Abstract:

This paper compares and contrasts consumer usage patterns of the Internet and traditional media across the top fifty markets in the United States. While interest in the Internet is high, most surveys describe the Internet user in general terms. This paper uses a local market database source to examine the differences in Internet access and usage across the varied local markets which comprise the United States, and shows that Internet users concentrate in larger markets where higher income and higher education consumers live, and also in smaller markets with significant high-technology economic, academic and industrial activity.