While many praise the Internet for uniting people from all over the world and making it easier than ever to publish content, the majority of today's bloggers are affluent, college educated people.
A new study from the University of California, Berkley says:
"The results suggest that the digital divide between social media users is wider between the haves and have-nots than it is between young and old, and underscore growing concerns that the poor and working classes lack the resources to participate fully in civic life, much of which is now online."
Ragan.com shares an interesting study today that should be well understood by attorneys investing in online marketing:
The study analyzed data from more than 41,000 American adults between 2000 and 2008. It found that college graduates are 1.5 times more likely to blog than high school graduates, and three times more likely to post an online rating or comment.
Jen Schradie, the study's author, says:
"Conventional wisdom tells us that the Internet is leveling the playing field and broadening the diversity of voices being heard. But my findings show the Internet is actually reinforcing the socio-economic divisions that already exist, and may even heighten them, which has all sorts of implications as more of civic and economic life moves online."
The study concluded that the working class is underrepresented online, and that their issues will be ignored until they can add their voices.
No comments:
Post a Comment