Papers by Bianca Reisdorf, Ph.D.
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2018
This reports on the results of a study of Internet (non)use in three neighborhoods of Detroit, Mi... more This reports on the results of a study of Internet (non)use in three neighborhoods of Detroit, Michigan. The study was conducted by the Quello Center at Michigan State University, working in collaboration with the Center for Urban Studies at Wayne State University, which administered telephone interviews with 525 residents. Support for this research was provided by Rocket Fiber, a Detroit-based Internet company.
This research involves a survey of three neighborhoods in Detroit to gauge levels of access to the Internet, and the factors facilitating and constraining use and adoption. The study is based primarily on a survey of residents in Cody-Rouge, Milwaukee Junction and 7/8 Mile and Woodward neighborhoods, from November through December 2017. The survey was complemented by qualitative interviews and three focus groups with Detroit residents.
The findings of this study identify key digital divides within these neighborhoods, and illuminate a common pattern of Internet use in the city – what might be called Detroit’s Internet ecosystem – that helps explain the relative lack of Internet access across its households. The findings provide the basis for a set of recommendations for narrowing the digital divide, including ways to address such issues as the affordability of the Internet.
Social Science Computer Review, 2020
This study examines the relationship between mode of Internet access, variety of online activitie... more This study examines the relationship between mode of Internet access, variety of online activities, and the potential for the Internet to contribute to local social capital in distressed, urban communities. Based on a sample of 525 telephone surveys in Detroit, findings show that breadth of access predicts participation in a larger variety of online activities, which is associated with higher levels of local social capital. Neither public Internet access, home broadband, nor Internet access through a mobile phone data plan alone affords participation in a full range of social capital-enhancing activities. The findings highlight the potential problems of initiatives that assume equivalent social outcomes through nonequivalent modes of access, such as providing Internet access through mobile phones in place of home broadband. Efforts to enhance a city’s social infrastructure by providing Internet access are best served when individuals have multiple points of access available.
Based on a qualitative scoping exercise in three British prisons, this article discusses digital ... more Based on a qualitative scoping exercise in three British prisons, this article discusses digital inequalities experienced by prisoners and the potential opportunities that digital media in prisons offers for offender rehabilitation and resettlement. As they are currently denied access to online and social media that most of us take for granted, physically cut off from their communities, and unable to communicate with family and friends in ways that have become normal in society, we argue that prisoners experience profound social isolation and constitute one of the most impoverished groups in the digital age. Our results show that prisoners display high levels of both curiosity and enthusiasm as well as fear and reservation toward Internet-enabled technologies, depending on age and gender as well as the length of their sentence. On release from prison, they are not only faced with prejudice and poorer job prospects than the average citizen due to their criminal record, but their digital exclusion during incarceration may have compound effects and lead to supercharged digital and social exclusion. We argue that secure access would be highly beneficial to prisoners who pose a low risk to society, especially during the rehabilitation and release phases.
Research into reasons for Internet non-use has been mostly based on one-off cohort studies and fo... more Research into reasons for Internet non-use has been mostly based on one-off cohort studies and focused on single-country contexts. This article shows that motivations for being offline changed between 2005 and 2013 among non-and ex-users in two high-diffusion European countries. Analyses of Swedish and British data demonstrate that non-user populations have become more concentrated in vulnerable groups. While traditional digital divide reasons related to a lack of access and skills remain important, motivational reasons increased in importance over time. The ways in which these reasons gain importance for non-and ex-user groups vary, as do explanations for digital exclusion in the different countries. Effective interventions aimed at tackling digital exclusion need to take into consideration national contexts, changing non-user characteristics, and individual experience with the Internet. What worked a decade ago in a particular country might not work currently in a different or even the same country.
Research into digital inequalities has shifted from a binary view of Internet use versus non-use ... more Research into digital inequalities has shifted from a binary view of Internet use versus non-use to studying gradations in Internet use. However, this research has mostly compared categories of users only. In addition, the role of attitudes in digital inequalities has been largely overlooked. This article addresses these limitations by performing a systematic analysis of factors that distinguish low Internet users from non-users, regular users, and broad users. In addition to socio-demographic characteristics, we examine attitudinal variables. Results drawn from multinomial regressions indicate that attitudes play at least as large a role as socioeconomic factors in determining the likelihood of belonging to specific (non-)user categories. This identifies positive attitudes toward technologies and the Internet as a crucial step toward Internet adoption. Hence, digital inequality research needs to consider factors other than traditional socioeconomic ones to draw a complete picture.
Information, Communication & Society, 2012
Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 2013
This article investigates patterns of reasons for digital disengagement of British adults. It add... more This article investigates patterns of reasons for digital disengagement of British adults. It adds a psychological dimension to research that is mostly sociological in nature in trying to separate out explanations for disengaging from the Internet by choice or by forced exclusion. The analysis of a nationally representative survey shows differences between the number of reasons and the most important reasons among different sociodemographic groups, but also among individuals with different psychological profiles. The findings suggest that ex-and nonusers do not have one simple reason for nonuse, but a multifaceted range of reasons, which often represent disadvantages at several levels. The range of often mentioned reasons, moreover, shows that motivations for disengagement cannot be measured by means of the most important reason, but that all reasons have to be taken into account and looked at concertedly.
This study explores and compares attitudes and feelings of middle-aged British and Swedish Intern... more This study explores and compares attitudes and feelings of middle-aged British and Swedish Internet non-users as well as their reasons for being offline. The rich qualitative data are conceptualized and presented according to various reasons for non-use, positive and negative feelings regarding non-use, and the positive as well as negative influence of and dependence on social networks. The comparison shows both unique and common perceptions of the British and Swedish respondents, some of which can be attributed to social, economic, or socio-economic factors. However, it also displays vast differences between middle-aged non-users in both countries. The analysis paints a complex picture of decisions for and against the use of the Internet and the need for more research to understand these highly complex phenomena, which cannot simply be attributed to socio-economic backgrounds as has been done in most previous research. The analysis shows that more complex reasons, such as lack of interest or discomfort with technologies, as well as the somewhat surprising finding that social networks can prevent non-users from learning how to use the Internet, as it is more convenient to stay a proxy-user, should be considered in future research and policies regarding digital inequalities.
This paper makes three contributions: first, we suggest a clear, concise definition of Web 2.0, s... more This paper makes three contributions: first, we suggest a clear, concise definition of Web 2.0, something that has eluded other authors, including the Tim O'Reilly the originator of the concept. Second, prior work has focused largely on the implications of Web 2.0 for producers of content, usually corporations or government agencies. This paper is one of the few analyses of Web 2.0 from the point of view of users. Third, we characterize the creative activity of Web 2.0 users. In addition to their active content production, they are unusually active users of the Internet for entertainment. In multivariate models predicting Web 2.0, the most consistently important variables are technical ability, comfort revealing personal data and, particularly, Web 2.0 confidence. These variables suggest that despite the apparent simplicity of FaceBook or of typing a book review on Amazon, ability remains very important in the eyes of users. For many, there appears to be something daunting about contributing to Web 2.0 activity and many potential users remain, rightly or wrongly, uncertain of their ability to make a contribution. We conclude that the study of Web 2.0 can tell us much about how the Internet is unique, and that it warrants a significant scholarly attention.
Non-use of the Internet has often been researched within the topic of digital divides. The focus ... more Non-use of the Internet has often been researched within the topic of digital divides. The focus of these studies lay mainly on differences in socio-economic backgrounds and resources. This paper goes one step further by attempting to describe various groups of non-users in two highly developed European countries: Great Britain and Sweden. Results from descriptive analyses, multivariate regressions, and principal components analysis with two waves of comparable data from 2007 and 2009 show a more heterogeneous non-user population in Great Britain and a slightly more homogeneous one in Sweden. Socio-economic factors play a bigger role in influencing who is going online in Britain than in Sweden. Education, occupational status, and household income are significant determinants in both countries. The most important determinants of Internet adoption are age and occupational status. The analysis of a 25–55-year-old sub-sample shows that non-users from this age group feature different socio-economic characteristics from older age groups. Middle-aged British non-users share two specific socio-economic characteristics: low income and unemployment; 25–55-year-old Swedish non-users tend to have low incomes, be unemployed, and be single. Non-users' self-assessment of reasons for non-use do not seem to be consistent with the ‘raw data’. Non-users mainly state that they are not interested in the Internet. Many non-users share sceptical attitudes about the Internet, which influences interest in them. There needs to be more detailed research to know exactly which people are not using the Internet and why.
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Papers by Bianca Reisdorf, Ph.D.
This research involves a survey of three neighborhoods in Detroit to gauge levels of access to the Internet, and the factors facilitating and constraining use and adoption. The study is based primarily on a survey of residents in Cody-Rouge, Milwaukee Junction and 7/8 Mile and Woodward neighborhoods, from November through December 2017. The survey was complemented by qualitative interviews and three focus groups with Detroit residents.
The findings of this study identify key digital divides within these neighborhoods, and illuminate a common pattern of Internet use in the city – what might be called Detroit’s Internet ecosystem – that helps explain the relative lack of Internet access across its households. The findings provide the basis for a set of recommendations for narrowing the digital divide, including ways to address such issues as the affordability of the Internet.
This research involves a survey of three neighborhoods in Detroit to gauge levels of access to the Internet, and the factors facilitating and constraining use and adoption. The study is based primarily on a survey of residents in Cody-Rouge, Milwaukee Junction and 7/8 Mile and Woodward neighborhoods, from November through December 2017. The survey was complemented by qualitative interviews and three focus groups with Detroit residents.
The findings of this study identify key digital divides within these neighborhoods, and illuminate a common pattern of Internet use in the city – what might be called Detroit’s Internet ecosystem – that helps explain the relative lack of Internet access across its households. The findings provide the basis for a set of recommendations for narrowing the digital divide, including ways to address such issues as the affordability of the Internet.