Ofcom (which has a watchdog remit for communications in the UK) has produced a couple of reports recently. The first is: Online protection: A survey of consumer, industry and regulatory mechanisms and systems at http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/technology/onlineprotection/report.pdf
This is reviewing mechanisms, laws and systems that are being used to meet online consumer problems such as phishing (getting people's bank etc. details), being sent unwanted and inappropriate content etc. The report also includes what seems (on my usual quick skim of the contents) to be a useful explanation of the different players in the internet information/sales value chain and what each can do to protect the consumer. The roles start with content production and content aggregation and go through to content access. This part might be relevant if you were wanting people to think about who contributes to the information world of the internet.
Also published last month was Communications Market: Special Report - Consumer Engagement with Digital Communications Services. You can access all their communications market reports from http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/cm/ Scroll down the page for recent ones. This is yet another report that asked people about their use of technology and created some categories. Key categories described are: enthusiasts, functionalists, economisers, abstainers and resistors. They then map use of some specific digital media around this, e.g. for mobiles they identify these 5 categories plus Mobile Reliants and Mobile Organisers. A key focus is identifying how people can be got to appreciate these media more... Ofcom also has a media literacysection at http://www.ofcom.org.uk/advice/media_literacy/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Cornfield in Hailsham, Sussex, July 2006.
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