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UMI

INTERNET ADOPTION AND USE BY KUWAIT UNIVERSITY STUDENTS:

NEW MEDIUM, SAME OLD GRATIFICATIONS

DISSERTATION

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for

the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate

School of the Ohio State University

By Talal Naser al-Najran, M.S.

******

The Ohio State University

1998

Dissertation Committee: Approved by

Professor Thomas McCain, Adviser

Professor Stephen Acker

Professor William Loadman Adviser

Communication Graduate Program UMX Number: 9911158

UMI Microform 9911158 Copyright 1999, by UMI Company. All rights reserved.

This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code.

UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 ABSTRACT

This study explored the adoption and use of the Internet by Kuwait University students. A survey administered to a sample of 598 students was designed to understand smdents’ attitudes toward the Internet and to answer questions about factors that best predict the adoption and use of this new communication technology. Questions of interest were: Who used the Internet? How? For what? and Why? The study was based upon two mass communication theories: diffusion of innovations and uses and gratifications. Using multiple regression, two models were developed for predicting Internet adoption and time spent on-line. The first model differentiated between those students who adopted the

Internet and those who did not. The model predicted Internet adoption by demographics, education, mass media use, operational skills, information technology ownership, and

Internet and personal attitudes. Major findings showed that adopters of the Internet at

Kuwait University were more likely to be males, in the College of Engineering, young, with above average GPA and more than average computing skills, who adopted more information technologies, and spent less time watching TV. Adopters were more likely to be innovators, motivated, to have less problems with English, had more technical skills, greater access to the Internet, adopted the Internet for its advantages, and their use of the

Internet was more compatible with their culture and religion. The analysis indicated that gratification factors play an important role in Internet service selection and time spent on­ line. The study confirmed five proposed gratification dimensions in the framework for studying the Internet. This supported the multimedia feature of the Internet in combining gratifications from mass media and interpersonal media: surveillance/information, entertainment/diversion, interpersonal utility, social interaction, and instrumental/transactional. In the second model, Internet use was explained differently than

Internet adoption. Among Internet users at Kuwait University (n=249), the five major predictors of time spent on line were: social interaction gratification, access from home, length of experience, use of e-mail, and use of WWW. The model confirmed that Internet applications, gratifications, and elements are superior in predicting time spent on-line to background and demographic characteristics.

Ill Dedicated to my only love: Mother, who dedicated her life for us

IV ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I would like to thank all of those listed below:

My advisor Professor Thomas McCain for his understanding, support, advice, recommendations, and defenses. I owe him what I know about new media, and I regret not spending more time with him. I hope our collaboration will not be ended once I get lost in the desert.

Professor Stephen Acker and Professor William Loadman for their exciting way of teaching which made me like their areas of interest, and for helping me through my classes, general exams, and the development of my dissertation.

Linda Kay Dobbs for her help, company, commitment, motivation, and inspiration which I needed during my writing of the dissertation.

Lillie Jenkins for being the sister I missed, a soul mate, and a patient teacher.

My brother Yaquob al-Kandari for being my best colleague, buddy, and life time friend. Without his encouragement, I would probably still be taking classes.

My mentor Suliman al-Rubah for his inspirational ideas and thoughts which helped me managed my problems from the time I arrived to Columbus until I finished my degree.

My friends Hidar al-Bloshi, Tariq al-Masood, Musaad al-Najdi and Khalid al-Ammar for the warm familial comfort they provided me when I was away from my family.

Dr. Ibraheem al-Khulifi for helping me with the challenges I need, understanding of myself, and to figure out what I am heading to. Dr. Jamal al-Menayes who encouraged me from the time I arrived in the United States, through getting my scholarship at Kuwait University, collecting the data for my dissertation, until I finished my study.

Ann Holifield who encouraged me to come to Ohio State.

Chris Getties who taught me the most valuable lesson in my life.

Chris Yonnashanis who showed me how to be adventurous in this short life.

Ali Corry for being a warm friend in this strange cold land.

Dr. Humood al-Quashaan, Dr. Yousif Golom, Dr. Hadi Mokhtar, Dr. Ibraheem

Ismaeel, Dr. Mosa al-Mazidy, Dr. Afeef Arabi, Dr. Abdulaziz a-Muhalbi, and all the faculty in the department of Mass Communication at Kuwait University for helping me with the design of the questionnaire and collecting the data.

My nephew Bader al-Oan who helped me entering the data. He is a young man with big talent.

My friend Abdulaziz al-Bader for being the innovator who inspired me to study the

Internet and new information technologies.

Anwer al-Fadel for being my student and a teacher I learned from at the same time.

My cousin Khalid al-Quomlas who was a father, an uncle, a big brother, a role model, and a male figure for me when I needed all of those in my life.

My friend Khalid al-Yaquot who has been providing me with the guidance and support whenever I need that.

My friend Fahad al-Rashdan who has been inspiring me from the first time I met him.

My pastor Mohsen al-Salhi. I could not live up to his valuable advises, but I ask Allah to congregate me with him and his virtuous group in the day after.

Nasser al-Najran for being my dad who taught me how to say yes to authority.

And last but not least, Latifa al-Essa for being my Mom.

VI VITA

July 5th, 1966 Bom- Kuwait, State of Kuwait

1988 B.S., Kuwait University, Political Science

1988-1991 Political Analyst, Ministry of Information, State of Kuwait,

1991-Present Kuwait University, Mass Communication Department

1994 M.S., University of Colorado, Boulder

1994-1998 Graduate Student, The Ohio State University

FIELDS OF STUDY

Major Field: Telecommunication, Communication

vu TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Abstract...... ü Acknowledgment ...... v Vita...... vii Table of Contents...... viii List of Tables...... xi List of Figures...... xiii

Chapters 1. Introduction...... 1 Internet in Kuwait...... 2 Internet Service at Kuwait University...... 4 Internet as a Mass Medium...... 4 The Need to Study the Internet in the Middle E ast ...... 6 Frameworks for Studying the Internet ...... 6 Conclusion...... 7

2. Literature Review...... 9 The Medium: the Internet ...... 9 The Internet as a Mass Medium ...... 12 Theoretical Framework: Applying Mass Communication Theories to the Internet — 15 Diffusion of Innovations...... 16 The Mass of the Medium and Rate of Adoption ...... 20 Cultural and Religious Values...... 23 The Fear of Social Change ...... 25 Cultural Fears...... 27 Internet Uses and Gratifications ...... 30 Social and Psychological Needs ...... 31 Motivations and Gratifications ...... 33 Internet Use and Expectancy Value ...... 34 Computer-Mediated Communication and Uses and Gratifications ...... 36 Internet Use...... 37 Interactivity and Control ...... 37 Content...... 39 U sers...... 41

viii Internet Users’ Demographic Characteristics ...... 43 Access and Language ...... 46 Internet Applications ...... 47 Internet Gratifications...... 49 Internet Use and Traditional Mass Media Exposure ...... 51 Conclusion...... 53 Internet in the Middle East: An Overview ...... 55 Control and Censorship ...... 55 The Language Problem ...... 58 The Access Problem ...... 60 Arab Users of the Internet ...... 61 The Internet in Kuwait...... 64 Internet Adoption in Kuwait ...... 70 Kuwait University and Internet Services...... 72 Statement of the Problem ...... 76 The Internet’s Challenges in the Middle East ...... 76 The Internet’s Challenges to Communication Theories ...... 77 Purpose of the Study ...... 79 Research Questions...... 80

3. The Methodology ...... 81 Operational Definitions ...... 81 Defining the Medium: Internet ...... 81 Internet Adoption (The Who, Why and When Questions) ...... 82 Internet Use (The Why and What Questions) ...... 84 Data Collection Method: The Survey ...... 90 Survey Instrument and Design...... 90 The Sample ...... 94 Collecting the D ata ...... 95 Analysis Techniques ...... 95

4. Results...... 99 Descriptive Statistics ...... 99 The Background Variables ...... 99 Model One: Internet Adoption ...... 101 Research Question One...... 101 Background Variables:...... 101 Demographic Characteristics of Internet Adopters and Non-Adopters ...... 101 Attitude Elements of Person-Intemet Interaction...... 104 Factor Analysis: General Attitudes and Internet Attitudes of Adopters and Non-Adopters ...... 104 Development of Model One: Internet Adoption ...... I ll Regression Analysis ...... I ll Direct Relationships ...... I ll Indirect Relationships ...... 115 Conclusion of Model One: Internet Adoption ...... 118 Model Two: Internet Use ...... 121 Internet Use Statistics...... 121 ix Research Question Two...... 125 Gratifications Dimensions of Internet Use...... 125 Factor Analysis for the Gratification Items ...... 125 Research Question Three ...... 128 Development of Model Two: Internet Use ...... 128 Regression Analysis ...... 128 Conclusion of Model Two: Internet Use...... 135

5. Discussion and Conclusion...... 138 Adoption Rate and Patterns ...... 138 The Internet Adoption M odel ...... 140 Internet Gratifications...... 148 Internet Use Model ...... 149 Limitations of the Study ...... 155 Future Directions and Studies...... 159 Conclusion...... 162

Appendices ...... 168 Appendix (A): Sexual Lists Offered by Gulfnet ...... 169 Appendix (B): A Translation of the Questionnaire ...... 170 Appendix (C): The Questionnaire in Arabic ...... 175 Appendix (D): Table of Spearman’s Rho Correlation Coefficient for Internet Adoption. 182 Appendix (E): Table of Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient ...... 193 Appendix (F): Graph of Kuwait University Wide Area Network ...... 201 Bibliography ...... 203 Index ...... 222 LIST OF TABLES

Table Page

Table I : Main comparison in structure between traditional mass media and Internet.. .54

Table 2; Summary Descriptive of Demographic Characteristics...... 100

Table 3: Summary Descriptive of Operational Skills and Mass Media Use ...... 101

Table 4: Crosstabulations of Gender and College by Internet Adoption ...... 102

Table 5: Age and GPA Means for Internet Adopters and Non-Adopters ...... 103

Table 6: Means of Mass Media Use, Operational Skills and Information

Technologies Ownership for Internet Adopters and Non-Adopters ...... 104

Table 8: Factor Analysis for Internet Attitudes ...... 110

Table 9; Logistic Regression Analysis: Variables in the Equation for Internet

Adoption ...... 113

Table 10: Multiple Regression Analysis for Predicting Attitude Elements of

Person-Intemet Interaction...... 117

Table 11: Summary Descriptive of Internet U se...... 122

Table 12: Time Spent On-Line for All Internet Services...... 122

Table 13; Primary Use of the Internet ...... 123

Table 14: The Five Categories Most Frequently Accessed Through WWW ...... 123

Table 15: Time Spent On-Line by Background Variables...... 124

Table 16: Factor Analysis for Internet Gratifications...... 126

XI Table 17: Means of Internet Gratifications U se...... 128

Table 18: Multiple Regression Analysis for Predicting Time Spent On-Line ...... 130

Table 19: Multiple Regression Analysis for Predicting the Gratification Factor

“Social Interaction” ...... 131

Table 20: Multiple Regression Analysis for Predicting E-mail Use ...... 132

Table 21: Logistic Regression Analysis: Variables in the Equation for Internet

Access from Home...... 133

Table 22: Multiple Regression Analysis for Predicting Length of Experience ...... 134

Table 23: Multiple Regression Analysis for Predicting WWW Use ...... 135

XU LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Page

Figure 1; Elements of Internet Adoption for Kuwait University Students...... 88

Figure 2: Elements of Internet Use for Kuwait University Students...... 89

Figure 3: Composite Explanatory Model of Internet Adoption for Kuwait

University Students...... 120

Figure 4: Composite Explanatory Model of Internet Use for Kuwait University

Students...... 137

X lll CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Kuwait, as is the case with many Arab countries, is confronting major challenges as it struggles to keep pace with and better understand the function of the Internet. Arab countries are caught between a rock and a hard place with respect to the Internet. They seek to insulate their societies, to a variety of degrees, from what is seen as the degradation of

Western Society, at the same time that they scramble to compete with the developed world

in technology utilization and economic development. How and whether or not to

encourage, discourage, regulate, sponsor, or even operate Internet diffusion and usage

represent agonizing questions for Arab leaders.

The Internet represents the cutting edge in global mass communication technology. The

political and economic decisions that surround the issue of Internet access and regulation

are so crucial to public policy directions because of the potential that exists for and by

sharing in a universal communication technology that is readily accessible to major sectors

of all economically developed societies. Similar political and economic decisions have had

to be made with respect to other aspects of media proliferation such as was the case first

with the printing press, then with radio and later television.

While access to the Internet is to a large extent becoming global and universal, the

Middle East is not joining as quickly as the rest of the industrial world. Most Arab

countries do have systems of Internet, they do not have impressive growth rates. In terms

I of the rate of Internet adoption, Arab countries remain far behind international levels

(Headcount.com, 1998; Sitelnspector, 1998; ITU, 1996). Arab countries do not have the

kind of press freedoms enjoyed by the West. The Internet is threatening to Arab

governments who realize how new information technologies are put to good use by those

people who share dissident political opinions. A major threat is perceived in the use of the

Internet to bypass government censors and access international information (Burkhart,

1998).

Despite the lack of access and resistance to the Internet that is found in most Arab

countries, Kuwait provides an example of courageous hope in this regard. Kuwait

University, in particular, is a shining example of Internet utilization. Kuwait University

was the first academic institution to get on-line in 1992 and has the largest Internet

connection in the Arab World. Moreover, it is the only institution in the Arab World that

offers open and free Internet access to its students, a policy which acknowledges the

evolution of the Internet as an important educational opportunity in Kuwait (Wheeler,

1998).

Internet in Kuwait

A very high percentage of Internet users and sites in the Arab World are in Kuwait

(Wheeler, 1998). There are several reasons for this, the country’s wealth and especially the

free Internet access provided through Kuwait University. Kuwait has one of the highest

socioeconomic levels of development in the Arab World and the telecommunication

infrastructure is competitive and well established (World Telecommunication Development

Report, 1997). Income levels are sufficient to allow for the broad adoption of new

communication technologies such as the mobile phone, the fax machine, and satellite TV.

On the other hand, a number of studies have shown that Kuwait, along with other Arab

countries, is currently well below international averages in the number of computers that it

has in use and in its number of Internet hosts (Goodman & Green, 1994). Many factors

2 contribute to this unusual phenomenon, including government control, cultural and religious values, and insufficient infrastructure (Burkhart, 1998).

Public Internet access started in Kuwait before any other Arab country. Besides the

Kuwait University endeavor, diffusion efforts in 1994 were made by many individuals who had first used the Internet at foreign educational institutions and by businesses recognizing the need to operate internationally. Those have been the heaviest users and the most active overall. The government entered the Internet field later in 1996 to regulate and control the market. Internet access in Kuwait is not censored yet as is the case in other Arab countries. However, since all access is via the Ministry of Communication, it is possible to have a proxy server firewall in a fashion similar to that of other Middle Eastern states.

Even though the Internet infrastructure supporting services are well-established and controlled by the government, Internet access in Kuwait suffers from low levels of access and connections, low bandwidth, high prices for service and the effect of monopoly (al-

Maatoog, 1997).

Because Kuwait is a relatively conservative country with high socioeconomic standards, it is hard to categorize either as a part of the Third World or as a developed country. However, there are factors such as demographics variables, (i.e., disposable income, education and gender) that can provide some insight regarding adoption of the

Internet in this country.

In an Islamic society, such as in Kuwait, religion also plays a significant role in shaping cultural values regarding a new medium such as the Internet. However, because of the Internet’s advantages some Kuwaitis want to both preserve the national culture and at the same time taking advantage of new technology and participating in the new global communication. Internet Service at Kuwait University

Kuwait University’s integration of the Internet in classrooms for academic use is very limited despite the open and hree Internet access to its students (Wheeler, 1998). With the exception of a few departments, those mostly related to science and engineering, there are no classes offered that teach the use of the Internet. Most Internet uses by students are individual efforts and spring from curiosity. The three most popular facilities used by students are WWW, e-mail, and Internet Relay Chat (IRC), in one form or another. A major problem for Arab students is comprehension of the English language, the dominant language on the Internet, which can affect their ability to sift information for education.

Through the Internet, many university students in Kuwait may have found a new way to communicate and be a part of the “global village.” Slowly, the introduction of the

Internet may change their lives. As they are now experiencing an important turning point, the most important thing to do would be to construct ways of using the new technology to improve the quality of the users’ lives without causing them to lose their cultural identity.

The introduction of the Internet has changed many students’ lives. Now, they can stay up-to-date about news, read newspapers published daily on the Web, read comments in news group, send e-mail, sign onto chat rooms, listen to radio broadcasts, and explore the

Internet in myriad ways. The sense of community and belonging fostered by the Internet for those Kuwaiti students is an example of how the Internet is quickly growing beyond country boundaries.

Internet as a Mass Medium

With the increasing number of people who use it, the Internet has turned into the latest version of mass media. Several factors have contributed to this: 1) the growing number of users; 2) computer penetration continues to drop with an increasing speed of hardware and software; and 3) the attempts at control by some governments and large corporations. The Internet as a mass medium is claimed to have created another mass culture and to have become an essential part of our daily lives (Morris & Ogan, 1996; December, 1996).

The recent explosion in the use of the Internet and the commercial network services provide evidence that we are witnessing the growth of a new communicative culture

(Rheingold, 1994). Daily, there are a variety of dialogues, discourse communities, conversations, and social experiments organized around a variety of topics and interests on matters ranging from scientific, educational, economic, philosophical, political, or purely social to those considered less desirable by many such as pornography.

Information on the World Wide Web, such as text, voice, image, and video, is represented by combinations of more than one form of media. These help to produce any form of information. Therefore, it looks as if in the near future the Internet will be capable of almost anything that the existing media can do. The Internet also stretches the temporal overlaps and discrepancies between synchronicity and asynchronicity. Interpersonal communication, once either face-to-face or time delayed, can now be both over the Internet.

Moreover, communication on the Internet serves to highlight the important role of interactivity. This interpersonal factor allows the Internet the capability to serve as the first many-to-many mass medium.

The boundary-crossing nature of the Internet, adoption of English on the Internet, and fragmentation of societies are some of the new social concerns brought about by the information superhighway. The term “community” used to be limited to face-to-face dialogue among people in the same physical space and time, a dialogue that reflected mutual concerns and a common culture. Today, some believe that communication technologies no longer restrict communities to place, but allow them to be distributed through space.

Today, people are members of many global “non-place” communities (Rheingold, 1994). The Need to Study the Internet in the Middle East

There is a need to explore, understand and study Arab users of the Internet at a pioneer institution such as Kuwait University: Why do students adopt and use of the Internet? What do they want, need and expect from the medium? This new medium has received very little research attention in this part of the world. Many researchers acknowledge that research on the use of the Internet in the Arab World is very limited and needs to be given as much attention as in other parts of the world (Wheeler, 1998).

Arabs, individuals and academics, experiences on the Internet, both successes and failures, form an important knowledge base about the Internet and help to define frontiers for further exploration and development. The use of the Internet in Arab communities raises questions not only at cultural and social levels but also at economic and political levels.

The question that confronts is: Will the diffusion of the Internet by Kuwait University’s students improve their lives? It seems that it all depends on: Who use the medium? How do they use it? What do they use it for? and. Why do they use it? All of these questions are well worth investigation.

Frameworks for Studying the Internet

The Internet is a technology, a medium, content, and an engine of these relations; it both informs and is informed by the contexts in which such interactions occur. This new medium which is loaded with content, crowded, and seemingly a great prospect on many levels should be researched for the communication dimensions.

The new structure of the Internet in source, message, and receiver forces communication researchers to examine old definitions and theories. One problem that researchers of the Internet are facing is how this new medium fits ideas about traditional mass media. Another problem is the ways in which this medium functions in interpersonal communication contrary to the traditional division of communication study into interpersonal and mass communication. This requires new theoretical models that combine aspects of both interpersonal interaction and mass media (Morris & Ogan, 1996).

Valid explanations of what, how, why, and by whom the existing media is used could be transferable to the Internet. Due to the increasing significance of the Internet in human communication, the study of its adoptions and uses is one of the crucial agendas in communication research. Studying the Internet can lead to insights in examining the diffusion and adoption of interactive media and may find factors contributing to media technology adoption as well as patterns of how technology use develops in a community.

By using diffusion of innovations theory (Rogers, 1995), the current study will determine differences between the characteristics of adopters and non-adopters of the Internet.

The uses-and-gratifications approach is another approach to studying media audiences by studying their activity as choice, reception and manner of response (Blumler & Katz,

1974; Palmgreen, Wenner, & Rosengren, 1985). This approach studies why people are engaged in a particular mediated communication or another, and what they get from it. The focus is on psychological and sociological forces that motivate people to take part in receiving or exchanging messages. The attention here is on the users, their behaviors and needs that are resolved by selectively attending to the media. The Internet engages users in cognitively effortful tasks and challenges them to be active. Studying the Internet will bring up questions about the uses and gratifications of providing information and of participating in an exchange (Newhagen & Rafaeli, 1996). The question here is whether users of the

Internet likely share these same needs that have been found to be true for other mass media.

The real test of the Internet as a new medium is its ability to satisfy these needs.

C o n clu sio n

This study provides an important first step in describing and explaining use of the

Internet in Kuwait. Moreover, since the Internet has a multimedia feature including mass, interpersonal, and group media, a new comprehensive framework is needed to understand

7 and explain Internet uses. Based on the previous theoretical framworks, a conceptual framework combining gratifications from mass media and interpersonal media is needed to study Internet adoption and use.

This study will consider these disciplinary goals as well. This study proceeds in a direction of synthesis, integration, and replication in a divergent social and cultural context.

Reconceptualizing the Internet from this perspective may allow scholars both to continue to use the structures of traditional media studies and to develop new ways of thinking about those structures.

Finally, this study is designed to understand the attitudes of students at Kuwait

University regarding the Internet, and will test certain hypotheses about factors that relate to uses of the Internet. The study examines the adoption of the Internet by college students in

Kuwait as a model in the Arab countries and in the Middle East. Measuring the acceptance of the Internet, the characteristics of its users, and the factors affecting its use are the main purposes. The study uses the survey method to collect data to answer questions about

Kuwait University’s students use of the Internet: who uses the medium, how, in what ways, and why? The study will open up questions and constructs that hopefully may generate more research in this field, thus benefiting developing societies. CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

The Medium: the Internet

The Internet is a massive world-wide network of computers. It is comprised of thousands of smaller regional networks scattered throughout the globe. On any given day, it connects millions of users throughout many countries. Via the Internet, hundreds of thousands of people around the world are able to exchange information from their homes, schools, and workplaces (Internet Society, 1998).

The Federal Networking Council (PNC) defines the “Internet” as:

the global information system that: (i) is logically linked together by a globally unique address space based on the Internet Protocol (IP) or its subsequent extensions/follow- ons; (ii) is able to support communications using the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) suite or its subsequent extensions/follow-ons, and/or other IP-compatible protocols; and (iii) provides, uses or makes accessible, either publicly or privately, high level services layered on the communications and related infrastructure described herein (PNC, 1995).

The Internet was a closed environment for decades, and relatively few members of the general public even knew it existed. At one point it was exclusively the domain of scientists and academics, due in large part to the fact that the large educational and research institutions had the resources and technology to get connected. However, in the past few years, it has undergone drastic changes. With the rise in popularity of personal computers, it has become clear that operating such connections can be done on an individual basis

(Internet Society, 1998). The Internet usually implies a number of basic services: Archie (archives). Electronic

Mail (E-mail), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Gopher, Listserv, Usenet, Internet Relay Chat

(IRC) and the World Wide Web (WWW). Among these services, the Web is used the most on the Internet; but the terms “WWW” and “Internet” do not refer to the same thing.

The Web refers to a body of information, an abstract space of knowledge, while the

Internet refers to the physical side of the global network. The WWW is officially described as a “wide-area of hypermedia information retrieval initiative aiming to give universal access to a large universe of documents” (Kevin, 1994).

In other words, WWW is a client-server application system that transfers text, graphics and sound files through HyperText Transfer Protocol. It uses the Internet to transmit hypermedia documents between computer users internationally. The WWW can be browsed through such client server programs as Netscape and Microsoft Explorer.

Precise statistics about Internet use are difficult to obtain, due to its diverse and global nature. However, Nua Ltd. ( 1998) maintains statistics that might be the most accurate: by

September 1998, there were 148 million host computers connected to the Internet. The

CommerceNet/Nielsen Internet Demographic Survey in June 1998 reported that the number of Internet users over the age of 16 in the US and Canada has reached 79 million, up from

58 million just 9 months ago (The CommerceNet/Nielsen Internet Demographic Survey,

June 1998).

According to the top executives of the Internet's largest companies, the biggest growth

of the Internet is coming from outside the US. The executives agreed that the lowering in

price of PCs and the privatization of foreign telecommunication companies is driving

international growth (South China Morning Post, May 12 1998).

Among all services, the WWW is the fastest growing sector of Internet use. The

growth of the Web has been remarkable even compared to the Internet at large. Judging by

the number of hosts per server, the Web has grown explosively, by 1758% in 1994 alone,

10 compared to the Internet as a whole. On October 13, 1998, total domains registered worldwide were 4,941,763, with weekly growth rate of 69,506 (NetNames Ltd., 1998).

As more new home pages appear, more users have reason to sign up for Internet access, and the growing number of users attracts more content providers.

Network Wizard 1998’s domain survey has found that the Web continues to expand.

The survey is conducted on a regular basis with the aim of tracking the growth of the

Internet by monitoring the Domain Name System and individual hosts. The top ten host names are: www, host, mail, router, ns, a, ftp, gw, user and server. The top level domain names are .com (commercial), .net (networks), and .edu (educational) (Network Wizards,

Aug. 18 1998).

Beside WWW, e-mail is another Internet application which is the first and foremost application for communication and information because of its speed and broadcasting ability (GVU, 1998). Moreover, there are other technologies such as Usenet and IRC, but their low use rate indicates that these technologies are still a bit before their prime time.

Internet relay chat (IRC) is a method by which people can communicate from anywhere in the world if they have access to the Internet. It offers private synchronous communication with one person, or with a whole channel full of people. A user wishing to enter IRC space would need a client such as Telnet, or a specialized IRC client, to access information on a server. The user potentially has many servers to access worldwide

(McElhaney, 1998).

Usenet is a world-wide distributed discussion system. It consists of a set of

newsgroups with names that are classified hierarchically by subject. Articles or messages

are posted to these newsgroups by people on computers with the appropriate software.

These articles are then broadcast to other interconnected computer systems via a wide

variety of networks. Some newsgroups are moderated (Moraes, 1998).

II The Internet as a Mass Medium

Traditionally, the word “media” has been used to refer to the means by which information is communicated, or transmitted. The American Heritage Dictionary defines

“mass media” as a means of public broadcast communication reaching a large audience.

Such means include newspapers, television, and radios which are readily accessible by major sectors of society. Mass media also refers to massively interactive media, telephone being the most prominent previous example. The increasing number of users of the Internet has turned it into another version of mass media with both broadcast and interactive aspects.

The steady growth of the Internet supports early and contemporary assertions that some

Computer mediated Communication (CMC) formats deserve the title “mass medium”

(Rafaeli, 1986). There are a variety of statistical figures on the Internet that attempt to quantify file transfer as a function of traffic, web server sites, and of course, number of

Internet users. All three are important in defining the Internet as a mass medium. The first, traffic, is a measure of interaction; the second, number of server sites, is a measure of content; and the third, number of users, represents the audience (Fry, 1996).

The popularity of the Web comes from its characteristic as a very simple-to-use interface compared to the traditionally hard-to-master resources on the Internet. It is probably this ease of use as well as the popularity of many graphical interfaces to the Web that caused the explosion of Web traffic in 1993. The potential of using networked hypertext and multimedia has prompted many users to create and explore countless innovative applications on the Internet (Leiner, 1998).

The nature of mass media is beginning to change in response to the WWW. Most ads in newspapers and magazines now have Home Page addresses (URLs) and e-mail addresses prominently displayed. Traditional mass media are now extending into

“Cyberspace in a self-referential loop: read the magazine, visit the Web site, see the movie,

12 read the on-line discussion about the movie-each medium is increasingly connected to other media in an effort to maintain audience attention in a fragmenting universe”

(Strangelove, 1996). The report, “Media in Cyberspace”, found that journalists are increasingly turning to the Internet both to source stories and to get ideas for new stories

(Editor & Publisher, Feb. 17 1998).

Many media are building up their web sites as an added form of communication, including magazines, radios, and TVs (see a full list of Mass Communication Applications at http://www.december.com/cmc/info/applications-communication-mass.html). The response is high: for example, France I998’s World Cup, the official world cup website, has received 2.5 million visitors from 160 countries and more than 300,000 Cup 98 screensavers have been downloaded already. The world's largest sporting event became one of the biggest web events ever (ZDnet, Apr. 16 1998).

More and more mass media providers are noticing this trend and start to change their focus on the new battlefield. WWW's potential for being a new mass medium should not be ignored. James Adams, CEO of United Press International, at a publishing conference in New York, noted that newspapers were not reacting in the correct way to the onset of the

Internet. While the Web eats away at the stronghold of newspapers, the provision of local news, newspapers are merely reproducing the print version of newspapers on-line

(Infoworld, Mar. 20 1998).

What factors make WWW different from other communication media? Strangelove

(1996) distinguishes the critical characteristics and structure of the Internet from the more familiar segments of media culture that have led to its overwhelming growth rate: First, it is an “open system” technology: no one company or government owns it. Second, it is a

“decentralized system”: there is no central administrative body (the networks within different countries are funded and managed locally according to local policies). Third, it is an “uncensorable system”: information and disinformation abound and the ultimate editor

13 or censor is the end user. Finally, it is a “bi-directional system”: it is communication with feedback.

Sheizaf Rafaeli ( 1988) offers four defining technical qualities of communication on the

Internet: multimedia, hypertextuality, synchronicity, and interactivity.

Multimedia. There are combinations of more than one form of media to represent information on the WWW such as voice, text, and image. This enables WWW information providers to be able to produce any form of information. This technology enables the Web to offer voice, music, image, animation, graphics, and video media in addition to text.

Hypertextuality. Hypertext is one of the distinctions between WWW and other mass media.

Also, the combination of a hypertext structure and a multimedia presentation form a powerful hypermedia format. Each document can contain many hypertext links that allow users to explore related information in other documents. Links can create a web of similar interest within the WWW.

Synchronicity. Most of the communications are time sensitive, especially mass communication. Communication on the Internet travels very fast. The Internet is capable of both synchronous communication, requiring the simultaneous presence of communicants, and asynchronous communication, which essentially consists of a progression of non- simultaneous messages.

Interaction between providers and viewers. WWW provides a highly interactive environment between providers and receivers, and of course, among receivers themselves.

The communication on the Internet in general can be grouped into four categories according to the sources, messages, and receivers or audiences:

1. One-to-one asynchronous communication, such as e-mail;

2. Many-to-many asynchronous communication, such as Usenet;

3. Synchronous communication, such as chat rooms on commercial services; and

14 4. Asynchronous communication generally characterized by the receiver’s need to seek out the site in order to access information, such as Web sites (December, 1996).

The interaction or the feedback channels between traditional mass media providers and receivers are different from that of the media on the WWW. The former cannot get the receivers’ response instantly from the broadcast channel, while media providers on the

WWW can have the subscribers’ instant responses through the same broadcast channel.

The interactivity distinguishes the Internet as also a potentially interpersonal mass medium.

This interpersonal factor gives the Internet the capability to serve as the first many-to-many mass medium (Rafaeli, 1986).

Comparing the characteristics of mass media, the Intemet is a perfect candidate to be a mass medium. It can provide a location, it is international, and, of course, it is a powerful source. The Intemet is even better than other traditional mass media, because it provides text, picture, audio and video in a convergent way. There are many format choices for the audience to select from, as well as when, and how, to use these choices.

Theoretical Framework; Applying Mass Communication Theories to the

Internet

A useful theory should be conceptualized at a high enough level of abstraction to explain a variety of phenomena (Reynolds, 1971). This implies that valid explanations of

who uses what, as well as how and why people use existing media, should be transferable

to the Intemet. However, it is difficult to piece together an integrative model to explain and

predict media adoption, uses, and evolution pattems, or even to classify smdy results or theoretical statements (December, 1996).

Many approaches can be used to analyze the adoption and use of the Intemet by students at Kuwait University. Using a variety of frameworks for defining units of analysis, this research will examine an array of communication settings. It will focus on the

Intemet and will lead to insights in examining its diffusion and adoption. It will search for

15 factors contributing to Intemet adoption as well as pattems of how this medium use develops in a community.

Looking at mass communication research to examine the applicability of established theories and methodologies to new media is a useful starting point. In approaching the study of the Intemet, “Diffusion of Innovations” and “Uses and Gratifications” are two established research theories in mass communication literature that seem to be applicable to the Intemet.

Diffusion of Innovations

One way to look at the growth of the Intemet is as a new technology that is being adopted. The Intemet has been one of the most rapidly adopted communication technologies. Due to the increasing significance of the Intemet in human communication, the study of its adoptions, uses and consequences has become one of the cmcial agendas in communication research. Research on the diffusion of innovations has discovered some predictable pattems about who starts using a new media, when, and why (Morris & Ogan,

1996; December, 1996).

Everett Rogers, who compiled much of the diffusion literature, defines “diffusion” as the process by which the adoption of new technologies spreads over time throughout the members of a social system. Diffusion is described as resulting from the effects of the adopters’ characteristics, technology characteristics, social systems, and communication networks available for diffusion (Rogers, 1995).

The early adopters are considered as innovators and are more exposed to international communication, more cosmopolitan, have higher levels of education, need a short innovation-décision period, and have more innovativeness. Innovators are usually eager to try new ideas, are venturesome, cope well with uncertainty, and enjoy taking risks.

“Innovativeness is the degree to which an individual or other unit of adoption is relatively earlier in adopting new ideas than other members of the system” (Rogers, 1995, p. 22).

16 A technological innovation will diffuse faster if it is perceived as having ( 1 ) relative advantage over the methods it supersedes in terms of economics, convenience, social prestige, or satisfaction; (2) a high degree of compatibility with existing values, past experiences, and needs of potential adopters; (3) a low degree of complexity; (4) a high degree of “trialability” before commitment is required, and (5) a high degree of visibility to other potential adopters (Rogers, 1995).

The significance of this model is that understanding the diffusion process can aid in allowing those who can benefit from an innovation such as the Intemet to begin increasing those benefits earlier. By identifying critical social and technical factors and processes in the adoption, implementation, and utilization of a technology, the literature indicates that the decision making responses of individuals and organizations may be predicted and, therefore, may also be accommodated or redirected through prescriptive strategies (Rogers,

1995).

The model for the diffusion of innovations in communication suggests that beliefs about new media are important when attempting to predict its use. The model describes the adoption of new media as having four stages: ( 1 ) knowledge of the innovation; (2) persuasion, or formation of an attitude toward the innovation; (3) the decision to accept or reject the innovation; and (4) confirmation or disconfirmation of the decision (Rogers,

1995). The formation of attitudes toward new media and subsequent evaluation of the decision to adopt the medium clearly parallel the expectancy value argument. This model is useful in providing a model on which to compare the attributes of the Intemet in its effectiveness as a communicating tool. Through examining these stages of adoption, some deficiencies in the innovation that have deterred some users from adopting it can be revealed.

In the diffusion literature, communication networks consist of interconnected individuals who are linked to one another by pattemed flows of information. These

17 pattemed flows have a degree of structure, stability and predictability. The structure also consists of bridge ties between individuals with dissimilar social status, norms and values.

For example, the early majority emulate the early adopters and network with them. This networking is at the center of the diffusion process. Key to the network idea is the function of the change agent. The change agent is an outsider who is not of the same class and does

not hold the same norms as the adoptee (Rogers, 1995).

Moreover, as a communication theory on media effect, the diffusion of innovations

adopts the “two-step-flow” approach. According to Rogers, this perspective implies that

the role of communication is ( 1) to transfer technological innovations from development

agencies to their clients, and (2) to create an appetite for change through raising a climate

for modernization among the members of the public (Rogers, 1995).

Rogers introduces this diffusion theory in the context of development. Modernization

here is conceived as a process of diffusion whereby individuals move from a traditional

way of life to a different, more technologically advanced and a more rapidly changing way

of life. This approach is therefore concerned with the process of diffusion and adoption of

innovations in a more systematic and planned way.

The social system is also an important element in this model. The social system

constitutes a boundary within which an innovation diffuses. The social system (for

individuals or organizations) can have an impact on the diffusion process through the social

structure, the effect of norms, the roles of opinion leaders and change agents, types of

innovation decisions, and the consequences of innovation.

For diffusion in organizations such as a university, Rogers (1995) discusses two

related models. One is a model of the Innovation Process in an Organization. This model

includes the stages of agenda-setting, matching, clarifying, and routinizing. The other is a

set of independent variables related to organizational innovativeness such as size,

centralization, attitude toward change, and complexity. Both of these models look into

18 factors such as goals, roles, authority structure, rules and regulations and informal pattems or norms of an organization.

An example of the difference between individual and organizational diffusion is the diffusion of the Intemet. Even though there is growing attention to the individual characteristics of Intemet users, this is still primarily an organizational innovation (in education, govemment and commerce). This unique pattem of adoption hinges very much upon the cost and complexity of the basic access technology. Kmgman ( 1985) proposed a dynamically discontinuous category to reflect innovations that require a specific purchase and a dedicated set of user skills. Studies of computer adoption suggest that it is the most discontinuous of all media technologies, because of the relatively high financial and skill barriers associated with its adoption. Computer adoption was found to be the most

important skill required to use of the Intemet (Lin, 1996).

The financial and knowledge resources of organizations are still required by all but the

most knowledgeable and well-equipped home computer users. It follows that larger organizations should be earlier adopters of the Intemet than smaller ones, for the simple

reason that they can better afford to do so and are more likely to have necessary

technological and personnel resources already in place.

One of the greatest disadvantages of empirical study of innovations is the extreme

variation and instability among its findings. Another is the pro-innovation bias. That is,

there is the implication that the innovation should be diffused and adopted more rapidly by

all members of a social system. This bias leads researchers to overlook the study of

ignorance about innovations (Rogers, 1995).

The individual blame bias is another problem. This source bias is a tendency for

diffusion research to side with change agencies that promote innovations rather then with

the audience of potential adopters. Diffusion is also a process that occurs over time, so

19 there is no way to avoid including time when one studies diffusion. This inclusion of time can cause methodological difficulties (Rogers, 1995).

Moreover, the diffusion model is criticized for emphasizing the linearity of effect. It presumes manipulation of status and expertise, social structure, personal experience, and reinforcement and feedback. Other development theories allot to mass media a rather small role and place more emphasis on societies and local cultures (McQuail, 1988). Mass media are important in spreading awareness of new possibilities and practices, but it is far more likely to be influential at the stage where decisions are being made regarding whether to adopt personal communication compared to interpersonal communication.

Finally, most diffusion studies have conceptualized the innovation being diffused independent of other adoptions. One of the alternatives is to study the adoption of a set of interrelated products which is referred to as a “technology cluster” (Rogers, 1995; Dutton,

Rogers, & Jun, 1987). For example, Intemet adoption is related to the adoption of related clusters of innovations such as telecommunications and computer innovations. Innovation clusters can be superior predictors of adoption compared to innovativeness, other characteristics and conventional measures of innovation attributes (LaRose & Hoag, 1996;

Lin, 1996).

The Mass of the Medium and Rate of Adoption

One of the current problems in the Intemet is the mass of its audience (Morris & Ogan,

1996). As for the percentage of users rule, right now no Intemet server reaches the critical mass (December, 1996). The audience still has access problems. They need to have equipment, knowledge, and an account. WWW users, in contrast to the traditional media users, have different levels of ability in receiving services. Full access depends on computer configurations, platforms, Intemet access, and sound cards, so they can receive broadcast with sound. This is one of the sources of discrimination which exist on the

Intemet. For the Intemet, to be a real popular mass medium, it needs more time.

20 Rogers ( 1995) pointed out that diffusion pattems often approximate a normal distribution. He identifies five categories:

- Innovators: the 2.5% of people who are the first to adopt a technology.

- Early Adopters: the 13.5% of people who are fast to adopt (they tend to be opinion leaders)

- Early and Late Majority: the 68% of the people who wait until the innovation is diffused

(they also tend to be more price sensitive and risk adverse).

- Laggards: the 16% of people who are late to, or never, adopt an innovation.

Past research has also shown that the adoption of an innovation follows a normal, bell­ shaped curve when plotted over time on a frequency basis. If the cumulative number of adopters is plotted, the result is an S-shaped curve. The S-shaped adoption rises slowly at first when there are few adopters in each time period. It then accelerates to a maximum until half of the individual in the system have adopted. It then increases at a gradually slower rate as the few remaining individuals finally adopt.

As a special case of diffusion, the adoption of interactive communication technologies such as the Intemet has to reach the critical mass framework. The critical mass framework has been adopted by diffusion of innovations scholars to better understand the size of the audience needed for a new technology to be considered successful. That means for any medium to be considered a mass medium, a critical mass of adopters must be achieved

(Rogers, 1995). In critical mass, interactive new media only become useful as more and more people adopt because the usefulness of a new communication system increases for all adopters with each additional adopter. Initially, the critical mass notion works against the adoption of traditional media, since it takes a number of other users to be seen as advantageous. The benefits from each additional adopter increase not only the number of future adopters, but also enhance the benefits for each previous adopter. For example, the telephone or the e-mail system was not particularly useful to the first adopters because most

21 people were unable to receive their messages or converse with them. Foley (1995) called this system “autodependent” where its value depended on the number of people that adopted them. The growth shows an exponential pattem with slow growth until a threshold level has been reached, and rapid growth after that time. Therefore, the diffusion curve for interactive communications begins flat and then increases steeply after a critical mass has been reached.

Valente (1995) notes that the critical mass is achieved when about 10 to 20 percent of the population has adopted the innovation. When this level has been reached, the innovation can be spread to the rest of the social system. Adoption of computers in US households has well surpassed this figure, but the modem connections needed for Intemet connection lag somewhat behind (cited in Morris & Ogan, 1996). The popularity of the

Intemet continues to increase but statistics suggest it has a way to go before it becomes as popular as TV.

However, the Intemet is the fastest growing communications medium ever, growing at fast speed in comparisons to its predecessors, television, radio, telephone and fax. It took

38 years before 50 million Americans were listening to radio. Television picked up the pace reaching that many in only 14 years. The Intemet had 50 million users in just four years.

The Intemet explosion of the first six months of 1998 has yet to reach critical mass but it is getting there faster than anyone believed possible (Techserver, Jun. 17 1998).

The Intemet's position today is similar to that of the telephone before the 1940s. Few people had phones then because, after all, what good could a telephone be when there was no one else to call? Eventually, telephone ownership reached a critical mass and the medium became a prerequisite of modem communications. The Intemet is now approaching that level. Intemet’s biggest companies are driving the numbers through the roof by giving away its product to many people for cheap.

22 SRIConsulting estimates that Intemet TV services such as Microsoft's WebTV will reach 12 million by 2002, with cable TV based services surpassing dial-up services.

Originally, WebTV introduced Intemet access from TV sets instead of a PC. Subscribers could surf the Web on their TV and send and receive e-mails via a set top box which connects the TV to the telephone (USA Today, Aug. 5 1998).

For these reasons, Morris and Ogan (1996) suggest that each of Intemet services can be viewed as specific television stations, newspapers, or special interest magazines. None of these may reach a mass audience, but in conjunction with all the other media, they constitute mass media categories. So the Intemet itself would be considered the mass medium, while the individual sites and services are the components of which this medium is comprised.

Cultural and Religious Values

Rogers (1995), in his model, emphasized cultural values and beliefs. He noted the factors that can affect the acceptance or rejection of an innovation include: (1) the characteristics of the innovation that make it more or less attractive; (2) the role of opinion leaders and change agents; (3) the characteristics of adopters and their culture and the configuration of the culture’s communications; (4) the extent to which the innovation must compete with other innovations for adopter attention and resources; and (5) the vigorousness with which the innovation is marketed.

Therefore, the most important barriers to the diffusion are social and psychological.

Resistance to innovation usually may be dictated by very strong social or religious taboos that, in spite of the eminent economical benefits, can prevent the adoption. Users must surpass a number of barriers as they become initiated into the Intemet culture. The technical barriers are the easiest ones to solve. But there are many more that are rooted in culture, lifestyles, learning styles, paradigms, and comfort zones. Other barriers that are related include issues of language, politics, gender, and simply technical issues.

23 Many studies have focused on the barriers to global network diffusion in developing countries. These impediments include: (1) government policies, laws, and practices including govemment controls and regulations; (2) disparities in pricing policies across national borders; (3) poor physical telecommunications networks; (4) lack of technical expertise and training programs; (5) unfriendly user interfaces; and (6) local cultural factors, particularly in Muslim nations (Goodman et. al, 1994).

The Middle East has a high level of interaction between technology and political and social cultures. It is comprised of nations with a diverse set of political policies and economic constraints, and this is reflected in the cautious adoption of computer technology in the Middle East. In adopting such communication technology as the Intemet, value is the key cultural thought pattem. The value of religion competes with the value of interpersonal communication and with the value of information.

In Kuwait, as well as in other Arab and Islamic countries, cultural and religious factors provide the greatest active challenge to Westem culture and innovations. The religious influence causes many Muslims to fear the effects of Westem media. Therefore, the main emphasis in these states is the loss of control over information that accompanies the information revolution. The perceived threat from such media is twofold. First, there is the ease with which “immoral” material, such as pomography, can enter the country via the

Intemet. It is also concemed that the Intemet is being used by young people for sex chats.

Although this threat does not represent an active offensive directed against the country by any one party, it is perceived as though it was just as dangerous as a conscious offensive by an enemy. Second, there is the threat of the new media being used to spread dissident political opinions. This concem has increased by the use that certain opposition groups have begun to make of the Intemet to spread propaganda (Burkhart, 1998).

24 Wheeler (1998) studied the impact of the information revolution on Kuwait and other developing countries and stressed the inevitability of democratization and economic privatization. She predicted a clash between the global culture and local cultures.

The Fear of Social Change

Many think that a mass medium such as the Intemet can change the nature of the self, consciousness, religious forms, the experience of time and space, modes of self expression and social activism. A lesson that has been learned from history is that a new mass communication technology with the characteristics of the Intemet will change its audience

(Strangelove, 1996).

McLuhan predicted in 1967 that new media will change people’s lives. His Global

Village concept means that the world is interconnected. A simultaneous existence is happening where time and space have vanished. Distance is breaking down and people reach the “Gemeinshaft” type of society where everyone is known to everyone else, like in the small village, or, at least, where everyone can be connected to everyone else. Electronic media are reconstituting an oral tradition, bringing all senses into full play.

Howard Rheingold (1993) states that communication technologies always change the way people live and offer a second culture or community. New communication technologies such as the Intemet exhibit all the key elements of a culture, including language, symbols, rituals, status, and other meaning-conveying forms. The on-line behavior around the world shows that whenever CMC technology becomes available to people anywhere, they inevitably build virtual communities with it. These new media allow people to do things with each other in new ways. They might become the next great escape medium, which means that the new medium will be in some way a conduit for and reflector of our cultural codes, our social subconscious, our images of who “we” might be, just as previous media have been.

2 5 Rheingold (1993) states that CMC has the potential to change our lives on three different, but strongly interinfluential, levels. On the first level, as individual human being, we have perceptions, thoughts, and personalities (already shaped by other communication technologies). On the second level, we have person-to-person interaction where relationships, friendships, and communities happen. On the third level, we have our political lives, and the role of communications media among the citizenry is particularly important in the politics of democratic societies. Therefore, he advocates for a vision of a citizen-designed, citizen-controlled worldwide communications network which he called the vision of “the electronic agora.” This vision defeats another vision that could apply to the use of the Intemet in the wrong ways—the Panopticon.

Steven Jones (1995) in his book Cybersociety examined how development and deployment of CMC are transforming participants' understanding and experience of communication and community — creating new social formations. According to Jones, new matrices of social relations are emerging through the adoption and expansion of CMC.

On the other hand, empirical findings in recent studies of interactive media underline the importance of face-to-face contact in social life when compared to computer-mediated relationships. Social presence theory states that computer mediated communication is extremely low in social presence when compared to face-to-face communication because of its paucity of nonverbal and back-channeling cues. Media richness theory also outlines that face-to face contacts are “richest” in bandwidth conceming the means of interaction between people, while computer communication is considered to provide only the “leanest” bandwidth according to its limited channel capacities (Weinreich, 1997).

McCain (1990) considered globalization of one virtual community a myth.

Communication technologies cannot create one common village. Local and regional communities defended by local cultures and interests will be linked interdependently with

26 each other. Humans come to communicate through the Intemet with different background of cultural, social, political, and economic understanding.

Cultural Fears

Internationally, it can be argued that a major risk of a mismanaged Intemet lies in the loss of local identity and tradition to the “global commons.” The boundary-crossing nature of the Intemet, adoption of English on the Intemet, and fragmentation of a local societies are some of the concems. The so called free market will not invisibly protect a nation’s cultural heritage—something has to be done to preserve cultural diversity. We could start from below, by recognizing specific identities as a cultural enrichment, and by communicating across cultures, at least to develop a dialogue between us which could set the basis for the resolution of intemational conflicts.

Hale (1996) raises issues of how language functions in electronic culture, or virtual communities. Are we talking about a single, monolithic culture speaking in a monologic voice? Or are digital media fostering electronic forums with room enough for multiple communities, multiple cultures, and multiple voices? She answers: “Any literary endeavor must stoke the collective culture of its audience. In the digital age, that audience has been fragmented; we can no longer speak to a homogenous mass audience or to one standard of literacy. Instead we speak of smaller, self-selected groups—neighborhoods, communities of interest, elites” (p. 13).

Many studies also have shown that technology transfer from developed countries to developing countries usually fails because of a clash of social values and cultural norms.

To solve this problem, many suggest that the design process should consider the values within the societies adopting the technologies-users’ values. Therefore, there should be a customized approach in designing cross-cultural communication systems instead of a single global interface (Acker & Landsbergen, 1994).

27 One example for this is that not all languages are read from left to right. Arabic, for example, is read from right to left. To create a “patch” in the programming to correct the oversight would make the final software product unacceptably slow and clumsy. To address a user's culture, one way is to stress a cross-cultural component within a user- centered design development process. That is why some browsers such as Sindbad and the Arabic Intemet Explorer 3.0 have more relative advantages and have been diffused more widely than Netscape in the Arab World.

What is known about mass media is that they shape, and are shaped by, popular culture, and have the potential to create new forms of social interaction by connecting large numbers of people. Such media facilitate the creation of new social institutions and forms of culture (McQuail, 1988). The Intemet might have an influence similar to the broadcasting industry in contributing to the growth of mass culture and pop culture among younger generations. MTV, which has been notorious for its influence on mass and pop culture, has recently created its on-line version on WWW, that contains images and animation that are supposedly not appropriate for children. The Intemet is rooted in the popular culture. Popular culture gives significant clues about what people find important and the properties that they demand of a medium or artifact. Clearly these touch on peoples interests and drives: humor, sex, music, and politics (Strangelove, 1996).

It is important that a “real world” analysis perspective be taken for the Intemet. An example of cultural and social influence is the location of a multimedia device (essentially

“the computer”) within the family home. Traditionally, the computer has been used in the family study room, while the television is used in the entertainment area. The idea of a family moving the computer into the entertainment area of the home is a cultural one which will challenge preconceptions that society has about the role of the computer. The decision as to whether an intelligent multimedia device should be sold as a “smart TV”, computer or

“game machine” is heavily dependent on cultural and social pressures (Mackay, 1994).

28 The exposure of young people in Kuwait to a variety of Westem media through the

Direct Satellite Broadcast increased rapidly during the 1990s, a period of rapid social change (al-Najran, 1994). Media images included relatively free sexual behavior and

nontraditional social values. Some studies revealed relationships between media exposure

and use of media images in people’s social behavior, choice of mate, and career aspirations

in Arab societies. Males were found to be exposed to more Westem media and were able to develop a more individual taste, but both sexes appeared eager to reconcile traditional

Islamic and contemporary media-relayed values (Davis & Davis, 1998).

These superficial similarities in media exposure suggested a universal experience mediated by Westem television, films, and popular music — but it proved difficult to establish that Kuwaiti youth are in fact using the Intemet in similar ways. Indeed, social scientists studying such aspects of popular culture stress the complex intermingling of different cultural productions (Abu-Lughod, 1989; Mitchell, 1989).

Cross-cultural discussions of media influence by anthropologists have made a similar

point. Anthropological interest in the media has been spurred recently by the cultural

studies approach, in which both class differences within a culture and outside influences

upon a culture are attended to—media obviously often fall into the latter category (Abu-

Lughod, 1989).

Moving to the Intemet also involves a migration of “intellectual technologies” that challenge not just religious and social orthodoxies but also conventional boundaries of

thought and the social bases of their authority (al-Mujtama, 1997). The result is different discourse, society, and ultimately culture, among overseas Arab emigrants, exiles, labor migrants, students and new professionals (Anderson, 1997).

In the case of Middle Eastem and Muslim interests, Muslim students around the world pioneered discussion of electronic publication for views about Middle Eastem countries and about Islam. Later, national authorities tried to circumscribe the impact of the Intemet by

29 attempting to control access to, and use of it, and in other cases by establishing their own presence on it, the more “cultural” authorities blanch at, and attempt to delegitimize, both advanced electronic media of communication and people who use it (Anderson, 1997).

Anderson (1997) calls this phenomenon “cybemaut.” He describes Arab users of the

Intemet as:

explorers in, not just of. Cyberspace . .. The Intemet is not their passion so much as it is, to return to the Greek originW, their vehicle . . . Working and studying in those precincts which spawned the Intemet, they use it as a tool both in their work and also to reach out to each other and to others like themselves. What emerges in all of these venues is what I have called a creolized discourse that mixes bits of wireservice news, transcriptions of sermons, intense debate about home-country issues, stories of expatriate life and notices of cultural events, sources for food and of cheap flights home, and even matrimonials. This discourse is conducted almost entirely in English .. . Intemet fora permit bypassing traditional gatekeepers and adjudicators of interpretive rights, procedures and adequacy. The Intemet creates a realm more akin to publication than to broadcasting in which users are also producers, or may be producers. The result is an intense engagement in political, social and cultural issues that moves around traditional gatekeepers, with their qualifications to interpret and monopolies on educational technology, and admits claims to authority and legitimacy based on other — frequently on “scientific” — intellectual techniques, sureties and communities.

Internet Uses and Gratifications

The uses and gratifications model is one of the best theoretical perspectives applied to studying the role of new communication technologies. It explores the role of the Intemet in human communication and why people use the Intemet (December, 1996; Morris & Ogan,

1996; Newhagen & Rafaeli, 1996). The uses and gratifications approach considers consumers of media to be purposive in their choice of media and to actively seek media to fulfill their needs for a variety of purposes (Blunder & Katz, 1974; Palmgreen, Wenner, &

Rosengren, 1985).

Katz, Blunder and Gurevith (1974) have presented the following five basic assumptions of uses and gratifications:

(I) The audience is active and its medium choices are goal-driven; (2) The link between the medium choice and the need gratification lies with the users; (3) The media represent one choice of many that are competing for need satisfaction; (4) People are aware of their choices and know why they picked a particular medium for their gratification, usually in retrospect; (5) Any value judgment must be suspended on the 30 media chosen because each gratification is different depending on the individual (p. 21- 22).

According to the model, people are conscious of their media choice, know why they choose one media over another, and know why they use it in retrospect (McQuail, Blunder

& Brown, 1972). Indeed, uses and gratifications looks at what people do with the media rather than what the media do with them (Kippax & Murray, 1986). The uses and gratifications model has in common the major assumptions that (a) audiences are active, (b)

media use is goal directed, and (c) media use fulfills a wide range of gratifications

(Williams, Strover, & Grant, 1994).

Unlike many other “effect” theories, uses and gratifications stresses the audience

initiatives and activities. Therefore, the concept of audience initiative fits into the

characteristics of an interactive medium like the Intemet more than the traditional mass

media. The assumption that media consumers are active in their choices of media material

makes the Intemet an excellent example of a medium that people actively use (December,

1996). For example, navigating the WWW involves pointing and clicking on the hypertext

links that appear on most pages. This seemingly insignificant act is in actuality a powerful

example of how active the Web user really is. Unlike TV channel surfing, where the media

consumer indiscriminately looks for an appealing image, Web surfing is characterized by

more of an active choice.

Social and Psychological Needs

Katz, Blunder, and Gurevitch (1974) offered the first model saying uses and

gratifications is the study of: (1) the social and psychological origins of (2) needs, which

generate (3) expectations of (4) the mass media or other sources, which lead to (5)

differential pattems of media exposure (or engagement in other activities), resulting in (6)

need gratifications and (7) other consequences, perhaps mostly unintended ones (p. 20).

Uses and gratifications researchers start from gratifications that were obtained and work

31 backward to people’s needs. They attribute several factors to classify different types of gratifications that can be fulfilled. Identifying the social and psychological needs, Katz,

Gurevitch, and Haas (1973) point out that all media users have essentially the same five categories of needs:

1. Cognitive needs—information knowledge, and understanding of our environment;

2. Affective needs-strengthening aesthetic, pleasurable, and emotional experiences;

3. Personal integrative needs—credibility, confidence, stability, and status of the individual;

4. Social integrative needs—contact with family, friends, and the world; and

5. Escapist needs—escape, tension release, and desire for diversion.

The uses and gratifications model has always been criticized by its opponents for being individualistic in the sense that it deals with intra-individual processes, but cannot be generalized into a social structure. It treats audience as individuals, abstracted from their social environment. That is why uses and gratifications research must proceed in a direction of integration and replication within similar and divergent social and cultural contexts. The research needs go beyond the motivational analysis to appreciate the complexity and social context of the audience's behavior (McQuail, 1988).

Cultural and critical cultural theorists disagree with the assumption that members of the audience personally and actively determine what gratifications of what needs will and will not occur from their exposure to media messages. Media are important sources of effects and have been instrumental in creating certain social situations and making themselves the most convenient and effective means of gratifying those needs. However, although there have been many debates on the theoretical value of uses and gratifications, the perspective has offered a useful vehicle to explore why people are engaged in one particular mediated communication or another, and what they get from it (Newhogen & Rafaeli, 1996).

32 Motivations and Gratifications

Uses and gratifications provides a useful analytical tool to study users' motivations for using the Internet. Palmgreen (1984) argues that topological studies aimed at identifying motives for media consumption are “at the core of the uses and gratifications tradition” (p.

22). The most prodigious effort has been directed toward refining an understanding of gratifications sought from mass media. Gratifications studies, however, have revealed many different ways of categorizing the central concept, thus restraining theoretical development. Several researchers have tried to identify underlying essential dimensions of similarity and difference that organize the gratifications. Fundamental distinctions have emerged: content and process gratifications (Cutler & Danowski, 1980); cognitive and cultural gratifications (McQuail, 1980); and instrumental and ritual gratifications (Rubin,

1984).

Swanson (1992) observed that these distinctions can be categorized into two essential gratifications dimensions: ( 1 ) gratifications that result from the pleasurable experience of media content and are realized during consumption (process, cultural, or ritual gratifications); and (2) gratifications that result from learning information from media content and subsequently putting it to use in practical affairs (content, cognitive, or instrumental gratifications). In sum, gratifications research on mass media provides the two essential dimensions of gratifications from media: ( 1 ) pleasurable experience and (2) learning information.

Moreover, interactive communication media were found to have different gratifications from these conventional one-way mass media. Dimmick, Sikand and Patterson (1994) explored unique gratifications associated with the telephone; sociability and instrumentality.

“Instrumental” refers to “outcome”-oriented gratifications from media use. Here, communication is a means to achieve a certain purpose, e.g., transaction. Transaction emphasizes active users' initiatives that are inherent characteristics in the interactive media,

33 while Information is mostly related to passive leaming in mass media. For example, shopping, ordering and making reservations can be included in the Transaction dimension.

On the other hand, the sociability gratifications are referred to as “process”-oriented gratifications from media use. Communication is regarded as a purpose itself, i.e., people get gratifications immediately during the communication process. And while Entertainment is mainly a personal gratifications dimension, sociability includes relational gratifications from communicating with other people.

Some apparently non-sociability items like pleasure or relieving boredom cannot be compounded with other items in the sociability dimension. For example, users can use the

Intemet for personal pleasure or entertainment purposes without forming any meaningful social relationships. However, people may use Internet communication for many purposes at the same time. Some of these major purposes mentioned above are not mutually independent: Someone, for example, can participate in Intemet communication for a combination of communication, information, entertainment and social interaction at the same time.

Internet Use and Expectancy Value

Expectancy value theory, which is generally concerned with the relationship between beliefs and attitudes, helps explain media adoption and use as a function of audience beliefs about and evaluations of various media. In other words, the belief that a particular medium possesses attributes that will fulfill audience needs is central to the decision to use that medium. Palmgreen (1984) reported that a central concept in uses and gratifications-the importance of expectations about media use—recently had been treated to “a rigorous conceptualization” (p.35). According to Palmgreen, varying conceptions of audience expectations can be developed using the expectancy value approach. This model has been specifically incorporated into the uses and gratifications approach to explain gratifications sought from media as a function of beliefs about a medium (Palmgreen, 1984).

34 Gratifications sought are a function of expectations that the medium possesses particular attributes, and of the evaluation of those attributes.

Using expectancy-value theory may answer a very important question of what motivates a person to turn on the computer and connect to the Intemet. The theory essentially states that “exposure to mass communication results from persons' seeking valued consequences that they associate with particular messages or media” (Dervin,

1989). A person has a preconceived idea that a particular medium or message will best satisfy his or her need. In order to find out why a person chooses a particular medium. It is

necessary to look at the broader social situation that created the notion that one medium

would be more satisfactory than another medium.

This theory is rooted in a decision-making model that argues that individuals selecting

from several altematives will choose the one with the highest expected utility. Scholars

built on this model to explain the decision in terms of attitudes or beliefs about the objects

being selected. Ajzen and Fishbein (1980) subsequently identified two basic factors that

influence behavior. The first is personal, the “attitude toward the behavior” (p. 6) or the

individual's judgment about whether a behavior is good or bad. The second factor is the

individual’s perception of social pressures to behave or not behave in a certain way. This

factor is called the “subjective norm” (p. 6). They also argued that beliefs about (a) the outcome of the behavior and (b) social norms for the behavior were the underlying explanation for all human actions.

LaRose and Atkin (1991) described a formula used by expectancy value theory to calculate attitudes toward behavior. In this formula, the strength of a belief about an

outcome of behavior and the evaluation of that belief are summed over salient beliefs.

Communication researchers have used the expectancy value approach to study the selection of media. For example, LaRose and Atkin (1991) concluded that consumer satisfaction is an important variable determining cable television use. They argued that

35 consumer satisfaction with cable has more influence on subscription decisions than the demographic variables traditionally considered predictors for adoption of relatively new media.

Research also suggests that user attitudes are an important influence in the adoption of new media. Eastlick ( 1993) studied the adoption of videotext for catalog shopping. She concluded that consumer attitudes about the advantages or disadvantages of videotext were important predictors of adoption. Moreover, Ettma (1989) argued more generally that many consumers refused to adopt videotext because it did not provide a cheap, easy to use substitute for traditional sources of news, advertising, catalog shopping and banking.

Computer-Mediated Communication and Uses and Gratifications

When it comes to a uses and gratifications approach to studying computer-mediated communication, the research gave some indication that some need gratification was taking place through social communication over computer networks. Dickerson and Gentry

(1983) observed that people who adopted computers into their lives usually were not looking for a social site. By 1983, social interaction sites on the Intemet were less than

10,000 host sites (Rheingold, 1993). Even though the number of people connected to

Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) was low, the number of BBS rose rapidly during the 1980s

(Williams, Rice & Rogers, 1988). And by 1990, the number of Intemet host sites rocketed up from 10,000 in 1981 to more than 750,000. While some host sites have only a few users, some might contain thousands (Rheingold, 1993). Among the more heavily populated sites are the social interaction sites that usually promote the user to engage in role-playing or just chatting.

Also, it is important to note that in the study of computer-mediated communication, computer networks like BBS are considered mass communication. These BBS are simply a posting board where users place messages on the computer network for anyone to read.

On the other hand, computerized communication (e-mail, interactive real time

36 communication) is considered interpersonal communication (Williams, Rice & Rogers,

1988). Interactive media such as BBS and e-mail are believed to fulfill a need whether it be ordering an airline ticket or playing a role-playing game. Emotional gratification might also be fulfilled with social sites or on a BBS that could lead to a fnendship or a romance

(Williams, Phillips & Lum, 1985).

According to a study of computer users by Hellerstein (1986), evidence suggests that computers, as communication media, are being used for some gratification purposes.

Hellerstein observed that heavy users of computerized communication spend some of their time on-line in a social function. In the study, 40% of the heavy users accessed the e-mail system at their university to chat with friends and even to initiate a friendship compared to

26% of light users. Finally, light users used the e-mail system most of the time (33%) to alleviate boredom.

Williams, Rice and Rogers (1988) found that interactive media, like computer-mediated communication, gave people the chance to disseminate messages that have a niche.

Computer-mediated communication has the ability, unlike network television where the programming is for a mass audience, to only reach an audience of selective tastes since computer-mediated communication has the ability to be personalized. The audience for some computer-mediated communication user groups, whether technical or social, can vary with people’s tastes.

Internet Use Interactivity and Control

As pointed the main feature of the Intemet, by contrast with old mass media, is interactivity. Supply and choice no longer rests predominantly in the hands of the supplier of communication or central authority. The high capacity of the Intemet gives the users variety of selection and interaction of content and use. It gives more access and freedom to

37 choose and use according to receivers’ time and place. That offers a shift in the balance of power away from sender and toward receiver (McQuail, 1988).

The Interactivity of producers and receivers of content is one of the Internet's most important advantages; that means an audience member may also be a message producer.

This concept has been assumed to be a natural attribute of interpersonal communication, but it is more recently applied to new media (Rafaeli, 1988).

According to McLuhan’s (1964) classification, media are either hot or cool dependent on how high their level of interaction. Hot media have very low levels of interaction, whereas cool media demand a high level of interaction. The Intemet potentially is a very cool medium, as it can require high levels of interactivity and participation from the user.

All traditional mass media follow a broadcast-based structure (one-way). Central points of dissemination, radio and television stations and publishing houses, send content out to mass audiences who have very little input into the content they are consuming. The Intemet is the first form of mass media that does not follow this stmcture. Electronic mail enables almost immediate feedback to the source of received information (Strangelove, 1996).

Moreover, mass media have always been controlled by members of the ruling elite. All forms of mass communication have been subject to either direct govemment ownership, indirect control, manipulation, and/or censorship through regulatory bodies, such as the

Ministries of Communication in the Arab countries, and further indirect control as the result of the mass media's corporate sponsorship. As a public resource, the Intemet has escaped privatization, and as a mass medium it has also escaped censorship of the present mass media. Today on the Intemet anyone can legally access information banned in many countries. No one can stop anyone from accessing, retrieving, and reading it (Strangelove,

1996).

Most govemments from around the world have declared their desire to have a govemment-free Intemet regulation board. Intemet regulation should be put into the hands

38 of the International organization (Techweb, Jul. 28 1998). However, the major concern is how to protect the public from pornographic websites and content which are “offensive to human dignity” on the Intemet. Most govemments around the world are in the process of drafting guidelines which will control pomography. One suggestion was to introduce authorized site rating systems and set up hotlines where harmful on-line sites could be reported and dealt with. It was also recommended that parents and teachers be supplied with monitoring softwares which would filter offensive sites. Creating safe “zones” for

Intemet content would be one tolerable way to address concems about on-line obscenity

(News.Com, Jul. 7 1997).

Content

The uses of the Intemet as a mass medium raises questions about the nature of its communicative content. New media place emphasis on message and distribution rather than

production (McQuail, 1988). As commercial providers increase on the Intemet, and more

political information is provided, the problem of who sets the agenda for the new medium

also becomes a concem (Strangelove, 1996).

Furthermore, credibility is a problem in this new mass medium. The Intemet can make

few claims about the veracity of its information compared to traditional mass media. Source

credibility will vary on the Intemet, with commercial media sites carrying relatively more

credibility and unknown sources carrying less. The user will determine how much faith to

place in any given source. A built-in feature to validate information found on the Intemet is

also lacking, according to Bemers-Lee, the founder of the Intemet. He suggests adding an

“oh yeah?” function to browsers so information could be checked and verified on-line

(Techserver, Sep. 7 1998).

On the content issue, Negroponte (1995) in Being Digital suggests that the medium is

no longer the message: information providers will transmit bits of information that are, essentially, formless. The bits, in mm, will be assembled by the receivers according to

39 how they want to interact with them. As a result, they will exert more control over both the content of information that they want entering their homes and the form in which they wish to see it presented to them.

Everyone on the Intemet can be a content provider or an information publisher. This has profound implications on the distribution and control of knowledge and power and the ability to locate, sift, sort and filter information. It also has massive implications on the notions of authority and credibility with regards to publishing (Strangelove, 1996).

On the Web, content is important, and it always will be. Being able to provide some unique value to the audience via this medium is not about just printing electronically. What really counts is a rich WWW site that provides value and prompts users to return. Just putting a page out there is no longer sufficient. The Intemet is only the delivery system, just as broadcast is the delivery system for television and radio. The power of this mass medium will be unleashed through the development of information communities and events for the mass audience with quality content (Negroponte, 1995).

The Intemet now is a tool in enabling divided urban areas to recreate a community, belonging and support with local content. According to a survey conducted by a market investigator, Arlen Communications, 51% of Intemet users seek local content (USA

Today, Oct. 3 1997). Similarly, according to another report by Find/S VP, 51% of

Americans use the Intemet to access local information such as news, entertainment, sports and local business figures (FIND/SVP, Sep. 19 1997).

Most traditional media believe that audience want good local news (i.e., narrowcast instead of broadcast) which is still very difficult to produce and deliver in an automated way in the Intemet. Some think that mass media are gone forever and what will take its place is still evolving (Lapham, 1997).

Traditional mass media compare to the WWW other than in competition for audience in the quality of the content. Broadcast has networks feeding stations which deliver

40 programming fueled by grants and advertisements. The programming provides information, entertainment and solicitations to an audience. The audience has some limited

Interaction with content providers. Measurements are taken via a ratings system to estimate the number of people reached in order to further fuel the progrannning. Some web sites are moving in this direction by starting to deliver topical editorial content fueled by grants and sponsorship (Strangelove, 1996).

Moreover, the Intemet lacks visual and other nonverbal cues in its content, which is said to be extremely low in social presence in comparison to face-to-face communication

(Walther, 1992). Media richness theory differentiates between lean and rich media by the bandwidth or number of cue systems within each medium. This approach suggests that because CMC is a lean channel, it is useful for simple or unequivocal messages. For receivers to understand clearly more equivocal information a richer medium should be used

(Weinreich, 1997).

Finally, as for quality of the content, this is subjective, but reasonable measures include ease of use, accuracy of information, instant of information delivery, and level of interaction. The viewing audience should be determined when designing the content: the information they contribute to the content and the level of sophistication inherent (Fry,

1996). Users

Users of new media become more and more fragmented with the convergence of communication technologies, as represented by the Intemet. The meaning of mass communication has changed with the development of new communication technology.

New media tend to delocalize the audience, make it less space and time-bound and diversify its basis. The audience is thus less predictable and manageable than in traditional media

(McQuail, 1988).

41 The notion of mass media customization states that new content is not ready and that customers want to be individuals. So actually it is a user interface for mass media, that gives the impression that the content is individualized. The Intemet is not a mass market, such as TV, where millions of viewers are receiving a homogeneous message. The Intemet market is micro communities with distinct concems, which are gathered into thousands of discussion fomms ranging from hundreds to thousands of participants, but no groups of millions (Rheingold, 1993).

Media research in the past has focused primarily on the passivity of the audience in the consumption process. However, new research has provided a number of starting points for the development of a theory and practice of the active audience. These theories argue that receivers of messages actively interpret and decode information using tools that are culturally, socially and politically produced. From a consumption point of view, the

Intemet as with other media, allows the active decoding of messages and symbolic forms through simple viewing and listening mechanisms (Morris & Ogan, 1996).

From a production point of view, traditional media such as television and radio, have limited the ability for audiences to be active in the production process (McQuail, 1988).

Opposing the view of the “audience as passive,” participants on the Intemet, in addition to listening, lurking and consuming, interact and produce (December, 1996).

Habermas put forth the notion of a public domain (public spaces or spheres), as a place to encourage critically informed rational debate which would enhance democratic participation and the democratic process. With regards to the media, the problem with the public sphere, is that although members of a TV or newspaper audience can discuss what they read or see among themselves (constituting one sphere), the medium lacks a central place of assembly (Habermas, 1988). On the other hand, the new on-line places of assembly, public spheres (Habermas) or virtual communities (Rheingold), provides its audience a framework for active social and political debate to flourish.

42 Michael Hauben (1997) was the first to coin the term “Netizen” to describe the people inhabiting the “electronic commons” of the Cyberspace. Intemet Citizens utilize the Intemet from their home, work place, school, library, etc. What makes “Netizens” distinct among other users is that “these people populate the Net, and make it a resource of human beings who participate to help make the Intemet both an intellectual and a social resource.” That means, Netizens, the people who “populate” the virtual rooms of the Intemet, the more engaged and concemed users of the Intemet, are different from all other surfers. With this, he stands with the well-known Netizens, like Howard Rheingold, who refer to them as

“virtual communities.”

As competition for that audience gets rough, the challenge for the information provider will be reaching that audience, measuring them, keeping them, and paying for the expense of doing all of the above. This competition is good for the Intemet. In order to attract more people to a site, the quality of the information, interaction and user experience will continue to climb as sites compete for viewers (December, 1996). However, reconceptualizing the audience for the communication that takes place on the Intemet is a major problem. It is difficult to envision who will be the audience, how will that audience access the information and entertainment services, and what profit might be made from the services?

One alternative concept of the audience is the market which matches media product with needs and interests of users. Moreover, uses and gratifications is one approach to studying the audience as market by studying its activity as choice, reception and manner of response

(December, 1996).

Internet Users’ Demographic Characteristics

It is possible that practical access to, and pattems of use of, CMC differ across gender and other demographic characteristics. Several studies indicated that new media adopters tend to be upscale, better educated, and younger than nonadopters (Atkin & LaRose, 1994;

Dutton, Rogers, & Jun, 1987; Kmgman, 1985). This has been found to be true also of

43 computer adopters (Lin, 1996; Dickerson & Gentry, 1983); and Intemet adopters as well

(Sanberg, 1996). However, Rogers (1995) predicted that demographic differences between adopters and nonadopters have been leveling for more mature media that have reached the flat part of their diffusion curve.

Many studies indicated that males participate in CMC more than females by a big margin (We, 1994; Herring, 1993; Hellerstein, 1985). Despite the availability of the CMC for both sexes, measured indicators of participation have consistently revealed a heavily skewed male bias (Selfe & Meyer, 1991; Kramarae & Taylor, 1992; Herring, 1993; We,

1993).

There are more men than women on the Intemet too. One of the explanations for this is that the design and production of computer technology is male-dominated. Men and women have different access to and experiences with computers (Frissen, 1992). Benston (1988) views the language of technology as symbols of power and masculinity inappropriate for women's involvement. Edwards (1990) observed that computer programming, computer engineering and systems analysis are tasks performed primarily by men. He attributes this phenomenon to the modes of thinking involved in computer-related work. Both hardware and software of computers require precise, abstract, and mathematical thinking. It has been part of the perception that technology is a male sphere, not conducive to women’s participation and something that is a force of domination in their lives. Edwards explains that these attitudes are the result of a complex combination of the discourse of computer science, the culture of engineering and the symbolic link of the military and masculine identity. Ideological conceptions of programmers and programming are also involved in the conceptualization of computers as male and male-dominated. These images of computers and the modes of thought they facilitate are viewed as appealing more to a masculine style of relating and as more familiar to men.

44 The same type of analysis can be applied to women and the Intemet. The access and participation barriers women have faced regarding other uses of computers are relevant to the Intemet as well. These include less experience with computers and less technical training, and significantly less access to economic resources that would facilitate Intemet participation (i.e., owning a home computer and modem, ability to pay for commercial

Intemet services). Women may tend to lump the Intemet into the general category of technologies that are not designed with their needs and interests in mind, feeling excluded from control over its development, seeing the Intemet as a male-dominated structure not conducive to women's participation (Edwards, 1990).

On a different track, there are many theoretical conceptions of how women and men use the new media differently. Herring (1993), in her discourse analysis of a CMC bulletin board, distinguished the different characteristics of woman's language and men's language.

Features of women's language include “attenuated assertions, apologies, questions, personal orientation and support”, whereas some features of men's language are “strong assertions, self-promotion, rhetorical questions, authoritative orientation, challenges and humor.” Similar results have been found in other cross-gender studies (Fishman, 1978,

1983; Eubanks, 1975).

Moreover, recent discussions of media influence on youth in the US call attention to the different proportion of time young people spend with other electronic media

(Csikszentmihalyi, and Larson, 1984; Larson, Kubey, and Colletti, 1989). Larson,

Kubey, and Colletti reported a significant decline in the proportion of time 5th to 9th- graders of both sexes spent watching TV, and substantial increases in the time spent listening to popular music; boys spent significantly more time watching TV and girls spent more time listening to music and reading (Larson, Kubey, and Colletti, 1989).

The Georgia Institute of Technology’s ninth survey, which is one of the most popular

Intemet users’ survey, continued to indicate the mainstreaming of the Intemet, especially in

45 the USA. The general demographics of the user population have moved closer to the characteristics of the general population with a continued increase in the proportion of female users (38.7%), a decrease in the average income ($52,000 in the US), slightly lower educational level (50.1% college or more), an increased average age to 34.9, and a more diversification of WWW users. This has been caused by a group of new users (less than a year on the Intemet) that is mostly female and more likely to be under 20 or over 50 years old than in their middle years. However, the largest segment browsing the WWW consists of four-year campus populations within the United States (GVU, 1998).

According to market study conducted by RelevantKnowledge (Feb. 3 1998), males continued to dominate the web but only marginally, and the female portion of the on-line population would gradually grow to the American national average of 5 1.2%. The largest age group category using the Intemet was the group aged between 18 and 34 who comprised 38% of the total sample. Moreover, another market study conducted by eStats suggested that the Intemet users have more income and are well educated (E-marketers,

1998).

Another study conducted by Lou Harris and Baruch College claimed that young users still outnumber senior users but the gap is narrowing. The study concluded that forty-nine percent of all Americans aged between 18 and 24 are on-line, 37% of those aged between

25 and 29 are on-line and only 21% aged between 50 and 64 are on-line (MSNBC, May 1

1998).

Access and Language

According to the Ninth Survey from GVU (1998), the majority of American Intemet users primarily access from home (61%). In comparison, in Europe there are only 40% use home as their primary access location. Likewise, Intelliquest’s report shows that 53% of the Intemet users access from home, while only 31% access from work and 16% from school (E-marketers, 1998).

46 Those who access from home are heavy Intemet users. People who access the Intemet from home are spending an increasing amount of time on-line. MediaMetrix, a market measurement company, reported that home users spent an average of 4 hours per week on­ line (Intemet News, Aug. 20 1998).

There are many reasons why people do not access the Intemet, ranging from financial reasons to personal factors. According to Find/S VP, the number one reason for not using the Intemet is that it “is too difficult to navigate.” This is why, according to Find/S VP, 9.3 million Americans tried the Intemet last year and then discontinued after a dissatisfying experience (E-marketers, 1998).

Tim Bemers-Lee expressed this concem over the growing complexity of the WWW.

He noted that while the potential uses of the WWW was enormous, there was a great need for simplification. He also criticized the lack of privacy on the Intemet which added people’s distrust of the Intemet. He stressed that the WWW had a long way to go to reach maximum potential (Techserver, Sep. 7 1998).

English is the intemational language of Cyberspace. The English language is spoken by

93.9% of Intemet users while the Arabic language is used by 0.1 %. The non-English speakers on-line are catching up fast. The number of Intemet users outside the US will begin to oumumber those inside it by the end of the 1998, according to Intemet research group eMarketer. Non-English speakers are the fastest-growing group of new Intemet users, with a rapidly growing interest in non-English sites as the Intemet becomes truly multilingual (eMarketer, Jun 30 1998).

Internet Applications

Most Intemet statistics show that gathering news and information is the top reason for using the Intemet. Among all services, the WWW is the fastest growing sector of Intemet use. The Price Waterhouse’ survey (Jun 23 1997) reported that users spent more than half of their time on the WWW researching and sending and receiving e-mail. Among adults

47 with access to the Intemet, 59% use the Intemet daily to send or receive e-mail, according to Find/S VP (E-marketers, 1998).

The widespread adoption of intranet technology in business is being attributed to e- mail. With the growing trend towards collaborative computing, early adopters of intranet technology are now opening their corporate networks to allow customer access (Zdnet,

Mar. 12 1998).

According to a report from Forrester Research (Jan. 16 1997), about 15% of the US population uses e-mail, and it is expected that the numbers will rise due to the increase in

PC penetration into the home and the growth of Intemet access in business. The report predicts that 135 million in the US will be using e-mail by the year 2001, and that e-mail will be adopted by 50% of the US population within 5 years.

Chat is one of the fastest growing businesses on the Intemet. Youth are using the

Internet to communicate with each other as opposed to browsing, and more are finding that what is lacking in an e-mail friendship, namely interactive contact. Teens are tuming their backs on traditional dating methods and converging on-line in teen chat rooms in search of

members of the opposite sex. Chat rooms offer youth a chance to try on new identities, experiment with their personality, avoid the problems of meeting peers face-to-face and

avoid a lot of the unpleasantness experiences and cultural restrictions. A survey released by

Cyberdialog (Jun. 26 1997) found that 65% of respondents who joined chat rooms said

they had experienced vulgar language and insulting or sexual remarks.

The Intemet is increasingly becoming a problem for universities that offer this medium

as an invaluable aid to academic endeavor. Administrators claim that drop-outs on campus

have more than doubled as a result of compulsive Intemet use among students. Those

students are not flocking to educational sites, but their use habits seem to be escapist

activities such as chat rooms and on-line games. E-mail and newsgroups are also popular

48 among students, but surfing less so. Therefore, many universities are considering setting up time limits on Intemet use (Cnet, Jan. 22 1998).

Internet Gratifications

A study of the WWW use by the Nielson ( 1997) survey found that there were three main gratifications being provided by the Web: (1) The first is simply browsing, followed by (2) information seeking, and finally (3) entertainment. The browsing and exploration gratification that the users are receiving from the Web can be seen as an extension of their affective and cognitive needs. Web users are finding entertainment mainly from simply exploring what is out there. The Nielson survey also found that 90% of Web users were simply browsing and exploring. Similarly, the Georgia Tech (1996) study found that

82.6% of users were just browsing. Another need is the informational or cognitive need.

This finding is common considering that the Web was originally designed with the idea of handling information. According to the Nielson survey, 73% of users access the Web to search for information.

The fifth annual Interactive Media study, conducted for Advertising Age (Oct. 10

1997), found that the Intemet continued to be an information rather than an entertainment medium. One of the main on-line activities was found to be searching for product information on company home pages. Another survey which was conducted by AT&T showed that use of the Intemet as an informational tool improved grades in school and college. That makes the Intemet a great school’s research device for the 1990s (MSNBC,

Sep. 8 1998).

A survey on how different generations use the Intemet showed that while middle-aged adults use the Intemet mainly for research and surveillance, those aged between 18 and 24 use the Intemet for entertainment. On-line research company +Plan found that younger users utilized the Intemet for a wider variety of things compared to the older users and that

49 the Intemet more or less incorporated into every phase of their lives (Techserver, Mar. 24

1998).

Many think that the Intemet is intended to become a medium for entertainment as opposed a surveillance. Intemet use is substituting social and leisure activities such as watching TV. reading and sleeping, according to over two-thirds of respondents in a survey that was conducted by Strategis Group (Jul. 7 1998).

Another gratification that can be fulfilled by the Intemet is social interaction.

Activmedia’s study (Sep. 4 1998) suggested that Intemet users built on their social networks and strengthened existing relationships. Activmedia also disputed the findings of

Camegie Mêlion s survey which claimed that the Intemet reduced people’s contact with friends and family.

The American Psychological Convention’s report revealed that Intemet users were more likely to go on-line in search of social entertainment as opposed to looking for information. The study which was focused on international Intemet users found that 35% of those surveyed used chat rooms, 28% said they participated in interactive on-line fantasy games. The report, “Intemet Addiction: What Makes Computer-Mediated Communication

Habit Forming”, announced that “pathological Intemet users were logging on in a bid to create another persona” (Nando Techserver, Aug. 14 1997).

For some people, the computer world competes their real world. While they expand their horizons electronically, they insulate themselves from physical relationships. Intemet abuse and addiction have been cited as a contributing factor in the disintegration of marriages and families, school dismissal, and the collapse of careers. The term “Intemet

Addiction Disorder,” is “more like an out-of-control behavior that threatens to overwhelm the addict's normal life” (lASG, 1996).

The last gratification is transactional. The CommerceNet/Nielsen Intemet demographic survey which was conducted in June 1998 reported that the number of people purchasing

50 products and services via the Internet has hit 20 million, double what it was nine months ago. The survey revealed that most on-line shoppers (64%) and purchasers (71%) were men. Another on-line market researcher @plan reported that Intemet users over the age of

55 are highly educated, affluent and have a higher tendency to purchase on-line than younger users. The report noted that the travel industry is expected to represent for 35% of all on-line sales by the year 2002. Once consumer trust grows, the amount of money being spent on-line will increase. College students would be heavily targeted by marketers who acknowledged the potential spending power of this group (Binary Compass Enterprises,

Nov. 10 1997).

Internet Use and Traditional Mass Media Exposure

The media substitution hypothesis (Jeffres et al., 1995; Lin, 1994; Kmgman, 1985) suggests that introduction of a new medium encourages a restmcturing in the way consumers view established media. However, the literature on computer adoption provides no clear indication of the impact of on-line service use on traditional media.

Therefore, there is a big debate raging on whether —and the extent to which — Internet use draws time away from traditional off-line media such as television, radio and print. One theory goes that Intemet users are so busy surfing they do not have time to watch TV or read the daily paper. For instance, the Audit Bureau of Circulation reported a broad decline in newspaper readership for most of the nation's largest newspapers. At about the same time, it was announced that 40% of all Intemet users read newspapers on-line. However, it has been hard to assume a correlation exists between these two findings. eStats reported that Intemet usage is not, in any significant way, displacing traditional media usage. To resolve this important media question, many market studies have reviewed and evaluated all the relevant research on this topic (E-marketers, 1998).

Some studies reported that for on-line users, the Intemet is simply another means of getting the news and information they crave, plus it gives them more control. The Intemet

51 therefore complements, rather than detracts from, traditional media use (E-marketers,

1998). In fact, some studies show that Intemet users actually read more magazines and newspapers than their non-net user counterparts. They also listen to more radio and, according to a recent media study, watch 6% more prime time and 21% more late night television than non-net users. This is cooperated by the Arbitron NewMedia research study which used regression analysis to find that the heaviest Intemet users reported somewhat higher TV viewing levels than lighter Intemet users. Further, increases in Intemet usage were associated with increases in the perceived importance of television (E-marketers,

1998).

A study by Nielsen Media Research has found that households in the US with access to

the Intemet are 15% less likely to watch TV than those without home Intemet access. The

survey also endorsed the widely held belief that households with home Intemet access enjoy a higher standard of living than those without access. The study concluded that

higher income households tend to watch less television than lower income households

(Zdnet, Aug. 14 1998).

Vice president of Cyber Dialogue, Tom Miller, who has been monitoring the impact of

the Intemet on traditional media for some years now, thinks that despite a widespread belief

that the Intemet has had a profound effect on TV and newspapers/magazines ratings, the

later exemplified by the new “push” news services, he believes that it is only among

Intemet enthusiasts that the consumption of traditional media has been significantly

adversely affected (Editor & Publisher, Dec. 5 1997).

On the other hand, WebCensus’s survey, which was devised to determine basic facts

about Intemet users and how they consumed the web in relation to other media, found that

the arrival of the Intemet has affected the consumption of other media in the following

ways: 22% of users spend less time watching TV, 12% of users spend less time reading

newspapers/print information while 3% spend less time listening to radio.

52 An America On-line survey also found that people using on-line services seem to be spending less time watching TV and movies. However, it has had no effect on radio, no effect on magazines, and little effect on newspapers (Avon Products, Sep. 23 1997).

Eighty percent of users polled in another survey, conducted by Luntz Research and commissioned by United Press International, said they believe that the Intemet will eclipse newspapers by the year 2002 as the primary source of news (Editor & Publisher, May 13

1998). FutureScapes found that people spent 60% more time surfing the Intemet than watching television. In addition, the longer they had been on-line the less time they spent watching TV (Activmedia Incorporated, Jan 16 1998).

Conclusion

The increasing number of users has tumed the Intemet it into another version of mass media with both broadcast and interpersonal communication aspects. Such previous means include newspapers, television, and radios which are readily accessible by major sectors of society. This steady growth of the Intemet supports the claim that the Intemet deserve the title mass medium. The nature of mass media is beginning to change in response to the

Intemet. The popularity of the Intemet comes from many characteristics compared to the traditional mass media.

The factors that make the Intemet different from other communication media can be distinguished by the critical characteristics and stmcture of the Intemet from the more familiar segments of media culture that have led to its overwhelming growth rate.

Comparing the characteristics of mass media, the Intemet is a perfect candidate to be a mass medium. It can provide a location, it is intemational, and, of course, it is a powerful source. The Internet even provides text, picture, audio and video in a convergent way.

There are many format choices for the audience to select from, as well as when, and how, to use these choices. In approaching the study of the Intemet as a mass medium, the following table seems to be useful to compare the Intemet to traditional mass media:

53 Traditional Mass Media The Internet

Ownership: state, private, proprietary none, non-proprietary

Economy: advertising supported end user funded

Industry/Org.: high low

Technology: closed system open system

Cost: free, low cost, hardware not free, hardware, software, access

Control: high, state low. receiver/user

Access: limited diverse

Distribution: oneway, centered interactive, bidirectional, networking

Power Centered: sender (media, teacher) receiver (audience, learner)

Selection: unitary, push unlimited choices, pull

Freedom of Comm.: censored uncensored

Content: unitary, standardization multimedia, rich information, customization Hypertextuality

Production: by the few. centered by the many, uncentered supply managed supply not managed

Supply: local distance

Emphasis: production message, distribution

Credibility: higher lower

Level of Comm.: public use public, organization, interpersonal, private use

Sender-Receiven non-interactive interactive

Time and Space: bound, local free, global

Audience: unifying, collective, mass fragmenting, diverse, individual broadcast narrowcast

Operation Skill: lower higher

Consciousness: active or passive active

Values: mass culture mass culture, alternative

Social Change: lower higher

Table I : Main comparison in structure between traditional mass media and the Intemet [developed from McQuail (1988) and Strangelove (1996)].

54 Internet in the Middle East: An Overview

Most Arab countries are connected to the Intemet, some with impressive growth percentages. However, the Middle East, when it comes to the Internet’s rate of adoption, lags behind most regions in the world (Headcount.com, 1998; Sitelnspector, 1998; ITU,

1996). Many factors contribute to this unusual event: govemment control and discouragement; insufficient infrastructure and access; lack of public access; language problems; cultural and religious conflicts; weak commercial and private sector, and computer and technology illiteracy.

Control and Censorship

The most obvious reason why Middle Eastem states are the slowest to join the world's

Intemet community might be that they are not big on public disclosure and the freedom to communicate. They are all characterized by strong forms of state control, including rule over the content and distribution of information. With regard to the exact forms of concems about the Intemet, such as cultural and religious values and national security, the Middle

East is like no other place in the world (Burkhart, 1998).

Most govemments in the Middle East have a long history of practicing censorship on traditional mass media (Boyd, 1993). Foreign publications are strictly controlled and censored. Many govemments are hoping to control access to sensitive political and religious discussion as well as sex-related material on the Intemet. They view the Intemet with suspicion because of the challenge it presents to their traditional hold on information and culture. There are also people who view it as another attempt to foist Westem culture on their people and many fear the pomography that is freely available on the net, which contradicts their traditional roles.

Arab countries are coming to terms with the problems associated with the spread of information technologies and the Intemet. There is a fear of using the net for spreading dissident political opinions. Allowing widespread Intemet access is far more dangerous for

55 security-conscious states than allowing satellite TV receivers because of the difficulty of monitoring or controlling exchanges. The perceived political threat is twofold: passive and active. The passive threat refers to uses of the net to bypass the censors and access information directly from, for instance, the intemational press or foreign govemments. The active threat refers to uses of the net by groups or states hostile to the regime, which are actively using it as a tool for psychological warfare. Likewise, opposition groups have been quick to seize on the potentialities of the Intemet (Burkhart, 1998).

Islamic religious ministries are also concemed with the moral corruption of the nation’s youth. However, this electronic media resistance is not Islamic all the time. The Muslim

Brotherhood and many other Islamic organizations try to represent and preach Islam in a very positive way. Yousif al-Qardawi, a major Islamic scholar, declared that Islam did not allow banning the Intemet; on the contrary, the Intemet should be a medium to introduce

Islam to others (al-Mujtama, 1997).

The Middle East was first represented on the Intemet by Muslim students and immigrants in Westem countries who combined their training in computer engineering with interests in representing Islam, culture, and politics of Arab countries. Mostly through efforts by commercial organizations and some academics acting as advocates of change, the

Intemet itself later arrived in the Middle East. However, while the Intemet was in its early stages and there was no critical mass, these organizations were not powerful enough to make a case for its acceptance against the conservative concems or lack of interest within the powerful govemments.

Under the guise of safeguarding traditional values and morals, the same censorship that has existed in traditional media in the Middle East is now crossing over to the net. Arab govemments want to take control of the Intemet through manipulating and limiting the access, practicing censorship, and sponsoring Arabic content on the Intemet. Amongst the more popular and sophisticated Arab sites are those that are owned by large Arab media

56 related to, or owned by, those govemments. Thus, sites such as ArabNet and Arabia On

Line reflect the point of view of the government and the ruling classes. The other sites can barely compete due to a lack of proper funding.

It has become commonplace to claim that the Intemet cannot be controlled due to its decentralized nature. However, as Arab govemments and their opponents become more familiar with the potentialities of the Intemet, some efforts have been made at using the net more positively. As with satellite TV, some Arab govemments have started attractive sources of on-line information to be able to drown out or discredit their opponents.

Many Intemet service providers (ISPs) in Arab countries are govemment owned and controlled, and with the use of firewalls and proxy servers, surfers are often denied access to many sites deemed “controversial.” It is technologically possible for routers to be programmed to block specific web sites, news groups, remote file servers, and the like.

Many Arab readers cannot even access some sites due to some names in the content. Some people are not able to access medical joumals because the sites contain words such as “sex” or “breasts, blow, girl, lady” (Ruzoq, 1997).

Saudi Arabia is among the countries most resistant to the Intemet. Since 1995, the

Saudi govemment has been promising access to the Intemet in the near future. However, only govemment agencies and businesses will have access. There are no plans to offer access to the public who currently gets its access through Bahrain. Access to the Intemet in

Saudi Arabia has been delayed by worries about material considered offensive. Intemet access, when it is offered, will be through proxy servers that block politically, socially, or culturally sensitive sites. Officials have been debating how to prevent objectionable material that goes against the country's religious and moral values from entering through the

Internet (Nando.net, 1998). All local accounts, which automatically note the material accessed, will be open to inspection by the Ministry of the Interior (Utexas, 1998).

57 Ironically, some of Saudi Arabia’s wealthiest investors have recently expanded their

Internet interests. Kingdom Holdings, which owns stakes in Netscape Communications

Corp., Apple Computer, Motorola, and SilkiNet, signed a partnership deal with Kuwait- based communications firm ZakSat to provide satellite Internet services to the entire Middle

East (DIT, 30th April 1998). It is an ongoing battle to enjoy the best of modem technology, while ensuring that this does not conflict with the traditions and culture of these states.

The United Arab Emirates has established the region’s only successful proxy server scheme, although at significant expense. All international Internet activity is filtered through, and moderated by, a few government servers. The UAE agreed to ban sex, religion, and politics on the Internet to respect the local laws. Police in the United Arab

Emirates recently held a seminar on controlling political dissent and sexually explicit material (Burkhart, 1998).

The Iranian government is trying to centralize all access through the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications so that they can block all of the World Wide Web sites that are known to be “not healthy.’’ The Iranian government has been heavily using the Internet for its own benefit and propaganda since 1992 (Burkhart, 1998). And even Iraq, which does not allow Internet access, uses the Internet to represent the country’s formal authorities.

The Language Problem

Another factor that is thought to hold back the development of the Arabic Internet is language. The Internet is mostly in non-Arabic languages. The fact that the Arabic language does not have an accepted programming code among Internet developers creates difficulties in the development of the standard bilingual Internet applications (Arabic vs. Latin).

The threat of English becoming the language of information on the Internet argues for translation as an alternative for making technology more widely accessible and more integrated in local and regional cultures. However, fears that the English medium isolates

5 8 technology translation has a potentially longer-range impact as a response to competing information pressures on persons and on systems to be part of the world.

Meanwhile, the Internet has become the medium of the elite, who can afford the access and speak its language. Most Arabs’ public dialogue and on-line forum is in English, which limits the public’s participation.

Arabic, for example, reads from right to left. To create a “patch” in the programming to correct the oversight would make the final product unacceptably slow and clumsy. One way to address a user’s culture is to stress a cross-cultural component within a user- centered design development process (Acker & Landsbergen, 1994). That is why some browsers such as the “Arabic Internet Explorer” have more relative advantage and are more diffused than Netscape.

The process of Arabizing the Internet was recently introduced in response to this barrier. The key to Internet use and Web access in the Arab world can be trouble-free with bilingual browsing. Several researchers and organizations have started to make some efforts in this direction. Sakhr Software is the major developer of Arabic computer products. An Arabic-aware Internet browser, Sindbad is the company’s latest effort to

Arabize the Internet (Sakhr Software, 1997). Other Internet software and applications that support the Arabic language include: Mosaic in Arabic; El Bareed-fax/e-mail with an Arabic interface; Arabic Sound Archive; Internet with an Accent—Arabic Web page publishing, e- mail writing, reading and sending; and Web browsing and viewing (Amr's Arabic Archive,

1998).

The number of Arabic-language Web sites is growing slowly. A major guide to the

Arabic Internet, 1001 Sites, currently lists well over 500 Web sites. Some Arabic Internet developers have recently established their own Web site at CyberArab (The Star, 1997).

59 The Access Problem

According to Hofftnan and Novak (1996), the greatest barrier to consumer adoption of the Web as a mass medium is ease of access:

Convenience of access is at the core of the adoption of any technological application and determines its ultimate success. In the context of the Web, ease of access is a multidimensional construct and includes ( 1 ) high-speed access . . . (2) ease of finding a service provider, and (3) the diffusion of the computer/software/modem bundle into die home.

In the Arab World, strong government control and monopoly cause relative lack of physical telecommunication infrastructure. Telecommunication services in the Middle East as in most of the rest of the world are still state or para-state operations with little room for input from the private sector. The infrastructure in the region is very diversified at the transmission and connectivity level, and the communication facilities do not cover a wide region. Despite large investments to bolster telephony for economic development, telephone penetration is very low and data networks are severely congested by limited bandwidth (ITU, 1996).

High-speed access is a function of the bandwidth of the wires that go into homes or businesses. An increase in bandwidth capacity will utilize the preexisting communications infrastructure by replacing the copper wires with fiber optic at a rapid pace. Satellite connections are also considered to be good and fast connections to the Internet. In fact, many countries are discussing cable supplements to increase local bandwidth.

Cost has been a factor too. Another way to keep the public from accessing the net is to keep prices high. The problem in the Arab states is that because of the low demand, prices are high for those willing to use the Internet. That is why access is typically limited to universities, research centers, government agencies, and big companies, while residential access is uncommon. As a result, rising numbers of users will increase demand for bandwidth and will drive down prices.

60 There is also a low rate of computer ownership and lack of technical skills. Personal computers now command a low percentage of all computer sales traded in the Arab region.

Factors fueling demand include a booming home market, the expanding base of Intemet users, improvement in the price-performance ratio, and an increase in government spending on education and training.

Arab Users of the Internet

The number of Intemet users in Middle Eastem states is difficult to estimate. Lack of access, implementation of firewall and security, lack of information and users’ input, national Intranet and sub-networks users, lack of measurements and reporting by ISPs, and government control are among the reasons that make it impossible to determine the number of hosts on the network that are located within each country using the original Network

Wizards methodology (Burkhart, 1998).

Most estimates of users on-line are based on an “educated” guess, and are usually

inaccurate, as it is extremely difficult to get a precise figure. The Arab States

Telecommunication Indicators reported that there are around 30 thousand Intemet computer

hosts in the Arab World in 1998, and there will be 120,000 in the year 2000 (ITU, 1996).

A market study from the Dabbagh Information Technology Group in Dubai found that the

total number of Intemet users in the Arab World is 215,000 as of July 1997 (Sitelnspector,

1998).

Intemet Arab World (LAW) Magazine’s survey on Intemet usage in the Arab World

reported that subscriptions to the Intemet, which grew at an average rate of 6% for the five-

month period from July to November of 1997, accelerated to 12% in the single month from

November to December of 1997. The statistics suggested that the number of ISPs in a

country was a factor for growth only insofar as competition encourages better service and

lower costs. It showed that Kuwait had the highest percentage of growth for users (20%)

with 42,350 users as of December of 1997 (DIT, 1998-B). In August 1998, Headcount

61 reported that there are 659,000 people accessing the Intemet in the Middle East, including

Israel (Headcount.com, 1998).

Israel, on the other hand, which enjoys political, economic, and infrastructure advantages, is far more advanced than the Arab countries in forming its own virtual conmiunities on the Intemet. Israel is one of the few countries that has a freenet, the Ramat-

Negev Freenet, a global outreach and education net that allows connection to the Intemet at a minimal cost. It provides regional information; offers interactive services; fosters interaction with students and teachers from around the world; and facilitates contact among

Jewish communities from around the world via the Intemet (Navaro, et al., 1996).

In Egypt, the largest Arab country, the availability of Intemet services is very limited, with only 10,000 Egyptians estimated to be using the Intemet (DIT, 1998-B). In fact, the country suffers from lack of satisfactory telecommunication infrastructure. Egypt can have a central role in the Arab region due to the fact that the country is already a media center that can provide the content and technicians who operate Intemet production.

Another study by LAW reported that the average Intemet user in the Middle East is young, 29 years old, about seven years younger than his U.S. counterpart; male (96%), and highly educated (60% are university graduates, 19% completed further post-graduate degrees). There is an even split among those who use the Intemet at home and at work.

Those at work are likely to be in large businesses, educational, and govemmental organizations. The study presented that the Intemet is used as an information and entertainment medium rather than being an inherent part of business. Only 42% cited “fun and entertainment” as their primary reason for Intemet use. High use was cited to communicate via e-mail (71%), gather information (64%), and for education (63%) (DIT,

Mar 3 1998). Women, who account for only 4% of regular Intemet users, would therefore seem disadvantaged in terms of enjoying these benefits. Intemet use also seems to tightly correlate with educational attainment.

6 2 User satisfaction also seems to rely on the cost effectiveness of the service. Home users tend to be more critical of the service as they have to pay for their own connection. This effect of cost on user satisfaction can also be seen on a countrywide basis. Kuwait users have the lowest dissatisfaction rating (38%), while those in Jordan are the most dissatisfied with their service (73%), where Intemet connection costs are correspondingly very high.

The problems most frequently encountered by those who expressed dissatisfaction with their Intemet service were slow lines (69%) and broken connections (50%). Only five percent cited their inability to access “forbidden sites” as an annoyance (DIT, Mar 3 1998).

The study also showed that Arabic Web sites may not be getting as many visitors as they should. Despite the fact that the sample was predominantly Arabic speaking, 40% could not read Arabic text on the Intemet through their browsers. “This is because either

Intemet users use a non-Arabic operating system or they do not know how to configure their browsers and operating systems correctly in order to be able to read Arabic text” (DIT,

Mar 3 1998). The most widely used browser is Sindbad, the Arabic enabled Netscape

Navigator (76%). This is a much higher figure than those for “pure” Arabic browsers

(DIT, Mar 3 1998).

This finding reflects the respondents' high degree of computer savvy. In fact, 85% reported having a home computer. Six out of ten home PC users have an Intemet connection. Half of those who don't said that the only thing stopping them from connecting their home PC is the unavailability of Intemet connections for the general public in the country in which they reside (DIT, Mar 3 1998).

In another survey on electronic commerce in the Arab World, LAW reported that only

4% of Intemet users in Arab countries made a purchase through the Intemet within the span of a year. The newness of E-commerce in the region lacks a critical mass of Intemet users in the Arab world and the inability to ensure secure transactions. The survey showed that

Intemet users in the Middle East are very wary about sending their credit card numbers

63 through the Intemet. Almost all of those who did make a purchase (92%) say that the item they purchased was from a company that was not located in the Middle East. Computer- related items seem to rank high in their shopping lists. Other reasons for the low level of e- commerce transactions are slow Intemet connections and the high cost of building and managing sites (DIT, April 21 1998).

Furthermore, the same survey showed that few of the region’s ISPs and Arabic software companies had built Web store fronts that address their own concems. Only 33% of the ISPs accept payments through their Web sites, only 20% of those who do provide a means for secure transactions. Arabic software companies expect to generate 33% of their sales through the Intemet in the next two to three years. They have their work cut out for them, however, as 75% of the Intemet users surveyed claimed that they do not know about the existence of Middle East companies which have Web storefronts (DIT, April 21 1998).

In conclusion, the Intemet is spreading very slowly in the Middle East. Therefore, the diffusion has been only to a small but new elite, joined with deregulation and a sense that the region cannot afford to miss this development.

The Internet in Kuwait

Intemet access started in Kuwait before any other Arab country. It was started in

Kuwait University in 1992 and then by individual efforts of a private company, Gulfnet

Kuwait, in 1994. Efforts were made by many, who first used the Intemet at foreign educational institutions, domestic businesses recognizing the need to operate intemationally, foreign companies in-country, and academics who had exposure to global networking while they were abroad.

The government entered the Intemet field later in 1996 to regulate the market. This liberal attitude of the Kuwaiti govemment toward the introduction of the Intemet is related to many factors. First is the relatively wide margin of democracy and freedom of expression this Middle Eastem country enjoys. Kuwait’s officials follow an open and

64 flexible domestic media policy. Kuwait’s constitution has stipulated that “freedom of communication .. .press, printing and publication is reserved according to the conditions and states indicated by law” (Constitution of Kuwait, 1961). Certainly, the Kuwaiti press occupies the first place among other Arab presses and plays an outstanding role in directing public opinion as much as the govemment. Second, Kuwait is a modem country that has a literacy rate of 78.6% and television density of 37.3%, the highest percent in the Arab

World (World Telecommunication Development Report, 1997).

The third factor is the fact that there was no govemment debate of concems about the

Intemet prior to its implementation. This omission of the Kuwaiti govemment to take control of newly introduced communication media is unlike most other govemments in the

Middle East. The same happened to fax, modem, and DBS, which were introduced by the active private sector before the govemment took action. Later when the govemment recognized the diffusion of these communication media, it was too late to control or regulate them.

Still a fourth factor is that since the war, Kuwait has acquired an increased awareness of how the country is viewed by the intemational community and, in this context, does not want violations of the freedom of communication. Moreover, Kuwait has signed the new

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and will enact new legislation about the copyright and privatization of most telecommunication services. The nation also intends to open its local market for foreign companies with more freedom of trade and investment

(Aza'abi, 1994).

Kuwait has one the highest per-capita incomes in the world, with a small population of

1.69 million (The World Factbook 1996). Telecommunications infrastmcture and services, which are controlled and mostly offered by the Ministry of Communications, were rebuilt completely after they were demolished by the Iraqi invasion in 1990. Telecommunication services in Kuwait have achieved universal telecommunication services (e.g., full

65 digitization of their networks) and offer advanced services typical of developed countries such as ISDN and GSM mobile cellular (ITU-1996-B). Through two major financial centers, Kuwait is also a major investor in WorldTel, which is a telecommunication development company created on the initiative of the Intemational Telecommunication

Union (ITU) to define and fund telecommunication projects in emerging markets (ITU-B,

1998). The country has a teledensity 22.61 per 100 inhabitants, which is very high compared to other countries in the region (World Telecommunication Development Report,

1997). Kuwait is also ranked the 15th in the world list, and the first in the Arab world in

Cellular Penetration, and is coded number three - the highest - which means more than 7% of the population uses cellular phones (ITU, A, 1998).

The Intemet access and infrastructure supporting services are well-established by the

Ministry of Communications. There is fiber optic cable infrastructure available to carry

Intemet traffic on a non-exclusive basis throughout the state. There are multiple, high- bandwidth intemational links through satellite-earth stations, but the Intemet connection is linked to a V-SAT (Very Small Aperture Terminals). Kuwait V-SAT was offered by

GulfSat Company and was the first station in the Middle East. The country is also connected to the other Gulf states through a submarine cable system (FOG), which will be connected later to other submarine cables around the world (Technical Yearbook, 1996).

The Ministry allowed Gulfnet Kuwait (www.kuwait.net), which started in 1994, to use its intemational links to the Intemet and offer the services to the public. In 1996, a second company, Kuwait Electronics Messaging Services (KEMS) (www.moc.kw), was authorized as the official Intemet service provider (ISP). Against the Kuwaiti govemment’s habits of controlling most services throughout the state with lack of competition, the Ministry announced that a second ISP was necessary in order to “improve the Intemet service” and lower prices (Burkhart, 1998). However, the govemment was

66 under pressure by Saudi Businessmen to authorize the second company even without a

licensed contract.

Gulfnet Kuwait connects more than 200 Intemet hosts. Services offered include dial-up

shell (UNIX) and SLIP/PPP accounts, and leased lines. Gulfnet has been assigned 64

Class C blocks by UUNet Gulf (Dubai), and is connected to a UUNet Technologies

Intemet port in the United States by a satellite link. Intemet access by subscribers is via

modem. The company depends of its young loyal customers who adopted the Intemet

service when it was first introduced. Gulfnet offers many special services to its customers

and the public, which include a training room, technical support, discussion group, and

help hot lines (al-Babtain & al-Ali, Gulfnet Managers, Personal interview, Feb. 25th

1998).

KEMS, which connects most hosts of the public and private sectors, uses MOC

facilities which is connected to the Intemet via a satellite circuit with a complete Class B

network (256 users-per-group) and offers identical services (al-Osaymi, 1997). As the

leading Intemet service provider in the area, KEMS also gained its reputation among the

Intemet users in Kuwait. The majority of its Intemet connection is through gateway to the

world through Sprint (Global One) which hosts nearly 70% of the Intemet connectivity.

Network (PDN) provides many types of services, handles intemationally recognized

protocols, and leads other Middle Eastem countries in X.25 Intemet connectivity (KEMS,

1998).

A new ISP and more powerful company that uses satellite technology, ZakNet

(www.zak-sat.net), entered the market in 1997. Zaknet is connected to the satellite systems

to the Intemet in the United States via a 45 Mbps satellite link (Waterson, 1997). This

system transmits the bulk of the data via satellite, where subscriber-to-ISP transmissions are carried via dial-up telephone lines to KEMS. Because of ZakNet, which is part of the

Kuwait-based satellite communications and entertainment provider ZakSat, Kuwait aspires

67 to becoming a regional telecommunications hub in the Middle East (Burkhart, 1998). The dish is usually between 90-240 cm. in diameter and costs about U.S. $250.

Intemet access rates are set by the Ministry of Communications which causes no competition between the ISPs. However, this situation may change within the next several months, as the ISP market is opened up to about 45 other companies. The stated reason for the licensing of additional ISPs is to “promote scientific and cultural awareness among the people” (Burkhart, 1998). The minister's statement suggested that, under the current arrangement with only two related ISPs, there was insufficient capacity to serve the number of people who wanted service. Although not stated, price is also likely an issue, since access fees in Kuwait are among the world's highest (e.g., U.S. $220/month for individuals or U.S. $ 150/month for students) (Reuters, 31 December 1997). The govemment has rushed the new policy regarding privatization and opening public companies to competition especially in the telecommunications sector, even though the public is rejecting the privatization in fear of increased fees on services. It has licensed two private satellite communications carriers to provide V-SAT services and recently announced a tender competition for a second mobile cellular phone operator to break the monopoly

(Burkhart, 1998).

Kuwait hosts most Intemet sites in the region. A large number of domains are registered with the InterNIC, however, rather than the (.kw). Some of these registrations pre-date the existence of the Intemet in Kuwait, but many companies today continue to prefer a domain name without a country identifier (e.g., .com, .org or .net), and use servers located in the United States. KEMS and Gulfnet list 73 and 42 connected client networks on their Web sites, respectively. Gulfnet left the (.kw) domain lately due to continuing problems with the administration of the domain (moc.kw) and decided to create its own domain (kuwait.net). The administration moc.kw has control over who has access

68 to the Intemet in Kuwait. It tries to exert this control by selectively denying admission to the (.kw) domain (Gulfnet Kuwait, 1995).

Both Kuwait University and the commercial sector have led the Intemet access, which have been the heaviest users and the most active overall. Meanwhile, the govemment sector lags behind. Intemet in the classrooms is available in most private schools but not in public high schools. The latter, administered by the Ministry of Education, have been offering computer classes since 1988, but no Intemet access.

There is no public data on Kuwait by any govemment ministries. Most official Web sites have no valuable content or data systems to search through, such as inquiry services or directories. As is the case with television, Intemet in Kuwait still lacks the function of a public service vehicle; that is, it is not a tool of development for services such as distance education, out-of-school leaming, language instruction, or information about science, art, and health. There are many information sites provided by individual contributors in

Kuwait. Most large companies, public and private, have leased-line connections and a Web presence. Two major newspapers al-Qabas and al-Watan are offered on-line.

Kuwaitis, especially students in the United States, have formed many virtual communities, news groups, and mailing lists. One of the main Kuwaiti Usenet groups is

“soc.culture.Kuwait,” where Kuwaiti related topics are discussed. There are many other

Kuwaiti mailing lists, some of which are thoughtful and offer good opportunities for constmctive discussions and debates.

Intemet access in Kuwait is not censored as in other Arab countries. Unlike other electronic media, radio and television, which are centralized services under govemment control, sponsorship, and supervision, the Intemet content is not supervised by a “guardian of morals.” Officials in Kuwait have demanded since 1996 that providers of Intemet service should take steps to prevent pomographic or “politically subversive” material from

69 entering Kuwait via the Intemet. However, ISPs have not taken any action in this area (see

Appendix A on sexual materials offered by Gulfnet).

The Ministry is proposing an “Intemet Main Domain” with a firewall to block access to certain information. The firewall will censor the Intemet for security purposes and in order to preserve national and Islamic customs and ethics (al-Hammad, MOC, Manager of networking. Personal interview, Feb. 20th, 1998). However, officials have also indicated that there were no plans to introduce Intemet-specific legislation due to the “low level” of public usage (al-Osaymi, 1997).

As mentioned earlier, the Intemet, as with other information technologies, (e.g., fax,

DBS, and modem), public access always preceded the first govemment discussions of attempts to control. It may have been related to the relatively low level of public usage in the early days, which either obviated any need for govemment discussion or disclosure of policies, or precluded the early development of an awareness of the potential for problems.

In either case, an attempt to control Intemet content could be made, although the method

was not disclosed. Since all access is via the Ministry of Communication, it is possible to have a proxy server firewall in a fashion similar to that of the United Arab Emirates and other Middle Eastem States.

Internet Adoption in Kuwait

Intemet users in Kuwait, as in other Middle Eastem states, are difficult to number.

First, the Intemet subscription fee is very expensive, and so many individuals cannot

afford a home connection. There is also a modem fee which is about U.S. $300 in Kuwait.

Therefore, many might share the same subscription (e.g., sometimes there are four users per subscription), or would rather use commercial connections (e.g., Intemet cafes’ or

Kuwait University for students). These preferences result in a relatively low number of dial-up users. Second, there are a large number of sub-networks, where many are domains physically located in Kuwait but registered under the generic TLD .com. Third, the number

70 of dial-up users subscribing via ISPs has never been reported, nor did either company estimate the number of users on connected networks. However, the Dabbagh Information

Technology Group reported that there were 29,600 Intemet users in Kuwait as of July

1997, which grew to 42,350 by December of 1997, a growth rate of over 2,000 users per month (Sitelnspector, 1998).

A survey published in a Kuwaiti magazine, Mera’at al-Ommah, reported that 97% knew about the Intemet from somewhere, while only 59% had actually used it. About the negative effects of the Intemet, 53% confirmed those effects; 68% were certain about the govemment’s inability to control the Interent; and 86% admitted that it was the parents’ responsibility to monitor what is on the net and to prevent pomographic and non-moral content (al-Maatoog, AbduHadi & al-Rashed, 1997).

Most users in Kuwait complain about the services bandwidth (sometimes reaching 9

Kbps through phone lines); low level of access and connections (few dial-up lines); and the high prices of service and the monopoly (al-Maatoog, et al., 1997).

Because Kuwait is a modem country with one of the globe's highest incomes per capita, it is difficult to apply the usual developing countries’ standards to it (e.g., the use of standard socioeconomic measurements) to understand and predict Kuwaitis’ use of the

Intemet as a new technology. Because Kuwait is a relatively conservative country with high socioeconomic standards, it is hard to categorize it either as a part of the Third World or as a developed country. However, there are factors such as the socioeconomic variables

(i.e., disposable income, education, and gender) that may provide the motivations for adopting the innovation.

Compared with other countries in the Gulf region, Kuwait is a liberal, urbanized nation. Kuwaitis, in contrast to the citizenry of many nations, are homogeneous in race, language, culture, and religion. In fact, the nation has one of the largest percentages of

71 literate, English speakers and media diffusion per population of any country in the Arab

World (Rugh, 1987).

Political diversity in Kuwait is quite apparent, with a populace ranging from conservatives to liberals. Indeed, Kuwait is a special case in the Middle East because its population includes conservatives and liberals with more diversity than in any other society in the Gulf region. Additionally, compared to other countries in the region, Kuwait is less conservative. It is a country where conservatives and liberals alike practice much more freedom in their lives.

In an Islamic society such as Kuwait, religion naturally plays a significant role in shaping public opinion. The mosque and the religious scholars, “Ulama,” are considered to be the most important social institutions, even for political issues (Kandil, 1988).

However, because of the Internet's advantages, some Kuwaitis want to take the middle road, preserving their national culture and at the same time taking advantage of new technology and participating in the new global communication. Therefore, not only liberals but also some conservatives appreciate this medium in Kuwait, leading some Islamic activists to call for new ways to confront this new medium.

Instead of banning the Intemet, which does not really work most of the time, Islamic activists have made some efforts for the benefit of Muslims, by offering content through the medium that is compatible with Islamic values. Such an endeavor would use the new media to preserve local culture and values.

Kuwait University and Internet Services

Kuwait University (KU) is the first user of the Intemet in Kuwait and the Arab World and still suffers from the impact of the Iraqi invasion, which was concentrated on libraries and computer centers. The 1990 invasion by Iraq witnessed extensive destruction. The country, as well as its only university, have been largely rebuilt, mostly to new standards.

Kuwait University, as most govemment agencies and higher education institutions in

72 Kuwait, gets its Intemet access through the official ISP, KEMS. It was the first in the region to join Bitnet, in 1992, and then to offer Intemet access in 1994 (al-Mazeedi,

Personal interview, Feb. 12. 1998).

Kuwait university is the only institution in the Arab World to offer open and free

Intemet access to its students (Wheeler, 1998). However, integration of the Intemet in the classrooms for academic use is very limited. With the exception of a few departments, which mostly relate to science and engineering, there are no classes offered that teach the use of the Intemet and its related tools such as HTML for creating and maintaining home pages. Most departments are not maintaining their homepages or promoting themselves on the Web by advertising about research activities, undergraduate and postgraduate facilities, conferences, vacancies, and so on (KUCS Windows, Feb. 1996).

Most Intemet uses by students are individual efforts and spring from curiosity. The three most popular facilities used by students are the World Wide Web, e-mail, and IRC, in one form or another. The IRC is banned in all labs, mostly because students use it for non- academic purposes. However, students download IRC applications and use them despite this ban (al-Motawa, 1998).

The College of Engineering (http://ecealpha.ece.eng.kuniv.edu.kw:8080/) is the only college that is integrating the Intemet in its system. The college has at least four computer labs (Macs and PCs) with Intemet access that are connected to its own separate server. The

Electrical and Computer Engineering Department offers the only on-line courses at Kuwait

University. The fact that English is the teaching language for this college makes integrating the Intemet very accessible. The language skills of its students increase the ability to sift information for education.

The Health Sciences Computer Center (http://hsccwww.kuniv.edu.kw/) has state-of- the-art facilities and is well connected. The center has about 35 computers (Macs and PCs) connected to the Intemet through the Center's server. The Center has established the first

73 registered Web Server in Kuwait on the Intemet. The College of Science also has its own server (139.141.135.14).

For the rest of the colleges and departments, a special computer department, AL-

Khawarizmi (http://kuc01.kuniv.edu.kw/-khwarzmy), was established to provide services for computer technology and software. Five centers under the Al-Khawarizmi department have the latest PCs and computer applications. The main center in the Khaldiya building has two computer labs (PCs and Macs). Other centers are located in each campus in

Adeliya, Shuwaikh, and Kaifan. Each center consists of two computer labs (PCs) with

Intemet connections. The College of Administrative Sciences and the College of Education each established two computer labs (PCs and Macs) and are in the process of getting

Intemet connection in the near future.

The main Intemet connection is offered by Kuwait University Computer Services

(KUCS) to the students, faculty, and departments at the University. KUCS installed two main frame computer systems in 1992: an IBM Main Frame Es9000/440 and VAX-

9000/420 VP Main Frame. Over thirty local area networks are connected to VAX-9000/420 via Ethemet running TCP/IP. The computer network is connected to the Intemet, and all campuses are interconnected by XX 25 PDN (KUCS Windows, Feb. 1997).

In 1995, KUCS started a live on-line self registration of over 19,000 undergraduate students, which is carried out through campuses using the IBM mainframe through X. 25 intercampus network. KUCS uses public Wide Area Network (WAN) leased lines to connect the University’s five campuses (see the graph in Appendix F). KUCS supports the libraries by automating both their operations and services. The libraries have on-line searching to databases and the Intemet (KUCS Windows, Mar. 1997).

KUCS increased the bandwidth to 512 Kbps (kilo bits/sec.) in 1997. This is the best bandwidth of the current communication facilities within the country. In addition, the

74 number of telephone lines currently available for home dial-up is 56 lines (48 SLIP line).

An additional 30 lines will be added soon (KUCS Windows, Mar. 1997).

KUCS uses a Cisco Access Server AS5100 for facilitating Serial Line Intemet Protocol

(SLIP) and Point to Point Protocol (PPP) services. The server has 12 V.34 Quad modem cards, which connect at rates up to 28.8 Kbps. This server is currently connected to the backbone (139.141.199.0) network. SLIP/PPP service is permitted only for faculty members who need to access the network remotely for Internet or log into hosts/servers on the network with a two-hour time limit on a single session. Students, on the other hand, are permitted to connect to the VAX computer, and use all the non-graphics facilities and the resources the mainframe offers, including Intemet services. However, access to the

WWW is limited to using the LYNX browser, which supports only text-based output

(KUCS Windows, Oct. 1996).

KUCS maintains the Web site of KU, which offers information for the general and specialized user as well as promoting and advertising for the University and its facilities.

The Web site lacks some college- and department-specific input to make it more useful and informative. The home pages provided are static and minimal, and probably have not been updated or modified for a long time (KUCS Windows, Feb. 1996).

KUCS does not censor Intemet access, but it applies a self-administered policy. Any communication that violates any applicable laws and regulations of Kuwait is not allowed.

From users of computing and network resources, it demands agreement with an acceptable use policy in its code of ethical and legal responsibilities. It states that particular messages and data received from destinations outside Kuwait must respect the local laws and Islamic customs (KUCS Windows, Mar. 1997).

Kuwait University is paying more attention to networking facilities. The new

Administration and Central Library (ACL) building, along with other new buildings located at Al-Khaldiya campus, as well as the main campus under constmction in Shuwaikh, are

75 equipped with up to date networking facilities. In particular, fiber optics is used for the wiring and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) technology is used for the switching functions. The higher speed will support applications such as desktop video conferencing and high-speed library search and image transfers. The central library is planning for a multimedia lab and up to date search facilities. Furthermore, with the upgrade of the external communication lines, the overall communication speed will be enhanced even further. As a result of this, distance education will be given serious consideration for

integration into the future curriculum (Jaragh, 1996). As a starting point, the Center for

Community Services & Continuing Education (http://kuc01.kuniv.edu.kw/~ccsce/) has

already been offering a few classes in distance leaming.

Statement of the Problem

The Internet’s Challenges in the Middle East

While the Intemet community is getting global and gigantic, the Middle East is not

keeping the same pace to join as the rest of the world. Most Arab countries are connected to

the Intemet, but most without an impressive growth rate. The Middle East, when it comes

to the Internet’s rate of adoption, lags behind most regions in the world (Headcount.com,

1998; Sitelnspector, 1998; ITU, 1996). Many factors contribute to this unusual

phenomenon, such as govemment control, cultural and religious values, and insufficient

infrastmcture (Burkhart, 1998).

Arab countries confront major challenges as they stmggle to understand and keep pace

with the explosive nature of the Intemet. They stmggle with how and whether to

encourage, regulate, or discourage its use and diffusion. Individuals and academics use the

Intemet for a variety of purposes. Their experiences on the Intemet, both successes and

failures, form an important knowledge base about the Intemet and help to define frontiers

for further exploration and development. The use of the Intemet in Arab communities raises

questions not only at cultural and social levels but also at economic and political levels.

76 The best way to reach a growing rate of on-line Arab population is first to understand them and what they want, need, and expect from the medium. However, this new medium has received very little research attention in this part of the world. Many researchers acknowledge that research on the use of the Intemet in the Arab World is very limited and needs to be given as much attention as in other parts of the world (Wheeler, 1998).

Research of considerable value has been done on the uses and effects of other old media such as TV, radio, and VCR. However, the problem is still that no serious research has been done on electronic media in the Arab World (Boyd, 1993). Therefore, there is a need for studies that attempt to explore this issue as well as to demonstrate the need for improved analysis. There is a need for in-depth understanding of the adoption and use of the Intemet among Arabs.

The Internet’s Challenges to Communication Theories

Licklider and Taylor predicted in 1968 that networked individuals are going to be happier and united more by commonality of interest than by accidents of proximity (cited in

Hauben, 1997). The following question now confronts us: will the diffusion of CMC improve our lives or will it promote isolation by preventing us from connecting with each other in the real world? It seems that it all depends on who uses the medium, what they use, how they use it, and why they use it. All of these questions are well worth raising, and in dire need of investigation.

CMC is not simply a tool, but a technology, a medium, content, and an engine of these relations; it both informs and is informed by the contexts in which such interactions occur.

This new medium, which is loaded with content, crowded, and seemingly a great prospect on many levels, should be researched for the communication dimensions.

The general question of why the Intemet should be studied for communication dimensions was summarized by Newhagen and Rafaeli (1996) as follows: (1) Much of the

Intemet culture is influenced by engineering, while the role of communication research will

77 strengthen the unidimensional engineering concepts with social science thinking and study;

(2) The Intemet offers unlimited ways of research that has been done on old media before and more; (3) The distributed, interactivity, and nonlinear character of the Intemet, which differs from the old mass media, challenges communication researchers to answer the questions of how and why this medium is used, as well as who uses it.

The new stmcture of the Intemet in source, message, and receiver forces communication researchers to examine old definitions and theories. One problem that researchers of the Intemet are facing is how this new medium would fit the ideas about traditional mass media. Another problem is the ways in which this medium functions in interpersonal communication, contrary to the traditional division of communication study into interpersonal and mass communication. This requires new theoretical models that combine aspects of both interpersonal interaction and mass media (Morris & Ogan, 1996).

In approaching the study of the Intemet as a mass medium, a useful theory should be conceptualized at a high enough level of abstraction to explain a variety of phenomena

(Reynolds, 1971). This implies that valid explanations of what, how, why, and by whom the existing media is used should be transferable to the Intemet. Researchers in past decades have taken many approaches to analyzing human communication on computer and networked communication systems. Using a variety of frameworks for defining units of analysis, these researchers have examined an array of communication settings (December,

1996).

Due to the increasing significance of the Intemet in human communication, the study of its adoptions and uses has become one of the crucial agendas in communication research.

Research focusing on media has led to insights in examining the diffusion and adoption of interactive media and has found factors contributing to media technology adoption, as well as pattems of how technology use develops in a community. Moreover, the uses and gratifications approach studies the interactive media audience by studying its activity as

78 choice, reception, and manner of response. However, there is a lack of theoretical integration due to the changes and advances in Intemet communication technology. It is difficult to piece together an integrative model to explain and predict media use, adoption, and evolution pattems, or even classify study results or theoretical statements (December,

1996).

Steven Jones (1995) argued that unlike many areas of investigation open to sociologists, anthropologists, and others interested in doing community studies, access to this “field” comes relatively on-line; and more importantly, ethnographies of life on the Net are desperately needed. Jones also claimed that CMC is forcing us to reconsider traditional notions of community. According to Jones, new matrices of social relations are emerging through the adoption and expansion of CMC.

Purpose of the Study

This study will explore the adoption and use of the Intemet by students at Kuwait

University as a model for the Arab World and in the Middle East. Kuwait University was the first organization to get on-line in 1992 and has the largest Intemet connection in the

Arab World. Moreover, it is the only institution in the Arab World that offers open and free

Intemet access to its students, a policy which acknowledges the evolution of the Intemet as an important educational opportunity for that country (Wheeler, 1998).

Kuwait has one of the highest socioeconomic levels in the Gulf region and the telecommunication infrastructure is very well established (World Telecommunication

Development Report, 1997). In the case of Kuwait, more recently, other communication technologies such as mobile phone networks have also been expanding. This phenomenon is especially marked in the Gulf region, where levels of income are sufficient to allow people to own information technologies such as a VCR, mobile telephone, fax machine, and satellite TV. On the other hand, a number of studies have shown that the Gulf states, along with most other Middle Eastem states, are well below intemational averages in the

79 number of computers in use and in the number of Intemet hosts (Goodman & Green,

1994). This is changing rapidly as personal computers proliferate in Kuwait; however, access to the Intemet still remains far behind intemational levels.

It seems that through the Intemet, many university students in Kuwait, as other students around the world, may have found a new way to communicate and be a part of the

“global village.” Slowly, the introduction of the Intemet may change their lives. As they are now experiencing an important tuming point, the most important thing to do would be to construct ways of using the new technology to improve the quality of the users’ lives without causing them to lose their identity.

This study is designed to obtain an insight into how the students at Kuwait University use of the Intemet, and to answer certain questions about factors that best predict the use of this new medium. The main purpose of the study is to measure the acceptance of the

Intemet, the characteristics of users, and the factors related to the use of this new medium.

The study collects data to answer questions that can be used to determine who, among the college students in Kuwait, uses the medium, and for what, how, and why they use it.

Research Questions

RQl. How do demographics, education, mass media use, operational skills, information technology ownership, and Intemet and personal attitudes predict Intemet adoption for

Kuwait University students?

RQ2. What are the gratifications underlying Intemet use for Kuwait University students?

RQ3. How do demographics, education, mass media use, operational skills, information technology ownership, Intemet and personal attitudes, gratifications, Intemet enablers and

Intemet applications predict time spent on-line for Kuwait University students?

80 CHAPTER 3

THE METHODOLOGY

The study was designed to understand the attitudes of students at Kuwait University regarding the Intemet, and to answer certain questions about factors that best predict the use of this new medium. Measuring the acceptance of the Internet, the characteristics of its users, and the factors affecting its use were of particular importance. The study collected data to determine how, for what, and why college students in Kuwait use the Intemet and demographics of medium users. The study employed the survey method to collect data for answering these research questions.

Operational Definitions

Units of Analysis and Measurement

Defîning the Medium: Internet

There is a shortage in sources related to this topic. Most studies on the diffusion and uses of the Intemet in the Arab World are descriptive studies. Most of the literature and sources which were available to aid in designing the survey were based on studies of

Westem societies.

This study defines the Intemet by the characteristics of the technology and its applications. The diversity of Intemet communication systems and applications requires a

81 more careful definition of terms and units of analysis in its study. The Intemet cannot be considered as encompassing a single medium, but as consisting of a range of media.

The emphasis in this study is on Internet-based communication that takes place on the global collection of networks that use the TCP/IP protocol suite for data exchange. A range of characteristics and possibilities for communication on the Intemet involving variations In time, distribution schema, and media type were identified for the forms of Intemet communication under study. This research is interested in the following applications of the

Intemet:

1. E-mail: a point to point asynchronous communication where a single user sends a message to a single receiver.

2. Listserv: point to multipoint asynchronous communication where a single user sends a message to a number of receivers.

3. WWW: synchronous communication generally characterized by the receiver's need to seek out a site previously prepared for distribution by a source in order to access information (server broadcast).

4. Intemet Relay Chat (IRC): synchronous communication through chat rooms on commercial services (December, 1996).

Internet Adoption (The Who, Why and When Questions)

This study utilize some of the reliable existing measurements of adoption and innovativeness behavior (Rogers, 1995). Applying Rogers’ measurements is essential to examining relationships among various personal preferences of Intemet adoption, and to identifying productive, related variables rather than just describing the behaviors.

In this study, the adoption of the Intemet is defined by the four stages Rogers (1995) offered in his model: (I) knowledge of the innovation; (2) persuasion, or formation of an attitude toward the innovation; (3) the decision to accept or reject the innovation; and (4) confirmation or disconfirmation of the decision.

82 This study uses the key characteristics that help to explain the adoption of a new innovation which are related to individual, product, and environmental factors as described in the diffusion literature. Individual or background factors include innovativeness, leadership, ease of need/problem recognition, perceived risk, disposable income, gender, levels of education, and one’s existing skill base (e.g., language, computer and technology). Product factors include relative advantage of the innovation, compatibility with current beliefs/processes, how difficult it is to use or understand (complexity), how easy it is to try (trailability), and how easy it is to talk about the benefits (communicability).

Environmental factors include the consistency with social, cultural, and religious values and beliefs. The cultural and religious factors include such values as; religiosity, resistance to Western culture and media, conservativeness toward new ideas, and suspicion about new technologies. Regarding the time needed for adoption and patterns of diffusion, this study uses Rogers’ five categories: innovators, early adopters, early and late majority, and laggards (Rogers, 1995).

Two more variables are related to adoption that are used in this study: information technology ownership and mass media use level. Information technology ownership is defined in this study by the adoption of other communication technologies such as consumer electronics products including: VCR, CD player, pager, DBS dish, video camera, video game player, electronic personal organizer, cellular phone, fax machine, computer, and answering machine (Lin, 1996; Rogers, 1995). This study used personal technology profile as a factor in relation to the adoption of the Internet. Mass media use

level is defined by the time spent using other media such as TV, radio, and newspapers

(Lin, 1994). This study was interested in media trade-off in relation to time spent using the

Internet.

83 Internet Use (The Why and What Questions)

This study use a uses-and-gratifications approach which considers consumers of media to be purposive in their choice of media and to actively seek media to fulfill their needs for a variety of uses (Infante, Rancer, & Womack, 1993). Internet use in this study is defined as actively seeking the medium to fulfill users’ needs for a variety of purposes (Blumler &

Katz, 1974; Palmgreen, Wenner, & Rosengren, 1985). This active use of the Internet in this study measured by such activities as navigating the WWW, retrieving e-mail, chatting over IRC, and participating in listserv are all part of Internet uses.

Typologies of uses for mass media consumption have identified a broad range of gratifications that people have (Blumler, 1979; McGuire, 1974; Palmgreen, Wenner, &

Rayburn, 1980; Wenner, 1985, 1986). Wenner (1986) and Williams (1989) organized human needs met by mass media in several categories:

1. Surveillance/Information; watching for things to happen that may be relevant or simply of interest to you (e.g., to obtain information about daily life, local news, about the outside world, to be exposed to new points of view, to satisfy a felt need for understanding something or understanding how to do something).

2. Entertainment/Diversion: escape and release (e.g., to get away from usual cares and problems, escape from routine, emotional release, fantasy and play, not having to follow the rules, pretending to be someone else, exploring a new world, and finding good company when alone).

3. Interpersonal utility; personal identity, good interpersonal relationships, a good conversation (e.g., to get interesting things to talk about, personal reference, reality exploration, and value reinforcement, to make friends, and exchange ideas).

4. Social interaction; social or cultural understanding, learning what you are a part of culturally or socially, achieving a sense of belonging or identity, (e.g., encountering human qualities, seeking interaction in a group for conversation or interest, being in an

84 organization, not feeling alone, feeling a sense of relation to other humans, adopting an alternate lifestyle, and chatting).

Dimmick et al. (1994) added unique gratifications associated with the interactive electronic media-telephone. They confirmed two distinctive gratifications dimensions of the telephone uses: sociability and instrumentality. Instrumental refers to gratifications from active media use to achieve a certain purpose (e.g., transaction, shopping, ordering and making reservations).

This expanded the framework for studying the gratifications dimensions of the Internet which has multimedia features including mass, interpersonal, and group media. Reviewing the previous theoretical and empirical studies, the current study used a conceptual framework combining gratifications from mass media and interpersonal media to study

Internet use. Based on these distinctions (Wenner, 1986; Dimmick et al., 1994), gratifications in this study are divided into five dimensions: Surveillance/Information,

Entertainment/Diversion, Interpersonal Utility, Social Interaction, and

Instrumental/T ransactional.

The Models

Two comprehensive models were developed involving the independent variables that best predict the value of the dependent variables: Internet adoption and Internet use (time spent on-line). The two models are multidimensional due to the fact that they deal with broad concepts of adoption and uses of the Internet. The study opens up extensive questions that hopefully may generate more research in this field, thus benefiting developing societies. After model development, several separate regression equations were used to build composite explanatory models that would explore the studied variables and the directions of the relationships (Knapp, 1998; Munro, 1997).

Model One. The first model can be helpful in predicting the relationship among the independent factors (demographics, education, mass media use, operational skills,

85 information technology ownership, and Internet and personal attitudes) and Internet adoption (see Figure 1 ).

Figure ( 1 ) demonstrates a model that would be used to predict Internet adoption (the dependent variable: the outcome) through different independent variables. The proposed model shows that there are several independent variables that may predict Internet adoption.

There are several background variables (independent variables) that have direct relationships with the dependent variable (Internet adoption). The background variables (on left side of the figure) are: Demographic (gender, age, home county, family income, and car value); Education (college, college year, and GPA); Mass media use (TV, radio, and newspaper); Internet's Operational Skills (computing skills, typing skills, English language skills); and Information Technology Ownership.

At the same time, the same background variables also have indirect effects on Internet adoption through dynamic variables (medians) such as personal attitudes and Internet attitudes (attitude elements of person-Intemet interaction). Dynamic variables (in the middle of the figure) have direct effects on Internet adoption; however, these effects might be components due to the prior variables in the model (background variables). These variables can play two roles in the model" dependent variables with the background variables and independent variables with the dependent variable Internet adoption. They play the role of medians of the indirect effect of background variables on Internet adoption.

Model Two. The second model can be useful in exploring the gratifications dimensions underlying the Internet use. It explores the relationships among the gratifications dimensions and use of the specific Internet applications such as E-mail, Lists, IRC, and

WWW. Relationships among the independent factors (demographics, education, mass media use, operational skills, information technology ownership, personal attitudes, gratifications dimensions, Internet enablers and Internet applications) and the dependent variable: time spent on-line also are explored (see Figure 2).

86 Figure (2) demonstrates that there are several independent variables that could predict time spent on-line. Beside the same background variables and attitude elements of person-

Intemet interaction presented first model, there are several dynamic variables that might effect the time spent on-line. The dynamic variables have direct effects on time spent on­ line, and these effects might be components due to the prior variables in the model such as background variables, Internet gratifications, Internet applications (e-mail, WWW, IRC, and lists) and Internet enablers (length of experience, language used, and access location).

87 Background Variables Attitude Elements of Person-Intemet Interaction Outcome: Internet adoption

Demographics Personal Attitude’s • G e n d e r D im en sio n s

• A g e Innovativeness

• Home county Religiousity

• Incom e L ead ersh ip

• Car value Conservativeness

' Local Media E d u c a tio n ■ A doption • C o lleg e

• College year

•GPA I n te r n e t A d o p tio n

M ass Media Use

• T V

R adio Internet’s Attitude N ew sp ap ers D im ensions

M otivation Operational Skills Cultural/Relegious Compatibility •Computing Skills Sexual Content • T yping Skills Language/Complexity • E nglish S kills Relative Advantage

In fo . T e c h . ' A ccess O w n e rsh ip

Figure I : Elements of Internet Adoption for Kuwait University Students

88 Background Variables Attitude Elements of Person>Interaet Interaction Elements of Internet Outcome

Demographics I n t e r n e t • G e n d e r Applications

' E -m ail • A g e Personal Attitude’s Dimensions ^ • Home county > Lists Innovativeness • In co m e • W W W Religiousity Cultural • Car value •IRC L e a d ersh ip

Conservativeness

' Local Media

A d o p tio n

E d u c a tio n

■ C o lle g e

> College year Internet Enablers GPA • How long? Internet Attitude (Length of Experience D im e n sio n s • Language Used * Motivation (Arahic, English, etc.)

* Cultural/Relegious • Access Location Compatibility (Home, School, etc.) * Sexual Content Mass M edia Use • Language/Complexity

• Relative Advantage R adio

N e w sp a p ers • A ccess

Operational Skills

•Computing Skills Internet Gratifications • Typing Skills Surveillance/Information • English Skills I n t e r n e t Entertainment/Diversion E x p o s u re (T im e Interpersonal Utility S p e n t O n -L in e ) Social Interaction Info. Tech Instrumentality O w n e rs h ip

Figure 2: Elements of Internet Use for Kuwait University Students

8 9 Data Collection Method: The Survey

The survey sought to measure and examine a number of factors that predict the value of the dependent variables: Internet adoption and uses in the two models. This study did not attempt to demonstrate cause-effect relationships; rather, it attempted to determine which variables were related to other variables pertaining to the use of the Internet among students at Kuwait University. The self-administered questionnaire provided a reliable opportunity to examine the differences and similarities of individuals’ attitudes within the same culture toward the research questions.

A survey was appropriate to collect data that dealt with this type of research because it appeared to best uncover the characteristics and variables in the studied students’ population. The survey was designed to produce quantitative descriptions of some aspects of the students at Kuwait University by asking questions to a sample of the students. The answers constituted the data that were analyzed by standardized statistical measurements which were consistent across all respondents to the survey. A survey was the best way to insure that all of the data needed for the analysis was available, related, and comparable

(Fowler, 1993).

The questionnaire was an appropriate measurement for this type of diffusion and use study. The questionnaire, among other things, required respondents to indicate and rate their opinion of personal preferred Internet use and other attitudes toward the Internet and new technologies.

Survey Instrument and Design

An observational study and qualitative interviews were important as a first step to the fieldwork to offer support in designing the questionnaire. The researcher spent the month of January of 1998 conducting several interviews with faculty as well as students from different colleges at Kuwait University. Several visits to computer labs on several campuses were conducted for the observational study. During these visits phenomena were

90 recorded such as Internet use and differences in behavior. One assumption examined during the observational study was that adopters and non-adopters differ in innovativeness and cultural and religious obedience. Data on the local culture of Kuwait, observed characteristics of users, and the proportion of the targeted sample that participated in the survey were collected, analyzed and then used to design clear and understandable questions for a focus group.

The survey tried to assure reliable questions by providing measures in comparable situations (Fowler, 1993). To ensure the reliability of the survey, the questions were designed to mean the same thing to all respondents. It was intended that answering the questions should be a task that most respondents could perform. In the design and evaluation process, information was gathered from a focus group of 10 students about comprehension of the questionnaire. The task of answering questions by the focus group at that stage was important in order to establish whether any questions needed to be modified to make them more efficient and effective. The wordings of some questions were changed several times to make them understandable, clear and unambiguous, to the majority of the students.

Many aspects of uses and gratifications of the Internet also were explored in the focus group. An open-ended format was used to allow and encourage respondents to give their opinions fully, thus producing the natural language of the participants.

By the end of the month of January of 1998, the survey format was entirely scripted and verified as to whether it should mean the same to most respondents. Vague and buzz wording was avoided and optional wording was chosen for clarity. To increase the likelihood that the questions and format meant the same thing to all respondents, the survey used simple words that were short and understood widely in Arabic. Respondents were provided with closed questions (i.e., a list of acceptable answers) to help ensure the same perceptions of an adequate answer.

9 1 Questionnaire items used to produce sub-scale were adopted from related literature that had been tested for validity and reliability. The scales were developed from research in the area of adoption and use of new communication technology. The items in the scales were researched to identify the best set of questions to produce valid estimates of the resulting measure (Fowler, 1993).

The questionnaire covered all aspects proposed in the two models. The dependent variable in the first model (Internet adoption) was measured by a dichotomous (yes/no) question. The dependent variable in the second model (time spent on-line) was measured by two variables: use frequency and use duration. Use frequency was measured by number of sessions during the past week, and duration was measured by average time of a session in hours and minutes (see Part One in the Survey, Appendix B). The independent factors in the questionnaire were demographics, education, mass media use, operational skills, information technology ownership, Internet and personal attitudes, gratifications dimensions, Internet enablers and Internet applications (see Appendix B).

Several of the measurements of other communication technologies (e.g., TV) were adopted and used in constructing the questionnaire about the Internet. The gratification dimensions underline Internet use were measured by 20 scale items which were originally developed in several different studies (Williams, 1989; Wenner, 1986; Palmgreen, 1984;

McQuail, Blumler, & Broom, 1972; Dimmick et al., 1994). Several studies reported that these scales and their dimensions are internally consistent. Prior studies also tested and provided the construct validity for the scales (Rubin, Palmgreen & Sypher, 1994). The items of the five dimensions: Surveillance/Information, Entertainment/Diversion,

Interpersonal Utility, Social Interaction, and Instrumental/T ransactional were randomly ordered in the scale. The questionnaire asked the subjects to rate Internet gratifications items based on how often they were used: on a scale of 1 to 5 (0 = don’t use, 1 = less often, and 5 = very often) (see Part One-section 10 in the Survey, Appendix B).

92 This questionnaire also utilized some of the reliable existing measurements of adoption and innovativeness behavior (Rogers, 1995). The personal attitude and adoption scales included items that measured: innovativeness, leadership, and existing skills, relative advantage; compatibility, complexity, trailability. The cultural and religious items were adopted from several studies and included such items as: religiosity, resistance to Western culture and media, conservativeness toward new ideas, and suspicion about new technologies (Rogers, 1995: At-Ta’ee, 1996). In the attitudinal questions, subjects were asked to rate the degree of agreement experienced with different statements about the

Internet and personal attitudes measured on a Likert-type scale varying on five points from

“strongly agree” to “strongly disagree.” No “do not know” option was offered because the respondents were asked questions about their own lives, feelings, and experiences which they should know about (Loadman, 1996).

Other collected data included use of specific Internet applications such as E-mail, Lists,

IRC, and WWW. The questionnaire asked the subjects to rate Internet applications items based on how often they were used (on a scale: 0 = don’t use, 1 = less often, and 5 = very often) (see Part One-section 9 in the Survey, Appendix B). Internet enablers were measured by: length of experience (time of adoption), language used on-line (Arabic,

English, Arabic in Latin alphabet), and access location (home, school, friends, and Internet cafes) (see Part One in the Survey, Appendix B).

Background variables were measured by demographic questions to examine possible relationships with the dependent variables. Categorical independent variables were measured (i.e., student’s home county, five categories (Kuwait, Hawalli, Farwanya,

Ahmadi, and Jahra); monthly family income, five categories (K.D. 499 or less, 500- 699,

700-899, 900-1199, and 1200 or more; K.D. 1 = US $3.3), present value of student’s car, five categories (K.D. 2,999 or less, 3,000- 5,999, 6,000-8,999, 9,000-11,999, and

12,000 or more); gender, two categories (Male/Female). The education variables were:

93 GPA; college; and college year, five categories (Freshmen, Sophomore, Junior, Senior, and Other) (see questions 1-9 in Part Three in the Survey, Appendix B).

Operational skills were measured by computing experience, printing experience, and

English language proficiency level on a scale of 1 to 3 (1 = beginner, 2 = intermediate, and

3 = advanced). Information technology ownership was measured by how many consumer electronics products the subjects owned: computer, VCR, pager, satellite dish, video camera, cellular phone, fax machine, video game players, answering machine, modem, electronic personal organizer, and CD player. Finally, time spent daily using other mass media was measured in hours for TV, radio, and newspapers (see questions 9-13 in Part

Three in the Survey, Appendix B).

The Sample

A convenient sample for this one-shot questionnaire was drawn directly from five colleges in Kuwait University. Appropriate measures and procedures were needed to gain as large a sample as possible.

The survey sought to recruit a representative sample. The sample was diversified in gender, college, and college year. Because of this stratified sampling was appropriate to ensure that the sample represented gender, college year, and college in the whole student population. Stratification produced a smaller bound of error of estimation than would a simple random sample of the same size. That is because every stratum was more homogenous (Fowler, 1993). This increased the precision of estimates of variables, and increased the likelihood that the sample could be broadly representative in terms of the size of each stratum.

In order to secure a high level of response, the questionnaire was distributed by faculty members in the colleges of Science and Engineering, Journalism and Mass

Communication, Human and Social Sciences, Business, and Education. Given the fact that significant gender-differences were a potentially important factor and needed to be studied

94 carefully, this survey reached the same proportion of males and females students at Kuwait

University (i.e., 70% females and 30% males).

This questionnaire was distributed to a total of 700 students at Kuwait University from which 598 usable replies were collected. This represented an acceptable completion rate of

85.4%.

Collecting the Data

Given the nature of the study, a field procedure of distributing the questionnaire to the sample demanded personal contact, as well as a faculty’s request. This was determined as the most effective way of ensuring cooperation for most of the sample.

All questionnaires were distributed during the months of January, February, and March of 1998. Several attempts were made to contact each faculty members randomly picked from the master schedule at different times during the school day.

Distributors of the questionnaire were given strict instructions on the administration of the questionnaire and detailed instructions about the purpose of the study. This enabled them to provide additional clarification about definitions if respondents did not understand a question. This helped to ensure that respondents interpreted the questionnaire in the same

way in all collection environments. In addition, the subjects were assured anonymity, that the information provided on the survey would be confidential, and that their participation

was voluntary. Finally, the questionnaire attempted to be short enough so respondents

would not be unwilling to participate or become bored.

Analysis Techniques

The analysis techniques in this study fit the data-collection procedures and were

developed from the research questions. Instmments and questions were designed on the

basis of how the data would be reduced and how the findings would be shown to be credible. Credibility was critical at this level; otherwise, the general conclusions that rest

on the findings would be suspect (Loadman, 1996).

9 5 The major dependent variables in this study were adoption of the Internet and time spent on-line by the students at Kuwait University. Each of them deserved descriptive scrutiny. As dependent variables, it is important to find out what brings about optimal levels of each. Simple statistical analyses such as tables of means and frequencies were used to analyze the data that dealt with the research needs and to discover the characteristics for adopters and non-adopters in the studied student population.

Respondents’ attitudes were measured through a series of Likert type scale items (five points, with 1 equaling “Strongly Disagree” and 5 equaling “Strongly Agree”). The reliability analysis for this scale was tested with Cronbach Alpha. This reliability analysis examines the properties of a measurement scale and the items that make it. This reliability analysis procedure provided information about the relationships among individual items in the scale and their internal consistency (SPSS, 1998).

The two models in this study were examined statistically by using several regression analyses. Pearson’s correlation was used to test for relationships between the variables in the models. A Pearson’s correlation coefficient test was conducted to detect linearity between the dependent variables and independent variables. The data were also checked for normality with scatterplots.

Logistic regression was used to predict the presence or absence of a characteristic or outcome based on values of a set of predictor variables (Knapp, 1998). It is similar to a linear regression model but is suited to models where the dependent variable is dichotomous (users/non-users). Logistic regression coefficients were used to estimate odds ratios for each of the independent variables in the model (SPSS, 1998). Independent variables were continuous, interval level, and categorical. Categorical ones (e.g., gender, college, and county of residence) were dummy coded. For each step variables were entered using block entry of variables (simultaneous).

96 Research Question One: How do demographics, education, mass media use, operational skills, information technology ownership, and Internet and personal attitudes predict Internet adoption for Kuwait University students? This question was answered by a composite of one logistic regression and several linear regression analyses. One equation was used for each dependent variable. The first equation, which used logistic regression, was used to identify the variables that determined Internet adoption. The other equations, which used linear regression analyses, determined the explanatory models of the dynamic variables (attitude elements of person-Intemet interaction).

A model for Internet adoption was built using these variables to predict the presence or absence of Internet adoption in the sample. The model was then used to derive estimates of the odds ratios for each factor to tell, for example, how much more likely males were to adopt the Internet than females. The logistic procedure offered goodness-of-fit tests that are more powerful than the Pearson’s Chi Square (Knapp, 1998).

Research Question Two: What are the gratifications dimensions underlying the Internet use? Factor analysis was used to reduce the gratifications items scale by identifying a small number of factors which explain most of the variance observed in the manifest scale.

Principal component analysis was used to explore those gratifications from the scale.

Varimax method was used to rotate the factors, which usually loads variables highly on factors while maintaining orthogonal (uncorrelated) factors (SPSS, 1998). Summed item scores were calculated for all the factors and were submitted to screen variables for other subsequent analyses.

Research Question Three: How do demographics, education, mass media use, operational skills, information technology ownership, Internet and personal attitudes, gratifications dimensions, Internet enablers and Internet applications predict time spent on­ line? This question was answered by a composite of several linear regression analyses.

Linear regressions were used to estimate the coefficients of the linear equation, involving

97 independent variables, that predicted the value of the continuous dependent variable (time spent on-line). To develop a model for Internet use, several separate regressions were used for each dependent variable. The first equation was used to identify the variables that determined time spent on-line. The other equations, one logistic regression and four linear regression analyses, determined the explanatory models of the dynamic variables. With linear regression, a model could predict the relationship of these variables (Knapp, 1998).

The independent variables were continuous, interval level, and categorical. Categorical ones were dummy coded. For each step variables were entered using block entry of variables (simultaneous) in a single step. To explore fully the linkage proposed in the model, significance levels for bivariate correlations and regression coefficients were set at <

. 10.

A major concern was the possibility of multicollinearity among the predictors which could lead to biased estimates and inflated standard errors (Knapp, 1998). To deal with this issue, Varimax was used to rotate the factors. Moreover, the scatterplot procedure was used to screen the other variables for multicollinearity. Correlations were conducted to detect high intercorrelations between the independent variables. Since the components of the model are conceptually related, assessment of multicollinearity among the independent variables was used to determine if any variables should be omitted. All variables passed the tolerance criterion to be entered in the equation. The default tolerance level was 0.0001. A variable was not entered if it caused the tolerance of another variable already in the model to drop below the tolerance criterion (SPSS, 1998). Finally, all statistical procedures was performed using the SPSS for Windows statistical package.

98 CH A PTER 4

RESULTS

Descriptive Statistics

The Background Variables

In the analyses of the data, characteristics of Internet adopters and non-adopters were measured and compared. Missing values were omitted from the frequencies and proportions reported in this chapter.

The sample consisted of 598 students from five colleges at Kuwait University. Most of the respondents were juniors, although there were no significant differences among class rank. There were only a few graduate students (see Table 2). Females comprised more that two-thirds of the sample, which represented their student proportion at Kuwait University.

The sample consisted of students from all five counties in the State of Kuwait, although the majority of students were from the two most urbanized counties: Kuwait Capital and

Hawalli. Students in the sample have a high mean monthly income for disposable income variables, but were normally distributed regarding their car values. The sample also was distributed normally in regard to age and grade point average (GPA) (see Table 2).

99 Gender n= 577 Observed Expected Males 31.0% 33.2% Females 69.0% 66.8% Chi-Square = 1,182, df = \,p =.277

College n= 591 Observed Expected Science and Engineering 33.0% 37.8% Journalism and Mass Communication 28.9% 6.4% Human and Social Sciences 22.0% 20.1% Business 6.8% 13.6% Education 9.3% 22.1% Chi-Square = 543,758, df = 4, p < .001

College Year n= 570 Freshmen 18.9% Sophomores 20.7% Juniors 30.9% Seniors 23.9% Graduates 5.6%

County n= 571 Kuwait Capital 32.9% Hawalli 34.0% Farwaniya 17.5% Ahmadi 10.2% Jahra 5.4%

Family Monthly Income n= 548 Less than $2000 8.4% $2000 to less than $2600 13.5% $2600 to less than $3200 19.7% $3200 to less than $3800 24.1 % $3800 and Up 34.3%

Car Value n= 463 Less Than $10,000 17.3% $10,000 to less than $20,000 29.8% $20,000 to less than $30,000 27.2% $30,000 to less than $40,000 11.7% $40,000 and Up 14.0%

Age M= 20.81 S.D.= 2.58

GPA M= 2.687 S.D.= .59

Table 2: Summary Descriptive of Demographic Characteristics

100 For operational skill, the sample had more English language experience than typing or computing experiences; however, the sample means were approximately average on these three operational skills (see Table 3). The students spent more time watching TV than listening to radio or reading newspapers, with high levels of variation for time spent on all of the three media (see Table 3). The diffusion of other information technologies varies from VCR (86%) followed by Direct Broadcast Satellite receiver (76%), mobile phone

(70%), video game player (64%), computer (64%), camcorder (55%), CD player (43%), pager (40%), fax (35%), modem (32%), answering machine (31%), and finally electronic organizer (22%).

Mean S. D.

Computing Experience* 1.83 .73 Typing Experience* 1.89 .77 English Language Experience* 2.18 .63 Time Spent Watching TV** 4.45 3.91 Time Spent Listening to Radio** 1.70 2.40 Time Spent Reading Newspapers** 1.50 2.34

* On a scale from 1 = beginner to 3 = advance ** Time in hours per day

Table 3: Summary Descriptive of Operational Skills and Mass Media Use

Model One: Internet Adoption

Research Question One

Background Variables: Demographic Characteristics of Internet Adopters and Non-Adopters

Of the 598 students in the sample, 42% of the students were identified as Internet adopters. The users' group reflects some of the following characteristics: for the gender

101 variable, maies were more likely to adopt the Internet than females; this is supported by a significant level of correlation between the two variables gender and Internet adoption (see

Table 4). For the college variable, only the College of Engineering and Science had a significant positive relationship with Internet adoption; which means that students at this college were more likely to adopt the Internet (see Appendix D). On the other hand, the

College of Human and Social Sciences and the College of Education had significant negative relationships with Internet adoption, which means that students at these college were less likely to adopt the Internet (see Appendix D). The other two colleges produced non significant relationships (see Table 4).

Adopters Non-Adopters Gender Males (n= 179) 54.7% 45.3% Females (n= 398) 35.4% 64.6%

College Journalism and Mass Comm. (n= 171) 40.9% 59.1% Engineering and Sciences (n= 195) 67.7% 32.3% Human and Social Sciences (n= 130) 16.2% 83.8% Business (n= 40) 32.5% 67.5% Education (n= 55) 14.5% 85.5%

Table 4: Crosstabulations of Gender and College by Internet Adoption

Internet adopters were younger and had less variation in age than non-adopters (see

Table 5). The age variable was negatively correlated to the adoption of Internet and yielded a significant relationship (see Appendix D). For the education variable, Internet adopters had a higher GPA than non-adopters, and there was a significant relationship between academic achievement (GPA) and using the Internet (see Table 5 and Appendix D).

102 Adopters Non-Adopters Age Mean 20.50 21.03 S. D. 2.20 2.80

GPA Mean 2.78 2.62 S. D. .64 .55

Table 5: Age and GPA Means for Internet Adopters and Non-Adopters

Among those who mentioned the amount of time spent every day on TV, radio, and newspapers, adopters of the Internet spent significantly less time watching TV (see Table 6 and Appendix D). Adopters also spent less time listening to radio and reading newspapers.

There was no evidence of a significant relationship between the amount of time spent consuming radio and newspapers and adopting the Internet (see Table 6). Internet adopters had a higher mean on other information technologies ownership (M= 7.59, on a scale of 1 to 12 technologies) than non-adopters (M= 5.7) with a significant relationship between

Internet adoption and information technology ownership (see Table 6 and Appendix D).

The higher relationships were between Internet adoption and owning a modem, followed by a CD player and a computer (see Appendix D). For operational skills, there were significant correlations between adopting the Internet and typing experience, English language experience, and computing experience (see Appendix D). Internet adopters scored higher on all of the three skills than non-adopters (see Table 6).

103 Adopters Non-Adopters Information Technologies Ownership Mean 7.59 5.70 S.D. 2.82 2.51

Mass Media Use Time Spent Watching TV Mean 4.26 4.59 S.D. 4.40 3.52 } Mean 1.72 1.69 S.D. 2.71 2.16 lers Mean 1.45 1.54 S.D. 2.40 2.29

Operational Skills Typing Experience Mean 2.20 1.66 S.D. .70 .75 Mean 2.37 2.04 S.D. .61 .61 Computing Experience Mean 2.25 1.54 S.D. .66 .63

Table 6: Means of Mass Media Use, Operational Skills and Information Technologies Ownership for Internet Adopters and Non-Adopters

Attitude Elements of Person-Internet Interaction

Factor Analysis: General Attitudes and Internet Attitudes of Adopters and

Non-Adopters

Respondents’ general attitudes and attitudes toward the Internet were measured through

a series of Likert type scale items (five points, with I equaling “Strongly Disagree” and 5

equaling “Strongly Agree”). The reliability analysis for this scale revealed a Cronbach’s

alpha of .76 that was viewed as cautiously acceptable given the exploratory nature of the

study.

104 Factor analysis was then used for data reduction, by identifying a small number of factors which explained most of the variance observed in the scale. The variable set was reduced through principal component analysis from 42 items to twelve factors.

Examination of the correlations among the survey items revealed that there was significant conceptual overlap among various subgroups of items. Factors were identified by conceptual representation. Additionally, summed item scores were computed for each respondent, which were then used in the subsequent analyses. For personal attitude, six factors were identified; Innovativeness, Religiosity, Leadership, Conservativeness, Local

Media, and Adoption (see Table 7).

Among personal attitudes, the factor accounting for the greatest variance was labeled

“Innovativeness.” This factor was categorized by such items as “new and different ways of doing things” and “crave excitement.” Students who rated items on the innovativeness scale highly might not follow the “traditional way of doing things” and “enjoy seeking and looking for new ideas of doing things.” This factor had a significant positive relationship with adopting the Internet (see Appendix D). This means that students who rated on the innovativeness scale highly were more likely to adopt the Internet.

The second factor which was extracted was labeled “Religiosity.” Religion in Kuwait provides the most active resistance to Western culture. This factor was categorized by such items as “Western technology should be resisted because it is against our values, tradition, and religious norms” and “I rarely trust the new ideas from the Western culture.” The religious influence makes many Moslems fear the effects of Western media on their religion. Using the Internet may lead to new ways of thinking. Some religious people might feel uncomfortable about this medium as a new technology because it is against their religious structures. Some of the non-adopters think this medium encourages opposition to their religious and cultural traditions and values. However, this factor had no significant relationship with adopting the Internet.

1 0 5 V a r ia b le s F a c . F a c . F a c . F ac. F a c . F ac 1 2 3 4 5 6 lanovativeness I like doing things that are new and different. .7 5 .03 .26 -.05 .02 .07 I often crave excitement. . 6 7 -.05 .22 -.03 -.06 .06 I always enjoy seeking and looking for new ways of doing . 6 6 -.01 .02 -.05 .01 -.07 things. 1 like a lot of variety in my life. . 6 4 .04 .15 -.10 .145 .28 1 am very interested in how mechanical things, such as .5 1 .07 .13 .30 -.32 -.29 engines, work. Religiosity The western technology should be resisted because it is .08 . 7 9 -.01 .05 .07 -.05 against our values, tradition, and religious norms. I rarely trust the new ideas from the western culture. .02 . 7 7 -.12 .15 -.10 .07 The worst thing in new technologies is that they lead to .11 .5 1 .20 .10 .37 -.01 social change. There is too much sex on television today. -.03 . 4 4 .32 -.01 .27 -.16 L e a d e r s h ip 1 like being in charge of a group. .15 .03 . 7 2 -.01 -.13 .10 1 am an influential member of my peer group by making .28 .03 .69 .07 -.01 -.01 them adopt my ideas. I consider myself to be creative and original in my thinking .38 -.05 .5 9 .06 .07 .01 and behavior. Conservativeness I like my life to be pretty much the same from week to -.14 .05 -.15 . 6 6 .09 -.12 week. The traditional way of doing things is the best and safest .02 .17 .114 . 6 5 .07 .18 way. A woman’s life is fulfilled only if she can provide a happy -.19 .17 .32 . 5 7 .14 -.11 home for her family. My peers have a big influence on me to adopt new .22 -.21 -.01 .40 .33 .09 technologies. Local Media I respect the local mass media to be my source of news. -.08 .08 .01 .14 .7 1 .10 The international media are more reliable than the local .19 .17 -.17 .21 .51 -.15 media. A d o p tio n I follow the latest trends and fashions. .10 -.03 .02 .19 -.29 .7 1 1 always need a long time to learn about a technology .02 -.02 .05 -.13 .26 .6 7 before I adopt it.

Variance Explained 16.4% 12.6% 6.8% 6.2% 5.7% 5.3% Cumulative % 16.4% 29.0% 35.8% 42.0% 47.7% 53.2% Eigenvalue 3.28 2.53 1.36 1.26 1.14 1.06 Cronbach’s alpha .60 .60 .62 .48 .31 .28

Table 7: Factor Analysis for Personal Attitude

1 0 6 The third factor which was extracted was labeled “Leadership.” The highest two items were “I like being in charge of a group” and “I am an influential member of my peer group by making them adopt my ideas.” This factor measured the perceived level of leadership of the subjects and how much influence they believed they had on their friends in leading them to adopt their ideas. This factor had a significant positive relationship with adopting the

Internet (see Appendix D). This means that students who rated on the leadership scale highly were more likely to adopt the Internet.

The fourth factor which was extracted was labeled “Conservativeness.” The highest two items were “I like my life to be pretty much the same from week to week” and “the traditional way of doing things is the best and safest way.” This factor dealt with how traditional the subjects were in doing things and how much they resisted change.

Surprisingly, this factor had a significant positive relationship with adopting the Internet

(see Appendix D). This means that students who rated on the innovativeness scale highly were more likely to adopt the Internet.

The fifth factor was labeled “local media.” The two items in this factor were, “I respect the local mass media to be my source of news” and “the international media are more reliable than the local media.” This factor dealt with the reliability of the international media and local media as sources of news, and the accuracy of local official media. The attitude toward the local media as a source of news might lead toward the adoption of the Internet.

This factor had a significant negative relationship with adopting the Internet (see Appendix

D). This means that students who rated on the local media scale highly were less likely to adopt the Internet.

The sixth factor was labeled “Adoption” which measured the level and speed of adopting the latest trends and technology. The two items in this factor were “I follow the latest trends and fashions” and “I always need a long time to learn about a technology before I adopt it.”

This factor had no significant relationship with adopting the Internet. Overall, these six

107 extracted factors explained most of the variance observed in the variables (53.2%). Item scores were calculated for all the factors and then were submitted for subsequent analysis prior to the regression analysis.

For personal attitudes toward the Internet, six additional factors were identified:

Motivation, Cultural/Religious Compatibility, Sex, Language/Complexity, Relative

Advantage, and Access (see Table 8).

For personal attitudes toward the Internet, the factor accounting for the greatest variance was labeled “Motivation.” This factor was categorized by such items as “I use the Internet because it is a new medium and many people around me have adopted it,” “I encourage my friends to use the Internet,” “the Internet helps to improve my English language” and “the lack of reliability in the domestic media is encouraging me to adopt the Internet.” This factor measured the level of encouragement the subject had toward using the Internet. What were the perceived uses of the medium and what were the benefits and supports? This factor had a significant positive relationship with adopting the Internet (see Appendix D).

This means that students who rated on the motivation scale highly were more likely to adopt the Internet.

The second factor which was extracted was labeled “Cultural/Religious Compatibility” with the Internet. The highest three items were “using the Internet wastes the time of prayers and religious duties,” “using the Internet causes social isolation,” “using the

Internet is against some of my religious beliefs.” This factor measured how compatible the

Internet was perceived to be with religious duties and beliefs. The factor had a significant negative relationship with adopting the Internet (see Appendix D). This means that students who rated on the cultural/religious compatibility scale highly were less likely to adopt the

Internet.

The third factor which was extracted was labeled “Sexual Content” of the Internet; it deals with sites with sexual content on the Internet and contact with individuals of the

108 opposite sex. The highest two items were “there is a popularity for sites with sexual content

on the Internet,” “the Internet contains many sexual materials.” This factor had no

significant relationship with adopting the Internet

The fourth factor which was extracted was labeled “Language/Complexity.” The

highest two items were “language is a problem for me in using the Internet” and “using the

Internet is very complex for me.” This factor dealt with the complexity of the Internet and

the problem of language because adopters need skills and the international languages to deal

with news from international media. This factor had a significant negative relationship with

adopting the Internet (see Appendix D). This means that students who rated on the

language and complexity scale highly were less likely to adopt the Internet.

The fifth factor which was extracted was labeled “Relative Advantage.” The highest three items were “the Internet is a good medium for preaching Islamic values,” “Internet should be filtered to control unethical content” and “Internet helps interconnecting societies.” The factor dealt with the advantages and uses of the Internet as a tool. This factor had a positive relationship with adopting the Internet (see Appendix D). This means that students who rated on the local media scale highly were more likely to adopt the

Internet. Finally, the sixth factor was labeled “Access”; it deals with the accessibility of the

Internet service. The two items were “Internet service is expensive for me” and “my family rejects my use of the Internet.” This factor had no significant relationship with adopting the

Internet. Overall, these six extracted factors explained most of the variance observed in the variables (55.7%) (see Table 8). Item scores were calculated for all the factors and then were submitted for subsequent analysis prior to the regression analysis.

109 V a r i a b l e s Fac. Fac. Fac. Fac. Fac. Fac. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Factor I (Motivation) I use the Internet because it is a new medium and many . 7 3 -.03 .10 .10 .00 -.01 people around me have adopted it. I encourage my fiiends to use the Internet. . 6 7 -.25 .01 -.15 .06 .01 The Internet helps to improve my English language. . 6 6 .11 .10 -.24 .17 .13 The lack of reliability in the domestic media is encouraging . 6 2 .05 .02 .28 -.09 .05 me to adopt the Internet. Using the Internet is essential for my study. .5 3 -.19 -.13 -.07 .15 -.05 Internet service in Kuwait is slow. . 4 4 .09 .14 -.39 .10 .38

Factor 2 (Cultural/Religious Compatibility) Using the Internet wastes the time of prayers and religious -.02 .83 .8 3 -.04 -.01 .03 duties. Using the Internet causes social isolation. -.05 . 6 6 .18 -.09 .16 .12 Using the Internet is against some of my religious beliefs. -.05 .6 1 .12 .24 -.08 .09 I feel uncomfortable toward the Internet as a new media. -.10 . 5 5 -.11 .26 -.06 -.03

Factor 3 (Sexual Content) There is a popularity for sites with sexual content on the .01 .11 . 9 0 -.0 6 -.03 -.02 Internet. The Internet contains many sexual materials. .04 .04 . 8 8 .10 -.08 -.03 The Internet encourages contact between individuals of the .05 .07 . 5 3 -.10 .19 .18 opposite sex.

Factor 4 (Language/Complexity) The language is a problem for me in using the Internet. .10 .07 .02 .7 9 -.01 .08 Using the Internet is very complex for me. -.21 .14 .08 . 7 4 -.07 .13 The Arabic sites on the Internet are preferable because they .30 .29 .01 .4 1 .23 -.21 are more compatible with our culture.

Factor 5 (Relative Advantage) The Internet is a good medium for preaching Islamic .15 -.12 -.03 -.02 .68 .17 values. The Internet should be filtered to control unethical content. -.13 .23 -.05 .07 .67 -.10 Internet helps interconnecting societies. .26 -.20 .13 -.08 .64 -.13 The Internet causes addiction. .06 .33 .30 -.31 .45 n

Factor 6 (Access) Internet service is expensive for me. .14 -.01 .05 .04 .07 .8 1 My family rejects my use of the Internet. -.15 .32 .01 .21 -.14 .5 2

Variance Explained 15.0% 13.9% 8.4% 7.5% 6.1% 4.8% Cumulative % 15.0% 28.9% 37.3% 44.8% 50.9% 55 7% Eigenvalue 3.30 3.05 1.85 1.64 1.35 1.05 Cronbach's alpha .71 .68 .72 .56 .52 .33

Table 8: Factor Analysis for Internet Attitudes

110 Development of Model One: Internet Adoption

Regression Analysis

Logistic regression was used in this study to predict the dichotomous dependent variable (adoption/non-adoption of the Internet). Logistic regression coefficients were used to estimate “odds ratios” for each of the independent variables in the model. A model was built with the logistic regression findings in order to visually present the relationships between and among the constructs.

As with other forms of regression, multicollinearity among the predictors can lead to biased estimates and inflated standard errors (Knapp, 1998). A correlation test was conducted to detect high intercorrelations between the independent variables. The test results did not find these independent variables intercorrelated to a degree that would produce multicollinearity concern. A significant correlation between the independent variables was found between the gender and age variables, but not at an unacceptable level

(see Appendix E). Moreover, the Varimax method was used to rotate the factors, which usually loads variables highly on factors while maintaining orthogonal (uncorrelated) factors (SPSS, 1998). The Scatterplot procedure was used to screen the other variables for multicollinearity.

To explore interrelationships among variables, each dynamic variable was regressed on all other independent variables. Model One represents a composite of one logistic regression and six linear regression analyses. The first equation was used to identify the variables that determined Internet adoption. The other six equations determined the prediction of the six dynamic variables (attitude elements of person-Intemet interaction).

Direct Relationships

Among the whole sample, there were good predictors of Internet adoption. For personal and Internet attitudes, motivation was the best predictor. Other good predictors

III were: language/complexity, relative advantage, access, and cultural/religious compatibility.

For personal attitude. Innovativeness was the only predictor (see Table 9).

For background variables, there were several good predictors: information technology ownership, computing skills, age, gender, GPA, college, and time spent watching TV.

According to the equation table, these variables were significant predictors (see Table 9).

The results in Table (9) show the fitted probabilities as a function of Internet adoption.

The model estimated the probability or the odds of the dependent variable (adoption/non- adoption of the Internet). The Pearson Goodness-of-Fit Chi Square was 224.442, (df= 36, p< .0001). Goodness of Fit was 309.013. Therefore, the model was significant, and the classification table tells us adoption could accurately be predicted 82.78% of the time with this model.

This means that adopters of the Internet were more likely to be male students, in the

College of Engineering, younger, and to have a higher GPA. Adopters of the Internet had

more computing skills, had experienced and adopted more information technologies, and

spent moderately less time watching TV. They were innovators, motivated, had fewer

problems with the English language, had more technical skills, had more access to the

Internet, adopt the Internet for its advantages, and were more compatible with the Internet culturally and religiously.

The model supported background variables as well as elements of person-Intemet

interaction that ultimately explained and predicted Internet adoption. The findings showed that adopters of the Internet at Kuwait University were more likely to be male students.

This revealed a significant male domination in Intemet adoption despite the availability of the Intemet for both sexes through the university services. Moreover, the results confirmed that the Intemet adopters were younger students.

112 Variable B Sig. R

Innovativeness .74 .0369 .07 Religiosity .05 .8589 .00 Leadership -.29 .3262 .00 Conservativeness -.02 .9302 .00 Local Media .09 .6982 .00 Adoption -.32 .1762 .00 Motivation 1.64 .0000 .21 Cultural Compatability .51 .0591 .05 Sexual Content -.27 .2577 .00 Language/Complexity -1.32 .0000 -.18 Relative Advantage -.65 .0235 -.08 Access .44 .0403 .06 Gender -1.22 .0164 -.09 Age -.25 .0131 -.09 County .0998 .00 Kuwait 1.73 .1577 .00 Hawalli 1.72 .1611 .00 Farwaniya 1.11 .3780 .00 Ahmadi -.22 .8705 .00 Family Monthly Income -.06 .6705 .00 Subject's Car Value .00 .9621 .00 College .0651 .04 Journalism .01 .9832 .00 Engineering 1.29 .1131 .03 Human .35 .6881 .00 Business 1.47 .1605 .00 College Year .3065 .00 Freshmen .92 .3395 .00 Sophomores -.92 .2849 .00 Juniors -1.15 .1788 .00 Seniors .00 .9985 .00 GPA .01 .0395 .07 Time Spent Watching TV .10 .0674 .05 Time Listening to Radio -.08 .3888 .00 Time Reading Newspapers -.02 .8139 .00 Computing Experience .94 .0099 .10 Typing Experience .17 .5640 .00 English Experience -.25 .4660 .00 Information Tech. Ownership .24 .0049 .11 Constant 1.72 .6218

Chi-Square= 224.442, (df = 36, p< .0001 ) Predicted Overall 82.78% Goodness of Fit 309.013

Table 9: Logistic Regression Analysis: Variables in the Equation for Intemet Adoption

113 For the educational factors, adopters were more likely to be students in the College of

Engineering, who had more access to the Intemet and were more familiar with computer programming, computer engineering and systems analysis. Adopters of the Intemet had more computing skills than non-adopters. Intemet adopters also had higher academic achievement (GPA) than non-adopters, and there was evidence of a significant relationship between academic achievement and adopting the Intemet.

Intemet adopters also had experienced and adopted more information technologies than non-adopters. This confirmed that the diffusion of the Intemet was not independent of related clusters of innovations such as telecommunications and computer innovations.

For personal and Intemet attitudes, motivation was the first predictor. This finding confirmed that the more motivated the student was, the more likely it was he/she would adopt the Intemet. Language and complexity dimensions were also important in adopting the Intemet. This was a product factor in the adoption which involved how difficult it was to use or understand. This was an important factor because adopters needed operational skills and intemational languages (i.e., English) to use the Intemet.

Relative advantage was another important dimension in adopting the Intemet in this study. The factor dealt with the advantages of the Intemet as a medium. This was another product factor which included the relative advantage of the Intemet over the methods it superseded. The access factor was also found to be important. This predictor dealt with the accessibility of Intemet services and how high cost of access from home to the Intemet might affect the decision to adopt this medium.

Compatibility of the Intemet with religious duties and beliefs was another predictor.

Adopters did not have doubts about the compatibility of the Intemet with their existing values and way of life. Finally, the only personal attitude predictor, innovativeness, was found to be important for adopting new technologies such as the Intemet. Adopters of the

114 Intemet were more innovative. This was one of the individual factors which showed how eager the person was to adopt new technologies.

Indirect Relationships

The other six equations in the model determined the prediction of the six dynamic variables (attitude elements of person-Intemet interaction). To explore interrelationships among variables and the indirect relationship between the background variables and Intemet adoption, each dynamic variable was regressed on all other background variables by using multiple regression.

The first predictor of Intemet among attitude elements of person-Intemet interaction was “motivation.” When this dynamic variable was regressed on all other background variables, 11.9% of the explained variance was positively predicted by information technology ownership and being a male, and negatively with living in Jahra county (see

Table 10). This means that level of motivation was predicted by background variables such as being a male student and past experience with other information technology, and by living in Jahra county, which is the most mral and the least urbanized county.

The other dynamic predictor of Intemet adoption was the “language/complexity” dimension. When this variable was regressed on the model background variables, 35.5% of the explained variance was determined positively by time watching TV and being in the

College of Human and Social Sciences, and negatively with English experience,

information technology ownership, computing experience, and typing experience (see

Table 10). This means that heavy consumers of TV and being a student in the College of

Human and Social Sciences were related to having difficulty with the English language and experiencing more complexity in use of the Intemet. On the other hand, students with higher English skills did not experience problems with the language and complexity of the

Intemet.

115 Standardized Coefficients Sig. Beta

Motivation:

Gender -.09 .043 Typing Experience -.04 .491 English Experience -.01 .724 Info Tech Ownership .14 .005 Hawalli County .06 .132 Jahra County -.13 .004 Family Monthly Income .05 .235 Sciences and Engineering .07 .136 Human Sciences -.07 .113 Computing Experience .09 .137

R= .345 R Square = .119 p< .001

Language/Complexity:

Typing Experience -.10 .047 English Experience -.27 .000 Info Tech Ownership -.14 .001 Jahra County .02 .464 Gender -.01 .870 Time Watching TV .12 .002 Family Monthly Income -.04 .256 Sciences and Engineering -.05 .218 Human Sciences .08 .054 Computing Experience -.17 .002

R= .596 R Square = .355 p< .001

Relative Advantage:

English Experience .12 .013 Sciences and Engineering .03 .512 Journalism -.13 .018 GPA .11 .018

R= .215 R Square = .046 p< .001

Access:

Age .10 .035 Family Monthly Income -.09 .062

R=.I32 R Square = .017 /7=.015 continued 116 Table continued from last page Standardized Coefficients Sig. Beta

Cultural/Religious Compatibility:

Typing Experience .01 .843 English Experience -.04 .369 Info Tech Ownership -.12 .011 College Year -.06 .122 Business College .12 .005

R= .201 R Square = .040 p= .001

Innovativeness:

Info Tech Ownership .12 .009 Typing Experience .08 .138 English Experience .05 .222 Sciences and Engineering .05 .269 Human Sciences -.01 .782 Computing Experience .00 .925

R= .219 R Square = .048 p< .001

Table 10: Multiple Regression Analysis for Predicting Attitude Elements of Person- Intemet Interaction

The third dynamic predictor of Intemet adoption was “relative advantage.” When this

dimension was regressed on the model background variables, 4.6% of the explained

variance was determined positively by English language experience and GPA, and

negatively with being in Joumalism and Mass Communication (see Table 10). This means

that students with more English experience and higher academic achievement perceived

more relative advantage for the Intemet than other students. Meanwhile, Joumalism and

Mass Communication students perceived less relative advantage for the Intemet.

117 The fourth dynamic variable was “access.” When this factor was regressed on the model background variables, 1.7% of the explained variance was determined positively by family monthly income and negatively by age (see Table 10). This means that access to the

Intemet from home was associated with students of younger age and with more disposable income. When cultural/religious compatibility was regressed on all other background variables, 4% of the explained variance was predicted positively by being in the College of

Business, and negatively with information technology ownership (see Table 10). This means that students in the College of Business were less compatible with the Intemet while students with more experience with other information technologies were more compatible with the Intemet.

Finally, the last dynamic predictor was “innovativeness.” When this factor was regressed on the model background variables, 4.8% of the explained variance was determined positively by information technology ownership (see Table 10). This means that being an innovator was associated with having more experiences with other information technologies.

Conclusion of Model One: Internet Adoption

Figure (3), which represents a composite of one logistic regression and six linear regression analyses, demonstrates the predictability of the adoption of the Intemet (the dependent variable). For this simple recursive model which deals with common or correlated effects several separate regressions were used for each of the dependent variable

(endogenous variable). There is one equation for each endogenous variable which was estimated “simultaneously.” The first equation was used to identify the variables that determined Intemet adoption. The other six equations determined the explanatory models for the six dynamic variables (attitude elements of person-Intemet interaction). All of the equations were found to be at significant levels (p < .01) (see Figure 3).

118 The composite model shows that there are several independent variables that can predict

Intemet adoption, i.e., there are several independent variables that have direct relationship with the dependent variable (Intemet adoption). The background variables (exogenous variables on the left side of the figure), information technology ownership, computing skills, age, gender, GPA, college, and time spent watching TV, have direct effects on

Intemet adoption. The same variables also have an indirect effects on Intemet adoption through the dynamic variables or medians such as motivation, language/complexity, relative advantage, access, cultural/religious compatibility, and innovativeness (dynamic variables in the middle of the figure). Other background variables such as home county, family income, typing skills, and English language skills have only indirect effects on

Intemet adoption through the dynamic variables.

Finally, dynamic variables (attitude elements of person-Intemet interaction) have direct effects on Intemet adoption; however, the effects are spurious (non-causal) components due to the prior variables in the model (background variables). These variables play two roles in the model: dependent variables with the background variables and independent variables with the dependent variable Intemet adoption. They play the role of medians of the indirect effects of background variables on Intemet adoption.

119 Background Variables Attitude Elements of Person-Intemet Interactions Outcome

.24 Info. Tech. O w n e ts h ip Personal A ttitude’s D im e n sio n s

^14 • In n o v a tiv e n e ss

R ^ = .0 5 -.12 Demographics

- 1.22 ' G e n d e r -.0 9 I n t e r n e t ’s A ttitu d e D im e n sio n s Home county -.1 3 (J a h ra ) Motivation 1.64 -.25 A g e 10 R ^= .12

in c o m e - 0 9

.44 • A c ce ss R ^= .02

E d u c a tio n B usiness 1.29 b n g in e e C o lleg e 12**

GPA I n t e m e t

A d o p tio n Cultural/Religious Compatibility H um an P red ic te d R ^ = .0 4 8 2 .8 % ,-.14

,-.13 Mass M edia Use 10 .12 ,Jo u m al TV

-1.32 Language/Complexity R^= J6

O p e m tio n a l Skms -.1 7 94 Computing Skills

-.10 -.65 Typing Skills Relative Advantage -.2 7 R ^ = .05 .12

■ English Skills

' significant at < .05 •* significant at < .01 Figure 3: Composite Explanatory Model of Intemet Adoption for Kuwait University Students

1 2 0 Model Two: Internet Use

Internet Use Statistics

Among adopters of the Intemet, friends were the most frequent source of introduction to the Intemet, followed by school, family, and mass media respectively. For primary access location, half of the users accessed the Intemet from home, followed by school and

Intemet cafe’. The majority of the users had adopted the Intemet within the last six months, while only a small portion had been using the Intemet for more than three years (see Table

11). English was the first language of use on-line by students, followed by Arabic using the

Latin Alphabet, while only a small segment of the students used Arabic using Arabic platform for on-line communication. Most students used the Intemet to contact people in foreign countries; this was followed by use to contact people within Kuwait, and finally to contact people in other Arab countries (see Table 11).

The users of the Intemet had an average time spent on all Intemet services of 12.13 hours per week. Students had logged-on an average of 4.25 times during the past week with an average time of 2.36 hours for each session (Table 12). Students’ primary application on the Intemet was the WWW, followed by IRC, e-mail, and lists and newsgroups (see Table 13). The most frequently accessed five categories through WWW were: TV and movie pages, personal home pages, entertainment, arts or music acts, news and mass media, and business sites. On the other hand, Islamic and Arabic, sex content, and govemment sites were the categories least frequently accessed through the WWW (see

Table 14).

121 Source of the First Introduction (n= 247) Friends 45.7% School 24.3% Family 17.8% Mass Media 8.1 % Intemet Cafe’ 3.2% Others .8%

Access Location (n= 246) Home 50.0% School 32.9% Intemet Cafe' 11.4% Friends 5.7%

Length of Experience (n= 249) Less than 6 Months 28.5% 6 Months to Less than 1 Year 22.5% 1 to Less than 2 Years 26.5% 2 to Less than 3 Years 13.3% 3 Years and More 9.2%

Language Used On-Line (n= 249) English 67.5% Ar3?ic in Latin Alphabet 2 4 .1 % Arabic 8.4%

Countries Contacted (n= 244) Foreign Countries 40.2% Kuwait 36.5% Arab Countries 9.8% Kuwait and Foreign Countries 8.6% All Countries 4.9%

Table 11 : Summary Descriptive of Intemet Use

Mean Mode S. D. Min. Max. Times of Use Each Week 4.25 3.00 4.61 .25 50.00 Length of Each Session 2.36 2.00 2.21 .25 24.00 Time Spent On-Line 12.13 6.00 19.76 .13 168.00

Table 12: Time Spent On-Line for All Intemet Services

122 Mean* Std. Deviation WWW 3.50 1.57 IRC 2.65 1.95 E-mail 2.52 1.97 Lists and Newsgroups 1.79 1.61

* on a five-point scale where 1 = "very low " and 5 = "very high"

Table 13: Primary Use of the Intemet

Percent

TV and Movie Pages 11.8% Personal Home Pages 10.8% Entertainment, Arts or Music Acts 10.8% News and Mass Media 9.9% Business Sites 8.3% Computer Related 7.7% Education and Schools 7.4% Libraries and Information Centers 7.0% Shopping and Travel 6.8% Communication Sites 6.7% Sports 6.4% Islamic and Arabic Sites 2.8% Sex Content Sites 2.3% Govemment 1.4%

Table 14: The Five Categories Most Frequently Accessed Through WWW

Background Variables and Internet Use

For time spent on-line, female students, surprisingly, spent more time on-line than male students. Even though male students were the dominant adopters of the Intemet, they spent significantly less time using the Intemet with less variance than female students (see Table

15). Students accessing from home spent more time on-line than students accessing from other locations (see Table 15). There was significant positive correlation between accessing from home and time spent on-line (see Appendix E).

123 For language used on the Intemet, students who used Arabic language spent significantly less time on-line (see Appendix E). On the other hand, students who used

Arabic in the Latin alphabet spent the highest time on-line, followed by students who used the English language (see Table 15). Freshmen spent more time on-line than other students, but there was no significant relationship between the college year and time spent on-line variables (see Table 15). Finally, it was found that the background variables, which correlated significantly with Intemet adoption, had no significant relationships with time spent on-line. This means that among students who adopted the Intemet, background variables such as demographics and education did not predict time spent on-line.

Mean S.D. Gender Males 10.94 16.57 Females 12.47 20.52

Access Location Home 16.75 24.36 School 8.77 14.57 Friends 5.00 5.73 Intemet Cafe' 5.42 5.57

Language Used Arabic in Latin 13.27 19.28 English 12.84 20.92 Arabic 3.31 2.49

College Level Freshmen 14.02 24.73 Sophomores 10.90 16.10 Juniors 10.91 14.02 Seniors 12.80 22.94 Graduate 11.11 20.98

Table 15: Time Spent On-Line by Background Variables

124 Research Question Two

Gratifications Dimensions of Internet Use Factor Analysis for the Gratifîcation Items

Intemet gratifications were measured through a series of scale items (a six-point scale where 1 = “less often”, 5 = “very often”, and 0 = “do not use”). The reliability analysis for this scale revealed a Cronbach’s alpha of .87. The variable set was reduced through principal component analysis from 20 single items to five gratification factors. Examination of the correlations among the gratifications items revealed that there was significant conceptual overlap among various subgroups of items. Factors were identified by conceptual representation, which the literature has conceptually supported.

The gratification factor accounting for the greatest variation was labeled “Social

Interaction.” This gratification was categorized by such items as: satisfy the need to write and talk to others, social relationships (e.g., IRC), find company when alone, killing time, and enjoy freedom of speech and communication. This gratification factor had a positive relationship with time spent on-line (see Appendix E). This means that students who rated social interaction items highly were more likely to spend more time on-line.

The second factor was called “Information.” This gratification factor was categorized by such items as: school requirements, general information gathering and exploring, doing research, and reading news. This gratification factor had a positive relationship with time spent on-line (see Appendix E). This means that students who rated information items highly were more likely to spend more time on-line.

125 V a r i a b l e s F a c F a c F a c F a c F a c 1 2 3 4 5

Social Interaction/Sociability Satisfy the need to write and talk to others . 7 7 -.14 .13 .24 .14 Social relationships (IRC) . 7 1 -.15 .30 .24 .07 Find company when alone .71 -.10 .19 .40 .17 Killing time . 6 4 .00 .40 .18 .02 Enjoying freedom of speech and communication . 6 2 .08 .19 .33 .26 Escape from routine and problems .57 .08 .33 .14 .14

Inform ation/Surveillance School requirements -.06 . 8 0 -.10 .06 .10 General information gathering and exploring .09 . 8 0 .13 -.02 -.06 Doing research -.02 .7 3 .02 .11 .25 Reading news -.11 .72 .13 -.07 .08 Programming and analyzing -.01 . 5 4 .11 .21 .40

Entertainment Flay gam es .12 .02 .75 .07 .32 Entertainment and fun .36 .01 .7 3 .08 .07 Getting pictures, music, and movies .14 .20 .6 5 .29 -.10

Interpersonal Utility Romantic relations and companionship .16 .02 .10 .8 1 -.05 Phone calls .23 -.04 .34 . 6 6 .09 Interacting with a group of similar interests .11 .15 .03 .6 1 .41 Personal communications (E-mail) .41 .06 .06 . 4 3 .31

T ransactional/Instrum entality Class registration .35 .18 -.12 -.07 .7 2 Shopping and making reservations -.138 .06 .44 .15 .6 9

Variance Explained 30.7% 15.3% 6.4% 5.3% 5.2% Cumulative % 30.7% 46.0% 52.4% 57.7% 63.2% Eigenvalue 6.1 5 3.07 1.3 1.07 1.06 C ronbach’s alpha .88 .80 .72 .71 .45

Table 16: Factor Analysis for Intemet Gratifications

The third gratification factor was “Entertainment” which was categorized by such items as: play games, entertainment and fun, and obtaining pictures, music, and movies. This gratification factor had the highest mean (see Table 17), and the single item “entertainment

1 2 6 and fun” rated the highest among all other single gratification items. This gratification factor had a positive relationship with time spent on-line (see Appendix E). This means that students who rated entertainment items highly were more likely to spend more time on-line.

The fourth gratification factor was “Interpersonal Utility,” which was categorized by such items as: romantic relations and companionship, phone calls, and interacting with a group of similar interests. This gratification factor had a positive relationship with time spent on-line (see Appendix E). This means that students who rated interpersonal utility items highly were more likely to spend more time on-line.

The fifth gratification factor was “Transactional/Instrumentality,” which was categorized by such items as: class registration, shopping, and making reservations. This gratification factor had no significant relationship with time spent on-line (see Appendix E).

Overall, these factors explain most of the variance observed in the manifested variables

(63.2%) (see Table 16). Summed item scores were calculated for all the factors and then were submitted for subsequent analysis prior to the regression analysis.

In conclusion, the use of the Intemet at this stage is primarily as a tool for entertainment, socialization, and information gathering experiences. Among the students,

Intemet use was displacing leisure and social activities and became a fomm for entertainment. Students were more likely to spend more time using the Intemet to socialize and search for social entertainment than for information, interpersonal communication, or transactions (see Table 17).

127 Mean Std. Deviation

Entertainment 2.67 1.40 Sociability/Social Interaction 2.60 1.51 Information 2.06 1.23 Interpersonal Utility. 1.70 1.27 T ransactional/Instrumentality 1.21 1.30

Table 17: Means of Intemet Gratifications Use (on a six-point scale from 1 = “less often” to 5 = “very often” and 0 = “do not use”)

Research Question Three

Development of Model Two: Intemet Use

Regression Analysis

Regression analyses were used to explore and estimate the coefficients of the linear equation involving independent variables that best predicted the value of the dependent variable (time spent on-line). Linear regression coefficients were used to estimate “odds ratios” for each of the independent variables in the model. A model for Intemet use was built with the linear regression findings in order to visually present the relationships between and among the constructs. The model predicted the relationship of these variables with the amount of time students spend on-line.

To explore fully the linkage proposed by the Intemet use model, significance levels for bivariate correlations and regression coefficients were set at < .10. Since the components of the model were conceptually related, assessment of multicollinearity among the

independent variables was used to determine if any variables should be omitted. A

Pearson’s correlation coefficient was conducted to detect whether the high intercorrelations

between the dependent variables suppressed their intercorrelations with any of the criterion

variables. The test results did not find these independent variables serving as suppressor

variables in the relationships of other independent variables with the criterion variables.

128 Moreover, the individual multiple regression tests conducted later found the minimum tolerance level to be .35 among all equations. Hence, there was no real cause for concern about multicollinearity (Knapp, 1998). The variables were also tested for normality, linearity, and interactions and found to be acceptable.

The regression procedures been conducted were simultaneous (block entered at the same time) to determine the best model for Intemet use. To explore interrelationships among variables, each dynamic variable was regressed on all other independent variables.

Figure (4) represents a composite of five regression analyses.

Among the subsample of adopters (n=249), significant person-Intemet related variables explained 18.4% of the time spent on-line variance (p< .001). The five dynamic variables were: social interaction gratification, access from home, length of experience on-line, use of e-mail, and use of WWW (see Table 18). This means that students were more likely to spend more time on-line if they used the Intemet for social interaction. This social interaction gratification represents time consuming activity because of the nature of such activities as writing and talking to others and chatting on IRC. E-mail use was also a good predictor of time spent on-line. Using the Intemet to send or receive e-mail is the most time consuming on-line activity for students. WWW, which was rated as the most valued service among students, was also a good predictor of time spent on-line. WWW searching, exploring and browsing were definitely a time consuming activity for students. Accessing location was an important predictor of time spent on-line. Accessing from home was associated with greater time spent on-line by students. Finally, time spent on-line was associated with the length of experience on the Intemet. Early adopters who had more experience with the Intemet and computers and more technical know-how spent more time on-line.

129 Standardized Coefficients Sig. Beta

Social Interaction .26 .000 Entertainment -.08 .112 Interpersonal Comm. .01 .834 Access-Home .12 .002 Length of Experience .10 .022 E -ni^ .16 .001 IRC .02 .737 WWW .10 .039

R= .429 R Square = .184 /?< .001

Table 18: Multiple Regression Analysis for Predicting Time Spent On-Line

Social interaction was the best predictor and positively affected the time spent on-line

(Beta = .263, p< .001). When this dynamic variable was regressed on all other independent variables, 46.2% of the explained variance was predicted positively by IRC and e-mail use, and negatively by motivation, college year, use of English language, and

WWW use (p< .001) (see Table 19). This means that IRC and e-mail applications were used for social interaction, while the WWW did not fulfill this type of gratification.

Freshmen used the Intemet to socialize more than other students. Socializing did not require high skill in the English language and could be conducted in the Arabic language.

130 Standardized Coefficients Sig. Beta

Access-Home .01 .883 Access-School -.05 .225 English -.13 .022 Arabic in Latin Alpha. -.01 .890 E-mail .23 .000 IRC .47 .000 Newsgroups .01 .938 WWW -.08 .030 Innovativeness .04 .175 Adoption .04 .194 Motivation -.12 .000 Sexual Content .04 .117 Info Tech Ownership -.03 .278 Age .01 .988 Subject's Car Value .02 .369 College Year -.10 .011

R= .680 R Square = .462 p< .001

Table 19: Multiple Regression Analysis for Predicting the Gratification Factor “Social Interaction”

E-mail use was the second predictor and positively affected the time spent on-line (Beta

= 162, p = .(X)l). When this dynamic variable was regressed on the model of independent variables, 33.3% of the explained variance was determined positively by interpersonal communication and transactional gratifications, length of experience, English language experience, access from home, and being in the College of Science and Engineering; and determined negatively by entertainment gratification, the language and complexity factor, and using the Arabic language (p< .001) (see Table 20). This means that using e-mail was more likely to provide interpersonal communication and transactional gratifications, but not the entertainment gratification. Students in the College of Science and Engineering used e- mail more than other students. Because of the nature of this application, users of e-mail had a high English language experience because of lack of an Arabic language e-mail

131 platform. Finally, users of e-mail were more likely to be early adopters and to access from home.

Standardized Coefficients Sig. Beta

Social Interaction .04 .405 Information .05 .197 Entertainment -.10 .018 Interpersonal Comm. .41 .000 Transactional .14 .001 Access-Home .10 .009 Length of Experience .10 .008 Arabic -.07 .057 Motivation -.01 .818 Language/Complexity -.08 .057 Sciences and Engineering .07 .082 Human and Social Sciences .05 .185 Typing Experience .01 .990 English Experience .11 .009 Computing Experience -.02 .694

R= .577 R Square = .333 p< .001

Table 20: Multiple Regression Analysis for Predicting E-mail Use

Access from home was the third predictor and positively affected the time spent on-line

(Beta = .124, p = .002). When this dynamic variable was regressed on all other

independent variables, 70% of the explained variance was determined positively by using e-mail, information technology ownership, and subject's car value (chi-square = 41.5; GFI

= 172.2, p < .001) (see Table 21). This means that accessing from home was particularly associated with using e-mail. Accessing from home was related to other information technology ownership including such prerequisites as personal computers and modems. It also required access to economic resources that would facilitate Intemet participation such as the ability to pay for commercial Intemet services.

132 Variable B Sig. R

E-mail -30 .0018 .18 Info Tech Ownership .23 .0014 1.25 Time Listen To Radio .19 .1077 .05 Time Reading Newspapers -.04 .6072 .00 Age .15 .3533 .00 Subject’s Car Value .28 .0522 .08 College Level -.41 .1012 -.05 Constant -5.37 .0688

Chi-Square = 41.522 (df = 7, p< .0001 ) Predicted Overall 70.00% Goodness of Fit 172.195

Table 21: Logistic Regression Analysis: Variables in the Equation for Internet Access from Home

Length of experience on the Internet was the fourth predictor and positively affected the

time spent on-line (Beta = .095, p= .022). When this dynamic variable was regressed on

the model independent variables, 24.1 % of the explained variance was predicted positively

by WWW use, interpersonal communication gratification, information gratification, access

from home, and being a male; and predicted negatively by the adoption factor and using

Arabic language (p< .001) (see Table 22). This means that early adopters had longer experience with use of the WWW, which requires more experience in browsing and

English language skills ability. Early adopters were less likely to use the Arabic language.

Early adopters sought interpersonal communication and information gratifications. Early

adopters tended to be male students and had greater length of time on the Internet, which

provided them with the experience with the Internet that facilitated access from home.

133 Standardized Coefficients Sig. Beta

Arabic -.12 .004 Arabic in Latin Alpha. -.06 .139 E-mail .06 .192 WWW .18 .000 Access-Home .08 .042 Interpersonal Comm. .12 .008 Information .10 .022 Adoption -.11 .003 Language/Complexity -.04 .305 Typing Experience -.02 .576 English Experience .06 .133 Info Tech Ownership .02 .558 College Year .05 .273 Journalism -.05 .346 Sciences and Engineering-.Ol .913 Human Sciences .01 .777 Age .01 .693 Computing Experience .08 .116 Gender -.09 .025

R= .491 R Square = .241 p< .001

Table 22: Multiple Regression Analysis for Predicting Length of Experience

Finally, WWW use was the fifth predictor and positively affected time spent on-line

(Beta = .095, p= .039). When this dynamic variable was regressed on all other independent variables, 33.3% of the explained variance was determined positively by information, entertainment, and social interaction gratifications, length of experience on the

Internet, access from home, use of English language, and negatively with the cultural compatibility factor and the subject's car value (p< .001) (see Table 23). In other words, students used the WWW to obtain information, entertainment, and social interaction gratifications. Length of experience on the Internet was a major predictor for use of the

WWW; early adopters used the WWW more than late adopters. Access from home was more frequently related to using the WWW because of the privacy afforded and the time consuming nature of this application. Users of the WWW tended to be highly skilled in the

134 English language and to have a high level of cultural and religious compatibility with its use. Finally, users of the WWW were more likely to own less expensive cars, which indicated their low disposable income.

Standardized Coefficients Sig. Beta

English .13 .036 Arabic in Latin Alpha. .03 .596 Length of Experience .19 .000 Access-Home .10 .008 Social Interaction -.27 .000 Information .30 .000 Entertainment .27 .000 Innovativeness .02 .508 Local Media -.01 .696 Motivation .03 .395 Cultural Compatibility -.11 .002 Language/Complexity -.05 .214 Typing Experience -.01 .837 English Experience -.01 .826 Info Tech Ownership -.02 .485 Subject's Car Value -.10 .006 Sciences and Engineering .01 .865 Business -.03 .301 College Year -.02 .534 GPA -.01 .577 Computing Experience .03 .561

R= .577 R Square = .333 p< .001

Table 23: Multiple Regression Analysis for Predicting WWW Use

Conclusion of Model Two: Internet Use

Regression procedures were used to determine the best composite model for predicting

Internet use. To explore interrelationships among variables, each dynamic variable was regressed on all other independent variables. Figure (4) demonstrates the prediction of the

Internet use and represents a composite of the six regression analyses. For this simple

135 recursive model which deals with common or correlated effects several separate regressions were used for each dependent variable (endogenous variable). There is one equation for each endogenous variable which was estimated “simultaneously.” The first equation was used to identify the variables that determined time spent on-line. The other five equations, one logistic regression and four linear regression analyses, determined the explanatory models of the five dynamic variables, which were: social interaction gratification, access from home, length of experience on-line, use of e-mail, and use of WWW. Ail of the equations were found to be at significant levels (p < .01) (see Figure 4).

The composite model shows that there are several independent variables that can predict time spent on-line. There are several independent variables that have direct relationship with the dependent variable (time spent on-line). The dynamic variables have direct effects on time spent on-line; however, these effects are spurious (non-causal) components due to the prior variables in the model (background variables, Internet gratifications, applications and enablers). These variables play two roles in the model: independent variables with the dependent variable time spent on-line and dependent variables with the other variables in the model.

Finally, the background variables (exogenous variables on left side of the figure): information technology ownership, English language skills, gender, college year, car value, and personal and Internet attitudes such as motivation, language/complexity, cultural/religious compatibility, and adoption have only indirect effects on time spent on­ line through the dynamic variables or medians (dynamic variables in the middle of the figure).

136 Background Variables Altitude Elements uf Person Internet Interaction Elements of internet Outcome

signiiicanl at i .05 internet Gratifications I n te r n e t Applications • signiiicanl at s 01

Imcrpcrsonai Uiiiiiy ,23 .30 .14 insirument/Tranuciion .47 IRC •10 .27

-.08 .30 .10 • W W W in fo n n m io n .10 R ^ = J 3

E d u c a tio n -.10 -.27 • College Year Social interaction 26 R ^ = .4 6 Operational Skills T im e S p e n t • English Skills O n -L in e Demographics -.10 • Car Value .28 - 0 9 • G e n d er

Internet’s Attitude Dimensions -.12 Inlemel Enablers M otivation • How long (Length of Experience) .10 R “ = .2 4 Cultural/Religious Compatibility

-.08 Language/Complexity E - 13 • Language Used (Arabic or English) tr - 0 7 Personal Attitude information • A doption 08 10 Technologies ' Access Location 10 O w n ersh ip 23 (From Home) Predicted ;70%

Figure 4: Composite Explanatory Model of Internet Use for Kuwait University Students CH APTER 5

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

Adoption Rate and Patterns

The percentage of adopters of the Internet at Kuwait University was about 42%. This put the University at the stage of an early majority according to Rogers’ category when comparing to the S-shape adoption curve. This means that the present Internet adoption has not attained the mid-point and hence the diffusion effect is not be complete (Rogers, 1998).

However, there is a challenge in interpretation involving the difficulty in specifying the critical adoption for the Internet because each information technology has a different rate pattern related to its functions and characteristics. No empirical study to date has identified the adoption rate curve of the Internet with the ideal-type adoption rate pattern (Line, 1996).

If using the Internet has not been discontinued by a significant number of adopters because of other reasons-taking into account that about one-third of the users adopted the

Internet within the last six months-the Internet has already achieved the critical mass in

Kuwait University (i.e., 10% to 20% of the population has adopted the innovation)

(Valente, 1995; Rogers, 1995). At this level of adoption the Internet can be spread easily to the rest of the students. Its popularity will continue to increase among students, but the statistics do not suggest that it will become as popular as TV or other mass media in the near future. However, the Internet in Kuwait, with all the obstacles, is growing faster than any communications medium ever, in comparisons to TV, radio, telephone and fax.

138 As an interactive communication technology, the Internet is becoming increasingly useful as more and more students and faculty adopt it. The usefulness of the Internet increases for all adopters with each additional adopter since it takes a number of other users for it to be seen as advantageous (Foley, 1995). It seems that the growth of the Internet’s rate of adoption shows that a threshold has been reached and that rapid growth will occur.

Moreover, the findings of this research endorse the effect of the social system and networks as an important element in this model (Rogers, 1995). Friends and peers play an important role in the diffusion process among students. It was found that friends play the role of opinion leaders. School and mass media, which usually function as change agents, are not playing a major role in the introduction of students to the Internet. The mass media do not seem to promote this new medium in Kuwaiti culture. Neither does Kuwait

University, which needs to integrate the Internet in the classrooms for academic use and encourage students to use this medium for educational purposes.

Most Internet adoption is done through individual efforts of friends and spring from curiosity. In Kuwait, as well as in the Arab culture, interpersonal communication and networks are highly valued and, indeed, are more credible than mass communication. The society also places importance on informal circles of male friends (e.g., Dewania) where people meet regularly and talk about public and private concerns. In these sessions, opinion on the Internet is formed and information is exchanged in these sessions. These communication networks consist of interconnected individuals who are linked to one another by patterned flows of information. The early adopter students emulate the innovators and network with them. This networking is at the center of the diffusion process

(Rogers, 1995).

The University needs to perform a major role as a change agent in the diffusion of the

Internet. Faculty members need to transfer this innovation to their students and to create an appetite for change through raising a climate of acceptance and adoption. Their job includes

139 the stages of agenda-setting, clarifying, changing attitudes, and dealing with the complexity of this technology. Even though there is growing attention among individual students to

Internet use, this new communication technology is still primarily an organizational innovation. The Internet requires a specific purchase and a dedicated set of user skills which are the barriers associated with its adoption (Lin, 1996; Krugman, 1985). The financial and knowledge resources of Kuwait University should be utilized to adopt the

Internet among students.

The Internet Adoption Model

This study developed a model for Internet adoption at Kuwait University. The significance of the Internet Adoption Model is that understanding the diffusion process can aid in allowing those who can benefit from an innovation such as the Internet to begin increasing those benefits earlier. By identifying the major factors and processes in the adoption, implementation, and utilization of a technology, the decision making responses of individuals may be predicted and, therefore, may also be accommodated through prescriptive strategies (Rogers, 1995). The model is useful in providing insight by which to compare the attributes of the Internet in its effectiveness as a communicating tool.

Through examining these stages, some deficiencies that have deterred some users from adopting it can be revealed.

The model supports individual variables as well as elements of person-Intemet interaction that ultimately explain or predict Internet adoption. Major findings show that adopters of the Internet at Kuwait University are more likely to be male students, in the

College of Engineering, young, with higher than average GPA and more than average computing skills, who have experienced and adopted more information technologies, and have spent less time watching TV. They are also more likely to be innovators, motivated, to have less problems with the English language, more technical skills, greater access to the

Internet, and to have adopted the Internet for its advantages, and see their use of the

140 Internet as more compatible with their culture and religion. The findings are consistent with other research on technology adoption which indicates that audience needs are primary determining factors and are more useful than demographics in explaining the adoption of new media (James, Worting, & Harris, 1995).

Motivation. This is an important predictor of Internet adoption. This finding conforms with other research which considered motivation the essence of uses and gratifications

(Palmgreen, 1984). Motivation provides a useful analytical tool to study Internet users. The more motivated the student, the more likely he/she is to adopt the Internet. The gratifications sought from the medium will indicate the uses of the medium and the benefits expected. Motivations, including occupations, psychographics, and lifestyle factors, are very important for adopting the Internet. Several researchers have tried to identify underlying essential dimensions of similarity and difference that organize motivations: content and process (Cutler & Danowski, 1980); cognitive and cultural (McQuail, 1980); and instrumental and ritual (Rubin, 1984).

Language and Complexity. These variables are also important factors in adopting the

Internet at Kuwait University. Complexity is labeled as a product factor in the adoption literature which states that a technological innovation will diffuse faster if it is perceived as less difficult to use or understand (Rogers, 1995). The pattern of adoption hinges very much upon the complexity of the basic access technology. This is an important factor because adopters need the skills and the international languages to deal with the Internet.

This is a major reason for not using the Internet or for its discontinued use. The Internet requires a specific purchase and a dedicated set of user skills (Krugman, 1985).

One’s very first exposure to a new technology is very crucial in technological applications. Complexity and a bad first experience invariably discourages people from trying new technologies again (Acker, 1998). Computers and related Internet technologies

141 will continue to get faster, smaller, more powerful, and hopefully easier to use for the immediate future. There is a need for simplifying the Internet and its applications.

A major problem for Arab students is comprehension of the English language, the dominant language on the Internet, which can affect their ability to sift information for education. Other languages should be on-line with non-English sites to increase the number of Internet users outside the US as the Internet becomes truly multilingual. Lack of the

Arabic Internet, which is more widely accessible and more integrated in local and regional cultures, is a major barrier to adoption of the Internet in the Arab World. One way to address this is to stress a cross-cultural component within a user-centered/friendly design development process (Acker & Landsbergen, 1994).

Relative Advantage. This is another important dimension in adopting the Internet in this study. This factor deals with the advantages and uses of the Internet as a tool. This product factor includes the relative advantage of the Internet over the methods it supersedes in terms of economics, convenience, social prestige, or satisfaction (Rogers, 1995). This finding supports the research that suggests the influence of user attitudes in the adoption of new media. Consumer attitudes about the advantages or disadvantages of new media are important predictors of adoption (Eastlick, 1993).

Access. This factor deals with the accessibility of the Internet service. The high cost of access from home to the Internet may affect the decision of adopting this medium. The ease of access represents the greatest barrier to consumer adoption of the Internet as a mass medium (Hoffman & Novak, 1996). The expensive cost of access to the Internet from one’s home may affect the decision of adopting this medium. Therefore, the Internet has become the medium of the elite, who can afford the access and speak its language. The lack of public access discourages the diffusion of the Internet. This unique pattern of adoption hinges very much upon the cost of the basic access technology. Therefore, students still have an access problem. They need to have the machine, knowledge, and an account. This

142 medium of communication is not as accessible as traditional mass media. It requires the

students to have access to a computer with software for electronic mail and a modem,

which limits their freedom to reach the Internet. In some countries, high cost of access has

been a way of keeping the public from using the net. Internet access for students should be

offered for free from home, a policy which should acknowledge the evolution of the

Internet as an important educational tool.

Cultural/religious compatibility. This is another important predictor of Internet

adoption. The compatibility of the Internet is perceived in relation to religious duties and

beliefs. This is also labeled as a product factor—compatibility with current beliefs and

processes (Rogers, 1995). In an Islamic society in Kuwait, religion plays a significant role

in shaping cultural values regarding a new medium such as the Internet. The Internet's

advantages are always judged in relation to its compatibility with the local culture and

religion. Are adopters' existing values and way of life compatible with of the Internet? A

high degree of compatibility with existing cultural and religious values, past experiences,

and needs of potential adopters will help diffuse the Internet faster. Instead of banning

Internet access, which do not work most of the time, local authorities can offer content that

is compatible with Islamic values. Such an endeavor would use the new medium to

preserve local culture and values. Arabizing the Internet would also introduce the Internet to

prospective adopters as a compatible medium with their culture. The key to Internet use in

the Arab world can be easier with Arabic Internet.

Innovativeness. For personal attitudes, the innovativeness factor is the only predictor for

adopting new technologies such as the Internet among Kuwaiti students. Innovativeness

characteristics are significant for adopting new technologies such as the Internet. Early

adopters of the Internet can be considered to be innovators who accept innovations easily even though it represents different values and traditions. Innovators do not follow the

traditional way of doing things. This is one of the individual factors which shows how

143 eager the person is to try new technologies. Innovators are relatively earlier than other members of the system. They take risks by buying the new technologies or visiting friends who have them. Innovators are more exposed to international communication, more cosmopolitan, have higher levels of education, and need a short innovation-décision period

(Rogers, 1995).

Personal factors such as innovativeness are variables that also are significantly affected by various economic and social variables. Some independent demographic characteristics and background variables in the Adoption Model have significant relationships with these factors. For background variables, the findings in this study confirmed the Internet user profile in the Middle East which is young, male, and highly educated, with high computing and programming skills (DIT, Mar 3 1998).

Age. Younger students still outnumber older students but the gap is marginal. These findings are also consistent with several studies that indicated that new media adopters tend to be younger and better educated than non-adopters (Sanberg, 1996; Atkin & LaRose,

1994; Dutton, Rogers, & Jun, 1987; Krugman, 1985).

In Kuwait, starting young to adopt the Internet may indicate that young students often seem not to be acutely aware and concerned about the apparent contradictions between traditional and modern ways. They do not typically see these contradictions as irreconcilable, and most seemed eager to preserve core traditional values while hoping to reap the benefits promised by the Internet. This may give weight to the suggestion that young students are actively seeking information to help guide them in their lifestyle choices when they adopt the Internet in Kuwait.

Education. Internet adopters have a higher GPA than non-adopters and this study provided evidence that there is correlation between academic achievement and using the

Internet among Kuwaiti students. The cause of this correlation is difficult to predict. This could mean that adopting the Internet helps improve academic achievement, or the reverse:

144 that students with higher academic achievement have more tendency to adopt the Internet.

Either way the Internet seems to be a valuable aid to academic endeavor and not an obstacle. Among the whole sample, 63.2% reported that using the Internet was essential for their study. This finding backs up the Sivin-Kachala and Bialo (1994) study which concluded that technology has a positive effect on student achievement.

Not surprisingly, adopters of the Internet at Kuwait University are more likely to be students in the College of Engineering. The college has more access to the Internet and its students usually have more experience with computers and other operational skills such as the English language—the language of instmction at the college. Internet access is still performed primarily by students familiar with computer programming, computer engineering and systems analysis. Computer-related work, such as designing hardware and software of computers, has been part of that technology. Internet use, contrary to the traditional media use, needs the ability to work computer configurations, platforms,

Internet access, and sound cards. This is one of the barriers to use of the Internet.

Gender. Males continue to dominate the Internet in Kuwait, and the female portion of the on-line population is still below the international average. Despite the availability of the

Internet for both sexes through the university services, measured indicators of use have consistently revealed a significant male domination. This confirmed the major finding that males participate in CMC and the Internet more than females (We, 1994; Herring, 1993;

Herring, 1993; We, 1993; Kramarae & Taylor, 1992; Selfe & Meyer, 1991; Hellerstein,

1985).

At the same time, the access and participation barriers that female students are facing might not be related to other uses of computers and Internet operational skills. A post-hoc analysis showed that females had the same amount of experience with computers and more experience with the English language and typing skills than male students. On the other hand, females (M= 6.32) had experienced and adopted fewer information technologies than

145 males (M= 6.83) [F(564,l)=4.05, p= .04]. It seems that one reason for the females’ non­ adoption is that they are denied access at home for social reasons, and they have less ability to pay for commercial ^tem et services access than their male counterparts. Females in

Arab culture usually do not receive the same economic resources from their families as the males.

Females’ on-line access and participation in Kuwait should be increased by arranging female-only and moderated on-line spaces. Female presence can also be enhanced when they produce their own content for the Internet through discussion groups and sites (Balka,

1993). A way to make the Internet a better place for females in Kuwaiti culture is also through revisions of netiquette for every local site to clarify that flaming is unacceptable.

For some females flaming is always personal and intimidating. Men, on the other hand, are more likely to consider flaming or aggressive styles of communication acceptable on the

Internet (Herring, 1994).

Mass Media Use. The study also found that Internet adopters spend less time watching

TV, which agrees with the media substitution hypothesis (Jeffres et al., 1995; Lin, 1994;

Krugman, 1985). Apparently, Internet users watch less TV, spend less time reading newspapers, and they listen to more radio. This finding was similar to what the Arbitron

New Media’s research study found (E-marketers, 1998). The impact of the Internet on TV and newspapers is related to the competitive nature between these media on news services and entertainment, while radio is the preferred medium for certain activities (e.g., surfing the net, commuting, background music, etc.). FutureScapes found that people spent 60% more time surfing the Internet than watching television, and the longer they had been on­ line the less time they spent watching TV (Activmedia Incorporated, Jan 16 1998).

Information Technology Cluster. Internet adopters have experienced and adopted more information technologies than non-adopters. This confirms that the diffusion of the

Internet is not independent of related clusters of innovations such as telecommunications

146 and computer innovations. Information technology ownership contributed the most

interactions in the model—indirect interactions with Internet adoption through the dynamic elements: innovativeness, motivation, access, cultural/religious compatibility, and

language/complexity. This factor could be a superior predictor of adoption compared to

innovativeness and conventional measures of innovation attributes (LaRose & Hoag, 1996;

Lin, 1996; Rogers, 1995; Dutton, Rogers, & Jun, 1987). Not surprisingly, the higher

relationships between Internet adoption and ownership of information technologies were

with the most related technologies such as a modem and a personal computer. That

supports the earlier work on the ownership of functionally similar communication

technologies as a significant predictor of newly introduced innovations (Lin, 1996).

The diffusion of information technologies is increasing in the studied population.

However, entertainment technologies such as VCR and Direct Broadcast Satellite receiver

were the most diffused technologies. On the other hand, Internet’s essential technologies

came last among the diffused information technologies. Personal computer was out ranked

by mobile phone and video games, and modem was out ranked by camcorder, CD player,

pager, and fax machine.

Other Variables. Other demographic characteristics and background variables were

found to have indirect relationships with the dependent variable through the dynamic

variables (attitude elements). Living in Jahra county, which is the most rural county and the

least urbanized, was found to have indirect relationship with Internet adoption through the

motivation element. English language experience had effect on adopting the Internet

through the relative advantage and language/complexity elements. Typing experience had a

relation with Internet adoption through the language/complexity element. Finally, the family

monthly income variable was found to have indirect relation with Internet adoption through

the access element.

147 Background and demographic variables show an influence on Internet adoption.

However, it is predicted that the demographic differences between adopters and non­ adopters will be leveling for the Internet, as with other information technologies, when it reaches the flat part of its diffusion curve (Rogers, 1995).

Internet Gratifications

The findings show that gratification factors play an important role in one’s Internet service selection and time spent on-line. The study confirmed the five proposed gratification dimensions in the framework for studying the Internet. This supports the multimedia feature of the Internet in combining gratifications from mass media and interpersonal media: surveillance/information, entertainment/diversion, interpersonal utility, social interaction, and instrumental/transactional (Wenner, 1986; Dimmicket al., 1994).

This might address the problem that researchers of the Internet are facing in studying how this new medium fits ideas about traditional mass media and interpersonal communication.

Based on the findings of this study and previous theoretical and empirical studies, a conceptual framework combining gratifications from mass media and interpersonal media can be used to study Internet use.

The strongest gratifications sought among Kuwaiti students were entertainment and social interaction followed by surveillance. The most important single gratifications items were entertainment and fun, followed by killing spare time, personal communications,

information gathering and exploring, and social relationships.

This suggests that the use at this stage is primarily as a tool for entertainment, socialization and information gathering experiences. It seems that Internet use can be displacing social and leisure activities such as watching TV. The Internet appears to be destined to become a forum for entertainment medium. Kuwaiti students also use the

Internet to build on their social networks and search for social entertainment more than looking for information.

148 Internet Use Model

Internet use was explained differently than Internet adoption, not only by the amount of variance explained but also in the variables that accounted for the explained variance.

Demographic characteristics and background variables, which have great influence on

Internet adoption, have less influence on Internet use. The multiple regression model confirmed that Internet applications, gratifications, and elements are superior in predicting time spent on-line to background and demographic characteristics. This means that demographic variables play a role on Internet adoption, but after adoption they level as predictors for Internet use and time spent on-line.

The model was developed to predict how much time students spend on-line. Among

Internet users at Kuwait University, the five major predictors were: social interaction,

access from home, length of experience, use of e-mail, and use of World Wide Web.

Social Interaction. This gratification was the first predictor and positively related to time

spent on-line. Social Interaction accounted for the greatest variance and was shown to be

the gratification consuming most time on-line among Kuwaiti students. This gratification

dimension included: writing and talking to others, social relationships on IRC, finding

company when alone, killing time, enjoying freedom of speech and communication, and

escaping from routine and problems, all of which usually take longer time.

This finding is consistent with other studies which observed that heavy users of

computerized communication spend most of their time on-line in a social function

(Hellerstein, 1986). Internet users are also more likely to go on-line in search of social

entertainment as opposed to looking for information (Nando Techserver, Aug. 14 1997).

Social interaction sites on the Internet rose rapidly during the 1990s. The more heavily

populated sites on-line are social interaction sites that allow the user to engage in role-

playing or just chatting (Rheingold, 1993).

149 Emotional needs also are fulfilled by social sites that can lead to a friendship or a romance (Williams, Phillips & Lum, 1985). The Internet is transforming Kuwaiti students’ understanding and experience of relationships by creating new social formations. It is predicted that new matrices of social relations are emerging through the adoption and expansion of CMC (Jones, 1995).

In the developed model, social interaction gratification was predicted positively by

Internet chatting and e-mail use which are the Internet applications most used for social interaction, and negatively by WWW use which is not designed to fulfill this type of gratification. College year is negatively related to social interaction. This means that freshmen spend more time on-line than other students, and have more need to socialize.

This gratification does require a high skill in the English language. Many students are using the Arabic language in Latin alphabet which has the highest mean time used on-line.

E-mail. The use of e-mail was the second predictor of time spent on-line, even though e- mail is not the most frequently used application by students. Using the Internet to send and receive e-mail was the most time consuming activity on-line. E-mail has applications for communication and information because of its speed and broadcasting ability. The finding is consistent with Waterhouse Consumer Technology Survey (Jun 23, 1997) which found that users spend more than half of their time on retrieving e-mail and researching the

WWW.

Interpersonal communication and transactional gratifications are the most satisfied gratifications by the e-mail application, but not the entertainment gratification. Users of e- mail are more likely to be students in the College of Science and Engineering. The college has more access to the Internet and its students use e-mail to communicate for classes.

Users of e-mail have high levels of English language experience—e-mail can not be used with the Arabic language. The Arabic language is the least used on-line among students and negatively correlated with time spent on-line. The language and complexity factor is

150 important for this application because it is used mostly to contact people in foreign countries more than within Kuwait or other Arab countries. Heavy users of the e-mail also have long experience on-line, and access from home.

WWW. Browsing the Web is also a good predictor of time spent on-line according to the developed model. WWW was definitely rated the most valued service among students and one of the most time consuming on-line activity for students. Among all services, the

WWW is the fastest growing sector of Internet use (Internet Society, 1998). The potential of using networked hypertext and multimedia has prompted many users to create and explore countless innovative applications on the Internet. The use of WWW as a mass medium is related to gratifications obtained from other entertainment media. Entertainment programs comprise most of the television broadcasting in Arabic TV (Beayeyz, 1989). In the future, the possibility effect of WWW use on TV will need to be examined. The WWW also will become an essential tool for education and schoolwork.

The gratifications being provided by the WWW are information seeking, entertainment, and social interaction. That is why the most important five categories frequently that students accessed through the WWW included TV and movie pages, personal home pages, entertainment, arts or music acts, news and mass media, and business sites.

The length of experience on the Internet is a major predictor for using the WWW. The longer students have been on-line the more likely they are to use the WWW. Access from home is more related to the use of the WWW because of the time-consuming nature of this application. The WWW requires a high level of understanding of the English language - the dominant language on the net worldwide and among Kuwaiti students.

Use of WWW also is highly related to its perceived cultural and religious compatibility.

The WWW has special content characteristics that need to be compatible with the cultural values and beliefs of the users. For example, only 12.4% disagreed that the Arabic sites on the Internet were preferable because they were more compatible with our culture. Users of

151 the WWW believe their use was compatible with their existing values and way of life, either liberal or conservative. Finally, an interesting finding was the relationship between the student’s car value and his/her use of the WWW. The student’s car value as an indicator of disposable income related*negatively to the use of the WWW. Many studies have found that households with lower income tend to watch more TV than lower income households

(Zdnet, Aug. 14 1998). That also might argue for the mass medium entertainment use of the WWW, and could mean that WWW users consume the web more a form of entertainment use when their disposable income is lower.

However, the findings showed that the consumption level of traditional mass media was not relevant to the time spent on the Internet. No significant correlation was found between time spent on-line and time spent on other traditional mass media, TV. radio, and newspapers. Despite a widespread belief that the Internet has had a profound effect on TV newspaper/magazine consumption, the study could not find a significant relationship among the levels of time spent on these media One reason might be because heavy overall media users also tend to be heavy Internet users, and light overall media users also tend to be light Internet users. Another might be that overall audience time has grown without being cannibalized (Jeffres et al., 1995).

Access Location. Accessing from home was an important predictor of time spent on­ line. Accessing from home as the main location was the primary access location for the students and related to long time spent on-line. This finding is consistent with other studies that the majority of Internet users in the US primarily access the Internet from home, and that most Internet users who access from home are heavy users (Internet News, Aug. 20

1998; E-marketers, 1998). There is a shift toward working at home. Students who access the Internet from home are spending an increasing amount of time on-line in more private settings. The competitiveness in the ISPs that will grow in the near future in Kuwait will benefit from this continuing rise in home users.

1 5 2 Surprisingly, school was not the main access location even with the free access provided for students at Kuwait University. Most students have been introduced to the

Internet through their friends using access from home. The university plays a minor role in the diffusion of this medium. Students’ access of the Internet from home will grow as personal computer penetration continues to decrease. Therefore, Kuwait University needs to offer access for students from home. This will increase the demand for school labs on campus and will spread the use of technology for educational purposes. Acker (1998) calls this “the phenomenon of ubiquitous computing.” If the students try the new technology at school and like it, they will come back again and will try to access from home at their convenience.

Access from home was particularly associated with using e-mail. Accessing from home was related to other information technology ownership, including prerequisites such as personal computers and modems. It also required access to economic resources that would facilitate Internet participation such as the ability to pay for commercial Internet services.

Length of Experience. The last predictor of time spent on-line is the length of experience on the Internet. The length of experience in using the Internet represents the strength of adoption of that medium and the degree of trialability before commitment

(Rogers, 1995). More experience with the Internet, computers, and the technical know­ how would facilitate Internet participation and time spent on-line.

Early adopters have long experience with use of the WWW. Browsing the Web requires more experience to browse, especially with the English language. The WWW is still not well developed for the Arabic language. Early adopters are more mature in the gratifications that they seek; they are interested in interpersonal communication and information. They look for reliable sources of news that many believe to be mostly from international media. Among the whole sample, only 12.1% did not agree that the

153 international media were more reliable than the local media. Their length of time on the

Internet enabled them to adopt it at home. Early adopters also tend to be male students.

Gender Difference. One of the interesting findings is that while males continue to dominate the Internet in Kuwait, female students spend significantly more time on-line than male students. One reason for that is that females make up the majority of users accessing the Internet from the university, which offers unlimited access. Male students have more access after school for their own enjoyment at home, whereas female students lack that

(Wheeler, 1998). Another reason is that females have more experience with the English language and typing skills than male students, while they have the same experience with computers.

This finding supports a theoretical conception offered by Herring (1993) of how women and men use the new media differently. A post-hoc analysis revealed that female smdents use the Internet more for social interaction and entertainment, whereas more male students tend to use it for information and interpersonal communication. The significant difference was found in the transactional gratification that one derives from Internet use;

Females (M= 1.37) use the Internet more for transactions than male students (M= .97)

[F( 1,238)= 5.614, p= .019]. It seems that females have a higher tendency to purchase on­ line than male students. Therefore, one would expect that marketers who recognized the potential spending of this group would heavily target female college students.

For type of applications, females use IRC, WWW and e-mail more than male students.

Significant differences were found in the use e-mail: females (M=2.69) and males (M=

2.24) [F( 1,231)= 2.929, p= .088]. On the other hand, males (M=2.31) use lists and newsgroups more than female students (M= 1.49) [F( 1,231)= 15.058, p< .001]. Males participate in lists more than females because most lists are male-dominated. Males have different language features on these lists (Herring, 1993). Flaming and strong argument are very common, which is usually intimidating for females.

154 From a social perspective, as the Internet becomes adopted as a popular mass medium, it is possible that we may see a societal reduction in the power asymmetry characterizing the communication patterns of males and females. It is quite conceivable that the students use of Internet, at school and at home, might result in changes in the way males and females are socialized in Kuwait. Furthermore, the manner in which identity management in Internet potentially democratizes cross-gender communication might extend to the bridging of other social imbalances in communication.

Limitations of the Study

The first potential limitation of this study could be a personal bias that might interfere with the objectivity of the project, especially for a researcher studying the diffusion of a medium in his home country where his expectations might bias interpretation of the data.

Therefore, personal interests should be controlled or at least minimized. However, no researcher can be a blank slate without some framework of his own when interpreting data, nor can it always be assumed that the researcher is always aware of his own agendas in presenting interpretations. Every attempt was made to control for the belief that the diffusion of this medium in Kuwait would have positive social effect.

Another limitation in this study concerns the validity of the questionnaire and its ability to find whether there is a relationship between two measured variables exist. Many methods could be used for measuring individual behaviors and tendencies, and for each method there are limitations that may affect the results. Problems that might threaten questionnaire validity, such as the construction of the questionnaire, history, environment, false results, and many other potentially negative factors exist in any use of the methods.

Potential problems were controlled for, but no controls guarantee elimination of all threats to survey validity (Cook & Campbell, 1979).

False results might come also from social desirability. The fear of evaluation made respondents apprehensive about being evaluated by other persons. It is always extremely

155 difficult, but especially in developing countries, to control for respondents presenting themselves as competent and representative of the population. The fear of punishment, or the expectation of benefits, is more important to respondents than concerns that they might produce inaccurate results in a survey. Diffusion or imitation of responses might also occur. The desire to be evaluated favorably (from the respondents' point of view) could lead to invalid responses. This makes some researchers claim that statistics cannot be taken seriously when they are about the Arab World (Abu Bakr, Labib & Kandil, 1985). Some faked answers might explain why in the results of the survey among all subjects 89% always enjoy seeking and looking for new ways of doing things, 86% like doing things that are new and different, only 10.3% do not agree that they consider themselves to be creative and original in their thinking and behavior.

Another problem in the questionnaire might be in some regard to unclear terms and words. For instance, a problem could exist with the respondents' reaction to the question about the “sex content sites.” These buzzwords are still not acceptable in Kuwaiti society, even though some students are using these sites. Only 2.3% of the users—all males— reported having visited these locations. In the total sample, when the students were asked whether there is a popularity for sites with sexual content on the Internet, 58.8% did not answer the question or were neutral. Among the users, 70.4% of the males and only

32.4% of the females agreed with this popularity. The researcher observed many bookmarks in the labs for pornographic sites, and many browsers kept a history of frequent visits to these sexually oriented sites. Culturally, checking sexual materials is shameful and not appropriate—particularly for females.

Moreover, the sexual content, conservativeness, and religiosity items in the questionnaire were either not clear or affected by social desirability not clear for some respondents. Such items are as: “the Internet contains many sexual materials,” “I like my life to be pretty much the same from week to week,” and “the traditional way of doing

156 things is the best and safest way.” For the same reasons mentioned above, there were strong central tendencies and skewness for some these variables. Therefore, these variable could not be measured as effectively as desired through this survey.

Another important limitation could be in the selection of the sample. That is, the differences between the kinds of people in the sample, as opposed to the total population of the University. A main concern was in the imbalance in representation of college in the

study. The majority of the sample comes from two colleges: Science and Engineering and

Journalism and Mass Communication. Together, these represented 6 1.9% of the whole

sample. This indicates that the students at these two colleges were more willing to complete

questionnaires. That was mainly because of the high level of participation, enthusiasm, and

cooperation among the faculty of those two colleges.

Nonetheless, the sample in this study could not be chosen on the basis of randomized

selection because of time and budget constraints, technical problems, local culture, and

most importantly the lack of a sampling frame of the students, on which a random sampling

method depends. Moreover, the purpose was not exclusively to formulate generalizations.

This is only an exploratory study. One goal of this study was to attempt not only to

explore this issue but also to demonstrate the need for improved analysis. This study

attempts to open up questions that hopefully may generate more research in this field, thus

benefiting developing societies, especially in the Arab World.

Another limitation involved statistical power. The sample size in this study might

increase the probability of committing Type II error by having lower statistical power.

Furthermore, the chance of Type I error might be increased when there was no recognition

that a certain proportion of the comparisons would significantly differ as a result of

chance-especially when the correlations and regression coefficients were set at < .10.

Nonresponse, which is a failure to collect data from those selected to be in the sample, can

be a problem and a major source of survey error. It is a bias because the effect of

157 nonresponse on the data cannot be known. As mentioned earlier, an attempt was made to minimize its effects in the design of the survey. Presenting the study more effectively and increasing efforts to enlist cooperation could make a major difference.

In the regression analyses, multicollinearity was a major concern. This is the undesirable situation where correlations among the independent variables are strong. One factor, social interaction, had a low level of Tolerance (.351) which determined that this variable contributes little information to a model, and can cause computational problems.

This variable also had a high level of Variance Inflation Factor (VIF= 2.26), and when the variance inflation factor increased, so did the variance of the regression coefficient, making it an unstable estimate. Large VIF value might be an indicator of multicollinearity (SPSS,

1998).

Finally, in order to be comprehensive, this kind of diffusion study needs to gather data at multiple points in the diffusion process (Rogers, 1995). This one-shot survey will not indicate change and cannot show a cause-effect relationship. It only provides grist for description and enables a correlational analysis that shows that various independent variables are associated with dependent variables. The problem in determining the relationships in this study is to find a correctional analysis approach that shows why a particular independent variable covaries with the dependent variables. Some independent variables may be causes of adopting this medium, or affect for this medium, or they may be involved with these dependent variables in cycles of reciprocal causality through time. On the other hand, they both may be caused by outside factors not considered in this study

(Rogers, 1995), such as cultural and religious aspects and innovativeness, which are significantly affected by economic and social variables. It is predicted that some independent socioeconomic, social and political variables may have significant relationships with these factors.

158 Future Directions and Studies

To study the diffusion and use of a new medium such as the Internet, there is a need for longitudinal studies that measure relevant phenomena over a period of time using the same methods with randomized groups. Future research should be concerned with the process of diffusion and adoption of the Internet in a more systematic and planned way (Rogers,

1995). A quasi-experiment would also be appropriate for this kind of research in order to compare the behavior (e.g., time spent on-line) of a group of students who have experienced a particular condition (e.g., different motivations) or treatment (e.g., training

or skills) by being exposed to the Internet with a control students of similar people who

have not been exposed to it (Cook & Campbell, 1979),.

Therefore, many studies should be done to record the developments in diffusion and

use of the Internet in Kuwait. In addition, studies should focus not only on individuals but

also on the system. The social system is important to study in this case, but individuals in

these circumstances are more accessible for study than is the system itself. The need to

study social and religious structures and norms is essential to describe barriers to the

adoption of the Internet. Appropriate experimental design could examine the relationship

between the adoption of the Internet and variables such as social and religious values. The

experiment could be designed primarily to record empirical data quantifying behavior, to

test pragmatically this behavior to try to uncover any weakness or ambiguities inherent in

the system, and to test the validity of observations on the diffusion of this medium in

Kuwait.

Parallel questions should investigate the impact of Internet communication on the

audience. Mass communication researchers should examine uses and gratifications as well

as a range of information-seeking and knowledge-gap based questions concerning the

audience. Since the Internet is being used for entertainment as well as information,

researchers should investigate whether the Internet is a functional equivalent of other

159 entertainment media and whether there are negative effects on members of the audience.

There are also questions of audience addiction to certain types of Internet conununication and entertainment.

Many questions are well worth asking, and in dire need of investigation. For example:

Will networked individuals be united more by commonality of interest, or will digital dispersion prevent us from connecting with each other in the off-line world? What changes might be occurring as a climate for modernization among the users of the new media? How do individuals move from a traditional way of life to a different, more technologically advanced and a more rapidly changing way of life?

There is also a need for empirical studies to test the “complexity” construct in computer and Internet use. Complexity is relevant to adoption decisions as well as other elements of person-lntemet interaction that predict Internet adoption.

These studies could use different methods to collect data that answer questions such as:

Who uses the medium? How do they use it? What applications do they use? Where do they access the medium? And finally. Why do college students at Kuwait University use the

Internet? The studies could employ a combination of extensive ethnographic studies, case studies, survey methods, and log server data analyses. This complex new form of communication medium requires communication researchers to develop new techniques for studying the Internet (Everland & Dunwoody, 1997; December, 1996; Morris & Ogan,

1996).

A new method that can be used to study the Internet is “hypermedia audit trials”

(Everland & Dunwoody, 1997). The interactivity on the Internet between the content and the active users is a major element in Internet behavior. Communication on the Internet leaves tracks to an extent unmatched by that in any other media-its contents are easily observable, recorded, and copied. Participant demography and behaviors of consumption, choice, attention, reaction, learning, and so forth, are widely captured and logged.

1 6 0 Consequently, these logs of Internet servers can open great research opportunities

(Newhagen & Rafaeli, 1996).

Hypermedia audit trials method has more benefits compared to other forms of data collection methods. It consists of observational data collected unobtrusively, which removes the problem of social desirability and random and systematic error in the recall of media use, all of which can influence the validity of self report measures of media use (Rice

& Rogers, 1984). It requires limited human efforts and is only limited by the needs of the investigator and time span allowed for the research, because this is done automatically by the computer. Statistical power can be solved easily by using large samples of data with this method. It often is able to obtain longitudinal data because of the simplicity with which data can be collected over time (Everland & Dunwoody, 1997).

Using such new methods may give mass communication researchers some interesting possibilities for verification of their results. For instance, a main criticism of uses and gratifications research is that it depends on the media users’ own evaluation of how they use the media. However, when answering a survey, users put their media use in the best possible light. For example, a person might respond that he primarily uses the Internet for surveillance purposes, when in fact this person is using it for entertainment. It would be very difficult to verify these responses if the questions were regarding television, radio, or newspaper use, but with the Internet it is possible to check users’ responses through

monitoring their use. It is possible to have an audit trail that logs what users are on the system, when, and more importantly what sites they are traveling to. This information can

be put into a database, where it will later be used for content analysis on the individual

sites. Each of the sites could be categorized as satisfying one or more of the five

gratifications suggested in this study. This information can then be triangulated to compare

it with the responses that Internet users had given in the survey to see whether the sites that

they actually visited were satisfying the gratifications that they had originally specified.

161 While there is a possibility for abuse of privacy with this method, this research can be valuable as it could provide evidence of how exactly people attempt to put their media to use and how they are responding to the surveys. This can show a more comprehensive view of how people use the Internet, and more importantly how they perceive their use of the media, as well as increase methodological knowledge.

For future studies, more advanced analyses could be used such as stepwise variable entry and removal to examine the importance of variables in the block at each step for entry or removal. This may indicate which variable in the regression has the most significant effect over other variables. These types of studies can be used to estimate and build good and predictive models that can be used in decision support systems at Kuwait University regarding Internet use. In this context, the models can provide information that helps planners address these, and other related issues: Which user segments are growing the fastest, and why? What are their key characteristics and use motivations, including majors, psychographics and lifestyle factors? Last, but not least, how can one develop the best use of the Internet for learning and education?

Conclusion

As an exploratory study guided by a conceptual framework, this study raised some research questions to examine variables that may have important relationships to both the adoption and use of the Internet by students at Kuwait University. Two comprehensive models were developed involving the independent variables that best predict the value of the dependent variables: Internet adoption and use (time spent on-line). The first model predicted Internet adoption from several personal and Internet attitudes: motivation,

language/complexity, relative advantage, access, cultural/religious compatibility, and

innovativeness. For background variables, Internet adoption was predicted by: information technology ownership, computing skills, age, gender, GPA, college, and time spent

watching TV.

162 Friends play the major role in diffusion of the Internet, more than the school or mass media. Despite the availability of the Internet for both sexes through the university services, males still dominate the Internet in Kuwait. The difficulty of access represents the greatest barrier to adoption. The Internet is accessed most easily by those who can afford it and who speak its language—English. The Internet is still a medium accessed primarily by students familiar with a computer and other operational skills. Internet users spend less time watching TV. Internet adopters have experienced and adopted more information technologies than non-adopters. Finally, the research shows that the Internet seems to be a valuable aid to academic endeavor and has a positive effect on student achievement.

The second model predicted significant person-lntemet related variables that explained on-line time variance. The five dynamic variables included: social interaction gratification, access from home, length of experience on-line, use of e-mail, and use of WWW. Internet use was explained differently than Internet adoption. Background variables, which have greater influence on Internet adoption, in turn have less influence on Internet use outcome.

The model confirms that Internet use, gratifications, and elements are superior in predicting time spent on-line than background and demographic characteristics.

The study confirmed the five proposed gratification dimensions in the framework for studying the Internet: surveillance/information, entertainment/diversion, interpersonal utility, social interaction, and instrumental/transactional. However, the Internet use at this stage is still primarily for purposes of entertainment, socialization and information gathering experiences. It seems that Internet use may be displacing social and leisure activities such as watching TV.

While males continue to dominate the Internet in Kuwait, female students spend significantly more time on-line than male students. Female students use the Internet more for transactions, social interaction and entertainment, while male students use it more for

163 information and interpersonal communication. Females use IRC, WWW and e-mail more

than male students.

The explosive growth of the Internet holds out the possibility of a new mass medium.

This new medium offers a chance to develop and to refine mass communication theories

and research. Not only will the Internet integrate separate media, but it will also define the

boundaries of the media institution.

It is clear that the Internet, especially most of the content of Western origin, may

challenge local culture, values, tradition, and religion, and offer new alternatives in

lifestyles. Therefore, the future of this communication system may, however

unintentionally, work to destroy local cultures by reinforcing and globalizing Western

civilization and its lifestyles and consumer behavior.

It seems that this new medium ends the concept of the modem national state that

dominates its land and space. It questions the old definitions of media localization within

political and geographical boundaries. That raises a political concern for supervision and

control. New media now have more opportunity to influence people in other lands. For

some countries that still control information, news, and broadcast, it will be more difficult

to do so in the future with a medium such as the Internet.

For all of these reasons, the Kuwaiti government should not be concerned with controlling the flow of information over the Internet. It happens to be very difficult to control the Internet for the following two reasons: (I) filtering is not perfectly conceivable; and (2) the new technology of satellite Internet connection cannot be controlled. Currently, it is the government’s unwillingness to allow the privatization and liberalization of telecommunication services that inhibits applied technological growth.

Local officials, especially in the higher education field, must begin to look at the longer-

term problems of how to utilize the Internet for educational, social, and political

advancements. Some efforts have to be made toward using the Internet more positively in

164 the Arab region. As with satellite TV, if Arab governments can make themselves attractive sources of local on-line information and entertainment then they may be able to drown out or discredit their competitors.

The Internet will make an important impact on all societies, all societies, developed and developing. The Internet presents an alternative model of media access, but it has a long

way to go in providing access to everyone. New communications technologies will

facilitate communication among the world’s national societies, especially in the areas of education, cultural interaction, peace, gender equality, and economic development.

However, the Internet must be used for the local good and by local agendas to sustain

local communities that are bound by place. Local societies should not be undermined and

destroyed by the new virtual societies and globalization. That is, we must be watchful that

the Internet does not occasion the loss of local identity and tradition to the exclusive “global

commons.”

The introduction of Arabic on the Internet will increase compatibility of the content with

the local culture. This is a major barrier of the Internet in the Arab World. Development of

the Arabic Internet will help to introduce the Internet to the Arab world. A user-friendly

Arabic-aware Internet browser such as Sindbad can simplify Internet use and its

applications.

Kuwait’s early adoption of the Internet and the rapid growth of its use indicate that the

Internet received a favorable reception and that local users believe that there are good uses

for this new technology. The future development of the Internet and its use by sectors of

society now left out, such as the health sector, primary and secondary schools, and the less

wealthy, depends upon the degree of freedom that will be allowed in using the Internet and

in ISP competition. Competition should bring prices down, which should increase use.

Stifling controls, in contrast, may discourage use.

165 Kuwait’s Internet service providers (ISPs) need to improve their access through more telephone lines and better quality lines. Another possible solutions is through satellite-based systems such as that of ZakNet. Subscription charges to the public will go down as more

ISPs enter the market. If the number of subscribers in the region grows at the current rate,

ISPs need to implement new high-speed technology. The competition will always be on the lookout for broadband solutions such as the aforementioned digital subscriber line and cable modems.

Moreover, recognizing the Internet’s status as a new educational medium, colleges of education, social sciences and communications in Kuwait have to start teaching students how to use the new technology. The Internet has enhanced learning opportunities, making them available any place and any time. Now is the time to update the curricula, faculty and instructional technologies. For instance, all the courses that are relevant to traditional journalism, newspapers and network television could be taught in cooperation with this new medium, the Internet. These schools should be concerned with how many courses should be taught using the Internet for on-line homework, Internet use for research, course home pages, the number of computers available to students, and sufficiency of technical infrastructure.

The Internet offers richness from the standpoint of the individual learner. One of the many benefits of the Internet may be that the focused attention on the educational organizations and presentation of teaching and learning materials in a highly interactive environment produces new learning and teaching paradigms. Organizations of all kinds including primary and secondary schools, post-secondary education institutions, government institutions and commercial enterprises should seek to use the Internet and its related technologies to enhance the learning and teaching process. This is an important initiative that will differentiate the makeup of Internet users in the region.

166 The educational focus should be on the needs, skills, and interests of the learner in an open-ended learning environment. WWW, in combination with other Internet applications such as e-mail, newsgroups, and Telnet, can be an interactive learning environment. The creative implementation of these tools makes the WWW an ideal environment for distributed learning.

In the future, Kuwait’s major challenge will be to participate in the development of a truly global information society. Schools and universities can play a role in this global co­ operation effort together with the help of relevant international organizations (e.g.,

UNESCO), as well as universities, governments and private sectors of industrialized and other developing countries. Some key elements of this co-operation include the following:

(a) diffusing educational experience in regional integration in the field of telecommunications, (b) contributing towards developing telecommunications infrastructures, and (c) strengthening scientific and technological co-operation with these countries.

167 APPENDICES

168 APPENDIX (A)

Sexual Lists Offered by Gulfnet

This page, and all contents, are Copyright (c) 1995 by Gulfnet Kuwait, Al-Gas Tower, 11th Floor, Sharq Area. Kuwait

alt.rock-n-roll.metal.gnr "Axl Rose" is an anagram for "Oral Sex". alt.wanted.mars.women (no description available) alt.wanted.moslem.gay (no description available) alt.wanted.moslem.men (no description available) alLwanted moslem.women (no description available) alt wanted muslem bestiality (no description available) alt personals Do you really want to meet someone this way? alt.personals.ads Geek seeks Dweeb. Object: low-level interfacing. alt.personals.aliens Looking for out-of-this-world love. alt.personals.big-folks Romance for large people. alt.personals.bondage Are you tied up this evening? alt.personals.fat Romance for fat people, altpersonals.fetish Romance for object-oriented people. alt.personals.intercultural Sometimes the twain can meet alt.personals.jewish ? alt.personals.misc Dweeb seeks Geek. Object: low-level interfacing. alt.personals.motss Romance for gay people. alt.personals.poly Hi there, do you multiprocess? alt.personals.spanking Oedipus gives this group a thumbs up. alt.personals.spanking.punishment In search of bad butt bum. alt.personals.tall Romance for tall people. alt.fan.karla-homolka Why are there so few hot, exhibitionist, S&M women?

1 6 9 APPENDIX (B)

A Translation of the Questionnaire

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Dear Brother/Sister; This survey is being conducted in order to obtain data on the attitudes of students at Kuwait University toward the Internet, and to test certain hypotheses about factors that relate to the adoption of this new medium. This questionnaire operates on a simple multiple-choice system. To make an answer, check on the appropriate response. If you have any questions about the nature of the questionnaire while you are taking it, please consult the interviewer. This questionnaire will be used for a scientific research. Please cooperate with us to answer all the question. All your answers are anonymous. The questionnaire will take about IS minutes.

Part One: Internet use

1. Do you use the Internet? ( ) Yes; ( ) No. If no, please go to Part 2 page 3. 2. Where do you use the Internet Mostly? ( ) Home; ( ) School; ( ) Friends; ) Internet cafes 3. You were introduced to the Internet through: ) Family; ( ) Friends; ( ) School; ( ) Intemet cafes; ) Mass media; ( ) others: 4. When did you start using the Intemet: ) Less than 6 months; ( ) 6-12 months; ( ) 1-2 years; ( ) 2-3 years; ) 3 years or more 5. How much time do you spend on all Internet services? a. How many times did you log-on during the past week, write a number ( times) b. An average time of each session ( hours:______minutes) 6. Compared to your friends, how much do you use the Intemet: ( ) much more; ( ) more; ( ) average; ( ) less; ( ) much less 7. When using the Intemet, what language do you use mostly ( ) Arabic; ( ) English; ( ) Arabic in English letters 8. When using the Intemet, what countries do you contact ( ) within Kuwait; ( ) Arab countries; ( ) Foreign countries

9. On a scale of 1 to 5, please rate the following applications based on how often you use them: (5 = very often, 1 = less often, and 0 = if you don’t use): less often very often E-mail 0 1 2 3 4 5 Newgroups and Listserv 0 1 2 3 4 5 WWW 0 12 3 4 5 Intemet Relay Chat (IRC) 0 1 2 3 4 5

170 10. By using the same scale (5 = very often, 1 = less often, and 0 = if you don’t use), why do you use the Intemet?

0 2 3 4 5 I ) Information gathering and exploring 0 2 3 4 5 2) School requirements 0 2 3 4 5 3) Reading news 0 2 3 4 5 4) Doing research 0 2 3 4 5 5) Getting pictures, music, and movies 0 2 3 4 5 6) Programming and analyzing 0 2 3 4 5 7) Personal communications (e.g.. E-mail) 0 2 3 4 5 8) Shopping, buying and making reservations 0 2 3 4 5 9) Entertainment and fiin 0 2 3 4 5 10) Play games 0 2 3 4 5 II ) Escape from daily routine and problems 0 2 3 4 5 12) Satisfy the need to write and talk to others 0 2 3 4 5 13) Class repstration (add and drop) 0 2 3 4 5 14) Romantic relations and companionship 0 2 3 4 5 15) Interacting with groups of similar interests 0 2 3 4 5 16) Killing time 0 2 3 4 5 17) Netphone 0 2 3 4 5 18) Enjoying freedom of speech 0 2 3 4 5 19) Social relationships (e.g., IRC) 0 2 3 4 5 20) Find company when alone 0 2 3 4 5

1. When on the Web, what are the five most important categories you frequently access? Try to focus on the categories rather than thé particular examples, which are for illustrative )urposes only); ) Corporate and Business Sites and Information (such as microsoft.com) ) Sports (such as sportzone.com) ) Computer Related Information and Software Archives (such as Infopc.com) ) Libraries and Information Centers ) News and Mass Media (such as cnn.com) ) Islamic and Arabic Sites (such as islam.net) ) Education and Schools (kuniv.edu.kw) ) Personal Home Pages (such as those of friends’) ) TV and Movie Pages (such as the mca.com) ) Entertainment, Arts or Music Acts (such as iuma.com). ) Government and Regional Information (moc.kw) ) Shopping and Travel (such as flowers.com) ) Sex Content Sites ) Communication Sites (hotmail.com) ) others (specify): ______

171 Part Two: General Questions In the following questions, we are interested in the attitudes that describe you as a person. For each of the following statements, please indicate how much you agree or disagree with that statement as a description of you. There are no right or wrong answers—just answers that describe you best. Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Agree Disagree

1. I like my life to be pretty much the same from week to week. 2. I always enjoy seeking and looking for new ways of doing things. 3. My peers have a big influence on me to adopt new technologies. 4. I respect local mass media to be my source of news. 5. The international media are more reliable than the local media. 6. I follow the latest trends and fashions. 7. I like being in charge of a group. 8. I like a lot of variety in my life. 9. I often crave excitement. 10.1 like doing things that are new and different. 11.1 am very interested in how mechanical things, such as engines, work. 12. There is too much sex on television today. 13. A woman’s life is fulfilled only if she can provide a happy home for her family. 14. The traditional way of doing things is the best and safest way. 15.1 rarely trust the new ideas from the western culture. 16. The western technology should be resisted because it is against our values, tradition, and religious norms. 17.1 am an influential member of my peer group by making them adopt my ideas. 18.1 consider myself to be creative and original in my thinking and behavior. 19.1 always need a long time to learn about a technology before I adopt it. 20. The worst thing in new technologies is that they lead to social change.

172 Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Agree Disagree

1. I use the Intemet because it is a new medium and many people around me have adopted it. 2. The lack of reliability in domestic media is encouraging me to adopt the Intemet. 3. The language is a problem for me in using the Intemet. 4. I feel uncomfortable toward the Intemet as a new medium. 5. Using the Intemet is essential for my study. 6. There is a popularity for sites with sexual content on the Intemet. 7. Using the Intemet is very complex for me. 8. Using the Intemet is against some of my religious beliefs. 9. The Arabic sites on the Intemet are preferable because they are more compatible with our culture. 10. Using the Intemet wastes the time of prayers and religious duties. 11. Using the Intemet causes social isolation. 12. The Intemet helps to improve my English language. 13. The Intemet encourages contact between individuals of the opposite sex. 14. Intemet access in Kuwait is slow. 15. Intemet service is expensive for me. 16. The Intemet causes addiction. 17. The Intemet is a good medium for preaching Islamic values. 18. The Intemet should be filtered to control unethical content. 19. My family rejects my use of the Intemet. 20. The Intemet contains many sexual materials. 21. Intemet helps interconnecting^societies. 2 2 .1 encourage my friends to use the Intemet.

173 Part Three: Demographics and Background Variables:

1 . Gender (1) Male (2) Female 2. A ge:(_ J 3. Home county; (I) Kuwait, (2) Hawalli, (3) Farwanya, (4) Ahmadi, (5) Jahra. 4. Monthly family income (K.Î). 1 =$ 3.3): ( 1 ) K.D 499 or less; (2) 500- 699; (3) 700-899; (4) 900-1199; (5) 1200 or more. 5. The present value of your car (K.D): ( 1 ) less than 2,999; (2) 3,000- 5,999; (3)6,000-8,999; ' (4)9,000-11,999; (5) 12,000 or more 6. Department: (______) 7. year: ( ) Freshmen; ( ) Sophomore; ( ) Junior; ( ) Senior; ( ) OtherCollege 8. GPA ( point) 9. Computing experience: ) beginner ) intermediate ) advance 10. Printing experience: ) beginner ) intermediate ) advance 11. English proficiency level: ) beginner ) intermediate ) advance 12. What do you own of these communication technologies: ( ) computer ( ) VCR ( ) pager ( ) satellite dish ( ) video camera ( ) cellular phone ( ) fax machine ( ) video game players ( ) answering machine ( ) modem ( ) electronic personal organizer ( ) CD player 13. Time spent using other mass media (average time in hours): TV ( ); radio (_ newspapers ( ___ ).

174 APPENDIX (C)

The Questionnaire in Arabic

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181 APPENDIX (D)

Table of Spearman's Rho Correlation Coefficient for Internet Adoption

182 Innovativeness .193 .000 M cxlem .564 Religiosity -0 6 1 0 00 .145 Electronic Organizer 168 L e a d e rsh ip 091 000 029 C D P lay er .365 Conservative ness .086 000 038 Mass Media Use - 102 Local Media -0 8 8 016 034 Time Spent W atching Tv - 143 A doption -.009 001 820 Time Spent Lessening To Radio - O i l M otivation .350 797 0 00 Time Reading Newspapers -0 3 9 Cultural/Religious Compatibility -.100 361 023 A g e -0 9 4 Sexual Content .060 .027 .175 C ounty -.196 Language/Complexity -.396 .000 .000 Kuwait Capital .136 Relative Advantage .079 001 .077 H aw alli 041 A cce ss 063 .327 .157 F a rw a n iy a -.051 G e n d e r -.181 2 19 .000 A hm adi -.107 Typing Experience .350 O il .000 J a h ra - 139 English Language Experience 259 001 .000 Family Monthly Income .092 Internet Skills .442 .031 0 0 0 Subject's Car Value .134 Info Tech Ownership .335 0 04 .000 C o lleg e -.218 C o m p u ter .358 0 00 .000 Journalism and M ass Comm -.005 VCR -.0 6 2 .912 .129 Sciences and Engineer .376 P a g e r .003 0 00 .935 Human and Social Sciences -.271 DBS - 0 1 6 000 .693 B usiness -.048 C a m c o rd e r .119 243 .004 E d u c a tio n -.1 7 4 Cell Phone -.0 0 2 .000 .969 College Year -.062 Fax .152 140 .000 GPA .140 Video Games .012 .001 761 computing Experience .479 Answering Mach .113 .000 .006

183 NOTE TO USERS

Page(s) not included in the original manuscript are unavailable from the author or university. The manuscript was microfilmed as received.

184-192

UMI APPENDIX (E)

Table of Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient

Adoption T. online T im es L en g th Experience E-mail IR C Lists WW

Times Of Use Each Week .653 1.000 2 03 .196 .347 140 006 216 000 .001 .002 000 0 3 0 9 29 001 Length O f Each Session .825 203 1 0 0 0 105 .218 216 - 0 3 3 027 000 .001 101 001 001 6 1 4 .683 Length of Experience .186 .196 105 1.000 .265 -060 .123 330 .003 .002 101 OOO .353 057 000 E -m ail .319 .347 .218 265 1.000 193 110 311 .000 000 .001 .000 003 .087 .000 IRC .195 .140 .216 -.0 6 0 3 9 3 1.0 0 0 - 2 0 5 - 167 .002 0 3 0 .001 .353 .003 .001 009 N ew sg ro u p s -015 .006 -.033 .123 110 - 2 0 5 1.000 318 .819 .929 6 1 4 .057 .087 001 .000 WWW .149 .216 .027 3 30 311 - 167 318 1 000 .022 .001 6 83 0 00 000 0 09 0 0 0 Social Interaction - 1 1 0 .299 .236 2 5 0 -.028 306 .626 - 128 -128 0 8 4 .000 .000 .0 0 0 .664 000 .000 0 48 047 Information - 1 0 6 .106 .159 0 2 7 .304 .222 - 190 541 469 .094 .098 .013 .674 .000 .001 .003 0 00 000 Entertainment -.121 .149 .149 .099 -.031 .169 .321 107 185 .055 .019 .020 .121 .621 .008 .000 .098 .004 Interpersonal Comm. -.0 8 5 260 .256 .180 .166 .489 .302 .024 - 0 2 9 181 .000 .000 .005 .009 .000 .000 .712 658 T ransactional/lnstnimenta -059 .022 091 -.0 1 0 .091 .315 119 128 125 .353 .732 .157 .878 .155 OOO 0 65 .047 .052 Innovativeness .202 - 107 - 164 -.0 2 4 -.062 -.110 -.021 - 140 - 159 0 0 0 .107 .013 .717 .345 098 .753 035 016 Religiosity -.0 4 6 -.028 021 - 0 0 3 .058 050 .132 - 0 3 4 .075 .265 .680 751 .969 .385 .458 .049 613 263 L e a d e rsh ip .094 -.025 -.0 9 2 .066 .000 -.009 -0 1 4 - 0 9 5 -0 9 0 .023 .712 .167 .321 .996 .899 .834 156 .178 Conservativeness .089 .052 .091 002 .075 .005 .024 -.0 9 6 .047 .032 .429 .170 .975 .252 937 .716 .150 483 Local Media -.0 8 5 .115 .189 .0 9 2 .084 .084 .059 -.093 .144 .041 .081 .004 165 200 .207 .373 .161 .030 A doption - 0 0 8 .020 .021 .018 .219 .029 - 194 .080 .076 .856 .769 .750 .791 .001 667 003 .229 .258 M otivation .331 -.115 -.235 .008 -.053 -.202 -.1 2 8 - 151 -.171 .000 .085 .000 .901 .423 .002 .056 .024 010 Cultural Compatible -.1 0 4 .037 .105 .0 1 4 .004 .135 070 .073 236 0 19 .586 .117 .835 .951 .044 2 9 6 .275 .000 Sex Content 0 1 6 -.076 - 0 0 4 -.0 8 4 -.108 -.046 - 110 .032 046 719 .258 .954 211 .104 .497 .101 .639 490 Language/Complexity -.3 7 6 197 .196 .151 .287 .218 0 73 - 0 8 6 290 .000 .003 .003 .023 .000 .001 .277 .202 OOO Relative Advantage .067 -.145 - 137 -.062 -.086 -.061 .086 -1 1 1 -.313 .131 .029 .040 .356 .195 .362 .202 .100 0 00 A c ce ss .050 -.015 .071 -.085 -.046 -089 -.0 1 4 .038 .027 .259 .828 .289 .203 .487 .187 .832 .568 .693 G e n d e r -.181 .040 -.006 .101 -.1 4 2 .112 .077 -.247 015 .000 .544 .921 .1 2 0 .028 088 .240 OOO .818 A g e -.1 0 2 -.045 -.0 2 6 -.0 6 2 .169 -.032 -.2 7 5 .205 111 .016 .501 .700 .3 5 0 .010 .632 .000 .002 .097 Family Monthly Income .069 .044 .103 .005 .049 .036 .127 -.1 5 7 - 0 4 9 .107 .513 .128 .945 .465 .599 .060 .020 .473 Subject's Car Value .126 .144 -.031 .1 9 6 -.001 .000 .185 -.103 - 169 .007 .054 .678 .008 .989 .997 .013 .168 .024 GPA .132 -.065 .098 -.1 2 3 .073 .093 - 104 -.0 1 8 .137 .003 .348 .160 .0 7 6 .290 .182 .135 .794 .050

193 Adoption T. online Times Length Experience E-mail IRC Lists WWW

Computer Experience V g .150 .223 .063 .406 286 -0 9 2 035 326 000 .023 .001 .343 .000 .000 .163 .599 .000 Typing Experience .345 .175 .139 .146 .235 .210 .095 -.046 .182 .000 .008 .035 .027 .000 .001 .151 489 .006 English Language Exp. .256 .145 .182 .087 .314 .313 .021 005 188 000 .027 .005 .186 .000 .000 .748 934 .004 Internet Skills Sum .442 .191 .216 .126 J73 .321 .002 .005 .269 .000 .003 .001 .055 .000 .000 .974 936 .000 Info Tech Ownership .333 .153 .140 .1 3 4 .201 .152 .219 132 .171 .000 .020 .035 .043 .002 .023 .001 .047 010 C o m p u te r 358 007 .034 .032 .093 .046 020 -023 .137 000 .914 .598 .623 .143 .478 .762 717 033 VCR -062 -.046 -.030 .005 -0 1 8 -.002 .121 - 0 1 4 - 0 2 2 129 471 .637 939 776 .973 059 826 736 P a g e r 003 -0 5 5 -040 -.043 -040 - 106 125 103 -0 5 9 935 .389 .534 .498 .533 .101 051 111 359 DBS -0 1 6 -.038 -.035 .006 039 -.049 178 002 024 693 .548 584 .926 .541 .450 .006 974 705 C a m c o rd e r 119 .031 .009 .093 .030 043 208 068 .090 .004 .625 .885 .148 .641 .501 .001 .292 163 C ell P hone -.002 .022 -.0 5 4 .098 -0 0 9 - 0 1 3 241 -0 0 9 - 0 0 6 .969 .735 399 .125 .888 .844 0 0 0 .891 929 Fax .152 105 .116 091 .194 .173 .062 .089 .088 .000 099 .069 .153 .002 007 338 169 173 Video Games 012 .113 .027 .147 .036 .015 035 .163 .094 .760 076 .67! .021 .574 .817 588 O il 144 Answering Mach .113 156 .171 .122 n o .083 095 149 079 006 0 14 0 07 057 .082 201 142 0 20 220 M o d em 564 145 171 .123 .221 .229 185 0 60 169 .000 .023 .007 .054 .000 .000 0 04 .355 009 Electronic Organizer .168 .077 .018 .094 .132 .226 .052 111 .171 .000 .226 .776 .141 .038 000 .420 085 008 CD Player -.028 -.081 -.117 .029 -.064 -.082 072 005 - 0 2 2 503 218 .077 .660 .332 .219 .280 942 741 Time Spent Watching TV -.041 -.0 9 0 -.0 9 6 -.013 -.096 -.127 .059 -.033 -0 6 0 326 .171 .144 .848 .144 .056 374 6 20 365 Time Listenuig To Radio .005 .008 -.042 .097 .057 .057 .027 0 50 070 .906 .900 .527 .142 .390 .394 .684 458 296 Time Reading Newspapers- 017 -.066 -.0 9 5 -.005 -.067 -.061 .061 .015 -034 .681 .318 .151 .939 .309 .362 359 .823 .605

194 S o cial. In fo rm . E n tertain In te rp e r. Transact. Innovativ Religious. Leadership Conserv. M edia

Internet Adoption -.1 1 0 -106 -.121 -.085 -.0 5 9 .202 - 0 4 6 0 94 .089 -0 8 5 .084 .094 .055 .181 .353 000 265 023 .032 041 Time Spent on-line .299 .106 .149 .260 .022 -.107 -.0 2 8 - 0 2 5 .052 115 .000 .098 .019 .000 7 3 2 .107 .680 7 12 429 081 Times O f Use Each Week .236 .159 .149 .256 .091 - 164 .021 -092 091 189 .000 .013 .020 .000 157 .013 .751 167 170 004 Length O f Each Session .250 027 099 .180 -.010 -.0 2 4 -.003 .066 .002 092 .000 .674 .121 .005 .878 .717 .969 .321 975 165 Length of Experience -.0 2 8 4 0 4 -.031 .166 .091 -.062 .058 .000 .075 084 ..664 000 .621 .009 155 .345 385 9 9 6 .252 200 E-m ail .306 .222 .169 489 .315 - 1 1 0 0 5 0 - 0 0 9 005 0 84 0 0 0 001 .008 .000 0 0 0 .098 .458 899 937 2 07 IRC 6 26 - 190 321 .302 . .119 -.021 132 -0 1 4 .024 059 .000 .003 .000 .000 .065 753 .049 834 .716 373 N e w sg ro u p s -.128 541 .107 .024 .128 -.140 - 0 3 4 -.0 9 5 - 0 9 6 -.093 .048 .000 .098 .712 .047 .035 .613 156 150 161 W W W -.1 2 8 .469 .185 -.029 .125 -.159 .075 -090 .047 144 .047 .000 004 .658 .0 5 2 0 16 .263 178 483 0 30 Social Interaction 1.000 .016 .560 .634 .335 -.138 .004 -.030 -.042 003 804 .000 000 .000 .035 .951 653 .521 % 8 Information 0 1 6 1.000 191 172 .3 2 9 -.164 013 -2 0 3 .064 .005 .804 .002 .006 .000 012 .847 0 02 333 944 Entertainment .560 191 1.000 .464 .327 -.1 7 0 .112 - 1 0 8 -.028 091 .0 0 0 .002 .000 .0 0 0 .009 .091 .101 669 .167 Interpersonal Comm. .634 .172 .464 1.000 361 -.067 - 0 0 4 -1 0 3 -.1 1 4 -0 8 7 .000 .006 OOO .000 304 .957 .117 .083 186 Transactional/Instrument .335 .329 .327 361 1.000 -.073 -.079 - 0 1 6 .004 -0 6 5 .000 .000 .000 .000 2 64 .233 806 .947 319 Innovativeness -.1 3 8 - 164 - 170 - 0 6 7 -.0 7 3 1.000 0 4 6 .455 044 -.005 0 35 .012 0 09 .304 .264 .268 0 00 .294 898 Religiosity .004 .013 .112 -.0 0 4 -.079 .046 1.000 .134 270 279 .951 .847 .091 .957 .233 .268 OOl 000 .000 L e a d e rsh ip -.0 3 0 -.203 -.108 -.103 -.016 ■ .455 134 1.0 00 112 016 .653 .002 .101 .117 .8 0 6 .000 .001 .007 706 Conservativeness -.0 4 2 .064 -.028 -.1 1 4 .0 0 4 .044 .270 .112 1.000 316 .521 .333 .669 .083 .947 .294 .000 .007 000 Local Media .003 .005 .091 -.0 8 7 -.0 6 5 -.005 .279 .016 3 16 1.000 .968 .944 .167 .186 .319 .898 .000 .706 000 A doption -.2 1 3 .094 -.204 -.1 7 2 -.0 7 3 .124 -.076 .090 .034 - O i l .001 .153 .002 .009 .268 003 .067 030 417 .800 M otivation - 3 5 6 -.273 -.228 -.287 -.2 6 8 181 .019 .143 129 -.044 .000 .000 .001 000 .000 .000 665 001 003 .318 Cultural Compatible 01 6 .023 .033 -.081 -.041 -.041 .382 063 144 181 .804 .734 621 .221 .540 359 .000 153 OOl 000 Sex Content -.1 9 5 .094 -.078 -.221 .047 .026 .069 093 113 007 .003 .156 .239 .001 .475 .557 120 .037 O il .880 Language/Complexity -.037 .124 OOO -.121 -.0 4 6 - 131 .203 -055 148 353 .5 7 : 061 .997 067 .485 .003 0 00 .211 001 000 Relative Advantage .028 -.270 .026 .126 -.0 9 6 .127 .099 135 .024 -0 3 6 .678 0 00 .694 .058 .148 .004 0 2 6 .002 5 94 419 A c c e ss -.1 2 7 -.014 .017 -.153 -.006 .023 169 .031 213 .069 .055 .834 .797 .020 .934 .609 .000 .480 .000 122 G e n d e r .072 -.008 .080 -.097 .152 .077 .099 .147 306 029 .266 .908 .215 .133 .019 .068 .019 .000 000 .497 A ge -.278 .185 -.197 -.1 2 4 -.1 3 3 .046 -.0 0 6 -.054 - 0 4 7 .084 .000 .005 .003 .059 .0 4 4 .282 .895 2 04 2 76 049 Family Monthly Income .070 017 .189 .059 .128 -.016 .121 -.067 .038 115 .295 .799 .004 .375 .055 .716 .005 .118 374 007 Subject’s Car Value .211 -.032 .193 .113 .142 .005 .106 -.015 .030 015 004 .664 .009 .126 .054 .917 .023 .742 .525 .754 GPA -.0 8 5 .207 .004 -.007 .1 0 0 -.028 .088 -.133 .070 079 .215 .002 .955 .917 .145 .529 .046 .003 111 .072

195 S o cial. Inform. Entertain. Interper. T ran sa ct. Innovativ. R eligious. L e a d ersh ip C onserv. M ed i:

Computer Experience 0 1 5 3 77 .064 .161 .142 -.153 .026 - 0 9 0 .005 .127 .815 .000 .327 .013 .029 0 00 546 .033 915 003 Typing Experience .080 .244 083 .077 .156 -.155 -.0 3 8 -.0 8 8 .052 095 223 000 .207 .239 .017 .000 .378 0 39 225 0 2 5 English Language Exp. .0 0 6 .199 -.008 .034 .018 - 1 3 3 .072 - 1 2 4 092 133 9 2 2 .002 898 .606 786 .002 091 .003 030 0 02 Internet Skills Sum .019 .333 .040 .103 .118 - 1 8 4 .003 -.1 1 2 .049 134 7 67 .000 .544 .113 070 .000 9 52 0 08 .244 001 Info Tech Ownership 176 2 02 .291 .113 .224 - 167 .194 -116 064 172 0 07 «002 .000 .086 001 .000 .000 0 0 6 132 0 0 0 C o m p u ter 0 3 5 150 047 -.1 0 6 .100 - 1 3 5 071 - 0 8 2 057 166 5 8 0 0 18 4 5 6 .094 117 001 0 8 7 0 48 .173 OOO VCR .060 -.010 118 -.0 8 4 -.015 -.032 .118 0 13 181 123 .346 878 .063 .184 .813 440 .004 749 .000 003 P a g e r 117 .059 .161 .145 .094 - 0 6 4 .000 -.1 1 8 .063 0 1 5 .066 .349 Oil .022 .139 .123 .997 .004 128 713 DBS .094 .032 .160 -.0 5 2 .071 .064 .231 .101 127 071 .141 .613 Oil .415 266 .123 .000 .015 002 0 8 5 Camcorder .113 III .221 -.021 .127 -.028 168 -.0 9 5 103 110 .075 .080 .000 .738 .045 .505 .000 .023 .013 0 08 Cell Phone 143 -.015 .155 .029 .096 .045 .184 .021 .075 .103 .024 .819 .014 .647 .130 .279 .000 .608 .072 0 13 Fax 0 6 9 .166 .134 .060 .173 -.062 .092 -.0 5 0 025 078 .277 .009 .034 .345 .006 135 0 2 7 .233 545 0 59 Video Games .101 .144 .250 OOO .124 -.097 .134 -.0 0 7 .103 .069 .112 .023 .000 .997 .050 .020 001 .863 013 0 9 6 Answering Mach .100 .218 .112 .070 .125 -.140 .047 - 0 9 4 .062 .107 .114 .001 .076 .274 .048 .001 2 55 0 2 4 137 0 1 0 M odem .139 191 .165 111 201 - 134 0 8 2 -0 6 1 004 116 0 29 .002 .009 .082 .001 .001 0 48 145 927 0 05 Electronic Organizer .115 180 .149 .126 .144 -.147 0 5 5 - 0 3 0 084 081 .071 .004 .018 .047 023 .000 .190 .476 .043 050 CD Player .067 .000 .139 065 .169 -.034 -.001 .020 008 -.095 .310 999 .033 .325 .009 .431 .989 .636 859 0 2 6 Time Spent Watching TV .075 -.0 3 4 .168 086 .113 -.004 -0 0 9 .036 .014 -0 9 6 .252 .606 .010 .191 .085 .921 .831 .402 .739 023 Time Listening To Radio .014 -.0 0 3 .013 -.0 0 5 .052 -.088 .059 .002 .031 -.018 .836 9 68 .847 .943 .430 .039 .167 9 62 .475 6 68 Time Reading Newspapers .034 .0 6 0 .057 .025 .199 .010 -.048 -.005 Oil -068 .606 3 6 0 .382 701 .002 818 263 916 .805 110

196 Motivat. Cultur. Sex Language : R elative Access Gender A g e

Internet Adoption 331 -104 .016 -.376 .067 .050 .181 102 0 00 0 19 719 0 00 131 259 .000 0 16 Time spent on-line -115 .037 - 0 7 6 .197 -145 -015 .040 -.045 .085 .586 .258 .003 .029 .828 .544 .501 Times Of Use Each Week- 235 .105 -.0 0 4 .196 -.137 .071 -.006 -.0 2 6 .000 .117 .954 .003 .040 .289 921 .700 Length Of Each Session .008 .014 -.0 8 4 .151 -.062 -.085 .101 -.0 6 2 .901 .835 .211 .023 .356 .203 .120 .350 Length of Experience -.053 .004 - 108 .287 -.086 -.046 -.1 4 2 169 .423 951 .104 .000 195 487 .028 0 1 0 E -m ail -2 0 2 135 -046 .218 -061 -089 112 - 0 3 2 .002 0 4 4 .497 .001 .362 .187 088 6 32 IRC -.128 .070 - n o .073 .086 -.014 .077 - 2 7 5 .056 296 .101 .277 202 .832 2 40 0 00 N e w sg ro u p s -.151 073 .032 -.086 -III .038 -.247 205 .024 .275 .639 .202 .100 .568 000 .002 W W W -.171 .236 .046 .290 -3 1 3 .027 .015 III 010 .000 .490 .000 .000 693 .818 .097 Social Interaction -356 0 1 6 - 195 -.037 .028 - 127 072 -.278 aoo 8 04 .003 .579 .678 055 .266 .000 Information -.273 023 .094 .124 -.270 -0 1 4 -0 0 8 .185 0 00 7 34 156 .061 .000 834 .908 005 Entertainment -2 2 8 .033 -.078 .000 .026 017 080 - 197 001 .621 .239 .997 .694 .797 .215 003 Interpersonal Comm. -.287 -.081 -2 2 1 -.121 .126 - 153 -.097 - 124 .000 .221 .001 .067 .058 .020 .133 .059 Transactional/Instrument -.268 -.041 .047 -.046 -.096 -.006 .152 -.133 000 .5 4 0 .475 .485 .148 .934 019 .044 In n o v a tiv e n e ss .181 -.041 .026 -.131 .127 .023 077 0 46 0 0 0 .359 .557 003 .004 609 068 .282 Religiosity 019 .382 .069 .203 .099 169 099 - 0 0 6 .665 0 0 0 .120 .000 .026 .000 .019 895 Leadership 143 063 .093 -.055 .135 .031 .147 -.0 5 4 .001 .153 .037 .211 .002 .480 000 2 04 Conscrvativeness .129 .144 .113 .148 .024 .213 .306 -.0 4 7 .003 .001 Oil .001 .594 .000 .000 .276 Local Media -.044 181 .007 .353 -.036 .069 029 .084 318 0 0 0 .880 .000 .419 .122 497 049 Adoption .038 055 102 063 -.076 -.0 4 0 -.128 .089 .392 .213 .022 156 .089 .372 .002 .037 M otivation 1.0 00 -.064 .165 -.038 .226 .065 .123 -.0 0 7 .147 .000 .398 000 .143 006 .879 Cultural Compatibility -064 1.000 .225 .310 .040 .252 .061 002 147 .000 .000 .374 .000 172 965 Sex Content 165 2 25 1.0 0 0 .073 .035 .104 268 - 0 2 3 .000 0 0 0 103 .437 .019 .000 611 Language/Complexity -.038 .3 1 0 .073 I.OOO -.037 175 -009 023 398 .000 103 410 000 .832 609 Relative Advantage 226 0 4 0 .035 -.037 1.000 - 0 0 8 - 0 1 7 -.0 2 4 0 00 .374 .437 410 859 .698 .603 A c c e s s .065 .252 .104 .175 -0 0 8 1.000 .083 -.101 143 .0 0 0 .019 000 .859 .063 026 G e n d e r .123 .061 .268 -.009 -.017 083 1.0 0 0 -.1 7 2 .006 .172 .000 .832 .698 .063 .000 A g e -.007 .002 -.023 .023 -.024 -.101 -.172 1.0 0 0 .879 .965 .611 .609 .603 .026 .000 Family Monthly Income -1 1 6 -.0 2 2 -.0 7 7 .158 .002 .091 - 0 3 0 -.0 5 7 O il .6 3 0 .094 .001 .963 047 .490 192 Subject's Car Value -.080 .008 -.0 3 7 .172 .085 .079 .107 -.093 .106 .8 6 9 .461 .000 086 I I I .022 .049 G P A -.053 .1 0 6 .118 .081 -III .056 .199 .022 .256 .0 2 2 .012 .082 .017 .234 .000 .624

197 M otivat. C ultur. Sex Language Relative Access Gender Age

Computer Experience -.187 .089 .054 .460 -.146 .036 .000 -.0 7 6 0 0 0 .047 .231 .000 >001 .418 1.000 .074 Typing Experience -.102 .029 .064 .393 -.0 7 7 .080 06 9 -.127 023 .515 .161 .000 089 .077 .102 .003 English Language Exp. -.092 .081 .048 465 -1 3 0 .065 .069 -.019 .039 0 70 288 0 00 .004 146 09 9 6 50 Internet Skills Sum -.165 087 069 512 -.135 .073 0 37 -.092 0 0 0 05 2 124 000 003 .104 3 76 031 Info Tech Ownership -.234 131 - 137 330 008 .063 -.0 8 4 - 110 .000 .004 0 02 000 .851 .162 .045 0 10 C o m p u ter -.226 .093 -.066 374 -.069 .082 031 - 120 0 00 .035 .136 .000 121 066 .462 005 VCR -0 0 3 .117 -.018 .078 .009 .118 .091 - 140 .946 .008 .684 .079 .840 .008 029 001 P a g e r - 1 5 7 -.029 - 147 -017 .043 -.051 -.296 0 24 .000 .512 001 697 .339 .250 0 0 0 574 DBS .015 .115 -009 .079 .067 .090 063 100 .729 .009 839 .074 .131 .043 133 018 C a m c o rd e r -.0 8 0 .128 - 0 5 3 .198 -.005 .115 .074 - 121 .068 .004 .231 .000 .909 .009 .077 .004 C ell P hone -.055 .046 -.142 .119 -.013 .102 .009 -040 .215 .302 .001 .007 .765 .022 833 .351 Fax -.131 .028 -.106 .194 -.0 4 5 .027 -.0 4 3 - 0 2 0 .003 .531 .016 .000 .311 .547 .306 .642 Video Games -046 .083 -.055 .112 -0 4 3 .081 .086 - 119 .297 .060 .216 O il .337 .070 .039 .005 Answering Mach -.1 4 2 .103 -.062 .125 -.007 .035 -.120 .002 .001 .020 .165 .005 .876 .436 .004 .971 M odem -.237 .135 -.055 .356 .004 .004 -.0 7 0 - 101 .000 .002 .212 .000 .924 .920 .095 017 Electronic Organizer -.139 .071 -.003 .164 .026 -.008 -.024 -.016 .002 .110 .939 .000 .566 .861 .559 713 C D P lay er -.0 6 0 .022 -.0 2 0 - 116 019 -.0 3 4 .059 - 129 .179 625 6 54 010 683 .447 162 003 Time Spent Watching TV -.037 .006 -.012 - 167 .038 -.0 0 4 067 - 114 .414 898 .786 .000 402 .921 .113 008 Time Listening To Radio -.0 6 4 .068 -.0 1 4 007 -.007 -.055 .036 -088 ,156 .137 .757 .878 .873 .224 391 .041 Time Reading Newspapers -.028 -021 -.0 1 4 -.035 .005 -.022 .010 -060 .533 .637 .751 .442 .906 .627 .806 162

198 In co m e Car Value GPA Computer Typing English InfoTech Skills Computer VCR

Inieniet Adoption - 0 6 9 -.126 -.1 3 2 -.478 -.3 4 5 -.256 -333 -442 -.358 062 .107 .007 .003 .000 000 .000 0 0 0 .0 0 0 .000 .129 Time spent on-line .044 .144 -.065 .150 .175 .145 .153 191 .007 -0 4 6 .513 .054 .348 0 2 3 .008 .027 .020 .003 914 471 Times Of Use Each Week .103 .031 .098 .223 139 .182 140 2 1 6 .034 -0 3 0 .128 .678 .160 001 .035 .005 035 001 .598 637 Length Of Each Session 005 196 - 123 .063 .146 .087 134 126 032 005 .945 008 0 76 .343 027 .186 .043 055 623 939 Length of Expenence .049 -0 0 1 073 .406 .235 .314 201 373 093 -0 1 8 4 65 .989 2 90 .0 0 0 .000 .000 .002 0 0 0 143 776 E-mail 036 .000 .093 .286 210 .313 152 321 046 -0 0 2 .599 .997 182 .0 0 0 .001 .000 023 0 0 0 .478 .973 IRC .127 .185 - 1 0 4 -.0 9 2 .095 .021 .219 0 0 2 0 20 121 .060 .013 .135 .163 151 .748 OOl .974 .762 .059 N e w sg ro u p s - 1 5 7 -.103 -.018 .035 -046 .005 .132 0 0 5 -.023 -.014 .020 .168 .794 .599 .489 .934 .047 .936 .717 826 WWW -.049 - 169 .137 .326 .182 .188 .171 2 69 137 - 473 .024 .050 0 0 0 .006 .004 .010 0 0 0 .033 736 Social Interaction 070 211 -.085 0 15 0 8 0 -0 0 6 176 .019 -035 060 .295 .004 2 15 .815 2 23 .922 007 767 .580 346 Information .017 -.032 .207 .3 7 7 .244 .199 .202 333 .150 -. .799 .664 0 0 2 .000 .000 .002 0 0 2 0 0 0 018 .878 Entertainment .189 .193 0 04 .064 .083 -.008 .291 0 4 0 047 118 .004 009 .955 .327 207 .898 0 0 0 5 4 4 .456 063 Interpersonal Comm. .059 113 -.007 .161 .077 0 34 .113 103 - 106 -.084 .375 .126 .917 .013 .239 .606 086 .113 094 .184 Transactional/Instrument .128 .142 .100 .1 4 2 .156 .018 .224 .118 100 -0 1 5 055 054 145 .029 .017 .786 001 0 70 .117 813 Innovativeness - 0 1 6 005 -.028 -.1 5 3 - 1 5 5 - 133 - 167 -.1 8 4 - 135 -.032 716 .917 529 .000 .000 002 .000 0 0 0 001 440 Religiosity .121 .106 .088 .026 - 0 3 8 .072 194 003 .071 118 005 .023 .046 546 .378 .091 .000 ,952 087 004 L e a d e rsh ip -.067 -.015 -.133 -.0 9 0 -.0 8 8 -.1 2 4 - 116 - 1 1 2 -.0 8 2 .013 .118 .742 .003 .033 .039 .003 .006 .008 .048 749 Conservativeness 038 030 .070 .005 .052 092 .064 049 .057 181 .374 .525 111 .915 .225 .030 .132 244 .173 0 00 Local Media 115 .015 .079 .127 .095 .133 .172 .134 .166 .123 .007 .754 .072 .003 .025 .002 0 0 0 .001 0 00 .003 A d o p tio n -.0 7 0 -.171 -.039 .014 -.006 .007 - 118 .000 -.054 -1 2 0 .104 .000 .377 .748 .894 .867 .005 .995 194 .004 M otivation -.1 1 6 -.080 -.053 -.187 -.102 -.092 -.234 -.165 -.2 2 6 -.003 O il .106 .256 .000 .023 .039 .000 .000 000 946 Cultural Compatibility -.022 008 106 .089 .029 .081 .131 087 .093 .117 6 3 0 .869 .022 .047 .515 .070 .004 .052 .035 008 Sex Content -0 7 7 -.037 .118 .054 .064 .048 - 137 069 - 0 6 6 -.018 0 9 4 .461 .012 .231 .161 .288 0 02 .124 .136 684 Language/Complexity .158 .172 .081 .460 .393 .465 330 .512 .374 078 .001 .000 .082 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 OOO 079 Relative Advantage .002 .085 - I l l - 146 -.077 -.130 .008 -.135 -.069 009 .963 .086 .017 .001 .089 .004 .851 003 121 840 A c c e ss .091 .079 .056 .036 .080 .065 .063 .073 .082 118 047 111 .234 .418 .077 .146 .162 .104 066 008 G e n d e r -.0 3 0 .107 .199 .000 .069 .069 -.0 8 4 0 37 031 091 .490 .022 .000 1.000 .102 .099 .045 .376 462 029 A g e -.0 5 7 -.093 .022 - 0 7 6 -.127 -.019 -.110 -.092 -.1 2 0 - 1 4 0 .192 .049 .624 .074 .003 .650 .010 .031 005 001 Family Monthly Income 1.000 .288 .053 .109 .065 .128 348 .125 .235 .157 .000 .237 .011 .131 .003 .000 003 .000 .000 000 Subject's Car Value .288 1.000 -.027 .1 9 0 .175 .224 .326 .231 .272 098 OOO .585 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .035 GPA .053 -.027 1.000 .144 .054 .150 .077 .120 .110 .081 J 3 7 .585 .001 .222 .001 .080 .006 .012 066

199 In co m e Car Value GPA Computer T y p in g E n g lish InfoTech Skills Computer VCR

Computer Experience .109 .190 .144 1.000 .687 .419 .347 857 .480 004 O il .000 .001 OOO 000 .000 .000 .000 931 Typing Experience 0 6 5 .175 .054 .687 1.000 .368 .271 .863 .395 0 25 131 0 0 0 .222 .000 OOO .000 .000 .000 558 English Language Exp. 128 .224 150 4 19 3 6 8 1.000 .249 693 .214 036 003 .000 001 000 OOO 0 0 0 000 OOO 395 Internet Skills Sum 125 231 120 857 .8 6 3 693 343 1.000 .443 O il 003 .000 .006 .000 OOO .000 .000 000 791 Info Tech Ownership .348 .326 .077 .347 .271 .249 1.000 343 525 .374 .0 0 0 .000 0 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 OOO 000 OOO .000 C o m p u te r .235 .272 .110 .480 3 9 5 .214 525 443 1.000 208 0 0 0 .000 .012 .000 .0 0 0 .000 000 .000 0 00 VCR .157 0 98 081 .004 -.0 2 5 .036 37 4 oil 208 .000 0 0 0 .035 06 6 931 5 5 8 .395 00 0 791 OOO P a g e r .152 .090 - 1 2 4 -.085 -062 032 .416 -.045 058 213 .000 .052 00 5 .043 .1 4 2 .444 .000 279 159 0 0 0 DBS .170 .147 -006 .016 -.0 0 3 .035 .439 -001 199 509 .000 .001 898 703 9 3 6 399 .000 982 OOO 000 Camcorder .223 .258 .088 .152 .129 .120 .576 .157 255 .358 0 0 0 0 0 0 043 .000 .0 0 2 .004 0 0 0 0 00 OOO 000 C ell P hone .238 .253 - 0 5 2 -.003 .058 117 .477 .051 .186 .354 .000 000 .231 .939 .169 .005 .000 .226 OOO 000 Fax 258 .231 .055 .197 125 .153 .608 181 .327 207 .0 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 .003 OOO .000 000 .000 0 00 Video Games .181 .144 .061 .102 .0 3 7 0 53 .484 .078 .220 360 .000 002 .165 .015 .385 .207 .000 063 .000 0 00 Answering Mach .164 .083 .043 .130 .117 105 .530 146 .204 190 .000 .075 .330 .002 .0 0 6 .013 .000 .000 .000 000 M o d em .216 .209 .102 .461 .340 .238 .575 .421 504 145 .000 .000 .020 .000 .000 .000 .000 000 .000 OOO Electronic Organizer .121 102 .074 .214 .152 .129 .460 .197 .205 153 005 .028 .092 .000 .000 .002 .000 000 OOO .000 C D P la y e r .040 .011 -.0 3 4 -.013 .0 2 0 -.0 5 4 075 -.023 .000 132 .355 .822 .442 .761 .644 .200 .076 581 9 92 002 Time Spent Watching TV O il 0 0 4 -0 2 4 -.0 6 2 -.0 4 5 -.1 0 9 061 -0 9 7 003 099 .801 .933 .581 .141 .2 9 4 0 1 0 .153 .021 .952 .019 Time Listening To Radio .053 .021 -.020 .066 .0 6 8 .034 065 .067 0 20 .225 .658 .658 .124 .113 .431 .129 .115 .643 0 22 Time Reading Newspapers.038 .000 -.0 3 4 -.0 0 2 .0 5 7 .003 .031 032 -.022 081 .384 .996 .445 .969 .1 8 4 .942 .474 .457 .597 055

200 APPENDIX (F)

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201 Kuwait University Inter-Campus Network

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IMUI |H> laui ii« g târ.^l \ a lainlaiiiH ii I I miiimi xiMMiiifii laiiioIMMI W O a & AAA IHMIIIlaI iNIMin M Del I99f BIBLIOGRAPHY

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221 INDEX

Arabic ■ 28. 47. 56. 58. 59. 63. 64. 105. 107. 110. 139. 143. 146. 91. 93. 110. 121. 122. 123. 157. 164. 165. 171. 172 124. 131. 132.133. 134. 135. Academic Achievement (see GPA) - 142. 143. 150.151. 153. 165. 102. 113. 116. 144 169. 170. 172 Access - 1. 2. 3. 10. 11. 15. 19. 20, Demographics • 3. 46. 80. 81. 85. 23. 30. 38. 40. 43. 44. 45. 46. 86. 92. 97. 124. 141. 173 B 47. 48. 49. 52. 54. 55. 56. 57. Diffusion of Innovation • 6. 16. 17. 58. 59. 60. 61. 63. 64. 66. 67. Background Variables • 86. 87. 99. 18. 21 68. 69. 70. 71. 72. 73. 75. 79. 101. 112. 115.116. 119. 123. 80. 82. 93. 108. 109. 110. 112. 124. 136. 144. 147.149. 162. 113. 114. 116. 117. 119. 121. 173 Education • 2. 3. 4, 9. 11. 16. 19. 122. 124. 129. 130. 131. 132. 30. 46. 48. 61. 62. 64. 69. 71. 133. 134. 135. 136. 141. 142. 72. 73. 74. 76. 79. 80, 83. 85. 143. 145. 146. 147. 149. 150. 86. 92. 94. 97. 100. 102. 123. 151. 152. 153. 154. 160. 162. Car Value • 86. 99. 100. 114. 131. 124. 139. 142. 143. 144. 151. 163. 165. 170. 172 132. 133. 134. 135. 136. 152 153. 162. 164. 165. 166. 167. Access Location • 46. 93. 121. 122. College • 7. 46. 49. 51. 73. 74. 75. 170 124. 152. 153 80. 81. 86. 94. 96. 100. 102. English Language Skills ■ 86. 119, Adopters • 16. 17. 18. 19. 21. 23. 112. 114.115. 116. 118. 119. 136 43. 48. 83. 91. 96. 99. 101. 124. 130.131. 133. 134. 135. Entertainment • 28 . 32. 34. 40. 41. 102. 103. 104. 105. 109. 112. 136. 140.145. 150. 154. 157. 43. 49. 50. 62. 67. 84. 85. 92. 113. 121. 123. 129. 133. 134. 160. 173 121. 123. 126. 127. 128. 130. 138. 139. 140. 141. 143. 144. College Year ■ 86. 94. 1(X). 114. 131. 132. 134. 135. 146. 147. 145. 146. 148. 153. 163 118. 124. 130. 131. 134. 135. 151. 152. 154. Adoption • I. 2. 3. 5. 6. 7, 15. 16. 136 148. 149. 150. 165. 170 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. Compatibility • 17. 83. 93. 108. 159. 161. 163. 26. 27. 34. 36. 48. 51. 55. 60. 110. 112. 113. 116. 118. 119. 70. 76. 77. 78. 79. 80. 82. 83. 134. 135.143. 147. 151. 162. 85. 86. 88. 90. 92. 93. 96. 97. 165 Complexity - 17. 18. 19. 32. 47. Family Income ■ 86. 93. 119. 173 101. 102. 103. 105. 106. 107. Females • 44. 95. 97. 99. 100. 101. 83. 93. 108. 109. 110. 113. Ill, 112. 113. 114. 115. 118, 102. 124. 145. 146. 154. 155. 119. 120. 124. 131. 133. 134. 115. 117. 119. 131. 132. 134. 135. 140.141. 147. 160. 162 156 138. 139. 140. 141. 142. 143. First Model ■ 85. 101. 111. 118 145. 147. 149. 150. 153. 159. Computing Skills 86. 112. 113. 119. 140 160. 162. 163. 165. 169 Age • 10. 27. 46, 49. 51, 86, 100, Conservativeness • 83, 93. 105. 102. 103. 111. 112. 114. 116. 106. 107. 114. 156 Gender • 3. 23. 43. 45. 71. 83. 86. 117. 119. 131. 133. 134. 144. Cultural • 2. 3, 4. 5. 7. 23. 24. 25. 94, 96. 100. 101. 102. 111. 27. 28. 29. 30. 32. 33. 48. 55. 173 112. 114, 117. 119. 124. 134. Arab • 1. 2. 3. 5, 7. 24. 29. 30. 38, 59. 68. 76. 83. 84. 91. 93. 105. 136. 145. 154. 155. 165. 173 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 108. 110.112. 114. 116. 118. GPA (see Academic Achievement) • 63. 64. 65. 66. 69. 70. 71. 72. 119. 134.135. 141. 142. 143. 86. 94. 100. 102. 103. 112. 73. 76. 79. 81. 121. 122, 139. 147. 151,158. 162. 165 113. 114. 116. 117. 119. 135. Culture • 3. 4. 5. 13, 23. 24. 25. 27. 142. 143. 146, 151, 156, 157. 140. 144. 173 28. 29. 44. 54. 55. 56. 58. 59. 164. 165. 169 Gratifications • 6. 7. 30. 31. 32. 33. 69. 71. 72. 77. 83. 90. 91. 93. 34. 36. 43. 49. 78. 80. 83. 84. 222 85. 86. 87. 91. 92. 97. 125. N 126. 128. 131. 133. 134. 136. Kuwait ■ 1. 2, 3, 5. 7, 15, 24, 25, Needs ■ 5, 7. 17, 30, 31, 32, 34, 43, 141. 148. 149. 150. 151, 153. 29, 58, 61, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 45, 49, 77. 84, 96, 139, 141. 159. 161. 163 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 143, 145, 150, 153, 158, 161. 79, 80, 81, 90, 93, 94, 95, 96, 166 H 97, 99, 100, 105, 110, 112, Newspaper • 42, 51, 86, 161 Home County - 86. 93. 119 114, 121. 122, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, O 146, 149, 151, 153, 154, 155, I Operational Skills ■ 86, 101. 104 159, 160, 162, 163, 165, 167, information • 49. 50. 84, 85. 92. 168, 169, 172, 173 148. 161. 163 Kuwait University - 1, 2, 3, 5. 7, Information Technology Ownership 15, 64, 69, 70, 72, 73, 74, 75, Personal Attitudes • 80. 85. 86. 92. (see Technology Cluster) • 20, 79, 80, 81, 90, 94, 95, 96, 97, 93, 97, 105, 108, 143 80. 83. 85, 86, 92, 97, 103, 99, 112, 137, 138, 139, 140, Predictor ■ 96, 112, 113, 115, 116. 112, 115. 116. 119. 132, 136. 141, 145, 149, 153, 160, 162, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134. 146. 153 169 141. 143. 147. 149. 150. 151. Innovators ■ 16. 18. 20. 82. 83. 91. Kuwaiti Students ■ 4, 80, 143, 144, 152, 153 93, 105, 106, 107. 112, 113, 148, 149. 150. 151 114. 116. 118.119. 131. 135. 143. 144. 147.158. 162 Instrumental ■ 32. 33. 50. 85. 92. Radio -1,4, 22, 38, 40, 42, 51, 52, 126. 127, 128,131, 132, 141,Language - 3. 23, 25, 27, 44, 45, 53, 69, 77, 83, 86, 94, 101, 148, 150, 154, 163 46, 47, 48, 55, 58, 59, 69, 71, 103, 104, 114, 133, 139, 146, Internet Adoption ■ 16, 20, 70, 80, 73, 83, 86, 91, 93, 94, 100, 152, 161 82, 85, 86, 88, 90, 92, 97, 101. 101, 103,104, 108, 109, 110, Regression - 52, 85, 96, 97, 98, 102. 103. 111. 112. 115. 118. 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 111, 115, 118, 127, 128, 129, 119. 120. 124.138. 139, 140, 119, 121, 122, 124, 130, 131, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 141, 143, 147,149, 160, 162, 132, 133,134, 135, 136, 140, 149, 157, 158, 162 163 141, 142, 145, 147, 150, 151, Relative Advantage • 17, 28, 59, Intemet Applications • 47, 58, 86, 153, 154,162, 163, 169, 172 83, 93, 108, 109, 110, 113, 87, 92, 93, 149, 150, 166 Leadership • 83, 93, 105, 107, 114 114, 116, 117, 119, 142, 147, Intemet Attitudes 86, 104, 111, Lists • 59, 64, 69, 86, 87, 93, 121, 162 113, 136, 162 123, 131, 154 Religion • 3, 24, 58, 71. 72. 105. Intemet Enablers • 87, 92, 93 Local Media ■ 105, 106, 107, 109, 141. 143, 164 Intemet Relay Chat (IRC) • 3, 10, 114, 135, 154, 171 Religiosity ■ 83, 93, 105, 107. 11, 73, 82, 84, 86, 87, 93, 121. 114. 156 123, 125, 126, 129, 130, 131, M Religious • 2, 23. 24. 25. 29. 55, 149, 154, 170 Males ■ 29, 44, 46, 95, 97, 100, 56, 57, 72, 76, 83, 91. 93. 105. Intemet Use • 2, 3, 7, 10, 12, 19, 101, 102, 124, 145, 154, 155, 107, 108, 110, 112, 113, 116, 30, 34, 37, 40, 43, 45, 46, 47, 118, 119, 135, 143, 147, 151, 156, 163 48, 50, 51, 52, 59. 61, 62, 63, Mass Communication • 1, 6, 14, 16, 158, 159, 162, 171, 172 64, 67, 70, 73, 80, 83, 84, 85, 25, 35, 36, 38, 41, 53, 78, 139, 86, 89, 90, 91, 92, 97, 98, 101, 161, 164 121, 122, 123, 125, 127, 128, Mass Media • 4, 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 129, 135, 137, 140, 141, 142, Second Model - 86, 121, 128, 135 15, 20, 23, 28, 31, 33, 34, 38, 143, 144, 145,148, 149, 151, Sex ■ 24, 28, 48, 55, 57, 58, 107, 39, 40, 42, 54, 55, 78, 80, 83, 152, 154, 160,161, 162, 163, 108, 110, 123, 156,168, 170, 84, 85. 86, 92. 94, 97. 106, 165, 166, 169 171, 172 107, 121, 138, 139, 142, 148, Interpersonal • 5, 6, 7, IS, 20, 24, Sexual Content • 108, 110, 114, 151, 152, 163, 171, 173 37, 38, 54, 78, 84, 85, 92, 126, 131, 156, 172 Mass Media Use ■ 80, 83, 85, 86, 127, 128, 130.131, 132, 133, Social Interaction • 28, 34, 36, 37, 92, 97, 101, 104, 146 134, 139, 148, 150, 153, 154, 50, 85, 92, 125, 126, 128, 129, Motivation • 108, 110, 113, 114, 163 130, 131, 132, 134,135, 136, 115, 117, 119, 130, 131, 132, Islam - 29, 56 148, 149, 150, 151, 154, 158. 135, 141, 147, 162 163

223 T 151. 152. 161. 163. 164. 166. W

" 38.S , T a s k ’ ll. . M . 1 „ . 145. ,54 28. m'"' 52. 53. 56. 57. 65. 69. 77. 79. 38. 40. 46. 47. 49. 58. 73. 75. 83. 86. 92. 94. 101. 103. 104. " 82. 84. 86. 87. 93. 121. 123. 107, 112. 114. 115. 117. 119. Uses and Gratifications • 7. 30. 31. 129. 130. 131. 133. 134, 135, 121. 123. 138. 140. 146. 148. 32. 33. 34. 36. 43. 78. 91. 141. 136. 149. 150. 151. 153. 154. 159. 161 163. 166. 169

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