Digital Divide

Falling Through the Net II: New Data on the Digital Divide

On July 28, 1998, Secretary Daley released "Falling Through the Net II: New Data on the Digital Divide." At the request of
Vice President Gore, NTIA issued this report analyzing telephone and computer penetration rates. The report updates NTIA's findings from its earlier study, "Falling Through the Net: A Survey of the 'Haves' and 'Have Nots' in Rural and Urban America" (July 1995). The new report finds that, while computer penetration has increased nation-wide, there is still a significant "digital divide" based on race, income, and other demographic characteristics.

url: http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/net2/

Bridging the Digital Divide: The Impact of Race on Computer Access and Internet Use

Thomas P. Novak, Donna L. Hoffman, Project 2000, Vanderbilt University

Abstract:

That portion of the Internet known as the World Wide Web has been riding an exponential growth
curve since 1994 (Network Wizards 1998; Rutkowski 1998), coinciding with the introduction of
NCSA’s graphically-based software interface Mosaic for "browsing" the World Wide Web (Hoffman,
Novak, and Chatterjee 1995). Currently, over 29 million hosts are connected to the Internet
worldwide (Network Wizards 1998), and somewhere between 60 to 75 million adults (CyberAtlas
1998) in the United States alone have access to around 320 million unique pages of content (Lawrence
and Giles 1998), globally distributed on arguably one of the most important communication innovations
in history.

Enthusiasm for the anticipated social dividends of this "revolution in democratic communication"
(Hoffman 1996) that will "harness the powerful forces of science and technology"(Clinton 1997a) for all
members of our society appears boundless. The Internet is expected to do no less than virtually
transform society. Nowhere is this confidence expressed more clearly than in President Clinton’s
aggressive objective to wire every classroom and library in the country by the year 2000 (NetDay
1998), followed by every home by the year 2007, so that "every 12-year-old can log onto the Internet"
(Clinton 1997b).

Yet even as the Internet races ambitiously toward critical mass, some social scientists are beginning to
e¸amine carefully the policy implications of current demographic patterns of Internet access and usage
(Hoffman, Kalsbeek, and Novak 1996; Hoffman, Novak, and Venkatesh 1997; Katz and Aspden
1996). For while Clinton’s "Call to Action for American Education" (Clinton 1997a) may likely
guarantee universal access for our nation’s next generation, are the approximately 200 million
Americans presently over the age of 16 equally likely to have access to the Internet? The findings thus
far are both obvious and surprising, with important implications for social science research and public
policy.

Key demographic variables like income and education drive the policy questions surrounding the
Internet. These variables are important because they are the most likely to differentially impact the
consequences of interactive electronic media for different segments in our society. Looming large is the
concern that the Internet may not scale economically (Keller 1996), leading to what Lloyd Morrisett,
the former president of the Markle Foundation, has called a "digital divide" between the information
"haves" and "have-nots."

For example, although almost 70 percent of the schools in this country have at least one computer
connected to the Internet, less than 15 percent of classrooms have Internet access (Harmon 1997).
Not surprisingly, access is not distributed randomly, but correlated strongly with income and education
(Coley, Cradler, and Engel 1997). Further, although numerous studies (see CyberAtlas 1998) suggest
that the gender gap in Internet use appears to be closing over time, the perception persists that the gap
for race is not decreasing (Abrams 1997).

The consequences to American society of this race gap in Internet use are expected to be severe
(Beaupre and Brand-Williams 1997). Just as A.J. Liebling observed for the freedom of the press, the
Internet may provide for equal opportunity and democratic communication, but only for those with
access. The United States economy may also be at risk if a significant segment of our society, denied
equal access to the Internet, lacks the technological skills to keep American firms competitive.

Given these concerns, we set out to systematically investigate the differences between whites and
African Americans in the United States with respect to computer access, which is the current
prerequisite for Internet access, and Web use. We wished to examine whether observed race
differences in access and use can be accounted for by differences in income and education, how access
impacts use, and when race matters in the calculus of equal access. We believe our results may be used
as a window through which policymakers might view the job of ensuring access to the Internet for the
next generation.

Our analysis is based on primary data from the Spring 1997 CommerceNet/Nielsen Internet
Demographic Study (IDS), conducted in December 1996/January 1997 (Nielsen Media Research
1997). This nationally projectable survey of Internet use among Americans was the first to collect data
on race and ethnicity. The IDS is based upon an unrestricted random digit dial sampling frame, and
used a computer assisted telephone interviewing system to obtain 5,813 respondents. Weighted, these
5,813 respondents represent and allow projection to the total population of 199.9 million individuals in
the United States aged 16 and over.

url: http://www2000.ogsm.vanderbilt.edu/papers/race/science.html

a mirror of the complete article, but without its graphics is on this server.

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