Are We All Knowledgeable Now?

The Knowledge Gap Hypothesis in Times of Digital Divide

Mgr. Petr Lupač, Ph.D.Faculty of Arts, Charles University

Department of SociologyCzech Republic

petr.lupac@ff.cuni.cz@petrlupac

"as the infusion of mass media information into a social system increases, segments of the population with higher socioeconomic status tend to acquire this information at a faster rate than the lower status segments, so that the gap in knowledge between these segments tends to increase rather than decrease“

Tichenor, Donohue & Olien (1970, p. 159–160)

The original knowledge-gap hypothesis

Four levels of access = four levels of digital divide (van Dijk; 2005)◦ Motivation

◦ Physical access / ownership

◦ (Digital) skills

◦ Usage

Understood as differences - in time online - in performed online activities

The Internet invasion

Similar findings about unequal use from the USA, EU, Australia, South Korea, and Switzerland are interpreted with help of references to knowledge gap hypothesis (1970 article)(see Bonfadelli, 2002; Mason & Hacker, 2003; Robinson, DiMaggio & Hargittai, 2003; van Dijk, 1997; 2005; 2006; 2009; Nguyen & Western, 2007; Eynon, 2009; Jansen, 2010; Wei & Hindman, 2011; van Deursen & van Dijk 2014).

Framework: knowledge gap hypothesis

Higher education Lower education

Information activitiesEconomic activities Entertainment activities

Performs the online activity at least once a month (in %)Czech data (2014)

Online activityLow

education (a)

Middle education (b)

High education (c)

EMAIL 96 97 100SNS MESSAGE 39 45 46HUMOUR 42 42 39READ NEWS 86 87 94aTRAVEL INFO 43 55a 73abCOMPARE PRICES 41 56a 67abE-BANKING 49 64a 77abDEFINITIONS SEARCH 31 40a 62ab

FACTCHECK 40 55a 83ab15+ without students, n=915, z-tests, α = 0,05 with Bonferroni correction

Knowledge gap ◦ differential absorption of knowledge from mass media◦ Measure: knowledge of relevant (mostly scientific and political) information (c.f. Corley & Scheufele 2010)

Usage gap: ◦ “differential use of computer and Internet applications as a whole in (online - PL)

activities” (Van Dijk, 2009, p. 299)◦ Measure: using the Internet for particular online activities◦ Proof:

Van Dijk (2005; 2006; 2009); van Dijk & van Deursen (2014)

Usage gap

Higher education Lower educationMore advanced applications More simple applications

information,communication, work, business,

education

information, communication,shopping, entertainment

Problem I: Is SES (=edu) the main explaining variable of online activity? ALL THE STUDIES WORK ONLY WITH FEW (SCDMG) VARIABLES !

The answer: the tradition of knowledge gap research

The logic

I. SES => online activity

SES => online activity => ΔSES

II. online activity => ΔSES

Wei & Hindman (2007) Bonfadelli (2002)

The illustrations

Since the end of 70’s the contradicting findings about knowledge gap

Answer found in motivation (interest) as a variable moderating the effect of education◦ This explains low k-g. when the information is controversial or has a local meaning (cf. Tichenor, Donohue & Olien ,1975 !!!)

Prior (2005) – political behaviorMossberger, Tolbert & McNeal (2008) – reading newsShim (2008) – knowledge about cancer

The first lesson from history of k-g.r.

Bonfadelli (2002, p. 70)

Problem II◦ Situational relevance of activities (activity ≠ content)◦ What is the content of communication activities?◦ Individualistic approach x learning communities

The logic

I. SES => online activity

SES => online activity => ΔSES

II. online activity => ΔSES

The goal:

The more nuanced and accurate picture

Pilot study in May 2014

Data collected in May and June 2014 by a specialized agency

Method of data collection ◦ CAPI F2F interviews◦ Stratified random sampling combined with quota sampling ◦ Measures taken to include parts of the population with lower probability of being interviewed

Respondents declaring no or very low interest in being interviewed pre-recruited from CAWI panel (cca 8 % of the sample) Trained experienced interviewers instructed to deal with soft-rejection Financial incentives (computed or estimated from wage) 100 % of the interviews were recorded, controlled and problematic respondents were excluded

1316 respondents in the final sample, 79 % Internet users

Weighted sample representative for the population of the Czech Republic, age 15+ A good fit of results with other data sources (WIP I, CZSO, Facebook)

Survey

Using the Internet can either improve or worsen people's lifes. When you think about your personal experience in the last years, how much influences your Internet use following areas of your life? Please, answer with the help of a scale, where -5 means significant worsening and +5 means significant improvement.

[Scale:]                         -5     -4       -3       -2       -1         0         1         2         3         4         5(-5=Significant worsening       0= no effect        5 =  Significant improvement)

QoL experienced changes – users

My knowledge of what's going on in the Czech republic My knowledge of what's going on in other countries k. index My knowledge of what's going on in your locality My involvement in public life in my local community Dealing with state authorities {getting subsidy, welfare, submitting

documents, etc.} Contact with my family and my family life Contact with my friends and acquiantences My overall financial situation (i.e., my incomes and expenses) Building up my career and my success on labour market Pursuing and developing my hobbies Overall satisfaction with my life

The knowledge index

Users – Internet use impact (?)

The supposed role of variety/number of online activities and time spent online (van Dijk, 2005)◦ -> hours online weekly, nr. of online non SNS activities performed weekly

“Social media use is expected to develop citizens’ knowledge” (Boulianne, 2015)◦ -> SNS use intensity

The role of interest in obtaining knowledge (seen as an intensive information seeking activity)◦ -> information online activities index, subjective importance of the Internet as a source of information

The important role of digital skills, age and education in gaining benefits from Internet use (van Deursen, van Dijk & Peters, 2011)◦ -> operational skills index, informational skills index, age, education

The ability to adopt innovations as a measure of openness towards new information channels (Rogers, 2003)◦ -> innovativeness index

Network size is positively correlated to higher probability of getting an information (Rogers, 2003)◦ -> ntw size index (via resource generator, sum of strong and weak ties)

The role of bridging social capital in reaching richer information◦ -> bridging = bonding * nr. of structural holes

The role of network capital in explaining individual state (Wellman & Frank, 1999)◦ -> share of Internet users in respondent’s social environment

Theoretical framework for independent vars (partial hypotheses and items used)

Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 4Age -,020 -,012 -,018 -,001Education ,106** -,012 ,010 ,001SNS use intensity ,081* -,026 -,037 -,030Time spent online ,037 ,013 ,004OA variety – no SNS -,082 -,099 -,104Operational skills ,134*** ,128** ,124**Informational skills ,246*** ,206* ,187***OA info ,385*** ,366*** ,353***Innovativeness -,009 -,032Source of info – Internet

,202*** ,193***

Source of info – F2F ,065* ,072*Bridging social cpt. ,063*Network size ,022Network capital ,085**Adj. R2 ,02 ,16 ,20 ,21

Model Knowledge change (st. Beta and sig.)

Digital skills

Interest in information activities Experienced Importance of the Internet knowledge

as a source of information gain

Bridging & network capital

Summary

Contextual measurement Content of online communication research in relation to online

activities Path analysis or structural modeling

What is knowledge and how is it selected and appropriated in the new information environment?

How is the subjective truth constituted and maintained nowadays?

How is information consumption and processing differentiated?

Where to go next?

Mgr. Petr Lupač, Ph.D. PETR.LUPAC@FF.CUNI.CZ

@PetrLupac

Department of SociologyCharles University, Faculty of Arts

Celetna 13, PragueThe Czech Republic

Thank you for your attention(and for any comments)