This book discusses how digital inequalities today may lead to other types of inequalities in the Global South. Contributions to this collection move past discussing an access problem - a binary division between 'haves and have-nots' - to analyse complex inequalities in the internet use, benefits, and opportunities of people in the Global South region. Using specific case studies, this book underlines how communities in the Global South are now attempting to participate in the information age despite high costs, a lack of infrastructure, and more barriers to entry. Contributions discuss the recent changes in the Global South. These changes include greater technological availability, the spread of digital literacy programs and computer courses, and the overall growth in engagement of people from different backgrounds, ethnicities, and languages in digital environments. This book outlines and evaluates the role of state and public institutions in facilitating these changes and consequently bridging the digital divide.

Autorentext

Massimo Ragnedda is Senior Lecturer in Mass Communication at Northumbria University, UK, where he conducts research on the digital divide and social media. He is the co-vice chair of the Digital Divide Working Group (IAMCR).

Anna Gladkova is Leading Researcher and Director of International Affairs Office at the Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia. She is co-vice chair of the Digital Divide Working Group (IAMCR).

Inhalt
1 Introduction2. Understanding Digital Inequalities in the Global SouthSection I Digital Inequalities in South Asia3 Impacts of the Digital Divide on the E-governmentPortals of Nepal4. A Widening Digital Divide and Its Impacts on ExistingSocial Inequalities and Democracy in Pakistan5. Widening the Wedge: Digital Inequalities and Social Media in India6. ICTs, Power Prejudice and Empowerment: DigitalExclusion of the Poor in Rural BangladeshSection II Digital Inequalities in Central and Western Asia7. Weaponization of Access, Communication Inequalities asa Form of Control: Case of Israel/Palestine8. Digital Inequalities in CIS Countries: Updated Approach to the Analysis of Situation9. A Comparison of High-Skill and Low-Skill InternetUsers in Northeast Anatolia, TurkeySection III Digital Inequalities in Africa10. Digital Infrastructure Enabling Platforms for Health Information and Education in the Global South11. Moving Beyond the Rhetoric: Who Really Benefits from Investments in Digital Infrastructure in Low-Income and Low-Literacy Communities in Malawi?\12. Digital Inequality and Language Diversity: An Ethiopic Case Study13. The End of the Public Sphere: Social Media, Civic Virtue, and the Democratic Divide14. The Digital Divide: Observations from the South About a Failed Dialog with the North15. Social Inequality, Technological Inequality and Educational Heterogeneity in the Light of the Conectar Igualdad OLPC Programme (Salta, Argentina, 20152017)16. Afro-Creole Nationalism and the Maintenance of the Digital Divide: The Case of Jamaica