African American Ethnic and Class-Based Identities on the World Wide Web: Moderating the Effects of Self-Perceived Information Seeking/Finding and Web Self-Efficacy

Abstract

The web is a potentially powerful tool for communicating information to diverse audiences. Unfortunately, all groups are not equally represented on the web, and this may have implications for online information seeking. This study investigated the role of class-and ethnic-based identity in self-perceived web-based information seeking/finding and self-efficacy. A questionnaire is administered, asking African Americans about their class and ethnic identities and web use to test a conceptual model predicting that these identities are positively related to web-based information seeking and web self-efficacy, which are then positively related to web-based information finding. Gender and previous web experience are expected to moderate the relationships. Structural equations modeling of these data support most of the predictions and indicate that these identities influence perceptions of online information seeking.

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