Below is an article from the Chicago Sun-times about a recent study
showing that the people who are online are changing considerably compared
to just a few years ago. the article is followed by the summary of the
report. the entire report is available online.
kelly
Net not just for nerds anymore
January 15, 1999
BY ANNE GEARAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON--The people who use the Internet are looking more and more
like Americans in general--they're less computer-savvy, less affluent
and include more women than the band of early Internet devotees,
according to a poll released Thursday.
That more mainstream audience is interested in more mainstream topics
than those first drawn to the Internet, indicates the survey of
American adults by the Pew Research Center for the People and the
Press.
Sending or receiving e-mail is the most popular activity for the 41
percent of adults who use the Internet. Weather is the type of news
sought most often.
In 1996, about 23 percent used the Internet, and news items related to
technology were the top draw.
The survey found that women have overtaken men among newcomers. Of
people who said they began using the Internet within the previous
year, 52 percent were women. That reflects the population as a whole.
Middle-age and middle-income people of both sexes are also coming to
the Internet in increased numbers, as are people with less than a
college education. Among Internet newcomers, 40 percent never attended
college, and 23 percent have household incomes below $30,000 a year.
The Internet was given life by eggheads--researchers, academics and
bureaucrats who are among the best-educated people in America. The
most significant change is the broadening of the network's use to
people who never attended college, said Andrew Kohut, director of the
poll.
``This is a very different demographic pattern, and it's a very
different use pattern,'' he said.
Despite that rapid move to the mainstream, the 74 million Internet
users in the United States are still generally younger,
better-educated and more affluent than the general population.
Overall, 80 percent of Internet users are under age 50, compared with
63 percent of all Americans, and 39 percent of Internet users are
college graduates, compared with 22 percent of the nation, the survey
indicated.
The survey found that 35 percent of American adults use e-mail, up
from 19 percent in 1996.
Among Internet news users, 64 percent said they looked for weather
information online. In 1996, 47 percent sought out such information.
Overall, online news use is up dramatically. In 1995, 4 percent of
Americans went online for news at least once a week. The figure is now
anywhere from 15 percent to 26 percent, based on recent Pew surveys.
Those who seek news online cited three main reasons: to get
information unavailable elsewhere, for convenience and because they
can search for particular subjects.
More people getting more news online may mean fewer people getting
their news from television, the survey found. On the other hand, heavy
Internet users seem to read newspapers and listen to the radio as
often as those who don't use the Internet.
The nationwide telephone survey of 3,184 adults, taken in November,
has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points for the
public as a whole and for Internet users. For smaller subgroups, the
margin of error is 3.5 percentage points.
************************
Online Newcomers More Middle-Brow, Less Work-Oriented
THE INTERNET NEWS AUDIENCE GOES ORDINARY
[INLINE] The Internet audience is not only growing, it is getting
decidedly mainstream. Two years ago, when just 23% of Americans were
going online, stories about technology were the top news draw. Today,
with 41% of adults using the Internet, the weather is the most popular
online news attraction.
Increasingly people without college training, those with modest
incomes, and women are joining the ranks of Internet users, who not
long ago were largely well-educated, affluent men. Moreover, newcomers
to the Internet go online much more often for personal reasons than do
more experienced online users.
As a consequence, Internet news interests are changing markedly. The
popularity of general interest subjects online -- from weather
patterns to entertainment news -- is growing much faster than that of
political or international news. According to the Pew Research
Center's nationwide telephone survey of 3,184 adults, the percentage
of Americans who go online to access local, entertainment and weather
news has grown substantially since 1996. And, while more voters used
the Internet for election news and information in 1998 than two years
earlier, the percentage of the online public that sought out election
information actually diminished.
At the same time, the rate of consumer purchasing on the Internet is
skyrocketing. Even before the Christmas rush, 32% of Internet users
had bought something online, a leap from just 8% in 1995. If consumers
grow more confident about the security of online commerce, this number
may climb higher: 61% of Internet users who have not yet made an
online purchase cite credit card security as a reason.
Similar growth can be seen in the popularity of email, which continues
to be the top Internet draw and shows the same broadening trend. Email
is used exclusively for work much less than it was in 1995 (12% vs.
31%). Today, among those who use email, 88% do so for personal reasons
either exclusively (41%) or for both personal and work communications
(47%). Many email users say they communicate more often with friends
and family now that this technology is available.
[INLINE] But with everyday use, some of the mystique of email is
fading. Among those who use email at work, the percentage who think
that email leads to more frank communication between upper and lower
ranks in the workplace fell to 36% in the current survey from 69% in
1995.
The broadening of the Internet population also casts doubt on
suggestions that online activities are associated with social
isolationism and interpersonal distrust and that the Internet attracts
malcontents. The survey, which included 1,993 Internet users, found
them to be as engaged -- as likely to have visited a friend or family
member or called someone just to talk yesterday -- as people who don't
go online. Frequent Internet users are just as trusting of other
people and the government as the average American, even when factors
like age, education and income are taken into account.
News Use Varies
The November 1998 survey that is the principal basis for this report
confirms a dramatic growth in online news consumption over the past
several years. But Center surveys also find considerable variation in
online news reading habits from month-to-month. For instance, while
the November survey found 37% of Internet users saying they went
online at least once a week to get the news, an April 1998 poll found
55% and a subsequent December survey logged 64%. These fluctuations
may reflect differences in the news environment from month-to-month,
or they may indicate that "getting the news" online is a somewhat
ambiguous activity that blends, in people's thinking, news consumption
with other information-gathering activities.
The comprehensive November survey also provides a mixed answer to the
question of whether increasing use of the Internet as a news source is
leading to decreasing use of traditional news outlets. Three-in-four
Internet news consumers (75%) say they get more of their news from
traditional outlets, while only 11% say they are now using print and
broadcast outlets less.
[INLINE]
Further, the online population is more likely to read a newspaper
daily than the offline public. But this is not an apples-to-apples
comparison because Internet users tend to be more interested in the
news than non-users.
When the media habits of users and non-users are contrasted taking
their interest in politics and other demographic differences into
account, the survey finds heavy Internet news consumers watching
relatively less television news than their offline counterparts but
reading newspapers and listening to radio news just as often.
The survey finds other indications supporting the idea that using the
Internet may have a more negative impact on news viewing than news
reading. First, Internet users most often go online for the kind of
information featured by television news, especially by cable. Updates
on stock quotes and sports scores (38%), weather, movies and other
local information (39%), and news headlines (29%) are among the most
often used features of Internet news sites.
[INLINE] Second, new online users increasingly come from lower and
middle socio-economic groups which are heavier than average television
watchers. New users are also disproportionately drawn from younger
generations, who have primarily relied on TV rather than newspapers
for their news.
The survey indicates, however, that both print and broadcast news may
be able to cross-fertilize their audience with Internet news users.
Fully 41% of those who go online say they turn to the Internet to get
more information on stories first seen in the traditional media.
Relatively few (21%) say they read stories online instead of getting
them in newspapers or on TV.
The websites of national broadcast news organizations are more popular
than newspaper sites. In fact, the current survey finds
proportionately fewer online visitors to newspaper-sponsored sites
than in 1996. Reports of using the MSNBC website increased the most
over this period.
[INLINE] Generally, online audiences say they turn to news websites
for three reasons: to get information that is unavailable elsewhere,
for convenience and for the ability to search for news on a particular
topic. Audio and video supplements are secondary, as is the ability to
express opinions about news topics. This is true for both heavy and
light news users.
The Internet news audience finds the websites of various news
organizations no more or less accurate than the information found in
those organizations' traditional news outlets. However, more broadly,
44% of online users think that an accurate picture of what is going on
in the world is more often found on the Internet than in daily
newspapers or on network news broadcasts.
Campaign '98 and the Internet
Traffic in Web-based election news was higher in 1998 than in 1996 (11
million people vs. 7 million) because the number of people with online
access increased, not because politics and elections have become hot
topics on the Internet. As a percentage of users, there was less use
of the Internet for political purposes in the 1998 midterm elections.
Just 15% reported going online for information about the elections,
down from 22% in 1996.
This may be in part because midterm elections engender less interest
than presidential contests. But the survey also suggests that new
Internet users, who have lower socio-economic profiles and less
political interest than longtime users, were not as inclined to use
the Internet for election information.
Most people who did use the World Wide Web for political purposes
rated their visits to various news and election sites as somewhat
useful, with media sites getting slightly higher ratings than
government or campaign sites. Three-in-ten people who went to a
political website were seeking information about a candidate's record,
making that the top motivation for election news seekers. Fully 34%
say their vote on Election Day was influenced by information they
found on the Internet.
Slightly more Republicans than Democrats or Independents used the
Internet for election information. Generally, Americans online are
more politically active, more conservative and less supportive of
Clinton than the rest of the population. However, a detailed look at
their attitudes suggests that the Internet population tends to be
somewhat more conservative on economic issues, but more liberal on
social questions.
Other Findings:
* Few Internet users experience information overload -- and most
(63%) say they spend neither too much nor too little time online.
* Nearly one-fifth of Internet users get customized news reports and
an equal number receive emailed news. Slightly more regularly get
news stories online instead of from newspapers and TV.
* Trying to find something on the Internet is the top source of
frustration for users, followed by the speed of Internet
connections and the speed of searches. And these complaints aren't
limited to beginners -- experienced users express more frustration
than new users in each of these areas.
* Americans are not overly concerned about computers crashing in the
Year 2000. Only 13% worry a lot that computer systems will fail
next year.
The remainder of the report is divided into five sections. Section I
outlines basic patterns of Internet use. Section II deals with online
news consumption. Section III looks at how Americans used the Internet
for the 1998 elections. Section IV explores the attitudes, beliefs and
behaviors of Internet users. And Section V looks at Americans'
attitudes toward the Internet and technology. These sections are
followed by several descriptive tables, a detailed methodology, a
technical appendix and the complete questionnaire.
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