Title: Diffusion Theory in an Internet Environment: Testing Four Key Components by J. Sonia Huang School of
1Diffusion Theory in an Internet Environment
Testing Four Key Componentsby J. Sonia
HuangSchool of JournalismUniversity of Texas at
Austin
2Everett M. Rogers 1931-2004
Dear Sonia More innovative individuals ought to
have greater exposure to newspapers and other
news. Your study sounds very interesting. Cordial
ly, Ev Rogers Tuesday, March 02, 2004 250 PM
3Diffusion Theory in the Internet Environment
- Hard to define a social system
- The Internet might be changing the role of
spatial distance in who talks to whom about a new
idea. - Internet communication as both mass and
interpersonal communication - The Internet allows people to reach many people
in a one to many process, but e-mail messages are
like interpersonal communication. - Everett M. Rogers, 2003
4Four Key Components in Diffusion Theory
- Adopter Categoriesinnovators, early adopters,
early majority, late majority, and laggards - Mass Communication Channelsnewspapers, network
news, local news, cable news, and online news - Cosmopolitan Experienceaccess non-US sources,
communicate with people outside of US, and travel
to many countries - GenderIs the Internet gendered?
5Adopter Categories
6Hypotheses Research Question
H1 Earlier adopters of Internet news are more
likely than later adopters to be regular
users of all news channels. H2
Earlier adopters are more cosmopolitan than
later adopters. H3 Male are more likely
than females to be earlier adopters of
Internet news. RQ What is the relationship
among gender, Internet news adoption,
and Internet news reading?
7Methodology
- Web-based survey 842 college students
- Questionnaire 56 questions on public affairs,
media use, life styles, and demographics - Date November 4th 10th, 2003
- Random Sampling
- Sampling error 3.4
- Response rate 8
8Are earlier adopters read more online news?
9Are earlier adopters get more news in different
channels?
10Are earlier adopters cosmopolitan?
11Are earlier adopters men or women?
12Gender as an antecedent variable
Internet NewsAdoption
Gender
Internet NewsReading
Plt.001
Plt.001
Plt.001
13Results
- College innovators and early adopters of Internet
news were cosmopolitan males who read online news
and watched cable and local TV news on a regular
basis. - Gender was not only a strong predictor of how
long students adopted Internet news but also an
antecedent variable to the relationship between
Internet news adoption and Internet news reading.
14Contributions
- Matched Rogers adopter categories with college
students Internet news adoption. - Constructed a scale to measure cosmopoliteness
and found earlier adopters were more
cosmopolitan. - Digital Divide in New FormsExperience
DivideInformation/Source DivideGender Divide
(conditioned by experience)