Access, Skills, Economic Opportunities, and Democratic Participation: Connecting Four Facets of the Digital Divide Through Research

Stansbury, Mary

doi:10.29173/cais534

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“…Along with Norris [49,50], other scholars have focused on the divide in political participation via the Internet. The divide in access, skills, economic opportunity and democratic citizenship manifests the multiple levels of the digital divide [42,43,67]. The degree of digital inequality in access, skills and actual participation determines the extent to which digital citizenship -"the ability to participate society online" [42] -is exercised.…”

Section: Multi-layered Multi-faceted Concepts Of the Digital Dividementioning

confidence: 99%

Whose e-democracy? The democratic divide in American electoral campaigns

Nam

2011

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This study examines whether a democratic divide (a gap in political participation via the Internet) exists among demographic segments during the campaign season of the 2008 U.S. presidential election. Five different types of online political activity are compared in terms of the divide pattern: conversation, mobilization, information consumption, information production, and activity on social networking sites. Demographic and socioeconomic characteristics such as age, gender, race, education and income are determinants for the degree of online political activism. Although political users of social networking sites mostly fall into the Y generation (DotNets), a high proportion of senior citizens who already use the Internet frequently communicate about politics by email and get political information through the Internet. The occurrence of more active online political participation by the better educated and more affluent is magnified for White males in comparison to non-Whites or females.Focusing on the pattern of the demographics-driven divide, this paper examines the digital divide in political activities during the 2008 U.S. presidential election campaign season. In that campaign period, the campaign camps made unprecedented, heavy use of Web 2.0 technologies 1 and broadcast email for discussion, information dissemination and sharing, and campaign contributions [3,15,29,32,[58][59][60]81,84]. The study tackles the following research question: How is online political participation distributed across demographic segments? Analyzing the Pew Research Center's 2008 pre-election survey, this study reveals whether demographic and socioeconomic characteristics like age, gender, race, education and income created a democratic divide in individuals' political activities during the presidential primary season. It investigates whether those from disparate demographic backgrounds participate in online politics in distinct ways and whether the set of demographic markers predict the degree of online political activism. To find out general or disparate patterns in the democratic divide, the analysis explores several types of online political activity: communication, mobilization, information consumption, information production, and activity on social networking sites (SNS).

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Section: Multi-layered Multi-faceted Concepts Of the Digital Dividementioning

confidence: 99%

Whose e-democracy? The democratic divide in American electoral campaigns

Nam

2011

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Access, Skills, Economic Opportunities, and Democratic Participation: Connecting Four Facets of the Digital Divide Through Research

Cited by 1 publication

References 0 publications

Whose e-democracy? The democratic divide in American electoral campaigns

Whose e-democracy? The democratic divide in American electoral campaigns

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