Television, convergence and digital divide

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Television, convergence and digital divide

• Robert Pintér
• Information Society Research Institute, HUNGARY
• Pinter.Robert_at_ittk.hu
• 2nd IFIP Summer School, Karlstad
• August 5, 2003

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Starting point WIP

• Longitudinal, international Internet research
  (World Internet Project)
• Initiated by UCLA (in 2000), recently run in more
  than a dozen countries
• In Hungary implemented by ISRI-TARKI (since 2001)
• Panel study (5000 persons), survey in every
  Autumn
• In its focus are the main Internet-related social
  problems (e.g. diffusion, digital divide,
  relation of old and new media etc.)

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Media chapter

• Originally ordered by a market actor, its
  research question was Whether the Internet poses
  a risk to the television market?
• A mass of crosstabs television, radio,
  telephone ownership and use, newspaper reading,
  free time activities
• But we run into the issue of digital divide

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Traditional way of measuring TV audience

• Hungary was 5th in an international TV-viewing
  ranking (based on electronic audience
  measurement) in 2001 with 251 minutes a day
• What happens to the position of television after
  the emergence of Internet?
• Macro-trends (convergence industrial changes
  e.g. AOL-Time Warner, and new tools e.g. digital
  televison)
• Micro-trends (changing use of sparetime)

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WIP media results

• Internet users have better information
  environment (e.g. more TV-sets, more channels)
• But they watch less television, rather read more,
  listen music and use more phone
• The use of the Internet conforms to a
  traditional, formerly existing media consuming
  divide in society, the use or non-use of
  traditional media (mainly TV)
• The earlier social inequalities are reproduced in
  the new space of Internet
• The internetters had already richer media
  environment before the Internet, and it becomes
  even richer with the coming of Internet

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User vs. TV-viewer

• User richer, more educated, more urbanized,
  younger, office workers, not gipsy (classical
  user-profile)
• TV-viewer poorer, less educated etc.
• Who spends more time with TV do not use Internet
  (or less likely become a user) who earlier
  watched less TV, recently is more likely an
  internet user
• The digital divide located between TV viewers and
  non(less)-viewers. Television is a good attribute
  to understand better the nature of digital divide

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Why to be an internetter?

• But why is it so important, that everybody does
  use the new information and communiation
  technologies?
• What is the internet for? (DiMaggio)
• Increasing capacity vs. Recreation
• Networking goods vs. Positional goods

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Who will be a Netizen

• What are the factors of being a Netizen (InterNET
  citIZEN)?
• A Netizen, who knows and uses the new information
  and communication technologies
• Who is more than an internetter as an active
  member of Information Society
• Our media research can help to find the answers

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Four groups of reasons

• Hypothesis four main groups of reasons can
  explain the coherence economic, cultural, social
  factors and the place of work
• They can connect the profile of the average user
  with his skills and internet activities
• They show which parts of society more likely can
  be Netizens in the future

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Economic factors

• Access to internet and ICT tools are not
  affordable to everyone
• Computers turn to be outdated within a short time
  (compared to other electronic tools e.g. TV-sets,
  micro-owens etc.) ? hard to buy regularly a PC
• Telecommunication costs (cable subscription,
  mobile and land phone) are high according to
  salaries
• The desired services (mainly recreation e.g. MP3,
  online games) are not affordable for poorer users
• But there are mainly cultural and labour factors
  in the background of economic reasons

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2. Cultural factors

• Non-Netizens presumably have specific using
  preferences prefer recreation (instead of
  increasing capacity) ? need of higher bandwith
  and better computers
• Internet recently is text-based ? suitable for
  connecting people (e-mail, chat), getting
  information (mail-lists, news portals, search
  machines), administration (e.g. tax-paying,
  filling forms). ? increasing capacity
• Information skills (e.g. communicative comptence)
  of a non-Netizen are different, less developed
  than a user (e.g. typing, how to use a computer
  etc.)
• The present-day internet culture is far from an
  average Hungarian non-user

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3. Social factors

• Social capital of a non-Netizen is presumably
  less than a user has
• Here a community based tecnhology is offered
  without a vivid community it is hard to use
• There is not enough model in the neighbouring
  social environment (to learn or/and to envy)
• The impact of social network is relatively small,
  not forcing the use of Internet

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4. Factors of workplace

• Strong connections with all of above mentioned
  factors
• Non-office workers lower income, less
  possibility to meet new technology, excluded
  from free usage
• Non-netizen presumably do not need to use ICT in
  work
• Lack of sophisticated information culture at the
  workplace
• Complex deprived situation

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Conclusions

• Money is not a cure for everything
• Who does not feel his hunger does not want the
  free lunch
• Cheap access/computer is NOT the only tool
• Non-users (who are at the wrong side of digital
  divide) need personalised information culture,
  close user-model to copy and proper Internet
  services, which can satisfy their special desires
• Affordable recreational possibilities
• Tasting network goods
• And learning how to use services which increasing
  capacity

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• Thank you for your attention!
• Pinter.Robert_at_ittk.hu