The Political Economy of Digital Health

The Internet and digital media are increasingly seen as having enormous potential for solving problems facing healthcare systems. This chapter traces emerging “digital health” uses and applications, focusing on the political economy of data. For many people, the ability to access their own data through social media and connect with people with similar conditions holds enormous potential to empower them and improve healthcare decisions. For researchers, digital health tools present new forms of always-on data that may lead to major discoveries. Technology and telecommunications companies hope their customers? data can answer key health questions or encourage healthier behavior. At the same time, Gina Neff argues that digital health raises policy and social equity concerns regarding sensitive personal data, and runs a risk of being seen as a sort of silver bullet instead of mere technological solutionism.

Digital News and the Consumption of Political Information

The Internet has fundamentally changed how people access and use news. As Dutton and others (Chapter 13, this volume) note, there are concerns that the Internet leads us to get stuck in “echo chambers” or “filter bubbles”—limiting our access to points of view that might challenge our preexisting beliefs. This chapter introduces a network approach to analyzing news consumption in the digital age. The authors explain how we can compare patterns of news consumption across demographic groups, countries, and digital platforms, and determine if there are differences across groups of users and media systems. Measuring news consumption has long been difficult owing to the limitations of self-reported data, so this chapter is notable in offering a novel approach that leverages the digital traces that people leave behind when navigating the Web.

The Internet and Access to Information about Politics

Concern over filter bubbles, echo chambers, and misinformation on the Internet are not new. However, as noted by Howard and Bradshaw (Chapter 12), events around the 2016 US presidential election and the UK’s Brexit referendum brought these concerns up again to near-panic levels, raising questions about the political implications of the algorithms that drive search engines and social media. To address these issues, the authors conducted an extensive survey of Internet users in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, and the US, asking respondents how they use search, social media, and other media for getting information about politics, and what difference these media have made for them. Their findings demonstrate that search is one among many media gateways and outlets deployed by those interested in politics, and that Internet users with an interest in politics and search skills are unlikely to be trapped in a filter bubble, or cocooned in a political echo chamber.

Internet Geographies

From the earliest stages of computer-mediated communication, technical change was predicted to undermine the significance of geography and lead to the “death of distance.” This seemed a logical consequence of electronic media enabling people to communicate from anywhere, to anyone, and anytime. However, empirical research, such as that illustrated in this chapter, has challenged this view. The authors argue that the Internet augments everyday places. As such, much like material geographies, the Internet can be spatially mapped. In doing so, the authors uncover significant geographic inequalities that shape how we use, move through, and interact with the world.

The Unfinished Work of the Internet

Vinton Cerf is internationally recognized as “an Internet pioneer”—one of the “fathers of the Internet”—regarding his work with Bob Kahn in co-inventing Internet protocol (TCP/IP). David Bray is Executive Director for the People-Centered Internet Coalition and a champion of positive “change agents” in turbulent environments. For this concluding chapter, we asked Vinton Cerf and David Bray to provide a future-focused perspective on the Internet’s role in shaping media and information. Arguably, over the past twenty years, there has been no greater development shaping global information technology, policy, and practices than the rise of the Internet and related communication technologies such as the Web, social media, and mobile Internet. Looking to the future, will the Internet play as central a role? Their answer is yes, noting that much work remains to be done if the Internet is to remain an uplifting force for both individuals and communities.

Social Media and Democracy in Crisis

The Internet and social media were originally viewed as democratizing technologies that would lead to a more vibrant digital public sphere. Following the outcomes of the 2016 US Presidential Election and the UK Brexit referendum, however, social media platforms have faced increasing criticism for allowing fake news, disinformation campaigns, and hate speech to spread. But how much bad information was spread? What can be done to address the problem? This chapter examines how social media algorithms and computational propaganda are reshaping public life. The authors explore how modern citizens are especially susceptible to computational propaganda, due not only to the prevalence of disinformation, but also to a political psychology that is often called “elective affinity” or “selective exposure.” The authors use their findings to discuss the responsibilities of both users and platforms for protecting the digital public sphere.

Data Protection in the Clouds

This chapter brings a legal perspective to bear on the topic of data protection on the contemporary Internet in which personal information is increasingly stored and processed in, and accessed from, “the cloud.” The reliance of ever more apps, websites, and services on cloud providers contrasts with earlier days of the Internet in which much more data was stored locally on personal computers. At a time when there is ever more use of cloud computing, this chapter illuminates the complexities over what information in cloud computing environments is protected as personal data, and who is responsible. Will data protection laws, such as those in the EU, protect us, or are there alternative approaches to providing effective protection for personal data in clouds? This chapter airs the question of whether a greater focus should be placed on localizing personal data, as advocated by the Internet pioneer, Tim Berners-Lee.

Gender and Race in the Gaming World

Age is not alone in shaping real and imagined differences in Internet use. Racial and gender-based stereotypes abound and need to be empirically challenged. This chapter explores the relationships between race, gender, sexuality, and digital cultures in one increasingly significant digital domain—gaming. With a review of previous scholarship on race, gender, and gaming, the author shows that we see few signs of a “post-racial” society being brought into being. In fact, gaming is a digital activity where racism and sexism are commonplace. The chapter thus leaves us with questions about why, when the Internet is a potentially powerful leveling tool in the quest for democracy and fairness, does it continue to be defined by egregious sexism and racism?

Internet Skills and Why They Matter

Given that the Internet is now ubiquitous in high-income nations, do Internet skills still matter? The authors of this chapter synthesize a body of research that shows how Internet skills, defined across ten dimensions, remain critical, especially as the technology becomes ever more significant and embedded into everyday life. Having the requisite skills to use the Internet and related social media is essential to avoid being excluded from key facets of society. This chapter demonstrates the need to build the study of skills into digital inequality scholarship that seeks to address concerns over online experiences tending to follow and reinforce socioeconomic inequalities. Complementing research by Quan-Haase, Zhang, Wellman, and Wang (Chapter 5, this volume), this chapter challenges stereotypes of young people being tech-savvy, showing that youth are not universally knowledgeable about digital tools and media.

Looking Ahead at Internet Video and its Societal Impacts

Media economics provides a basis for Eli Noam in setting out the logic behind a series of expectations he shares about how the transition from regular linear TV to online video will lead to major changes in culture, politics, and society. His perspective on the dramatic implications of this shift suggests comparisons with the fundamental changes brought about by the introduction of first-generation TV over seventy years ago, with both exciting advances and also disturbing problems. Noam is able to raise serious questions about new and enduring cultural, consumer-oriented, political, economic, educational, and other social implications of what might sound like a mere technical shift to a new style of video.