A new study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project that analyzed data from more than 40,000 Americans found that African Americans, while less likely to be able to afford personal computers, blog one and a half times to nearly twice as often as whites. The study was published online in the March issue of the journal Information, Communication & Society.
"Blacks consume less online content, but once online are more likely to produce it," said the study's author, Jen Schradie, a doctoral candidate in sociology at UC Berkeley and a researcher at the campus's Berkeley Center for New Media.
But this doesn't mean the digital divide is over — far from it, Schradie says. Her research echoes earlier findings that blogs, websites and video-sharing sites are weighted heavily with the perspectives of college-educated Americans. "People with more income and education are still more likely to blog than those with just a high school education and Internet access," she explained.
The specifics: On average, about 10 percent of blacks are likely to blog, compared with 6 percent of whites, according to surveys taken during that seven-year period. And that figure steadily rose, with 17 percent of blacks likely to blog in 2008, compared with 9 percent of whites.
Read more at PhysOrg.com.
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