Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques

Interpreting qualitative data

Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty, and the Internet Worldwide. Pippa Norris. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. 303 pp. $60 hbk., $20 pbk. Forecasts that the Internet heralds a world of more democracy and less poverty seem as inflated as dot.com stocks. This rosy view has electronic voting, political chat rooms, and email access re-engaging apathetic publics in politics. Digital technologies redress economic disparities, and the benefits of the Internet percolate down to transform poor societies. Equally exaggerated is the gloom of naysayers. The Internet Age has done little to narrow the gap between rich and poor countries, the information haves and havenots, cyber-skeptics contend. Indeed, digital technologies could create new inequalities and reinforce the dominance of power elites. In her new book, Digital Divide, Pippa Norris, associate director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University, steps into this fusillade of cyber-hyperbole, lowers the decibel with a well-written and thoughtful examination of Internet use and access in 179 countries and dissects the claims and counter-claims. Her research and findings place her on middle ground, somewhere between current reality and optimism. The Internet era seems to be changing "politics as usual" in a number of countries, expanding and loosening information about governments and politics, allowing the entrance of new political players, and fostering international movements on the environment, women's rights, and other issues across borders. The disappointment is that digital technologies are activating the already politically active and passing up the disengaged and uninterested. A major challenge to digital democracy is the gulf between the United States, Scandinavia, and other early Internet adopters and the rest of the world. That gap is now so wide that at the turn of the century, more than three-quarters of the online community lived in the developed world. Internet use tracks the path of economic and technological development. But that situation could begin to change, Norris says. The Internet is in its technological adolescence. Costs of access are falling. And governments can make a difference if policymakers take the initiative. We have the historical patterns of other communication technologies to study. Norris examines theories of technological diffusion and points out that the American response to the Internet is more akin to the rapid spread of televisions and VCRs than the slower adoption of telephones and radios. American dominance could recede as Internet access grows worldwide. Contrary to what officials of the Bush Administration contend, Norris finds that the digital divide between rich and poor within the United States remains substantial. Europe mirrors that trend. In the long run, the Internet could become more accessible to the excluded: lower income families, minorities, and women. …

Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty, and the Internet Worldwide

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The age of discontinuity: guidelines to our changing society

This study examined the feasibility of a novel communication technology to enhance social connectedness among older adults in residential care. Research suggests that technology can create opportunities for social connectedness, helping alleviate social isolation and loneliness. Studies on implementation and feasibility of such technological interventions, particularly among frail and institutionalized older adults, are scant. Data were gathered in a 3-month deployment with 12 older adults, including semistructured interviews with participants and relatives/friends, psychometric scales, field observations, and usability tests. Data were analyzed with qualitative profiling, thematic analysis, and Friedman tests. The technology was a feasible communication tool, although requiring an adaptation period. Use increased perceived social interaction with ties, but increased social connectedness (meaningful social interaction) was only reported by participants with geographically distant relatives. Sense of well-being and confidence with technology was enhanced, but negative effects were also observed. Findings are useful for researchers and practitioners interested in technological interventions.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0733464817741369

Can Digital Technology Enhance Social Connectedness Among Older Adults? A Feasibility Study:

Current media discourse suggests that seniors lag behind in terms of engagement with digital technology. Through a survey and interviews with seniors we investigate how this population views their own digital skills, barriers to digital literacy, and who supports them in gaining literacy. Seniors recognize their age as a factor in the adoption of technology and they note differences between how they and younger generations use technology. Lack of skills and sometimes-limited support make it difficult for seniors to gain experience and comfort with technology. However, support systems such as family and peers can help mediate senior’s experiences with technology. The Seniors Digital Literacy Paradox is proposed as a model for understanding the needs of seniors in gaining digital literacy.

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Problematizing the Digital Literacy Paradox in the Context of Older Adults’ ICT Use: Aging, Media Discourse, and Self-Determination

The literature on the digital divide suggests that seniors continue to lag behind in access to the Internet, digital skills, and engagement in various online activities. Much of the research, however, gains insight from large-scale survey research and neglects to examine the challenges and opportunities that digital seniors, those who are connected, experience in their everyday use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). We employed the theoretical lens of ICT use in the context of everyday life to inform this study. Twenty-one digital seniors (60 +) took part in interviews about how ICTs influenced their routines and practices such as news consumption, library use, information seeking, and reading. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using grounded theory. Three key findings emerged. First, digital seniors are developing new practices and routines around their ICT use; these are novel and emerge out of ICTs’ affordances. Second, digital seniors are creating hybrid practices...

Interviews with digital seniors: ICT use in the context of everyday life

Introduction. This paper aims to understand the adoption of e-books and ereaders by persons aged sixty and above. This includes an investigation into where seniors are in the stages of e-book adoption. Method. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews in a midsize city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Analysis. Interviews were transcribed, and coded using grounded theory. Rogers's model of the innovation-decision process was used to inform the data analysis process. Results. The results show three key factors affecting adoption: longing for materiality, technology confidence, and technology exploration. While seniors are interested in e-books and e-readers, see many benefits to their use, and are curious about how they function, the majority perceive this technology as being primarily appropriate for younger generations. Conclusion. The findings have implications for our understanding of the diffusion of innovations amongst the senior population and the development of services geared toward them. E-books and e-readers are technologies that could prove beneficial, aiding with issues related to both portability and convenience. However, e-books do not allow for the sharing of books that this population is accustomed to, and many of them are still on the fence about fully adopting this tool into their reading practices.

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Not All on the Same Page: E-Book Adoption and Technology Exploration by Seniors.

Children’s e-books waited to emerge until technology could support their advanced requirements. Recent technologies such as colour e-readers and tablets like Apple’s iPad provide support for heavy visual content and opportunities for interactivity. E-books for children have grown in availability and popularity and now include puzzles, games, music, video, and audio features that boost narratives and create a unique reading experience that is further from print than ever before. This article positions e-books for children as leaders in e-book development. It reviews concepts, practices, and scholarship in the area of e-books for children and highlights issues with definitions and research caused by the rapid growth of enhanced and interactive e-books. There is little argument among scholars and practitioners that the reading experience is changing, and the new generation of readers may have different opinions, assumptions, and preferences for the meanings of ‘book’ and ‘reading’. Managing these shifts in the reading experience, which is still strongly tied to notions from print culture, is an important role for LIS scholars, librarians, educators, and parents. Recent research on e-books for children focuses largely on literacy and education. Little attention has been paid to if and why children enjoy the e-reading experience. Additionally, the majority of current research examines children’s e-reading from an adult perspective with most surveys and interviews consulting parent participants and not children. An examination of relevant research as well as literature on the history and conceptualization of e-books and reading as an evolving experience reveals that, from new technologies to new experiences and new definitions, e-books for children are pushing toward the future of reading.

https://journal.lib.uoguelph.ca/index.php/perj/article/download/2744/3137

Children’s E-books are Born: How E-books for Children are Leading E-book Development and Redefining the Reading Experience

This poster outlines the preliminarily findings of the EDITS study: an inquiry into the digital information habits of senior citizens. The research presented here will focus on the adoption of ereading technology by seniors in order to determine the habits and attitudes, motivations, and barriers experienced by this demographic. Employing semi-structured interviews and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), this study aims to investigate one element of the digital divide that sometimes goes unnoticed: age. Despite ingrained habits based on print, findings show motivations, such as convenience, contribute to the adoption of ereading by seniors.

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Kathleen Schreurs

Papers

Problematizing the Digital Literacy Paradox in the Context of Older Adults’ ICT Use: Aging, Media Discourse, and Self-Determination

Interviews with digital seniors: ICT use in the context of everyday life

Not All on the Same Page: E-Book Adoption and Technology Exploration by Seniors.

Children’s E-books are Born: How E-books for Children are Leading E-book Development and Redefining the Reading Experience

Interviews with Lifelong Readers: Preliminary Findings from the EDITS (Effects of Digital Information Technology on Seniors) Project