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This book describes and understands the many factors that influence a person's behavior towards digital technologies, and how that affects the person's potential to benefit from digital society. The ability to adapt to these new technological environments - and the extent to which an individual embraces them - has become critical to an individual's well-being and quality of life, the underlying assumption being that only by effectively engaging with digital technologies can the user accrue benefits from the experience. By introducing the concept "digital capital," which refers to the conditions that determine how people access, use, and engage with digital technology, Park examines how the digital ecosystem of the user lead to new forms of digital inequality. Using numerous empirical studies on internet users and non-users, as well as recommending small localized solutions to the big global problem, a critical and alternative perspective of the digital divide is provided.
List of contents
1. Introduction.- Part 1. Reconceptualising Digital Inclusion.- 2. The Varied Spectrum of Digital Engagement.- 3. State of Digital Inequalities: The Interplay Between Social and Digital Exclusion.- 4. Understanding Digital Capital Within a User's Digital Technology Ecosystem.- 5. Preconditions of Digital Engagement.- Part 2. New Problems and Solutions. - 6. The Digital Shift.- 7. Digital Fluency.- 8. Information is Power.- Part 3. The Paradigm Shift in Digital Inclusion Policies.- 9. New models of digital training.- 10. Revisiting Digital Divide Policies in the Age of Hyperconnectivity.-
About the author
Sora Park is Director of the News & Media Research Centre, University of Canberra, Australia. Her research focuses on digital media users, media markets and policy.
Summary
This book describes and understands the many factors that influence a person’s behavior towards digital technologies, and how that affects the person’s potential to benefit from digital society. The ability to adapt to these new technological environments - and the extent to which an individual embraces them - has become critical to an individual’s well-being and quality of life, the underlying assumption being that only by effectively engaging with digital technologies can the user accrue benefits from the experience. By introducing the concept “digital capital,” which refers to the conditions that determine how people access, use, and engage with digital technology, Park examines how the digital ecosystem of the user lead to new forms of digital inequality. Using numerous empirical studies on internet users and non-users, as well as recommending small localized solutions to the big global problem, a critical and alternative perspective of the digital divide is provided.
