Research

The internet is now a fundamental component of the American economy, creating new ways to educate, employ, bring services to, and entertain every person. Broadband, especially wireline broadband in American homes, is the essential infrastructure for unlocking the internet’s economic benefits. However, broadband infrastructure is far from ubiquitous, both in terms of where it operates and who subscribes to it, and those deficits are not shared evenly across the country. As such, policymakers must understand how the national digital divide varies depending on the place.

The following research assesses both components of the digital divide, and for the first time studies them in every American metropolitan area and neighborhood. Identifying local gaps—and not just in where telecommunications infrastructure goes, but also who subscribes to it—more comprehensively portrays the extent of digital disconnect.

In many ways, the release of the first iPhone 10 years ago launched the smartphone era. Since then, mobile data consumption has skyrocketed and, in the process, helped turn wireless companies into digital media conglomerates. By the numbers:
Mobile data traffic has experienced a nine-fold increase since 2012 in North America, and it has the highest smartphone and 4G network adoption rates of any region worldwide, according to GSMA.
In 2016, there were 291 million unique wireless subscribers in North America, representing 80% of the region's population.
There are now more mobile subscriptions in the U.S. than people

The rise of online streaming services such as Netflix and HBO Go has dramatically altered the media habits of Americans, especially young adults. About six-in-ten of those ages 18 to 29 (61%) say the primary way they watch television now is with streaming services on the internet, compared with 31% who say they mostly watch via a cable or satellite subscription and 5% who mainly watch with a digital antenna, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in August. Other age groups are less likely to use internet streaming services and are much more likely to cite cable TV as the primary way they watch television. Overall, 59% of U.S. adults say cable connections are their primary means of watching TV, while 28% cite streaming services and 9% say they use digital antennas.

Facebook touts its partnership with outside fact-checkers as a key prong in its fight against fake news, but a major new Yale University study finds that fact-checking and then tagging inaccurate news stories on social media doesn’t work. The study found that tagging false news stories as “disputed by third party fact-checkers” has only a small impact on whether readers perceive their headlines as true.

Overall, the existence of “disputed” tags made participants just 3.7 percentage points more likely to correctly judge headlines as false, the study said. The researchers also found that, for some groups—particularly, Trump supporters and adults under 26—flagging bogus stories could actually end up increasing the likelihood that users will believe fake news.

For the last 20 years, Boxed In has tracked women’s representation in prime-time television. The project provides the most comprehensive historical record of women’s onscreen portrayals and behind-the-scenes employment available. The study examines dramas, comedies, and reality programs appearing on the broadcast networks, basic and premium cable channels, and streaming services.
Overall, 68% of the programs considered featured casts with more male than female characters.
Across platforms, females comprised 42% of all speaking characters.
Females accounted for 42% of major characters on broadcast network, cable and streaming programs.
The percentage of female characters featured on broadcast network programs was the same in 2016-17 as it was nearly a decade earlier in 2007-08.
Across platforms, programs are becoming more racially and ethnically diverse.
Regardless of platform, gender stereotypes on television programs abound.

For the first time since 2009, the Federal Communications Commission has concluded there is “effective competition” in the US wireless market.

The agency is required by law to conduct an economic analysis of the sector. Starting in 2010, after years of major consolidation among wireless carriers, the FCC declined to say whether it believed the industry was competitive. While the FCC had stopped short of declaring the industry noncompetitive, many industry observers still took it to mean the agency thought the nation’s largest carriers, AT&T and Verizon Communications, were too powerful. In 2011, the government blocked AT&T’s attempted buyout of T-Mobile US. Since then, T-Mobile and Sprint Corp. have been resurgent, stealing subscribers and transforming the industry by doing away with two-year contracts and bringing back unlimited data plans. AT&T and Verizon have lost customers and wireless prices have fallen by the largest margins on record, according to government data.

The FCC’s finding could have antitrust implications. If the wireless market is competitive, regulators may believe it could withstand another large merger. The nation’s smaller players, Sprint and T-Mobile, have been in talks about combining, people familiar with the matter have said. “A finding of effective competition certainly helps rhetorically for those trying to consolidate or trying to deregulate,” Harold Feld, a senior vice president at Public Knowledge.

A new Pew Research Center survey explores these five broad dimensions of people’s engagement with information and finds that a couple of elements particularly stand out when it comes to their enthusiasm: their level of trust in information sources and their interest in learning, particularly about digital skills. It turns out there are times when these factors align – that is, when people trust information sources and they are eager to learn, or when they distrust sources and have less interest in learning.

There are other times when these factors push in opposite directions: people are leery of information sources but enthusiastic about learning. Roughly four-in-ten adults (38%) are in groups that have relatively strong interest and trust in information sources and learning. About half (49%) fall into groups that are relatively disengaged and not very enthusiastic about information or about gaining more training, especially when it comes to navigating digital information. Another 13% occupy a middle space: They are not particularly trusting of information sources, but they show higher interest in learning than those in the more information-wary groups.

Benton believes we need to have a robust debate about what “in the public interest” means in the Digital Age. We’re proud to support the Charles Benton Junior Scholar Award so we can encourage new voices and views in telecommunications debates. Our goal is not to promote one perspective, but to highlight unique perspectives that together can help more people understand their stake in communications policy. TPRC is an excellent partner in this endeavor as this community’s interdisciplinary thinking serves not just researchers, but policymakers, members of the private sector, and civil society, students and practitioners. This year, the Charles Benton Junior Scholar award goes to Mirjam R. J. Lange, a doctoral student at the Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE) at Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf, Germany. She is also a Researcher at Goethe-University in Frankfurt. She received her undergraduate degree in Economics from the University of Bonn, Germany in 2011 and earned her Master’s degree in Economics from Heinrich–Heine University in Düsseldorf in 2013. Mirjam’s main research focuses on telecommunications and competition, particularly price-discrimination in broadband markets. She also works experimentally on behavioral economics, such as salience theory. She has published in Telecommunications Policy. The title of Mirjam’s research paper, which the panel selected for the award, is: “Tariff Diversity and Competition Policy - Drivers for Broadband Adoption in the European Union.”

Commissioned by the Cleveland Foundation, this report’s purpose is to guide the Foundation's staff and partners as they strategically determine how best to dedicate resources toward digital literacy, internet access and broad technological empowerment. The Cleveland Foundation’s Digital Excellence Initiative aims to position Greater Cleveland as a leader in digital innovation and access by investing in efforts that align with the five focus areas of the foundation’s Digital Excellence Initiative:
Creating a more connected community
Supporting digital skills development
Improving digital civic engagement
Elevating regional digital leadership
Encouraging technology innovation for social good

Despite the continued proliferation of the internet and new digital devices, many low-income communities still lack internet access. Slightly less than half of all households with incomes under $20,000 reported having internet access in the Census Bureau’s most recent American Community Survey. By comparison, about 93 percent of wealthier households with annual incomes exceeding $75,000 were connected. Places where low-income households are least connected are most common throughout rural regions of the South and Appalachia. Higher costs of living might explain differences in other regions of the country, where housing or utility expenses leave households with little income to spare. Demographics further contribute to regional disparities as families of Hispanic immigrants have lower internet adoption rates, as do heads of households over age 65.