Diffusion Theory in an Internet Environment: Testing Four Key Components by J. Sonia Huang School of

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Diffusion Theory in an Internet Environment
Testing Four Key Componentsby J. Sonia
HuangSchool of JournalismUniversity of Texas at
Austin
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Everett M. Rogers 1931-2004
Dear Sonia More innovative individuals ought to
have greater exposure to newspapers and other
news. Your study sounds very interesting. Cordial
ly, Ev Rogers Tuesday, March 02, 2004 250 PM
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Diffusion Theory in the Internet Environment

• Hard to define a social system
• The Internet might be changing the role of
  spatial distance in who talks to whom about a new
  idea.
• Internet communication as both mass and
  interpersonal communication
• The Internet allows people to reach many people
  in a one to many process, but e-mail messages are
  like interpersonal communication.
• Everett M. Rogers, 2003

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Four Key Components in Diffusion Theory

• Adopter Categoriesinnovators, early adopters,
  early majority, late majority, and laggards
• Mass Communication Channelsnewspapers, network
  news, local news, cable news, and online news
• Cosmopolitan Experienceaccess non-US sources,
  communicate with people outside of US, and travel
  to many countries
• GenderIs the Internet gendered?

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Adopter Categories
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Hypotheses Research Question
H1 Earlier adopters of Internet news are more
likely than later adopters to be regular
users of all news channels. H2
Earlier adopters are more cosmopolitan than
later adopters. H3 Male are more likely
than females to be earlier adopters of
Internet news. RQ What is the relationship
among gender, Internet news adoption,
and Internet news reading?
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Methodology

• Web-based survey 842 college students
• Questionnaire 56 questions on public affairs,
  media use, life styles, and demographics
• Date November 4th 10th, 2003
• Random Sampling
• Sampling error 3.4
• Response rate 8

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Are earlier adopters read more online news?
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Are earlier adopters get more news in different
channels?
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Are earlier adopters cosmopolitan?
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Are earlier adopters men or women?
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Gender as an antecedent variable
Internet NewsAdoption
Gender
Internet NewsReading
Plt.001
Plt.001
Plt.001
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Results

• College innovators and early adopters of Internet
  news were cosmopolitan males who read online news
  and watched cable and local TV news on a regular
  basis.
• Gender was not only a strong predictor of how
  long students adopted Internet news but also an
  antecedent variable to the relationship between
  Internet news adoption and Internet news reading.

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Contributions

• Matched Rogers adopter categories with college
  students Internet news adoption.
• Constructed a scale to measure cosmopoliteness
  and found earlier adopters were more
  cosmopolitan.
• Digital Divide in New FormsExperience
  DivideInformation/Source DivideGender Divide
  (conditioned by experience)