content creation on the internet and the participation divide in germany

Content Creation on the Internet A Social Cognitive Perspective on the Participation Divide

Christian Hoffmann, Christoph Lutz, Miriam Meckel

ICA Annual Conference 2014

Seattle, Washington

26 May 2014

Beteiligung im Internet

Präsentation Christoph Lutz

Seite 2 From the Digital Divide…

Many people have access to the Internet and go online regularly.

Offliner Onliner



Seite 3 …To The Participation Divide

Participant Non-Participant

Few(er) make use of the web’s participatory potential.



Seite 4 From the Digital to the Participation Divide

• Online media facilitate public self-expression (Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe, 2007; Kane,

Alavi, Labianca, & Borgatti, 2013).

• Social media, especially, make it easy for lay users to publish content and make it accessible to a global audience (Blank & Reisdorf, 2012; Correa, 2010; Hargittai &

Walejko, 2008; Schradie, 2011).

• Internet use is associated with both online and offline political participation (Boulianne, 2009; Towner & Dulio, 2011; Vitak et al., 2011).

• Socio-demographics have been shown to differentiate web use, online skills, and online as well as offline participation (Hargittai, 2002, 2010; Hargittai &

Hinnant, 2008; van Deursen & van Dijk, 2010; van Dijk, 2005; Zillien & Hargittai, 2009).



Seite 5 Previous Research on the Participation Divide

Hargittai & Walejko (2008)

Age, skills and SES predict online content creation (4 types of content tested).

Correa (2010)

Psychological factors and demographics predict online content creation, SES does not (aggregates 10 different types of content into one measure).

Schradie (2011)

SES affects user propensity to create and share content, effects differ by online activity (focus on activities rather than content type)-

Blank (2013)

SES affects user propensity to create and share content, effects differ by online activity (3 types of content: skilled, social & entertainment, political).



Seite 6 Some Limitations of Previous Research

1) Student Samples

2) Focus on USA

3) Reliance on Regression

4) Poor or no distinction of content forms: lack of theoretical underpinning



Seite 7 Social Cognitive Theory

Environment

Personal Dispositions

Behavior

Demographics: Age, Gender, Education

Cognitive Attributes: Privacy Concerns, Self-Efficacy

Online Content Creation: Social, Skilled, Political



Seite 8

Hypothesis

Online self-efficacy and privacy concerns mediate the impact of demographics on online content creation.



Seite 9 Model 1: Only Direct



Seite 10 Model 2: Fully Mediated



Seite 11 Model 3: Partially Mediated



Seite 12 Data and Method

• Online survey with 1488 participants.

• Representative distribution of gender, age and region of German Internet population, slight overrepresentation of highly educated users.

• Measures: Online Content Creation (Blank, 2013), Self-Efficacy (Compeau et al., 1999; Venkatesh et al., 2003; Venkatesh & Bala, 2008), Privacy Concerns (Malhotra et al., 2004).

• Structural Equation Modeling: Cronbach’s α, CR and AVE all above threshold.



Seite 13 Model 1: Only Direct



Seite 14 Model 2: Fully Mediated



Seite 15 Model 3: Partially Mediated



Seite 16 Main Findings

• Cognitive constructs partially mediate the influence of demographics on content creation.

• Different types of content are affected differently by demographics and cognitive constructs.

• Self-efficacy depends heavily on demographics.



Seite 17 Limitations

• Cross-sectional and quantiative study.

• Only two cognitive constructs considered.

• Not an exhaustive typology of online content.

• Only one country considered.



Seite 18

Thanks for Your Attention Institute for Media and Communications Management University of St. Gallen Blumenbergplatz 9 CH-9000 St. Gallen



Seite 19 References

Blank, G. (2013). Who creates content? Stratification and content creation on the Internet. Information, Communication & Society, 16(4), 590-612.

Compeau, D., Higgins, C.A. & Huff, S. (1999). Social Cognitive Theory and Individual Reactions to Computing Technology: A Longitudinal Study. MIS Quarterly, 23(2), 145-158.

Correa, T. (2010). The Participation Divide Among “Online Experts”: Experience, Skills and Psychological Factors as Predictors of College Students’ Web Content Creation. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 16(1), 71–92.

Hargittai, E. & Walejko, G. (2008). The participation divide: Content creation and sharing in the digital age. Information, Communication & Society, 11(2), 239–256.



Seite 20 References

Malhotra, N. K., Kim, S. S., & Agarwal, J. (2004). Internet Users’ Information Privacy Concerns (IUIPC): The Construct, the Scale, and a Causal Model. Information Systems Research, 15(4), 336–355.

Schradie, J. (2011). The digital production gap: The digital divide and Web 2.0 collide. Poetics, 39(2), 145–168.

Venkatesh, V., & Bala, H. (2008). Technology Acceptance Model 3 and a Research Agenda on Interventions. Decision Sciences, 39(2), 273-315.

Venkatesh, V., Morris, M. G., Davis, G. B., & Davis, F. D. (2003). User acceptance of information technology: Toward a unified view. MIS Quarterly, 27(3), 425–478.



Seite 21

Construct Item Wording (Scale)

Skilled Content Creation

(SCC)

SCC1

SCC2

SCC3

I comment content that other people have published.

I publish my own texts and comments on the Internet.

I discuss actively in online communities.

Social and Entertainment

Content Creation (ECC)

ECC1

ECC2

ECC3

Social network sites (e.g. Facebook, XING).

Media platforms (e.g. Youtube, Flickr).

I share photos and videos I created on the web.

Political Content Creation

(PCC)

PCC1

PCC2

PCC3

PCC4

I like and share political content on the Internet.

I publish commentaries about political topics on the Internet.

I try to persuade others online to become politically active.

I actively participate in a political online group or online community

Privacy Concerns (PC)

PC1

PC2

PC3

All things considered, the Internet would cause serious privacy problems.

Compared to others, I am more sensitive about the way online companies handle my

personal information.

To me, it is the most important thing to keep my privacy intact from online companies.

Online Self-efficacy

(OSE)

OSE1

OSE2

OSE3

How well do you think you are able to…

…publish information on a blog or on Twitter?

…publish a video on the Internet (e.g. on Youtube)?

…create or edit an article on Wikipedia?

content creation on the internet and the participation divide in germany

Data & Analytics