数字鸿沟、知识沟和政治参与

Digital Divide,Knowledge Gap,and Political Participation

两个不同层面的数字鸿沟(digital divide)对人们的日常生活有何影响本研究探讨了人们互联网接入和互联网使用的差异对其政治知识获取和政治参与的影响。结论显示,个人的互联网政治使用(political use of the Internet)比互联网接入(Internet access)能更好预测其政治知识获取(acquisition of political knowledge)和一般政治参与(general political participation)。研究者建议,政府致力于缩小数字鸿沟的努力,不应止步于人们的互联网物质接入。本研究的理论贡献在于探索了数字鸿沟研究、知识沟假设和社会资本理论之间的内在联系。

What are the impacts of the two levels of digital divide on people's daily life This paper examined how differential access to and use of the Internet influence people's knowledge acquisition and political participation.Results indicated that the political use of the Internet has stronger power in predicting the acquisition of political knowledge as well as general political participation than Internet access.Practically,governments' endeavors to bridge the digital divide should not end at the level of physical access.Theoretically,this study explored some links among the well established digital divide,knowledge gap,and social capital theory.