Research On Urban And Rural Digital Divide Based On Empirical Internet Access And Usage

Since1990s, the widespread application of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) whose core technology is Internet promotes the economic growth with a large extent as well as changes people’s behavior manner and habitat. However, it also brings new social problems, such as "digital divide".Our country is undergoing the critical period of social transformation, in which a variety of social contradictions sharpen, social problems break out. The gap between urban and rural areas expands which not only performs in the urban and rural residents’occupancy of new technology but also in the difference of the urban and rural residents’ability to access to information and the quality to use information. The three levels of digital divide greatly affect the economic development in urban and rural areas, and moreover, it hinders the process of integration of urban and rural areas. Gansu province is located in the northeast of China, which is far behind other provinces in the oppupancy and use ability of information resources. What’s more, inside Gansu province, there is an apparent gap of the internet access, the ability to get the internet information and the ability to use internet information between the urban and rural areas, which is actually the differences in economic development between urban and rural areas. This situation performs negative impact on the overall development of Gansu province, which emphasizes the necessity of conducting research on the digital divide holding inside Gansu province and proposing feasible countermeasures to it.This research starting from the three levels, conducting comprehensive study of the current situation and performance as well as the reasons of the digital divide of Gansu province, and propose specific measures to bridge this three divide. The paper includes the following sections: Chapter one:raise the digital divide issue, explain the connotation, nature, current situation of digital divide between urban and rural areas, recall the related research status and trend domestic and foreign, and propose the innovation and elaborate the significance, methods and theories of this research. Chapter two:from the perspective of empirical research, analyze the situation and source of three layers of the digital divide between urban and rural areas in Gansu province-"access gap"," usage gap"and"usage gap of quality". Chapter three:It explains the elimination experience of the foreign and domestic about urban rural digital divide. Chapter four:it proposes the specific solution measures in view of the three layers of the digital divide between urban and rural areas in Gansu province. Finally, The conclusion pointed out the inadequacies of the study and the question need to further study.