An Exploratory Study on Region and the Digital Divide

This exploratory research investigates how region, in addition to basic demographic characters, affects internet usage from a perspective based on the digital divide theory and the user-centered approach thereto. For internet usage, internet newspaper reading preference and internet survey preference are analyzed. Results show that most regions, in addition to most demographic variables, affect internet usage statistically significantly. Sex and household income, for instance, are uninfluential to internet newspaper preference unlike other demographic characteristics such as age, education, marital status, and job status; but they all are for internet survey preference. It seems so because filling out an internet survey is considered a more difficult task compared with internet newspaper reading. Among the regions analyzed in the context of hypothetically influencing internet newspaper and survey preferences, some in the Gyeongsang area stand out with Gyeonggi and Jeju, most likely due to the regions' various peculiarities. Such results empirically support the digital divide argument and the utility of the user-centered approach while confirming the importance of region in explaining the divide. The findings also imply that new internet services need to optimally regionalize for the best results.