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Media access: Social and psychological dimensions of new technology use

(Eds.)
chapter Communities, Cultural Capital, and the Digital Divide., Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, Mahwah, NJ, US, (2004)

Abstract

(From the chapter) Much of the debate about the digital divide has centered on the question of who has access to computers and the Internet. A series of studies by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA, 1995, 1999, 2000, 2002) revealed that those in low-income, low-education, minority-racial, and rural location groups have unequal access to the new technologies. The most recent NTIA (2002) report indicated that the gaps in access are narrowing. However, this chapter argues that a number of fundamental aspects of the digital divide persist, above and beyond access issues. It examines continuing gaps that underlie the digital divide from a case study of Austin, Texas. A highly wired city, Austin reveals the social and cultural barriers that remain in place when most conventional remedies, such as public access centers, Internet-connected schools and libraries, and computer training programs, become fairly widely available. This chapter seeks to understand the social construction of information technology in the lives of working-class and poor Hispanics and African Americans in East Austin. We examine the economic and social causes for why many families in disadvantaged communities do not have, do not use, or do not seek access to new technologies. Among other factors, these causes include class, ethnicity, age, geographic location, and gender-role constraints. The analysis focuses on the sources of cultural capital these families employ as they decide whether and how to make use of technology in their lives. These forms of cultural capital contribute to "technodispositions" about information and communication technologies (ICTs). A central question throughout the research is whether lower class, minority youths and their parents are forming a more durable and consistent class pattern (or habitus) toward ICTs than commonly assumed. Interviews with a group of twelve teenagers, their parents, and, in some cases their siblings, were structured to answer this question and constituted the main elements in gathering the data. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved)

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