The Digital Divide: Facing a Crisis or Creating a Myth?
Benjamin M. Compaine is Senior Research Affiliate at the Internet and Telecoms Convergence Consortium at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the editor of
This book presents data supporting the existence of a gap–along racial, economic, ethnic, and education lines–between those who have access to the latest information technologies and those who do not.
The Digital Divide refers to the perceived gap between those who have access to the latest information technologies and those who do not. If we are indeed in an Information Age, then not having access to this information is an economic and social handicap. Some people consider the Digital Divide to be a national crisis, while others consider it an over-hyped nonissue. This book presents data supporting the existence of such a divide in the 1990s along racial, economic, ethnic, and education lines. But it also presents evidence that by 2000 the gaps are rapidly closing without substantive public policy initiatives and spending. Together, the contributions serve as a sourcebook on this controversial issue.
Download citation file:
Table of Contents
-
I: The Set-Up: Documenters of the Digital Divide
-
1: Falling through the Net: A Survey of the "Have-Nots" in Rural and Urban AmericaByNational Telecommunications and Information AdministrationNational Telecommunications and Information AdministrationSearch for other works by this author on:
-
2: Falling through the Net: Defining the Digital DivideByNational Telecommunications and Information AdministrationNational Telecommunications and Information AdministrationSearch for other works by this author on:
-
II: The Context: Background and Texture
-
III: The Advocates: Raising the Stakes
-
IV: Reality Check: Tracking a Moving Target in High-Tech Time
-
13: Data from Three Empirical Studies, 2000
-
V: What’s It All Mean?
- Open Access
- Free
- Available
- No Access