Political Efficacy
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NATIONAL CENTRE FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH 2015 The Internet in Greece FINAL REPORT April 2016 CREDITS WIP Representative in Greece & Principal Investigator Professor Nicolas Demertzis National Centre for Social Research National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Core Research Team Christina Frentzou Apostolos Linardis National Centre for Social Research Contributing Authors Konstantinos Vadratsikas Nicolas Demertzis Apostolos Linardis Amalia Frangiskou Christina Frentzou National Centre for Social Research Research Consultants & Associates Stelios Stylianou Aspasia Trevlaki Research Assistants Research Support Team Alexandra Iakovou Katerina Iliou Ioanna Lapea Dimitra Kondyli Anastasios Galanakis Paraskevi Fagadaki Dimitra Mareta Andromahi Hadjiyanni Anastasia Tsounaka Dimitris Belitsis Maria Kounenaki Charalambos Kalpanis Irini Armenaki Iosif Chalavazis Paraskevi Tsemboglou Alexandros Sotiros Preferred Citation: National Centre for Social Research (2016) The Internet in Greece 2015. Principal investigator N. Demertzis Contents 1. CREDITS ............................................................................................................................ 3 2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ..................................................................................................... 5 3. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 8 About Greece and Greek ICT infrastructure ............................................................... 8 The WIP 1st wave in Greece ....................................................................................... 10 Methodology ............................................................................................................. 10 4. INTERNET ACCESS AND USE ........................................................................................... 12 Internet use ............................................................................................................... 12 Internet Access .......................................................................................................... 15 5. DIGITAL DIVIDES ............................................................................................................. 17 6. MEDIA IMPORTANCE ..................................................................................................... 20 Importance as sources of Information ...................................................................... 20 Importance as sources of Entertainment .................................................................. 22 7. INTERNET USES .............................................................................................................. 23 Communication ......................................................................................................... 23 Information ............................................................................................................... 24 Online Transactions ................................................................................................... 25 Entertainment ........................................................................................................... 26 Learning ..................................................................................................................... 27 8. PERCEPTIONS, EXPRIENCES AND CONCERNS ................................................................. 28 Perception on Internet Information’s Reliability ...................................................... 28 Online victimization .................................................................................................. 29 Privacy Violations ...................................................................................................... 29 Privacy Concerns ....................................................................................................... 30 9. POLITICAL EFFICACY ....................................................................................................... 31 10. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION ............................................................................................. 32 11. INTERNET DEPENDENCY ................................................................................................. 33 12. DEMOGRAPHICS ............................................................................................................. 34 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Usage internet use, while education and income exhibit a positive, almost linear, Internet use in Greece is relatively high. association. Internet use among Nearly 60% of the population aged 15 students is almost universal, while and over report themselves as internet employed and unemployed users. More than three quarters of non- respondents also exhibit remarkably users state that the main reasons for high usage percentages. On the not using the internet are lack of contrary, internet use among retired technical knowledge and lack of people and housewives/ interest. Almost all internet users househusbands is significantly low with connect to internet at home, while one fourth and one third of the more than two thirds of employed respondents, respectively, identifying users connect to the internet at work themselves as internet users. Also, and two thirds of students use the households with children exhibit higher internet at school. Half of the internet internet use percentages, compared to users report using the internet at other households where no children below locations as well, while only one third 18 years are present. of them use the internet on the move, using portable devices. Computers are Information and Entertainment the most widely used devices to Sources connect to the internet, while phones The vast majority of internet users are used by two thirds of the users. consider the internet as an important Tablets and e-readers are less popular or very important source of as they are used by less than half of the information. Similarly, more than two user population. thirds of the respondents reported that Digital Divides they rely on interpersonal sources for information, while less than half of the A divide in internet use is noticed respondents consider traditional media between urban and rural areas, as sources (television, radio and urban residents use the internet newspapers) as important or very significantly more than rural residents. important for acquiring information. A smaller but visible division is found The internet also seems to be the most between genders as men connect to important source of entertainment for the internet more than women. Age most of the respondents, however, seems to be negatively associated with television and radio are also considered important or very important by more respondents report that they use the than half of WIP’s participants. internet less than once a month in order to make online purchases or online sales, book travel reservations, Online activities pay bills or use online banking services. Also, nearly all the respondents said Communication that they never make online investments. Electronic mail and instant messaging are by far the most common online Entertainment communication activities. Phone calls over the internet, as well as posting On the contrary, internet activities for and reposting content in social entertainment are very popular among networking websites are also quite Greek users, with web browsing and popular. However, most users report visiting social networking websites that they rarely post their own original being the most common activities. content online or messages and Music and video downloading are also comments on discussion boards and very popular activities, followed by forums. looking for humorous content, playing online games and listening to online Information radio. Online gambling, visiting religious websites and visiting websites with Internet use for obtaining various kinds sexual content are less common. of information, involves mostly reading news online. Additionally, reading blogs Learning activities and looking for product and health information is very common, as is As far as online learning activities are comparing product prices, which concerned, Greek internet users happens at least once a month or more frequently turn to the internet in order often for nearly two thirds of the to look up a word or check a fact. Also, respondents. On the contrary, turning an overwhelming majority of the to the internet for jobs and travel interviewed students report using the information are not very popular internet in order to complete school- activities among Greek internet users. related work, while participation to online academic or professional training courses is very rare. Transactions Internet dependency Overall, using the internet for online Overall, Greek internet users express transactions is very rare among Greek moderate dependence on the internet internet users. The majority of the as they place themselves marginally over the middle in a scale showing how corporations, and less so by the much they would be affected if their government. internet access expired. Young and Political efficacy highly educated people, as well as people with the highest income, exhibit The respondents expressed mixed the highest dependence on the attitudes towards internet-related internet. political efficacy. Although most respondents believe that using the Internet reliability internet helps them to better Greek