Article from ejc/rec
VanDijk
Volume 12 Numbers 1 & 2, 2002
A FRAMEWORK FOR DIGITAL DIVIDE RESEARCH
Jan van
Dijk
University of Twente
The
Pitfalls of a Metaphor
Clearly,
the metaphor of a digital divide that became very popular in the last years
of the 1990s in the United States, with comparable designations in other languages
and other countries, is a simplification of the phenomenon of inequality of
access to digital technologies. Yet, it appeared to be very successful in
putting the issue on the agenda of social, political and scholarly discussion.
Apparently, such a simplification is required to bring such a complex issue
to our attention. However, it does so at the risk of several misunderstandings.
First,
the metaphor suggests a simple divide between two clearly divided groups with
a yawning gap between them. However, in contemporary modern society we may
observe an increasingly complex social, economic and cultural differentiation.
The expression of a stretching of the whole spectrum of positions across populations
might be more appropriate. If any demarcation would be required a tripartite
distribution might be a better distinction than a two-tiered society. On the
one side we would find an ‘information elite’ and at the other the digitally
illiterates or excluded, but in between the majority of the population in
contemporary high-tech societies having access in one way or another and using
digital technology to a certain extent (see van Dijk, 1999).
The
second wrong connotation of the term digital divide is that it is unbridgeable.
This does not seem to be the case at this early stage of diffusion of digital
technology. There appears to be a scope for policymaking by governments, corporations
and civil societies. That is policymaking with the intention to prevent inequalities
becoming unbridgeable structural divides.
A
third misunderstanding might be the impression that the divide is about absolute
inequalities, that is between those included and those excluded. In reality
most inequalities in the access to digital technology are more of a relative
kind. This means that some are earlier than others, that some people possess
more hardware, software and skills than others or that one group uses the
technology more than another. It should be granted that this does not make
these relative inequalities of a lesser importance, particularly not in an
information or network society (van Dijk, 1999).
A
final wrong connotation is the suggestion that the divide is a static condition.
In fact the authors in this issue are stressing that all kinds of access are
continually moving. In doing this some inequalities are growing while others
diminish (van Dijk & Hacker, in press).
Two
other remarks should be added to put the discussion about the digital divide
into perspective. The first observation is that those emphasizing the digital
divide as a big social problem are most often driven by a kind of technological
determinism. Some suppose that people not using digital technology are missing
many opportunities and will be totally excluded from future society. Others
blame digital technologies like the computer and the Internet for inequalities
that are in fact much older than these technologies. In fact, it still has
to be demonstrated that people cannot live as normal citizens in current modern
society without using digital technology. Numerous old technologies and media
are available to do the same things. Many jobs, studies, domestic lives and
leisure activities are to be managed without the use of computers, the Internet
or digital telephony. And is has to be proven that digital technologies really
are improving these activities.
A
second observation is that those emphasizing the importance of the digital
divide are insufficiently distinguishing this supposed kind of new inequality
from old inequalities. Actually, they first of all find the old inequalities
of differential income, education, employment status, age, gender and ethnicity
as the background variables of all kinds of digital divides examined. New
inequalities would be differential digital skills like the information and
strategic skills defined below or a disparity in access to positional goods,
information goods and network positions in an information and network society
(see van Dijk, 1999). However, the analysis and empirical
investigation of these kinds of potential new inequalities are very scarce.
The result is that the causes and effects of differential access to the new
digital technologies are not sufficiently articulated and clarified. Are the
digital divides observed simply a by-product of old social inequalities? Is
digital technology intensifying these inequalities in some way or another?
Or are new inequalities appearing in the context of a new (information) society,
like those referred to above? The answer to these questions will decide the
policy lines to be adopted in case one would like to confront digital divides.
Is it just a matter of policies on the fields of income, education, gender,
age and ethnicity or should special policies be invented to confront problems
of computer anxiety, lack of digital skills and unequal usage opportunities?
Notwithstanding
all these qualifications, it can be shown that digital divides do exist and
that at least some of them are not disappearing at this moment in history.
This has been done in all contributions to this issue and in many older investigations,
like the series of NTIA-investigations (1995, 1998,
1999, 2000, 2002).
The
multifaced concept of access
The
first obstacle in all research and discussion on information and communication
inequality is the multifaceted concept of access. It is used freely in everyday
discussions without notification that there are many divergent
meanings in play. Possessing a computer and a network connection is the most
common meaning in the context of digital technology. However, according to
my analysis this only refers to the second of four successive kinds of access
(van Dijk, 1999). I have distinguished four kinds
of access:
1)
Lack of elementary digital experience caused by lack of interest, computer
anxiety and unattractiveness of the new technology (‘mental access’);
2)
No possession of computers and network connections (‘material access’);
3)
Lack of digital skills caused by insufficient user-friendliness and inadequate
education or social support (‘skills access’);
4)
Lack of significant usage opportunities or unequal distribution of them (‘usage
access’).
Clearly,
public opinion and public policy are strongly pre-occupied with the second
kind of access. Many people think the problem of information inequality regarding
digital technology is solved as soon as everyone has a computer and a connection
to the Internet. The first kind of access problem, the mental barrier, is
neglected or viewed as a temporary phenomenon only touching old people, some
categories of housewives, illiterates, and unemployed. The problem of inadequate
digital skills is reduced to the skills of operation, that is managing hardware
and software. Sometimes this is also viewed as a temporary phenomenon to be
solved shortly after the purchase of a computer and a network connection.
Differential usage of computers and network connections is a neglected phenomenon
as well. Usually it is not seen as being of any importance to social and educational
policies as differential usage is presumed to be the free choice of citizens
and consumers in a differentiating post-modern society.
I
have argued before that access problems of digital technology gradually shift
from the first two kinds of access to the last two kinds (van
Dijk, 1999). When the problems of mental and material access have been
solved, wholly or partly, the problems of structurally different skills and
uses come to the fore. I propose to define digital skills not only as the
skill to operate computers and network connections, but also as the
skill to search, select, process and apply information from a superabundance
of sources and the ability to strategically use this information to improve
ones position in society. They are called instrumental, informational
and strategic skills respectively. In earlier publications I have hypothesised
the appearance of a usage gap. This means that some parts of the population
are systematically using and benefiting from advanced digital technology and
the more difficult applications for work and education, while other parts
are only using basic digital technologies for simple applications with a relatively
large part of entertainment (van Dijk, 1999, 2000). Arguing for this hypothesis I had to stress that
computers are more multifunctional than any medium in history before, enabling
them to be used in extremely divergent ways.
A
Phase Model of Access
Figure 1 contains a model of these four successive kinds of new media access.

Figure 1: Four successive types of access
Figure
1: A Cumulative and Recursive Model of Types of Access to the New Media
The
background assumptions of this model are to be explained as follows:
1)
The stages are successive; the priority of the kinds of access for
the adoption of a particular new media innovation shifts from the first to
the last during the whole diffusion process of that innovation.
2)
The stages are cumulative; the first is a condition of the latter.
In this case new media adoption starts with sufficient attractiveness of the
innovation and the motivation for adoption. As soon as it is purchased, skills
to use it have to be mastered starting with operational skills and to be followed
by skills of using it; finally, it is differently used in all kinds of practices.
3)
The stages are recursive; with every new innovation, the problem is
to separate an innovation from the next one or another one, the process starts
anew with one of the previous stages, not necessarily the first one. For example,
presently we can observe the diffusion of broadband digital connections undergoing
the same processes of differential adoption as the innovation of narrowband
Internet and the PC before. People with a higher income and education are
coming first (NTIA, 2000).
4)
The stages are assumed to be general for both old and new media access.
However, every new medium or innovation requires the stages to be filled in
differently, like the skills in this model of new media access.
All
contributions in this issue can be located in this model. In their contribution
The Digital Divide in the Netherlands Jos de Haan and Suzanne Rijken
distinguish between the possession, skills and use of ICTs. They carefully
analyse the respective weight of a number of background variables for these
types of access. Han Woo Park has tried to test this model in The Digital
Divide in South Korea: Closing and Widening Divides in the 1990s. Steven
Rockwell and Loy Singleton limit themselves to the first kind of access, mental
access, investigating The Effects of Computer Anxiety and Communication
Apprehension on the Adoption and Utilization of the Internet. Finally,
Jacqueline Nunn, Robert Kadel and Allison Eaton-Kawecki stress the importance
of material access, the possession of computers and Internet connections,
for the skills of teachers and for the use of these technologies by both students
and teachers in A Digital Divide in Maryland Public Schools.
De
Haan and Rijken have taken the most advanced steps in terms of multivariate
analyses of the background variables of these types of access. They have constructed
a number of scales for so-called material, social and cognitive resources
in the attempt to explain the differences of access found with the usual personal
background variables like income, education, age and gender. In this way they
have analysed potential causes of the differences observed at the types of
access distinguished.
A Causal Model of Access
This
brings us to another issue. In the preface to this issue it was claimed that
the deeper causes of differential access to ICT, beyond the usual demographics,
are not sufficiently brought forward in digital divide research. Even more
striking is the observation that the effects of differential access
usually are taken for granted and that they are not becoming a part of the
research design. However, does digital exclusion necessarily lead to social
exclusion? This presupposes, among other things, that the old media are no
longer adequate means to participate in contemporary society as a citizen,
worker, student, consumer, client, patient or producer of a particular culture.
Or the presumption has to be made that this is likely to change in the near
future. Here the next part of the digital divide research agenda is appearing.
What are the effects of differential access to the new media in terms of social
inclusion and exclusion? This question has to be made operational for research
on the fields of the labour market, education, social relationships, place
of living related to mobility and culture. For which jobs access to ICT is
necessary or appropriate? What educational opportunities and certificates
is someone missing without it? What are the consequences of a lack of access
for social networking? Does it lead to a spatial exclusion of living in poor
neighbourhoods with lesser mobile people? What kinds of cultural participation
are missing or decreasing among people not having a computer or Internet connection?
Is not having them also leading to forms of institutional exclusion, now or
in the near future? Examples of institutional exclusion would be less or none
political participation (voting), not getting access to all kinds of insurance,
medical waiting lists and housing or to the membership of particular organizations.
These
potential effects of differential access are located in the right-hand part
of the causal model supplied in Figure 2 below. In
this issue they are only partly addressed by Nunn, Kadel and Eaton-Kawecki
investigating the consequences for education of a digital divide in Maryland
public schools. All other contributors to this issue are dealing with the
left-hand and middle parts of this model trying to explain the differences
observed in the four kinds of access. In the years to come the model as a
whole will be tested in a large longitudinal research project in the Netherlands,
in part being a follow-up to the investigation reported in the next contribution
to this issue.

Figure 2. A Causal Model of Social Causes and Effects of Differential Access to ICT
References
l
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