Canadian culture suffers from low profile online: CIP study

Despite the millions spent this year to promote Canadian culture online, seven out of every 10 Canadians interviewed for a survey of Internet use in Canada said they rarely, if ever, sought out such material. That state of affairs was high on the agenda during the official unveiling of the Canadian Internet Project’s Canada Online! report on November 2nd at Ryerson University in Toronto. The survey claims to be the first to present landmark statistics that track the behavior and attitudes of both online and offline. University of Montreal Professor André Caron, principal co-investigator and project co-director of the CIP, pointed out that most Canadians seem unaware of Canadian cultural content on the Internet. In aggregate, 70% of survey respondents who use the Internet said they never or rarely access cultural information online – and in general, less than one-third of Canadians are satisfied with the quality, quantity and accessibility of the Canadian cultural content available. English-speaking Canadians report significantly less satisfaction with Canadian cultural content on the Internet than French-speaking Canadians, who were both more aware of content and more interested in accessing it, reflecting francophone Canada’s traditionally superior support of its own culture. Ted Bairstow, director of the Department of Canadian Heritage’s Canadian Culture Online Program, told Canadian NEW MEDIA the survey’s findings weren’t necessarily a shock, nor cause for dismay. "I’m not surprised that 42% of them have never sought cultural content on the Internet," he said, adding that many who do seek out such content do so through research or academic pursuits, not in search of light reading. "It’s not a top-of-mind use of the Internet for me, so I guess I’m not that disappointed that there is the level of usage for cultural purposes that seems to be portrayed here." The survey defined Canadian cultural content as "movies, television, books, music, magazines, museum and art exhibits developed in Canada". Heritage was one of the CIP’s three government partner agencies, and the survey included questions asking whether respondees were aware of Heritage’s Culture.ca portal and whether they had actually visited the site. Twelve per cent of those interviewed said they had been to Culture.ca and a quarter said they were aware of it, but Bairstow pointed out that the portal is relatively new and hosts fairly specialized content. "That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be doing things that encourage more visibility for Canadian cultural content, continuing to support the creation of Canadian cultural content, thinking about how can make it more usable for Canadians," Bairstow added. "In fact, we are developing our policies along those lines, particularly for targeted groups that we think it’s important to have access to and use cultural information on the Internet," such as students. Aside from elevating Canadians’ understanding of their own heritage, the question of how to bring current non-Internet users into the "knowledge circle" was also raised at the Canada Online! Launch. The survey placed nearly as much emphasis on non-users of the Internet as users; 28% of those included in the survey (one-third of which were former Internet users with an inclination to return to the online nest) were interviewed with an eye to gauging why they were not currently using the Internet. The CIP team was surprised to discover that expense was by far the least reported reason, at 7%; the most commonly cited reasons for previous users becoming non-users were general lack of interest and perceived lack of usefulness (49%) followed by technological inadequacies in providing Internet access. Despite that finding, the bulk of Canadians are clearly online. At 72% of all citizens, Canada is second only to the United States in terms of Internet use, with users averaging 13.5 hours per week online. And most of us are experienced users: 61% report being online for five years or more and fully 56% of citizens are identified as "heavy" Internet users, participating in online activities for seven or more hours per week. Ranked by estimated time spent, the top five uses of the Internet other than for email are reading newspapers and magazines; reading information on national or international affairs; accessing medical information; playing video games; and listening to music. Canadians are also increasingly using high-speed connections (66%), and are appreciative of the ability of the medium to support broadband and applications such as video streaming and music downloading. The majority of respondents (84%) also report that children and youth in their households use the Internet. The home was the most commonly reported location for Internet access, with the workplace close behind; public places attracted the interest of fewer Canadian participants. Researchers discovered somewhat less than a broad division between users speaking either official language, but certainly a measurable one: English-speaking users weighing in at 74%, with French-speaking users at 66%. Approximately 75% in the 18-to-54 age group were online, while a full nine out of ten Canadians between the ages of 18 and 24 are Internet-friendly. Also, the higher an individual’s level of education and income, the more likely they are to use the Internet. And though a slightly higher percentage of men (75%) than women (69%) are online, individuals of single marital status have the highest level of internet use (83%) compared to all other groups (married, divorced, widowed, etc.). All that means Canadians are "techno-optimists", according to Jeff Cole, director of the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future and founder of the World Internet Project (WIP), which includes the Canadian Internet Project. Cole adds that we are on the verge of such substantial change in the ways in which we work, think, gather information, communicate and inform and entertain ourselves through the Internet that it can no longer be considered an emerging medium. The inaugural launch of the first public national survey of Internet use in Canada is supported and funded by federal and provincial government as well as private industry, and was presented by the co-directors and principal researchers from the CIP: Caron, Charles Zamaria of Ryerson University and the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund, and Fred Fletcher, a communications and political science professor from York University. The surveys averaged 26 minutes in length and were conducted with more than 3,000 individuals; this year’s results will provide the benchmark for future surveys, currently planned for every other year. Canadians stood out in other areas: we are much more inclined to use the Internet for information rather than entertainment. We also lead the world in Internet spending, with 52% of users reporting they’d made a purchase online. Unlike Portugal, where 82% of citizens said they highly trusted online information, only 36% of Canadians believed that most content online is reliable and accurate. Voice over Internet Protocol telephony was reportedly used by 19% of respondents, mostly in the youngest demographic range. Still, fully 83% of Canadians reported being aware they could conduct conversations online. As Canadians become more comfortable with the medium, they are also beginning to participate even more through blogs, file trading networks and personal web sites, as well as interactive programs used by government, industry and academia. "New users," observed Jeff Cole, "use the Internet in much the same way and at much the same speed as the more experienced early technology adopters. New users know what to do."

Canadian culture suffers from low profile online: CIP study

News | 11/11/2005 5:00 am EST

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