WHO SHOULD CLOSE THE DIGITAL DIVIDE? DEPENDS ON HOW AND WHO YOU ASK.

Ithaca, NY -- The following information was released by Cornell University:

Who is responsible for closing the digital divide?

A new Cornell University study says the answer to that question depends on how it's asked and who's answering.

The idea of a "digital divide" -- the gap between those who can and cannot access the Internet -- has been around since the 1990s. The term now often means the quality and speed of Internet access -- and the human skills to make use of the technology.

In the study, "Who's Responsible for the Digital Divide? Public Perceptions and Policy Implications" published in the current issue of the peer-reviewed journal The Information Society, researchers found that if presented as a problem of access, people tend to say that government or corporations are responsible. If presented in terms of technical skills necessary to navigate and put information to good use, then people are more likely to say the burden is on individuals and education institutions.

"The way you talk about the issue changes people's view of who is responsible for resolving it," said Dmitry Epstein, a doctoral student in the Department of Communication who wrote the study with Erik Nisbet, an assistant professor at Ohio State University-Columbus and Cornell's Tarleton Gillespie, assistant professor of Communication. "This issue has been around for years, but its meaning is in constant flux and is manipulated by political agendas."

Using data collected by the Cornell Survey Research Institute, the researchers found that among such factors as age, gender, race, household income, education and how often people use the Internet, two factors had the most influence on who people said were responsible for closing the digital divide -- how the digital divide was described and a person's political affiliation.

"A conservative audience tends to view the individual and private enterprise as responsible for resolving the digital divide, whereas liberal respondents would allow government a greater role," Epstein said. "That sounds intuitive, but it was interesting to see actual empirical support for this assertion."

The study has implications for policy communication and implementation. "We found that 'framing' matters. The way you talk about the digital divide does affect how people respond to policy initiatives."

"Governments and corporations can help, to move us toward greater access and ability to take advantage of the Internet as a civic resource," said Gillespie. "There's clear support, here and abroad, for this to be a global project. But the partisan gap in how responsibility is perceived that we found may be its biggest obstacle. How the issue is framed for the public can really affect whether this becomes a public mandate, or stalls on the legislative table."

The study was funded by Cornell's Department of Communication.