The World Online How UK citizens use the internet to find out about ...

forewordWe live in the age of the internet with awealth of facts, figures, images and storiesfrom around the world available at the touchof button. But does this proliferation ofinformation lead to greater knowledge andunderstanding about what is happening inother parts of the world? That’s the questionwe set out to answer in this piece of research.Although researchers have written a greatdeal about online behaviour and, in particular,about a new generation of ‘digital natives’, noone has investigated whether the majority ofpeople in the UK are now more engaged withwhat is happening in other countries than theywere in the past.We discovered that most people in the UKuse the internet to find out about subjects inwhich they are already interested – they do not‘surf’ and come across interesting informationby accident. In this respect, online behaviouris very different from the way in which we usetraditional media, particularly television.So those who already have an interest in thewider world use the internet to deepen theirunderstanding. But the rest of the populationrarely read anything online which tells themabout the lives of people in other countries.This research poses a major challenge forthose of us who would like to see a nationof global citizens. If the internet is to fulfil itspotential we need to look for new ways ofdrawing people to its international content.Mark GallowayDirector, International Broadcasting TrustJanuary 2010.2