ESZTER HARGITTAI'S RESEARCH
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A Framework for
Studying Differences in People's Digital Media Uses
Hargittai, Eszter. 2007. In Cyberworld Unlimited.
Edited by Nadia Kutscher and Hans-Uwe Otto. VS Verlag für
Sozialwissenschaften/GWV Fachverlage GmbH. Pp. 121-137.
Introduction
Information technologies have become a staple of adolescents. lives with young people among the most connected
in countries that have seen high levels of Internet and cell phone diffusion by the first decade of the 21st
century (Livingstone and Bober 2004; National Telecommunications and Information Administration 2004). However,
merely knowing various digital media.s rates of use says little about how young people are incorporating IT into
their everyday lives. Ignoring nuanced measures of use, it is difficult to determine whether digital media are
leveling the playing field for youth or whether they are raising new barriers for some while advantaging the
societal positions of others. While many have suggested that we must move past the binary classification of
haves and have-nots when it comes to information technology uses, few have offered a detailed conceptual
framework for such an undertaking, one that can then inform empirical studies of usage differences. This
chapter considers the various domains in which users of the Internet may possess different levels of know-how.
In addition to presenting the conceptual framework, it also draws on unique data about a diverse group of young
people.s Internet uses to illustrate existing differences along the lines of the discussed dimensions.
Outline
I. Introduction
II. Refined approaches to the digital divide
III. Informed User Participation
IV. Differences in Young People.s Internet Uses
V. Conclusion
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Brigid Barron, Greg Duncan, Karen Mossberger and Connie Yowell for helpful
conversations on this topic, Ann Feldman and Tom Moss for supporting the study at UIC, and Laurell Sims, Dan Li,
Vanessa Pineda and Erika Priestley for assistance with data collection and data entry. The author is also
grateful to the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Northwestern University Research Grants
Committee, the Northwestern School of Communication Innovation Fund and the Northwestern Department of
Communication Research Fund for their support.
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