Effects of multifarious Internet activities on online content creation

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Effects of multifarious Internet activities on
onlinecontent creation

• Abhiyan Humane
• School of Journalism Mass Communication
• University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Madison, WI.

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Introduction

• The National Telecommunications and Information
  Administration (NTIA) in 2002 reported that
  almost 54 of the U.S. population is now using
  the Internet. This increased access to
  computer-mediated-technologies has extended our
  informational and interactive capability
• But this has also lead to the concern that the
  growth of Internet is exacerbating the
  disparities between the information rich and the
  information poor. This has lead to the concept of
  Digital Divide
• Digital Divide
• Disparity between people who have access to
  Internet and computers and those who do not
• People without access were marginalized due to
  restricted opportunities for social and political
  participation online, due to restricted
  informational capabilities.

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• Previous Research
• Existence of digital divide has been documented
  by
• Age
• SES
• Ethnicity
• Geography of access
• Education
• Employment
• Social structures-family and school
• (Hoffman Novak, 1998 NTIA (1998) Hoffman
  Novak 1999 Hirt, Murray, McBee, 2000 Howard
  et al., 2001 Kavanaugh Patterson, 2001 Nie
  Erbring, 2000).

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Previous Research contd

• Gaps have shrunk in terms of access, but
  significant gaps exist in terms of patterns of
  use (Katz et al., 2001 Lazarus and Mora, 2000)
• Within sub-samples defined by age/SES, there are
  differences across categories on how individuals
  use Internet (Cho et al. 2002)
• Digital divide due to factors such as
• (Norris, 2001 Warschauer, 2003)
• Resource
• Social support
• Culture
• Economy
• Access does not guarantee meaningful social,
  economic and political participation (Warschauer,
  2003)

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Digital Divide in Content Creation
Internet provides more people with more access
to information and also more means to present
their own information Anybody with access and
technical know-how can contribute information
online, by websites, postings on newsgroups, web
logs, sharing files, photos etc However,
disparities in patterns of Internet use will
affect online content creation
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Theoretical Framework

• Uses Gratifications theory
• Communication needs interact with social and
  psychological factors, i.e. people use media
  strategically
• Different media for different purposes, select
  among media choices based on how well each option
  meets specific needs
• (Katz, Gurevitch, Haas, 1973 Katz et al.,
  1974).
• Gratification from Internet Use
• Communication
• Need for social interaction
• Information seeking
• Entertainment and escapism
• Diversion, relaxation, social utility
• (December, 1996 Maddox 1998 Chen Wells 1999
  Shah et al. 2001 Eighmey and McCord,1998
  Korgaonkar and Wolin, 1999 Ko, 2002 Ferguson
  Perse, 2000Papacharissi Rubin, 2000)

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Uses Gratifications and Content creation
Patterns of Internet use
Gratifications
Content Creation
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Uses Gratifications and Content creation

• Individuals who use the Internet for information
  seeking purposes could put the acquired
  information online
• Similarly, individuals who use the Internet for
  communication and interaction purposes could make
  the information visible or disseminate it by
  putting it on
• blogs
• newsgroups
• listservs
• chat-rooms
• or sharing files

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Research Question

• The content that people contribute to the web
  inherently brings with it the cultural,
  psychological and sociological dispositions that
  people hold
• This brings together different perspectives,
  fostering diversity, and could lead to meaningful
  use of information/content by people
• Research Question
• Within Internet users what are the Internet uses
  that predict online content creation?

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Methods

• Data
• Collected as a part of the Pew Internet and
  American Life Study in 2003. Telephone interviews
  were conducted with a probability sample of
  N5136 adults, 18 years of age or older in
  March-April 2003
• Basic Demographics
• Mean age of sample is 45 years
• 79 being white, 11 African-African and about 2
  being
• Asian
• 60.9 of individuals from the sample are Internet
  users

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Methods contd

• MeasuresControl variables
• Demographics (respondents gender, age, race,
  level of education, and income)
• attitudes towards federal, state and local
  government (recoded)
• contact with federal, state and local government
  online
• Variables measuring the attitude towards the
  federal, state and local government were recoded
  attitude was measured by using three items (a
  .8051).An additive scale of the three items was
  created
• Contact with federal, state and local government
  online was measured by using six items (a
  .6832). An additive scale of the six items was
  created

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Methods contd

• Antecedent variables
• Based on the factor analysis, three types of
  Internet activities were identified
• entertainment-leisure
• information-communication
• consumption
• Entertainment-leisure activities were measured
  using six items (a 0.553)
• Information seeking and communicational
  activities were measured using six items (a
  0.6082)
• Consumptive use was measured using three items (a
  .5098)
• Additive scales were created for all the
  antecedent variables
• Dependent Variable
• An additive scale of ten items (a 0.6462) was
  created that includes all the activities
  individuals could perform to contribute to
  content online

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Results
Relationship between Internet users and Content
Creation

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Relationship between Age and Content Creation
within Internet users
CONTENT CREATION AGE
Age
18-29
30-49
50-64
65
12
2
N
56
84
within Internet users
35.5
55.3
7.9
1.3
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Relationship between Education and Content
Creation within Internet users
CONTENT CREATION EDUCATION
Education
None, or
High
High
Business,
Some college
Post-graduate
College
grades 1-8
school
school
vocational
Total
No 4-year

Graduate B.A/ B.S
Professional
graduate
AFTER
degree
High school
Content Creators
0.6
12.9
16.1
1.3
25.2
27.7
16.1
100.0

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Individuals who write a web diary, web log or web
blog within Internet users
Don't know/Refused
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Individuals who write a web diary, web log or web
blog within Internet users
a
Coefficients
Unstandardized
Coefficients
Standardized
Model
3
B
Std. Error
Beta
t
Sig.
108.298
16.319
0.151
0.000
(Constant)
6.406E-03
0.006
0.020
1.011
0.312
EDUC
Demographics
2.743E-02
0.018
0.028
1.546
0.122
SEX
-5.941E-03
0.005
-0.020
-1.096
0.273
RACE
4.135E-03
0.004
0.020
1.047
0.295
INCOME
1.027E-02
0.011
0.017
0.925
0.355
AGE
Attitude contact with Govt.
-1.356E-03
0.002
-0.010
-0.547
0.584
ATT to GOVT
b
0.015
3.187E-02
0.039
2.169
0.030
CONT to GOVT
c
1.095E-02
0.005
0.050
2.406
0.016
Int. ENTERTA
Internet Uses
2.515E-03
0.004
0.012
0.569
0.569
Int.INFORMA
4.441E-03
0.009
0.010
0.482
0.630
Int. CONSUMP
a.
Dependent Variable CONTENTC
b.
plt0.05
c.
plt 0.05

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Conclusions

• Even though gaps in access are closing there are
• noticeable differences in who contributes to
  online content
• Individuals who use the Internet for
  entertainment are more likely to contribute
  content on the Internet in various forms than
  users who use it for informational and
  consumptive purposes (high school students or
  college students )
• Individuals who use the Internet to contact a
  federal, state or local government agency are
  more likely to contribute to online content than
  individuals who do not (online social activists?)
• Attitude towards the federal, state and local
  governmental agencies do not predict online
  content creation. There is no evidence that says
  that if individuals are cynical or think
  unfavorably of the government agencies are more
  likely to put information online and disseminate
  it.

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Acknowledgments
Prof. Greg Downey, University of Wisconsin-
Madison Chinthu Udayarajan, University of
Wisconsin- Madison