Originally Posted By: Nick Gromicko
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Most Hispanics Value Internet As News Source
August 7, 2003
NEW YORK -- Hispanics trust and value the Internet more than other online users, and they tend to stay connected longer while at home, a new study finds.
Yet Hispanics still lag other populations in having Internet access, according to the UCLA Center for Communication Policy. It found 59 percent of Hispanics were online, compared with 72 percent for everyone else combined.
Hispanics and non-Hispanics were online about the same number of hours each week. But at home, Hispanic users spend an average 9.8 hours a week online, compared with 8.1 for non-Hispanics.
Jeff Cole, director of the UCLA center, attributes the gap to Hispanics having less access at work.
Meanwhile, 63 percent of Hispanic users trust the accuracy of most or all information online, compared with 52 percent in other groups. Seventy-five percent of Hispanic users say the Internet is a "very" or "extremely" important information source, compared with 60 percent for non-Hispanics.
"There aren't as many other channels of information for Latinos," Cole said.
The random, phone-based survey of 2,014 people, including 240 Hispanics, has a margin of error of 4 percentage points for the questions on Hispanics.
Interviews were conducted in Spanish and English.
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