Beyond Access: the Digital Divide and Internet Uses and Gratifications

This research explores the relationship between Internet use and gratifications gained within the context of the digital divide framework. Analyses within sub-samples defined by age and socio-economic status reveal that there are notable di fferences in uses and gratifications across subgroups. For instance, those who are young and high in socioeconomic status are most likely to use the Internet to satisfy their motivations strategically and to gain the desired gratifications. They are most likely to engage in specific Internet behaviors—computer -mediated interaction, surveillance, and consumption uses— to achieve the particular gratifications of connection, learning, and acquisition. In contrast, those who are young and low in socio -economic status were more likely to employ consumptive use of the Internet to attain connection gratifications. Similarly, regardless of age, both low socioeconomic status subgroups were likely to use computer-mediated interaction as a means to gain learning gratifications. Even as gaps in access are closing, gaps in usage and gratifications gained seem to persist. _____________________ Jaeho Cho is a Ph.D. student in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. jaehocho@wisc.edu. Homero Gil de Zúñiga is a Ph.D. student in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Hernando Rojas is a Ph.D. student in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dhavan V. Shah is an Associate Professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the Department of Political Science at the University of WisconsinMadison. Grateful acknowledgement is given to Greg Downey, Abhyian Humane, Hyunseo Hwang, and Seungahn Nah for their contributions to this paper. In addition, the authors wish to thank John B. Horrigan in the Pew Internet and American Life Study Project for providing the data used in this study and also acknowledge that the Pew Project bears no responsibility for the interpretations of the findings and conclusions reached in this study. 47 BEYOND ACCESS CHO, DE ZÚÑIGA, ROJAS & SHAH IT&SOCIETY, Vol. 1, Issue 4, Spring 2003 http://www.ITandSociety.org Increased access to computer-mediated-technologies, such as the Internet, has extended Americans’ informational and interactive capabilities. The latest Department of Commerce/National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) data (collected as part of the Current Population Survey with over 50,000 households), show that for the first time, over 50% of all Americans have home "Internet access." The Bush administration has interpreted these data as evidence that there is no longer a "digital divide" in the U.S. Others vehemently disagree with this conclusion, citing the fact that roughly half of Americans remain “disconnected” at home (Borgida et al. 2002; Gil de Zúñiga 2003; Jackson et al. 2001). As an increasing number of citizens use the Internet for communication, entertainment, shopping, and information, simple “connectedness” measures focusing on Internet access and time spent online are no longer sufficient to gauge whether a “divide” still characterizes the digital world. Although the varied features of the Internet and the ever-changing face of Internet technology makes it difficult to examine the use and effects of the Internet, research needs to reconceptualize the digital divide to reflect the varied uses people make of the Internet and the specific gratifications gained from these interactions. Based on national survey data collected by the Pew Internet and American Life Project during March of 2000, this article examines how differences in age and socio-economic status result in qualitatively different patterns of the Internet uses and gratifications derive from its use. These data provide rich measures of online activities, which this study attempts to relate to functional gratifications gained from various types of online behavior. We structure our analysis through the lens of recent work on the digital divide and more longstanding research on media uses and gratifications (e.g. Katz et al. 1974). LITERATURE REVIEW: DIGITAL DIVIDE The Internet and cyberspace may not have fully reached their potential to create the large-scale social change some have argued it would provide. However, rapid expansion has generated new social status (Schiller 2000) and added layers of opportunities to human relationships, communication, information and, ultimately, user behavior. This expansion of the new technologies has raised concerns about equitable access in under-served social sectors in what is known as the digital divide—i.e., the divide between those with access to the Internet and those without access to the opportunities such “connectedness” provides. However, the digital divide is more than an issue of access. It is a sociological phenomenon reflecting broader social, economic, cultural, and learning inequalities. Most of the studies clearly illustrate that a range of factors and contextual characteristic are responsible for differences. No single factor—gender, age, race, education, income or geographic location—can alone shed sufficient light on the issue to fully explain the access gap (Wahl et al. 2000). Yet research has documented the importance of basic factors, individually 48 BEYOND ACCESS CHO, DE ZÚÑIGA, ROJAS & SHAH IT&SOCIETY, Vol. 1, Issue 4, Spring 2003 http://www.ITandSociety.org and in combination, on the digital divide (Hirt, Murray, and McBee 2000; Hoffman and Novak 1998, 1999; Howard et al. 2001; Kavanaugh and Patterson 2001; Nie and Erbring 2000). In addition, recent research has attempted to expand the conception of the divide to move beyond access to consider issues of proficiency and satisfaction. Even if gaps have diminished in terms of access (Katz et al. 2001; Smolenski 2000), significant gaps may remain in terms of patterns of use and gratifications gained (Lazarus and Mora 2000; Norris 2001). Many researchers and technologists argue that these gaps remain a persistent problem to this day, especially in terms of age and socio-economic status, with the poor and elderly remaining the most “disconnected” from the virtual world. This article moves beyond the “access gap” to the “uses and gratifications gap” considering a motivational approach that has been employed to explore how people use the media and communication technologies. USES AND GRATIFICATIONS PERSPECTIVE According to the uses-and-gratifications perspective, communication needs interact with social and psychological factors to produce motives for media use (Rosengren 1974). In other words, people use media strategically. They employ different media for different purposes and, more importantly, they select among media choices based on how well each option helps them meet specific needs or goals (Katz, Gurevitch, and Haas 1973; Katz et al. 1974). Underlying this perspective is the notion that people are motivated by a desire to fulfill certain needs. So rather that asking how media use influences users, a uses-and-gratifications perspective asks how users’ basic needs influence users’ media choices. It is important to note that the media choices that people make are motivated by the desire to satisfy a wide variety of functions: entertainment, diversion, social connection, personal identity, information and the like. Much of the research on uses and gratifications has been concerned with identifying the specific gratifications satisfied by the use of media (Rubin 1994; Swanson 1992). The first assessments on this topic were made by Herzog (1944), who coined the term “uses and gratifications” to explain the specific dimensions of satisfaction of the audiences, particularly on radio. Following this inquiry, mass communication scholars studied these effects on other media such as newspapers, television, VCRs, and electronic bulletin boards (Eighmey and McCord 1998; Rubin 1994); for a comprehensive summary of the literature (see Rubin 2002). When a new medium is used for the same purpose as an older medium, the new medium potentially functions as an alternative to the older one. Audiences may choose between them by determining which one better satisfies particular needs (Rosengren and Windahl 1972; Williams, Rice, and Rogers 1988; Wright 1960; see also McCombs 1972). Thus, analysts must begin by identifying the social and psychological needs media can satisfy, and then assess 49 BEYOND ACCESS CHO, DE ZÚÑIGA, ROJAS & SHAH IT&SOCIETY, Vol. 1, Issue 4, Spring 2003 http://www.ITandSociety.org whether or not the Internet can satisfy those needs. Katz, Gurevitch, and Haas (1973) offer a typology of needs of media users that can be expressed as: • Cognitive Needs—For information, knowledge, and understanding of our environment. • Affective Needs—For aesthetic, pleasurable, and emotional experiences. • Personal Integrative Needs—For credibility, confidence, stability, and personal status. • Social Integrative Needs—For contact with family, friends, and the world. • Escapist Needs—For escape, diversion, and tension release. It would seem that the Internet is actively used to satisfy many of these needs because most Internet navigation is motivated by the desire to locate content via search engines by clicking on the hypertext links that appear on most pages. These acts are indicative of how active the typical Internet user is. Unlike television use, where it could be argued that viewers are often guided by habit, convenience, or inertia rather than by self-reflective selection, Internet use is characterized by frequent choice and greater reflection on the value of what is encountered in relation to the gratification sought. In this way, the Internet may be a medium that more readily allows users to meet their desires, whether for good or ill. GRATIFICATIONS GAINED FROM INTERNET USE The arrival of any “new technol