Page 141 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

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what inFluenCes internet aCCess?
Availability: Service providers prefer to reach areas that are densely populated, affluent,
and lack competing providers, because these areas are most profitable. Individuals
are more likely to use the Internet if it is accessible in their home, school, or a nearby
library.
Technology: The reach, complexity, and cost of maintaining computers and Internet ser-
vice shape access. For example, some Internet service technologies, such as Wireless
Fidelity (Wi-Fi) have limited reach or are too expensive to deploy everywhere.
Affordability: Access is shaped by the costs of Internet service, the devices used to re-
ceive it, and, in the developing world, electricity.
Government Regulation and Resources: Widespread, affordable provision of service often
depends on government permission to lay cables along public streets or to use public
airwaves to transmit signals; subsidies and loans to persuade companies to offer ser-
vice in low-profit areas or to allow individuals to subscribe more cheaply; and laws that
encourage freedom of speech.
Training: Instruction in literacy and computer literacy must be available.
Appropriate Content: Culturally relevant content in users’ own language is necessary.
Trust: New users need sufficient protection from cybercrime, breaches of privacy and se-
curity, and unwanted content (pornographic or violent material).
Social Norms: Globally, many people are discouraged from using the Internet based on
gender, ethnicity, and other inequalities. Support from family, friends, or community
institutions is often needed to encourage people to use the Internet fully.

They need support from family, friends, and the larger culture in which they
live to use a technology that can seem bewildering, threatening, or merely irrel-
evant to one’s way of life. People need relevant content in a language they speak
and read. Whether societies should help provide these benefits to their citizens
hinges on three issues: new technologies’ ability to spread to all members of so-
ciety, the significance of ensuring that people have equal opportunities to com-
municate, and the role of government in the information age.

DiFFusion anD innovaTion
Those who minimize the significance of the digital divide contend that dis-
parities work themselves out over time as technologies diffuse throughout the
population. The early adopters of the Internet may have been more white, male,
affluent, and educated than the norm, but this is less the case now that Internet
usage is permeating societies, at least in the developed world. Prices for comput-
ers and basic Internet service have fallen dramatically. People can log on for free
in public libraries, schools, and even coffee shops. As a generation of youth who
have grown up online mature into adults, any meaningful differences in Internet
use are likely to disappear.