Empirical Study on Impact of New Information Communication Technology on Digital Divides: Beijing and Shanghai

With the diffusion of mobile devices and Internet, the acquisition of information becomes more convenient and easily accessible to different walks of life. As such, the digital divide has evolved from unequal access to Internet to deeper level reflecting the gap of network knowledge and skills. In this article, the authors focus on the exploring of the influence of new information and communication technology (ICT) on deep digital divide of different social classes, collecting various samples from Beijing and Shanghai, and conducting an empirical research on the deep digital divide in these regions. Questionnaires and interviews are conducted on different social classes in order to retrieve related information and understand the effort of applying related policies and subsequences of mitigating digital divide. By applying dynamic statistical analysis on feedback data, related mechanism, modes as well as general principles reflecting the influence of new information and communication technology on deep digital divide are revealed in this study.