Information poverty is a lack of information due to little or inferior available media resources. While the internet continues to provide tremendous benefits for its users across much of the world, it has also helped to, inadvertently, widen the gap between developing and industrialized societies. Growing economies that do not have access to the internet have fallen behind in terms of their economic growth compared to other economies that have had access to the internet. This disparity is ever-growing, especially with today’s global media network, in which information is vast and wide-ranging. While the internet and other media mechanisms may not be mandatory for sufficient growth and success in a society, the effects of inequality concerning internet access is substantial. One of the major keys regarding lack of media mechanisms, which was noted in the article “Information Poverty and the Wired World” by Pippa Norris, is that while a society may have all of the major media mechanisms in place, including the internet, it does not mean that inequality does exist in that society. A prime example of this is with the United States: “In the United States, the Department of Commerce’s recent study, Falling Through the Net, emphasizes the familiar disparities in access among low-income American households and the gap among high-school educated, blacks and Hispanics, those in rural areas, and to a lesser extent among women and men” (Norris 4). While it is extremely important to make sure entire countries are not left behind, it is also important to make sure that certain groups of people in industrialized societies, such as low-income groups in the United States, are also not left behind. It will be interesting to see how the future pans outs in terms of the global digital divide and whether the disparity will grow or become closer.[1] At the end of the day, a more technologically advanced world is better for everyone.
[1] Norris, Pippa. “Information Poverty and the Wired World”. The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics. 5 (2000): 1-6. Print.
Brian,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that a "more technologically advanced world is better for everyone." However, I believe it is impossible for this to happen. There will always be 3rd world nations. I wonder, though, how would we be able to have internet, computers, and modern technology available for all? It seems that democracy, naturally, would have to be established.