The Social, Political, and Cultural Impact of New Technologies: Insights from Surveys of Internet Use

新技术的社会、政治和文化影响：互联网使用调查的见解

• 批准号: 9819907
• 负责人: John Robinson
• 金额: $ 28.95万
• 依托单位: University of Maryland, College Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1999
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1999-06-15 至 2002-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9819907&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Social; Political; Cultural; Impact; New

The aim of this research project is to explore the implications of the Internet for I ) social inequality; 2) deliberative democracy, and 3) cultural choice. A survey will gather high-quality data on current practices relevant to each of these three areas of potential impact. In each case, data will make it possible to evaluate the extent to which two or more alternative perspectives are consistent with patterns of Internet use as they have developed to date. Questions addressing social inequality and democracy are: Will the Internet increase equality by making knowledge cheaper and more widely available? Or will it exacerbate it, as high-status persons gain privileged access to consequential knowledge about how to use these new technologies? To what extent are people using the Internet for political purposes at all? Regarding cultural choice, the survey will explore the diversity of the sites that current users visit, and gather data on the extent to which Internet users currently employ search strategies and tools that permit access to much of the Internet or instead restrict choice to a relatively few pre-selected sites. The study proposes to develop several indicators of these aspects of Internet use with the help of a Scientific Advisory Board of both social scientists and physical scientists highly familiar with the potential social impacts of these technologies. Data will then be collected on these indicators using the rich and nationally generalizable data base of the General Social Survey of the University of Chicago in its Year 2000 sample. Considerable effort will be expended in collecting data on respondents' use of the Internet that will allow respondents to describe the impact of the Internet in their own words, and in developing codings that will capture the richness of their responses. Like other GSS data, those collected here will be rapidly and readily made available to scholars in a variety of disciplines and research settings. It is expected that most of the questions would be applicable in future GSS surveys in order to track the potential long-tern impacts of these technologies.

该研究项目的目的是探讨互联网对 I ) 社会不平等的影响； 2）协商民主，3）文化选择。一项调查将收集与这三个潜在影响领域相关的当前实践的高质量数据。在每种情况下，数据都可以评估两种或多种替代观点与迄今为止发展的互联网使用模式的一致程度。 解决社会不平等和民主的问题是：互联网是否会通过使知识更便宜和更广泛地提供来促进平等？或者，随着地位高的人获得有关如何使用这些新技术的重要知识的特权，这是否会加剧这种情况？人们在多大程度上利用互联网来达到政治目的？ 关于文化选择，该调查将探讨当前用户访问网站的多样性，并收集有关互联网用户当前使用搜索策略和工具的程度的数据，这些策略和工具允许访问大部分互联网或将选择限制在相对较少的范围内预先选定的站点。 该研究建议在科学顾问委员会的帮助下，制定互联网使用这些方面的多项指标，该委员会由非常熟悉这些技术的潜在社会影响的社会科学家和物理科学家组成。然后，将使用芝加哥大学综合社会调查 2000 年样本中丰富的、全国通用的数据库收集这些指标的数据。 我们将花费大量精力收集受访者使用互联网的数据，使受访者能够用自己的语言描述互联网的影响，并开发编码来捕捉他们丰富的回答。与其他 GSS 数据一样，此处收集的数据将快速、方便地提供给各个学科和研究环境的学者。预计大多数问题将适用于未来的 GSS 调查，以便跟踪这些技术的潜在长期影响。