scholarly journals Mediated political participation and competing discourses of online civic engagement

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-47
Author(s):  
Philip Oburu Onguny
Keyword(s):  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Digital Divide ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Civic Responsibility ◽  
Use Patterns ◽  
Digital Democracy ◽  
Information And Communication

This article focuses on the interconnections between mediated political participation and online citizen engagement. The objective is threefold. First, it examines whether the notion of digital democracy captures the dynamic and “renewed” sense of civic responsibility brought to bear by disruptive information and communication technologies (ICTs). Second, it asks the question of whether the creation, negotiation, dissemination, and consumption of online political content really rivals those circulated by the traditional or legacy media. Finally, the article discusses the potential pitfalls of confining technological use patterns to pessimist-optimist dichotomy, arguing that such characterization ignores innovative or adapted use patterns that emerge based on varying social, political, and economic realities. Overall, the discussions presented in this article are meant to generate conceptual discussions around the links between mediated political participation and online civic engagement, and how they inform democratization processes and redistribution of political influence.Keywords: Mediated politics, mediated political participation, digital democracy, mediated public sphere, ICTs, digital divide, online civic engagement, civic responsibility

scholarly journals Social Reproduction and its Applicability for Community Informatics

2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynette Kvasny
Keyword(s):  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Digital Divide ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Social Reproduction ◽  
Economic Activity ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Community Informatics ◽  
Underserved Communities ◽  
Social Reproduction Theory ◽  
Information And Communication

Digital divide rhetoric is generally utopian, touting innovative models for collaboration, economic activity, learning, and civic engagement. However, as information and communication technologies (ICT) become more widely available, we cannot naively assume that historically underserved communities are reaping these benefits. Social reproduction theory provides a basis fo understanding how ICT may in fact serve to reproduce, rather than alleviate, inequality.

Cultural Aspects and Digital Divide in Europe

MedienJournal ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 14-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ursula Maier-Rabler
Keyword(s):  
Digital Divide ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Innovation Process ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Individual Member ◽  
Policy Practice ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Policy Strategies

This paper aims to make a contribution toward an improvement of European e-policy practice. lt is inspired by the conviction that successfuJ e-policy strategies can lead to ba­lanced chances for all members in certain societies to aquire the absolutely indispensable capabilities for decision-making in the context of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Following the path of the development of e-policy papers it has to be stated that many goals have not yet been achieved. The techno-deterministic concepts 'access' and 'usage' seem not to reach far enough to get people really involved andin­formed. Many more aspects have tobe considered in order to create a clirnate for inno­vation where different choices made by different individuals according to their different social, economic or cuJtural backgrounds do not lead automatically to the well known either or not, connected or not-connected, haves or have-nots, but to a variety of pat­terns of involvement. In this paper, we argue for different e-policy strategies according to cultural aspects in certain societies. And hereby we will focus on the cultural aspects of information itself, on the notion of information in different information cultures. lt also seems important to mention at this stage that we believe that getting all members of society involved in the ICT-innovation process in order to provide the basis for in­formed decisions by each individual member is the most important task of e-policy.

How nonprofits use Facebook to craft infrastructure

First Monday ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Libby Hemphill ◽  
A.J. Million ◽  
Ingrid Erickson
Keyword(s):  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Uses And Gratifications ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Technology Choice ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Ict Use ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Moral Economies ◽  
Task Technology Fit

We present findings from interviews with 23 individuals affiliated with non-profit organizations (NPOs) to understand how they deploy information and communication technologies (ICTs) in their civic engagement efforts. Existing research about NPO ICT use is often critical, but we did not find evidence that NPOs fail to use tools effectively. Rather, we detail how NPOs assemble various ICTs to create infrastructures that align with their values. Overall, we find that existing theories about technology choice (e.g., task-technology fit, uses and gratifications) do not explain the assemblages NPOs describe. We argue that the infrastructures they fashion can be explained through the lens of moral economies rather than utility. Together, the rhetorics of infrastructure and moral economies capture the motivations and constraints our participants expressed and challenge how prevailing theories of ICT use describe the non-profit landscape.

scholarly journals MEASURING DIGITAL DIVIDE IN KING ABDULAZIZ UNIVERSITY

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-19
Author(s):  
Iqbal S. Alsaleh ◽  
Shaymaa M. Rashad
Keyword(s):  
Digital Divide ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Information And Communications Technology ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Order Effects ◽  
Diffusion Of Technology ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
King Abdulaziz University ◽  
The University

Due to the undesirable effects of the gap between citizens to access and use information and communication technologies (ICT), most researchers have been paying much attention to the threat of a digital divide. Unfortunately an amazingly large number of people do not have the abilities to use the ICTs in a proper way and, therefore, cannot draw advantages from its usage. As a result, digital divide is commonly regarded as a potential barrier for participation in the information society. This study measure the digital divide in Saudi Arabia by analyzing the results of a small-scale study conducted at the University KAU, regarding students’ and university members’ perceptions toward the usage of ICT. This analysis measure the digital divide concerning some factors like gender, educational level using a questionnaire. The analysis shows that KAU has no digital divide. Key words: digital divide, information and communications technology, ICT, diffusion of technology, second order effects.

Digital Urbanism in Southern Italy

2013 ◽  
pp. 1121-1136
Author(s):  
Arturo Di Bella
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Continuous Process ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Sustainable Urban Development ◽  
Planning Models ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
The Web

This article presents an analysis of the presence in, and use of, the web by some forms of digital citizenry in a city of southern Italy: Catania. Its primary aim is to analyze how, also in a weak civil society, information and communication technologies (ICTs) create new opportunities for extending public sphere and for learning new modes of participatory local action for sustainable urban development. The local experiences presented in this research indicate that ICTs can facilitate a redistribution of local social powers, offering infrastructures and tools useful for implementing a continuous process of social interaction, exchange of knowledge and the development of practices, influencing policy processes and planning models.

ICT, Media, and the Egyptian Revolution

2015 ◽  
pp. 94-115
Author(s):  
Ahmed El Gody
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Online Information ◽  
Government Control ◽  
Egyptian Revolution ◽  
Street Politics ◽  
Multimedia Material ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Media Organizations

The utilization of information and communication technologies (ICT) in Egypt has irrevocably changed the nature of the traditional Egyptian public sphere. The Egyptian online society can be viewed as a multiplicity of networks. These networks have developed, transformed and expanded over time, operating across all areas of life. Nonetheless, in essence they are socio-political and cultural in origin. Network communication changed the way audiences consumed news, with traditional media –especially independent and opposition– starting to utilize ICTs to access online information to develop their media content, in order to escape government control. Several media organizations also started to expand their presence online so that, as well as providing news content, they also provided readers with a ‘space' to interact amongst themselves and with media organizations. Audiences started to provide detailed descriptions of Egyptian street politics, posting multimedia material, generating public interest, and reinforcing citizen power – and, hence, democratic capacity.

Digital Divide and Rural Communities

2013 ◽  
pp. 698-720
Author(s):  
John Garofalakis ◽  
Andreas Koskeris
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Digital Divide ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
World Wide ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Digital Culture ◽  
Wide Spread ◽  
Balanced Development ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Source Of Information

During the last years, due to the wide spread of World Wide Web (WWW), the Internet has become one of the most valuable and effective communications media and the most inclusive source of information. However, in many cases the difficulties of establishing universal effective access could serve to reinforce current patterns of social exclusion and produce barriers to balanced development instead of supporting it. World widely there is a rising concern over the so-called “digital divide”–a term that refers to the gap existing in the opportunities to access advanced information and communication technologies between geographic areas or by individuals at different socioeconomic levels. The experience shows that specialized initiatives are needed for disadvantaged areas in order to anticipate expansion of current digital divide. This chapter is focusing on the specific instance of digital divide occurring in rural territories, and examines the ways to foster digital culture among citizens, utilizing a specific initiative (the so called “Telecentres”).

Assessing Robustness of Asian Countries Ranking

2020 ◽  
pp. 139-153
Author(s):  
Nilanjana Chakrabarty ◽  
Dibyojyoti Bhattacharjee
Keyword(s):  
Digital Divide ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
Unobserved Component ◽  
Linear Aggregation ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Unobserved Component Model ◽  
Use Of Internet

The term ‘digital divide' refers to the gap between individuals, households, businesses and geographic areas with regard to both their opportunities to access Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and to their use of Internet. Composite indicators are regularly used for measuring the divide and in benchmarking the country's performance. But often it creates controversies regarding the subjectivity that is connected with their construction methodology more specifically the weighting and aggregation issues. The paper attempts to assess the robustness of the ranks generated by the composite digital divide index using different weighting and aggregation schemes in case of Asian countries. Here four weighting techniques Iyengar-Sudarshan Method, Benefit of Doubt Method, Principal Component Analysis and Unobserved Component Model and three techniques of aggregation viz. Linear Aggregation, Geometric Aggregation and Weighted Displaced Ideal Method are used for mutual comparison.

Digital Divide

2008 ◽  
pp. 74-90
Author(s):  
Liudmila Burtseva ◽  
Svetlana Cojocaru ◽  
Constantin Gaindric ◽  
Galina Magariu ◽  
Tatiana Verlan
Keyword(s):  
Digital Divide ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Technical Problem ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Short History ◽  
World Community ◽  
The World ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Way

In this chapter the authors introduce the digital-divide concept to the reader, bring its different definitions, and describe the short history of the problem. The basic figures and facts, which characterize the information and communication technologies’ usage in different countries and regions, are given as well. Also, basic indicators that allow the monitoring of the country’s advancement on the way to bridging the digital divide are stated. The main purpose for the authors was to show that the digital divide is not only (and not as much) a technical problem, but rather a social and political one. Hence, the approaches to this problem decision, both in the world community as a whole and in separate countries, are described.

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