Digital divides

Abstract

With the rapidly increasing availability of digital content, the role of digital media has grown in prominence in recent years. Digital media encompass a wide range of technologies and include cell phones, the internet and software applications that power and run on the internet. Despite this diversity, digital content often eludes the reach of much of the world’s population due to global digital divides. This chapter examines digital divides and provides an overview of trends in use of information and communication technologies worldwide and in major world regions. Digital divides of the media, as well as social, economic and political determinants of digital divides, are examined thorough the lens of several theoretical approaches such as the Spatially Aware Technology Utilization Model and frameworks such as the Networked Readiness Index framework of the World Economic Forum. World regions highlighted in terms of their digital disparities and underlying challenges include developed digital nations such as the United States, developing nations in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the nations of Africa. The chapter concludes with a commentary on the role of government policies to bridge digital divides, and proposes a policy research agenda in light of the global COVID-19 pandemic that has accelerated the growth of digital content and media but simultaneously exacerbated challenges for vast populations at the fringes of a global, networked society.