Knowledge Centre blogs

The Digital Divide - an issue of ethics?

By: Simon Knight
On: 4th May 2012

For today’s blog I thought I’d take a step back and consider some of the ethical imperative for studying the digital divide.

Meaningful Access

Sometimes, we take it as a given that such divides must be addressed, that we know what the divide is, and that we know how to address the divides – we just, close them. more >

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Is giving access the best way to address technology inequality?

By: Simon Knight
On: 27th March 2012

Yesterday I gave a brief introduction to how I think about the research process.

Today I want to give a (briefer) overview of what that means for a particular study. I talked before about measuring ‘success’ in search engine tasks – and that’s one part of my study. But my main interest is in the reasons for differences in success, on a sociocultural level. So, rather than asking “does this group have access to information”, we also need to ask “can this group use the information they have, effectively”. Part of that will involve looking at skills, part about how they’re supported – by friends, family, professionals, part about structural issues for example, if they need to travel to a job interview, can they afford to do so. more >

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Ofcom Media Use and Attitudes Seminar

By: Grant.Blank
On: 2nd June 2011

Ofcom reported on the results from two media use surveys on 2 June 2011. (You will, naturally, want to reflect on the fact that this is an auspicious day: the 59th anniversary of the Queen’s coronation.) There were two reports from Ofcom.

Alison Preston (Senior Research Associate) reported on the UK Adults Media Literacy survey which was fielded in Spring and Autumn 2010. The two waves were combined for a sample size of 2,117 adults age 16+. There were three main points to take away from her report.

First, Internet use (called “take-up” in Ofcom jargon) is increasing and has reached 74% of all individuals. This is consistent with the OxIS 2011 survey, which shows 73%. It remains skewed by age and social grade, with younger people and people in higher social grades using the Internet more. This is true of both simple use and amount (hours) of use. more >

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