 32, 84, 207, 498, 501, 586 Internet Connectedness Index, 207 Internet identity, 530 Internet infrastructure, 583-585 Internet in Mexico, 81 Internet paradox, 497, 531–532, 542 Internet penetration, 36, 41, 53, 62, 66, 69, 81-82, 93, 97, 157-159, 203, 221, 363, 554, 587, 607, 627, 629-631 Internet penetration, 98, 414 internet substitution, 359 Internet usage, 7, 9, 14, 18, 24, 2935, 39, 41, 44, 46-47, 96-97, 100-101, 108-123, 141-143, 165-167, 255, 269, 337, 341, 390, 402, 409, 471, 474, 483489, 493, 498-503, 570, 583, 587-588, 607-609, 612, 618 Internet use, 30-32, 35-36, 39, 5356, 60, 112, 116, 123-124, 138, 157, 162-164, 168-169, 180-182, 191, 197, 205-206, 210-211, 217-219, 227, 236238, 269, 444-445, 455, 465,
Index 468, 474-482, 494, 527, 530535, 538-540, 544-545, 548, 559-561, 566, 570, 574-578, 598-600, 624-625, 628, 631634, 648 interpersonal communication, 17, 2628, 47, 504-505
J
Japanese WIP (JWIP), 93 Juniper Research, 231
L
La Boquilla, 11, 235-239 laggards, 113-114 150, 247-249, 259 laissez-faire view, 303 language test score, 186-189, 195197 levels of analysis, 130-137, 142 lifestyle, 40, 244, 247, 372, 418, 531, 605 loneliness, 531–534, 541, 547, 577 longitudinal, 69, 110-117, 123-125, 133, 134, 223, 361, 472, 533, 540, 650
M
Macau Internet Project, 139, 143 marginal costs, 68 markets as mediated conversations, 431 mass communication, 26-28 math test score, 185, 194-196 media centrism, 70 media consumption, 241, 244, 247, 250-251, 255-256, 259, 265, 285, 297, 301-302, 353, 359, 605, 621 media diets, 24 media ecology, 8, 78, 88 media effects, 303, 329 media environment, 8, 13, 75, 78-80,
659
93-96, 103, 107, 297, 300, 303, 316 media literacy, 32 media matrixes, 24 media practices, 331, 346-347, 350352 media usage, 360, 372, 383, 587 mobile phone usage, 247-250, 255256, 265 movies, 34, 77, 79, 297-310, 315, 318, 323-326, 333, 501 MSN, 17, 84, 506-507, 510–512 multivariate analysis, 157, 190, 194195
N
negotiation of brand meaning, 425 nequality related divide, 130 networked citizen, 452, 455-457 networked communication, 28 networks, 52, 294, 432 network society, 48, 95, 108, 436437, 621 new digital ecology, 75, 78 new media, 52, 59, 66-68, 70, 75, 78-80, 88, 107-108, 145, 297, 301, 327, 440, 586-587, 599600 new screens, 13, 267, 296, 300, 307, 310, 327 newspaper readership, 9, 53, 64-70 new technologies, 84, 181, 186, 198, 297, 301, 441, 470, 554, 604 No más FARC!, 234 non-formal education, 352 non users hard-core non-users, 215 immune to progress, 215 peripheral connectors, 215 Nordic countries, 8, 53, 62-64, 65, 68, 154
Index
660
O
old media, 66, 68, 80, 388, 587 one-to-many communication, 26 online addiction, 565, 568 OOH (Out of home advertising), 90
P
panel data, 111-112, 117, 191, 361 PC ownership, 135, 220 PDA(Portable Digital Agent), 89 perpetual contact, 28, 49 personal diaries, 17, 474 political empowerment, 359-360, 380-382 poor-get-richer, 533 post-fordist consumer markets, 424 principal component analysis, 159161, 167 problematic Internet use, 546, 550, 574-577 production function for education, 192 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), 182-183 proxy users, 365, 383 psychological factors of the Internet, 527–530
Q QQ, 512–514 qualitative communication, 484
R real me, 534 remediation, 76 remediation, 75, 91 rich-get-richer, 533
S Saab, 421-423
second level digital divide, 49, 133 sectors, 201-202, 205, 268, 335, 390, 441, 625-630, 647 segmentation, 46, 243-244, 255, 425 Singapore Internet Project (SIP), 472 social change, 581, 599, 624, 631, 648-650 social environment, 224, 248, 250251, 327, 568 social exclusion, 10-11, 147-153, 159, 171, 172, 174-175, 229230, 240 social inclusion, 11, 127, 145, 150, 159-161, 167, 175-176, 228230, 235-236, 240 socializing, 467, 473, 476-478, 481482, 538-540 social media, 15-16, 413, 416, 426, 430 social networks, 17, 27, 31, 37-38, 41-44, 221, 224, 233, 324, 335, 348-351, 353-354, 413, 505, 514, 522-524 social policy, 261, 330, 652 social production, 230, 270 social promotion standardized tests, 183 social sense-making, 428 social ties, 519–523 standard of living, 247, 256, 263 style of parenting, 485, 486, 489 substitution, 369, 383
T
technological revolution, 90 technology adoption, 343, 354 telecommunications, 89, 144, 203, 223, 231, 295, 387, 585, 626 television viewing, 5, 52, 59-61, 66, 69, 293, 342-347, 368, 383, 587 the 2007 French presidential, 14, 388-391
Index the magnitude of digital divides, 135 traditional media, 7, 14, 48, 51-52, 59-62, 66-70, 78-79, 87-88, 94, 106, 278, 331-338, 346349, 368, 375, 378, 382, 402, 437 tribes, 424-425 trust, 605, 621, 629
U
usage divide, 130, 133-134, 140-142 usage patterns, 297, 361, 372, 384, 403, 409, 600 usage rates, 101, 508 users casual, 217 early, 218 heavy users, 217 late, 218 novices, 218 regular users, 217
V value systems, 314, 318 vanguards, 259 videogames, 28, 34, 38, 43, 297-305, 315, 340, 351-352
W
Web 2.0, 31, 46, 339, 349, 430 web usage, 360, 364, 397-400, 403 WIP, 7, 16, 19, 32, 36-38, 41-46, 5052, 66, 73, 93-94, 97-100, 147, 150-158, 171, 179, 186, 206, 243-244, 268, 272, 359-360, 363-364, 379, 382, 385-386, 435, 459, 526, 535, 555, 596, 599-601, 605-606, 610, 618622 see also World Internet Project, 19, 24, 29, 50, 71, 73, 81, 93, 96, 109,
661
139, 147, 175, 205, 243, 262, 295, 359, 382, 435, 452, 459, 535, 555, 601, 632, 651 work ties, 518
Y young generation, 69-70 youth, 13, 66, 144, 230, 260, 288, 296-299, 305, 314-315, 320, 324-325, 328, 353, 555, 574576, 603, 631
