Adult digital media literacy needs

The Australian Communications and Media Authority report "Adult digital media literacy needs" (1 October 2009) has found a significant number of Australians are missing out on the benefits of the Internet, due to a lack of skills and motivation. ACMA are concerned by this as these people will be left behind as digital media becomes more important.

This has public policy implications. It is very easy for a government body to assume that if they provide information or a service via the web, then everyone can use it. ACMA's solution seems to be extra education of the digitally illiterate for this minority. But this may not always be possible and there are other options. It is likely that there will continue to be people who are unable, or unwilling, to use digital media (including those who do not find it of use). One reason Roger Clarke and myself suggested providing Internet access at public libraries was that these facilities are staffed with highly trained information professionals to can help the public with information access (called "librarians"). There will be a continuing need for such people.

ACMA's suggestions for convincing people to use digital media appear at best naive and misguided. What ACMA seem to have in mind is a public information campaign to try to convince people to use the Internet. The Australian government is currently spending billions of dollars on programs to provide digital education for everyone from school children to senior citizens. It seems unlikely that a "Where have you been online today?" campaign will add much to this or be a good use of public money.

Also ACMA cannot be too smug about its own information literacy, as they way they have provided their report is not exactly best practice for online information distribution. The report is provided as a monolithic 63 page electronic facsimile of a printed report in PDF (452 kb) and Microsoft Word (704 kb). Neither of these is easy to read online and contain a copyright notice which seems to be designed to discourage their use. The PDF version of the document has security set to prevent copying of text from the document, this is a pointless encumbrance which makes discussion of the document more difficult, without increasing security in any way.

From the report:

Contents

Executive summary

• Background to research
• Objectives of the research
• Research methodology
• Key findings
• Attitudes towards different digital media
• Overarching reasons for limited usage
• Awareness of the benefits of using digital media
• Overarching attitudes among non- and limited users
• Barriers relating to the low usage patterns of digital media
• Attitudinal segmentation
• ‘Resistors’
• ‘Defensive’
• ‘Thirsty’
• ‘Potential Transitioners’
• ‘Economisers’
• Summary of the attitudes of the segments
• Suggested ways of encouraging take-up of digital media by non- and limited users
• Specific communication needs of each segment
• ‘Resistors’ and ‘Defensive’
• ‘Thirsty’
• ‘Potential Transitioners’
• ‘Economisers’

Background to the research

• Overview
• The need for research

Research objectives

• Research objectives

Methodology

• Overview
• Sample
• Rationale for sample
• Digital media usage
• Comfort levels with digital media
• Life stage
• Reasons for non- or limited usage of digital media
• Socio-economic background
• Location
• Gender
• People from non-English speaking backgrounds
• Disability
• Recruitment of respondents
• Discussion guides
• Research timing

Current attitudes towards digital media

• The importance of the internet and mobile phones
• Usage patterns of different digital media
• Non- users’ usage patterns
• Case study: David
• Limited users’ usage patterns
• Case study: Leanne’s usage patterns of digital media

Overarching attitudes towards developing digital media literacy

• Descriptions of people who are heavy and light users of digital media
• Descriptions of the ‘heavy’ user of digital media
• Descriptions of the ‘light’ user of digital media
• Overarching attitudes and reasons for limited usage
• Difficulty in understanding why usage should be a priority
• Perception that it is too difficult to change their ways
• Awareness of the benefits of using digital media
• Key driver affecting digital media usage
• Barriers relating to the low usage patterns of digital media
• Low usage of digital media on a day-to-day basis
• Lack of understanding of the underlying assumptions about how digital media work
• Lack of understanding of the commonplace language and terminology associated with digital media
• Hierarchy of skills, knowledge and understanding
• Importance of developing an understanding of digital media

Attitudinal segmentation

• Attitudes towards becoming more digital media literate
• Descriptions of the attitudinal segments
• Case study: ‘Resistor’
• Case study: ‘Defensive’
• Case study: ‘Thirsty’
• Case study: ‘Potential Transitioner’
  
• Case study: ‘Economiser’
• ‘Active’ versus ‘passive’ decision making

Suggested ways of encouraging each segment to engage with digital media

• Overview
• Specific communication needs of each segment
• ‘Resistors’ and ‘Defensive’
• ‘Thirsty’
• ‘Potential Transitioners’
• ‘Economisers’
• Summary of communication needs of each segment

Findings and recommendations

• Summary of findings
• Researchers’ recommendations

• Appendix A—References
• Appendix B—Recruitment screeners
• Appendix C—Discussion guide
• Hierarchy of skills, knowledge and understanding

Adapted from: Adult digital media literacy needs, ACMA, August 2009