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Diffusion Theory in an Internet Environment:
Testing Four Key Components
by
J. Sonia Huang
School of Journalism
University of Texas at Austin
Dear Sonia:
More innovative individuals
ought to have greater
exposure to newspapers
and other news. Your study
sounds very interesting.
Everett M. Rogers
1931-2004
Cordially,
Ev Rogers
Tuesday, March 02, 2004 2:50 PM
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~
Four Key Components in Diffusion Theory
• Adopter Categories:
innovators, early adopters, early majority,
late majority, and laggards
• Mass Communication Channels:
newspapers, network news, local news,
cable news, and online news
• Cosmopolitan Experience:
access non-US sources, communicate with
people outside of US, and travel to many
countries
• Gender:
Is the Internet gendered?
Adopter Categories
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Rogers' Categories
College Adopters
Innovators
Early
Adopters
Early
Majority
Late
Majority
Laggards
2.5%
13.5%
34%
34%
16%
3%
17%
31%
41%
9%
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?
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%
Are earlier adopters read more online news?
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Innovators
Early
Adopters
Early
Majority
Late
Majority
Regular Internet News Readers
Laggards
Are earlier adopters get more news in different channels?
Innovators
(%)
Online News 67
Cable News 71
Local News
28
Newspapers 44
Network
11
News
Early
Early
Late
Laggards Kendall’s
Adopters Majority Majority
tau-c
(%)
(%)
(%)
(%)
84
77
65
43
.22
(p<.001)
50
38
29
20
.22
(p<.001)
26
19
16
13
.09
(p<.05)
66
58
53
55
0.07
22
15
14
17
0.04
Are earlier adopters cosmopolitan?
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Innovators
Early
Adopters
Early
Majority
Late
Majority
Cosmopolitan Experience
Laggards
Are earlier adopters men or women?
50%
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Innovators
Early
Adopters
Early
Majority
Males
Late
Majority
Females
Laggards
Gender as an antecedent variable
Gender
P<.001
Internet News
Adoption
P<.001
P<.001
Internet News
Reading
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.
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 Forms:
Experience Divide
Information/Source Divide
Gender Divide (conditioned by experience)