Internet Literacy And Attitudes Towards Internet Advertising: A Cross-Cultural Study

It can be readily observed that not only the usage of the Internet by consumers, but also the usage of Internet advertising by marketers and advertisers are rapidly increasing, especially with the advancements and changes in the technology, more specifically communication technologies, in contemporary society. On the one hand, this widespread usage of the Internet by consumers can be considered to be a vital indicator of their growing Internet literacy, which refers to the essential skills, knowledge, and competence consumers ought to have in order to be able to use the Internet efficiently and effectively (Hoffman and Novak 1996). On the other hand, since the amount of time consumers are spending on the Internet and the amount of resources marketers and advertisers are spending on Internet advertising are rapidly increasing, consumers are increasingly exposed to Internet advertisements in their daily life, and thus form their attitudes towards Internet advertising accordingly. Therefore, it is crucial for scholars to examine these attitudes consumers form towards Internet advertising. Furthermore, it is crucial to examine Internet advertising separate from advertising in general because the Internet has distinctive characteristics compared to traditional advertising vehicles such as TV, radio, and print (An and Kim 2007).