Digital Inequality

Purpose
Research into the explanations of digital inclusion has moved from investigations of skills and usage to tangible outcomes, what we label here as the third-level digital divide. There is a lack of theoretical development about which types of people are most likely to benefit. Understanding how achieving outcomes of internet use is linked to other types of (dis)advantage is one of the most complex aspects of digital inclusion research because very few reliable and valid measures have been developed. In the current study we took a first step toward creating an operational framework for measuring tangible outcomes of internet use and linking these to the inequalities identified by digital divide research.

Methodology/approach
After having proposed a classification for internet outcomes, we assessed these outcomes in a representative sample of the Dutch population.

Findings
Our overall conclusion in relation to the more general relationship between offline resources and third-level digital divides is that the internet remains more beneficial for those with higher social status, not in terms of how extensively they use the technology but in what they achieve as a result of this use for several important domains.

Social implications
When information and services are offered online, the number of potential outcomes the internet has to offer increases. If individuals with higher social status are taking greater offline advantage from digital engagement than their lower status counterparts, existing offline inequalities could potentially be acerbated

With the global spread of COVID-19, various countries closed their borders, called for social distancing, and to stay at home. Thus, creating digital platforms as essential means of communication for interpersonal encounters, public information, education systems, and access to vital needs was of utmost importance. These developments increased access to the Internet and digital media, which are still not equally available to all at national and international levels. Digital inequalities, whether within or between countries or various socio-cultural communities, have become a significant factor together with the increased need for and use of digital media access. The chapter explores the role of digital inequalities in the context of COVID-19 in two countries (Germany and Israel), considering three social dimensions: (1) education, (2) access to vital needs, and (3) surveillance apps. Exploring these phenomena from a comparative perspective contributes to improve understanding the social role of digital inequalities in times of crisis.

Extant literature has increased our understanding of the multifaceted nature of digital technologies; nevertheless, scholars and policymakers still strive to understand their implications for society. On this account, the Network Readiness Index (NRI) emerged as one of the main reports to support governments in leveraging digital technologies for economic development and social progress. However, which individual indicators have more influence than others on impact subindices for socioeconomic development? And considering recent debates around the digital divide, does the NRI address major concerns to comprehensively assist policymakers in leveraging ICTs for inclusive development? This study reveals the indicators that most significantly influence the NRI's economic and social impact pillars based on the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) analysis of NRI for 2013-2016. Furthermore, we draw on extant literature to discuss gaps and limitations in the NRI in terms of scrutiny of populations with access to digital technologies, and we set out an agenda for future research and policy to address digital divides more comprehensively.

Recently, several digital divide scholars suggested that a shift is needed from a focus on binary Internet access (first-level digital divide) and Internet skills and use (second-level digital divide) to a third-level digital divide in which the tangible outcomes of Internet use are highlighted. A plethora of studies have been conducted to identify determinants of digital divides. Unfortunately, there is a lack of consistency in the terminology used. Moreover, terms are often not theoretically grounded. Therefore, we conducted a systematic literature review of digital divide determinants. The results show that the third-level digital divide was underexposed. The primary focus is on Internet use. More importantly, the identified determinants show that digital divide research is largely limited to sociode-mographic and socioeconomic determinants.

Smartphones diffusion has contributed to the closing of the digital divide, allowing adolescents from all economic and social backgrounds to access the internet. However, the pervasiveness of such devices even in the most relevant moments of the day has raised some concerns about the unexpected consequences of their use. There is an extensive literature highlighting the negative association between smartphone overuse and adolescents' school performances, while recent research finds first evidences of a greater diffusion of this phenomenon among low educated families. Therefore, differences in the amount of resources that parents can invest in the limitation and guidance of their children's smartphone usage may possibly be fostering new forms of social inequality. We tested this hypothesis on a dataset of 489 high-school students, linking their social origins with their smartphone usage habits, grade point average and Invalsi standardized test scores. By means of a mediation analysis, we show that smartphone pervasiveness moderately mediates the negative relationship between family educational background and students' learning outcomes, contributing to the divide between high and low performers.

This paper contributes to the literature by proposing an analysis of digital inequalities in Russia that focuses on two aspects hitherto under explored: the inter-regionality (by comparing and contrasting eight federal districts) and the multidimensionality of digital inequalities (by taking into account the three levels of digital divide). Therefore, the aim is to address the phenomenon of digital divide in Russia by discussing the three levels of the digital divide (access / skills / benefits) in a comparative and interregional perspective.

This paper uses secondary data for its analysis, including both national (e.g. the total number of daily Internet users in Russia) and more regionalized data (related to particular federal districts of Russia). The choice of data sources was determined by an attempt to provide a detailed and multifaceted coverage of all three levels of the digital divide in Russia, which is not limited to the access problem only. For this purpose, we are using and re-elaborating various reports about the development of the Internet and ICTs in Russia prepared by national and international organizations to cover the first level of the digital divide. To shed light upon the second and third levels of the digital divide, we discuss digital literacy report (2018), the report on Internet openness index of Russian regions (2017), and the report on the digital life index of the Russian regions (2016). Finally, in the attempt to map out the key directions of the state policy aimed at decreasing digital inequality in Russia, on both federal and regional levels, we analyze the most important regional and national policy measures to foster digitalization such as the Digital Russia program, the Digital Government program, the Program of Eliminating Digital Inequality in Russia.

We consider this study to be both a first exploration and a baseline of the three level digital divides in Russia. The paper shows how the level of socioeconomic development of the federal districts, as well as a number of objective factors (distance/isolation, urbanization level, availability of infrastructure and costs for building new infrastructure, etc.) have impact upon digitalization of the regions. As a result, several federal districts of Russia (Central, Northwestern, and, in a number of cases, Ural and Volga federal districts) more often than others take leading positions in rankings, in terms of degree of Internet penetration, audience numbers, use of e-services, etc. This correlation however is not universal as we will show, and some regions lacking behind in terms of access can be booming in terms of digital literacy or other factors, like it happened with Far Eastern federal district for example. All in all, our research showed that digital inequality in Russia is still on place and will require more time for complete elimination, even though current state and public initiatives are being actively developed.

This paper will bring to light meaningful insights into the three levels of digital divides in Russia. Based on a multilevel (three levels of digital divide) and multi-sectional approach (the interplay of different types of inequalities), this paper contributed to overall better understanding of the digital inequalities phenomenon in Russia. It also allowed for a comparative interregional perspective, which has been missing in most papers on digital inequalities in Russia so far.

While the digital inequality literature has considered differences in the online experiences of many population segments, relatively little work has examined how people with disabilities (PWD) have incorporated digital media into their lives. Based on a national survey of American adults, this paper explores this question through considering both barriers to Internet use and the possibilities the Internet offers PWD. Findings indicate barriers for many PWD to accessing the Internet. Those with five of six types of disabilities measured are considerably less likely to be online than those who are not disabled. People who are deaf or hearing impaired to do not lag in Internet access once we account for demographics, Web use skills, and Internet experiences. However, the study also finds evidence that once online, PWD engage in a range of uses of the Internet as much as people without disability. Moreover, PWD take distinct interest in certain online activities, such as sharing their own content and reviewing products and services, pointing to ways they may go online to adapt and respond to the wider inaccessible society. These findings indicate great potential for the Internet for people with disabilities and suggest that moving more of them online holds the potential for considerable gains among this group.

Recent studies have enhanced our understanding of digital divides by investigating outcomes of Internet use. We extend this research to analyse positive and negative outcomes of Internet use in the United Kingdom. We apply structural equation modelling to data from a large Internet survey to compare the social structuration of Internet benefits with harms. We find that highly educated users benefit most from using the web. Elderly individuals benefit more than younger ones. Next to demographic characteristics, technology attitudes are the strongest predictors of online benefits. The harms from using the Internet are structured differently, with educated users and those with high levels of privacy concerns being most susceptible to harm. This runs counter to intuitions based on prior digital divide research, where those at the margins should be most at risk. While previous research on digital inequality has only looked at benefits, the inclusion of harms draws a more differentiated picture. Discussions of how people use the Internet have often been dominated by optimism. Optimistic observers hoped that ready access to information would contribute to a more

The present study aims to offer a comprehensive presentation of the empirical results of the third wave of the World Internet Project (WIP) nation-wide survey in Greece, which was conducted from the 12th of April to the 23th of May 2019. It involves the main findings of this research wave and explores the development of internet penetration among the Greek population by providing comparative data on several aspects of the respondents' internet related behavior between all three WIP waves (2015, 2017, 2019). These aspects pertain to digital use, access and divides, online activities and social capital, internet reliability and fake news, online victimization and privacy, political efficacy and freedom of expression. Data were collected by 1,208 interviews over the phone on a structured questionnaire (based on WIP guidelines and included some additional national questions of theoretical interest) and manually transferred to an online platform using RM+ software and then to statist...

The present study aims to offer a comprehensive presentation of the empirical results of the third wave of the World Internet Project (WIP) nation-wide survey in Greece, which was conducted from the 12th of April to the 23th of May 2019. It involves the main findings of this research wave and explores the development of internet penetration among the Greek population by providing comparative data on several aspects of the respondents’ internet related behavior between all three WIP waves (2015, 2017, 2019). These aspects pertain to digital use, access and divides, online activities and social capital, internet reliability and fake news, online victimization and privacy, political efficacy and freedom of expression. Data were collected by 1,208 interviews over the phone on a structured questionnaire (based on WIP guidelines and included some additional national questions of theoretical interest) and manually transferred to an online platform using RM+ software and then to statistical analysis software. The paper also offers descriptive presentations of the results analyses as well as charts including mostly relative frequencies and, in some cases, variable means. The relative frequencies and means are included in the charts in order to allow the reader to have a clear overview of the exact percentages. The results depict Greece as a digitally vulnerable society, with strong internal antinomies, which are in tandem with internet’s radical ambivalence in general.

Through a survey with a representative sample of Dutch Internet users, this article examines compound digital exclusion: whether a person who lacks a particular digital skill also lacks another kind of skill, whether a person who does not engage in a particular way online is also less likely to engage in other ways, and whether a person who does not achieve a certain outcome online is also less likely to achieve another type of outcome. We also tested sequential digital exclusion: whether a lower level of digital skills leads to lower levels of engagement with the Internet, resulting in a lower likelihood for an individual to achieve tangible outcomes. Both types of digital exclusion are a reality. Certain use can have a strong relation with an outcome in a different domain. Furthermore, those who achieve outcomes in one domain do not necessarily achieve outcomes in another domain. To get a comprehensive picture of the nature of digital exclusion, it is necessary to account for different domains in research.

Purpose – This article aims to highlight the main limitations of the emancipatory potentials of digital inclusion policies and information and communication technologies (ICTs). Increasingly, empowerment
is put forward as one of the main goals of digital inclusion. By applying user-centric and participatory approaches, assumptions are made that individuals will be empowered and, as such, will bere-included in society.

Design/methodology/approach – These assumptions, however, tend to ignore the social, economic, political and technical conditions within which individual choices are made and within which individuals must inevitably act. Instead of attempting to narrow the existing social gap between class-divided societies, and of probing the limitations given at the macro-level by questioning the wider social structure, digital inclusion policies tend to individualize problems that are in fact social in their nature.

Findings – This contribution will, therefore, aim to identify the key causes of structural (dis)empowerment and how these resonate to digital inclusion. The article positions itself within the political economy of communication research tradition and aims to confront the structural consequences of social inequalities, existing social hierarchies and power structures against mechanisms of digital inequalities and against the implementation of digital inclusion policies.

Originality/value – By proceeding from a critical perspective, it aims to demonstrate the limitations of user-centric and micro-level approaches, while questioning their normative interpretations of digital empowerment which tend to be reductionist in their essence and instrumental in their aims.