This document summarizes research conducted by Petr Lupač, Ph.D. and Jan Sládek, M.A. of the Department of Sociology at Charles University in Prague on internet use in the Czech Republic. It describes two research projects from 2005-2008 and 2013-2015 that studied internet use through surveys. The 2014 survey included a representative sample of 1316 Czech respondents and assessed internet skills, social capital, cultural capital, political behavior, and more. The document outlines the sampling methodology and summarizes some of the key findings regarding internet use, political participation, and differences between experienced and new internet users.

1. Petr Lupač, Ph.D.
Jan Sládek, M.A.
Department of Sociology
Faculty of Arts
Charles University in Prague
The Czech Republic

2.  2005-2008 project “WIP – Czech Republic”
◦ Assoc. Prof. David Šmahel, Ph.D.
◦ Funded by Ministry of Education
◦ Masaryk University, Brno
 2013-2015 project “WIP – the Czech Republic II”
◦ Petr Lupac,Ph.D., Jan Sladek, M.A.
◦ Charles University in Prague
◦ Funded by the Czech grant agency
◦ Survey in 2014, CAPI, representative for the CZR
 2016... ?
◦ Private funding?

3.  Pilot study in May
 Data collected in May and June 2014 by a specialized agency
 Method of data collection
◦ CAPI F2F interviews
◦ Stratified random sampling combined with quota sampling
◦ Measures taken to include parts of the population with lower probability of being
interviewed
 Respondents declaring no or very low interest in being interviewed pre-recruited from CAWI
panel (cca 8 % of the sample)
 Trained experienced interviewers instructed to deal with soft-rejection
 Financial incentives (computed or estimated from wage)
 100 % of the interviews were recorded, controlled and problematic respondents were excluded
 1316 respondents in the final sample
 Weighted sample representative for the population of the Czech Republic,
age 15+
 A good fit of results with other data sources (WIP I, CZSO, Facebook)

4. Problem: We do not know the share of non-questioned busy people in a
general population -> four steps to balance the sample
I. Weighting 92% of the sample (that was not pre-recruited) to fit the
sociodemographic structure of the Czech population
II. Finding the relations between sociodemographics and Internet use/nonuse
as well as the “pure” percentage of Internet users
III. Resulting Internet use added as a fixing variable to the weighting procedure
IV. Weighting the whole sample by the following auxiliary variables
 Region (14 categories – NUTS3)
 Size of municipality (5 categories)
 Gender (2 categories)
 Age (6 categories)
 Education (4 categories)
 Age x education (30 categories)
 Employment status (6 categories)
 Attended 2013 elections (2 categories)
◦ 5 iterations, weighting range: 0,5 – 2,0

5.  WIP Core Questions
 Digital skills
◦ Operational, information, [strategic]
 Social capital
◦ proxy use, binding, bridging, network, structural holes, sociability
 Cultural capital
◦ Emerging, high-brow, reading books, active foreign language use
 Political capital and behavior
 Innovativeness
 Internet indispensability
 Time online weekly
 Preference of online communication
 Experience with the Internet use/nonuse affecting quality
of life in 11 dimensions

6. Czech Republic, Population 18+
???
???

11. Experienced Newcomers
At home 10 (13; 12) 5 (10; 13)
At work 8 (12; 12) 3 (4; 4)
Elsewehere 2 (3; 5) 2 (2; 2)
On the move 2 (5; 8) 2 (8; 12)
Total 29 (52; 40) 25 (20; 17)
Median (mean; std. dev)
Age group 30-44 - > 5 (13;16)
+ Women -> 10(18; 17)

12.  Coming mostly from
◦ Older age groups
◦ With lower education
◦ Women
 There are almost twice as much people mostly
using tablet or mobile for Inet connection among
newcomers
 Spend less time online in general BUT on the
move, female newcomers who are 30-44 years
old beat all other age groups

13. 65 % of nonusers do not know anyone (relative or
acquaintance) who could help them set up or solve
technical problem with Internet connection
30 % of nonusers do not know anyone who could
order something for them via the Internet
28 % of nonusers do not know anyone who could
send an email, fill an online form or find something
online for them
31 % of nonusers asked someone to do so at least
several times

14. Having proxy No proxy
Age 66 (63; 13) 73 (73; 14)
Nr of people living
in the household 2 (2,03; 12) 1 (1,63; 4)
Ind. income/month 2/17 (2; 3) 2/17 (2; 2)
Nr of close friends 3 (4; 3) 1 (2; 3)
Share of soc.
environment using
the Internet
30 % (40 %; 30 %) 0 % (20 %; 30 %)
Life satisfaction 2/10 (3; 3) 4/10 (4; 3)
Median (mean; std. dev)

15. Q: Not-using the Internet can be both
advantage and disadvantage. When you think
about your personal experience in the last
years, how much does the fact that you are not
using the Internet affected your life in the
following areas? Please, answer with the help of
a scale:
{interviewers instructed to explain the Q if needed}
-5 0 +5
significant worsening - no change - significant improvement

16.  Your knowledgeability of what's going on in the Czech
republic
 Your understanding of what's going on in other
countries
 Your understanding of what's going on in your locality
 Your involvement in public life in your local community
 Dealing with state authorities {getting subsidy, welfare,
submitting documents, etc.}
 Contact with your family and your family life
 Contact with your friends and acquiantences
 Building up your career and your success on labor
market
 Your overall financial situation (incl. shopping and
selling things)
 Pursue and develop your hobbies
 Your overall satisfaction with your life

19.  Voting activity
◦ Frequent elections in CZR (2010, 2012, 2013x2, 2014x2)
◦ Declining participation, yet municipal rather high
◦ No. 1 reason for non-voting: Disinterest in politics (45% of
nonvoters), no. 2: Not know who to vote (17%)
 Expressing ideas
◦ 10-20% admit fear of expressing their political ideas
online, more than half is okay with others expressing
extreme ideas
 Social contacts
◦ ¼ states that an active politician is amongst their close
relatives or friends, ½ discusses politics

21.  1/3 never looked for local info, 1/3 does so
rarely, 1/3 regurarly on weekly basis
 87% never used the ICT to contact local
politicians (x direct democracy)

23.  3 % Engaged in online volunteer campaigning
 10 % Emailed family and friend to convince
them
 10 % Expressed their preferrence online
 25 % factchecked politicians
 10 % checked the party campaign expenses
online
 60 % stated no influence of online content on
the decision to vote; the rest equally divided
between positive/negative impact

24.  Turning information into action (passivity)
 Internet is necessary yet not sufficient
 No „dangerous“ barriers in political use of the
Internet

25. Petr Lupač, Ph.D. Jan Sládek, M.A.
PETR.LUPAC@GMAIL.COM SLADEK.JAN@GMAIL.COM
@PetrLupac @JanSladek
Department of Sociology
Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Arts
Celetna 13
The Czech Republic