This thesis aims at contributing to the understanding of digital inequalities among older people, by studying the involvement of older people in research on digital technologies. Some mechanisms ...driving old age digital inequalities are well known. For instance, people with lower social positions tend to have lower digital skills, to face technology accessibility and affordability issues, and, thus, to engage less with digital technologies compared to their counterparts. However, less attention has been paid to issues related to research and development of digital technologies, such as the involvement of older people in research evaluating new digital technologies, for understanding digital inequalities. Previous studies indicate that participants and non-participants in research are different one another, with the former being younger, reporting higher educational levels, having better health status than the non-participants. This may bias research outcomes and lead to incorrect conclusions on the utility of digital technologies. The objective of this thesis is to investigate the link between the involvement of older people in digital technology evaluations and the research outcomes. Healthcare is used as exemplifying context in which digital technologies are largely evaluated and used. In Study I, participation in digital health research is conceptualised, and a research tool for identifying and measuring selective participation is developed. In Study II and III, factors associated with participation in two digital health intervention studies are analysed. In Study IV, the impact of selective participation on the research outcomes of a digital health study is identified, measured, and corrected. Thesis findings show that participation of older people in digital health research is selective by age, gender, health status, job level, and digital skills, and can indicate a mechanism for digital inequalities. Selective participation biases research outcomes by overemphasising the intervention effects of the over-represented groups over those of the under-represented groups. It can cause an overestimation of the positive effects of digital health technologies due to the under-representation of those groups who do not benefit from the intervention. This promotes digital technologies which increase exclusion risks for some groups of older people and reinforce old age digital and social inequalities. Weighting procedures can be used for mitigating the impact of this mechanism on the research outcomes of intervention studies on digital technologies.
In this paper we reflect on how research and policies can and/or should help in the development of a sustainableparticipatory information society for all. More specifically, we aim to investigate ...critically how social media can entail bothpotential and pitfalls, especially with regard to the difficult relationship between digital and social inclusion. First of all,traditional information society policies are scrutinized. Furthermore, we point at the existence of digital inequalities and wereflect briefly on policy intervention on e-inclusion. In addition, we also evaluate the raise of social media. Finally, attention isgiven to the challenge of how research can contribute to the participation of all in the information society.
This paper aims to move away from the notion of a digital divide premised on technology 'haves and have-nots' to a more nuanced understanding based on technological practices. It draws on empirical ...research from interviews with eight case-study families about the ways in which information and communication technologies (ICT) fit into their everyday lives. The families were chosen to reflect those owning multiple technologies, rather than to be 'representative' of the social make-up of schools or geographical area. The intention here is to explore the barriers to use of ICT in technologically privileged households, and to ask questions around the orthodoxy of the digital divide. The novel approach of using only privileged families is an attempt to build on the new thinking of the digital divide as based on qualitative concerns. Relevance and social networks as crucial mediating factors in people's access to ICT are explored in three socio-spatial environments. The paper concludes with a discussion of how the findings link to ICT pedagogical thinking and educational technology policymaking.
Invisible or Powerful? Ageing in a Mediatised Society Bergström, Annika; Edström, Maria
A Multidisciplinary Approach to Capability in Age and Ageing. International Perspectives on Aging, vol 31,
2022
Book Chapter
Odprti dostop
In order to live your rights and achieve your goals, you need to be informed, have a voice and be listened to, and have the opportunity to engage in society, regardless of age. Freedom of expression ...and freedom of information are core human rights values that connect the concept of capability with the role of the media in society. The media can be a tool for enhancing a person’s capabilities, but it can also be seen as hindering a good life if technology and its applications are perceived as awkward and/or difficult to access.
At a structural level, a wider discussion of media responsibility has the potential to contribute to enhancing people’s capabilities in later life. One critical issue is who should be held accountable and responsible for media content that lacks diverse stories about older people and their voices, possibly reinforcing ageism. Furthermore, where the responsibility lies for ensuring that older people have the technological means to act as digital citizens is somewhat unclear. In an increasingly mediatised environment, we might see a stronger relationship between media literacy, health and ageing, which in turn could emphasise the importance of the role of the media in enhancing capabilities.
The chapter is written within the multidisciplinary Centre for ageing and health, AgeCap. at the University of Gothenburg.
Digital inequalities continue to concern researchers across highly technologised countries. In recent years, however, most research on digital inequalities has focused on distinguishing different ...patterns of Internet use rather than examining Internet non-users. The few quantitative studies of non-use and reasons for non-use often stay on a descriptive level, while qualitative studies mostly investigate subpopulations, such as those living in specific neighbourhoods. Although there are a number of studies of digital inequalities among young people and the elderly, a systematic literature search finds no research focusing on middle-aged individuals, who might face specific problems with being offline, as they are of working age and more likely than other age groups to have children living in the household. On the basis of a mixed-methods research design that compares non-users in Great Britain and Sweden, the overarching research question for this study sheds light on the mechanisms contributing to Internet non-use, as it examines the socio-economic backgrounds, attitudes, perceptions, and everyday life experiences of non-users with a focus on 25 to 55 year-olds. It applies advanced statistical analyses of secondary nationally representative survey data as well as in-depth analysis of qualitative interviews with 10 middle-aged non-users from each country. The analysis of these combined data shows that while socio-economic variables still play an important role in influencing who is on- and offline, general attitudes towards technologies are even more influential. The study finds that there is a lack of life-fit (Selwyn 2006) of ICTs for a number of non-users and a potentially negative impact of warm experts (Bakardjeva 2005) who have previously been regarded as a positive influence. Moreover, vulnerable groups (e.g. immigrants) are facing more substantial problems, such as issues with literacy and language, which need to be tackled first. The deliberation of similarities and differences between Britain and Sweden against the backdrop of policy interventions and cultural values shows that being offline is not problematic for all Internet non-users; some of them thrive in highly technologised societies. The conclusion offers proposals for both future research and policy interventions for those, currently offline mainly due to socio-economic reasons, who would like to go online in the future.
NOTES FROM THE NUMBER ONE COUNTRY Murdock, Graham
International journal of cultural policy : CP,
20/7/1/, Letnik:
12, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Herbert Schiller, one of the most important cultural critics of the American postwar Left, has been little read in cultural policy circles. This article sets out to introduce the main themes in his ...work and to argue that far from being passé, his analysis is now more relevant than ever. Writing from the United States, where public deliberation and intervention was continually pressured and often captured by commercial lobbies and interests, he was one of the first to analyse in detail both the ascendancy of market thinking and the quickening migration of key decisions from public committees to company boardrooms. He was also one of the first to grasp that the locus of global power in the postwar era was moving from the appropriation of territory to the annexation of imagination, and to analyse in detail the connections between American-mediated culture and the new global economic order.
This chapters addresses digital inequalities in young people’s daily lives and well-being. The chapter examines how adolescents’ digital engagement differs across family socioeconomic status (SES) ...and gender, and how it relates to their mental health outcomes. Analyses use longitudinal data from the Growing Up in Ireland study from age 9 to 18, combined with cross-national data from the Health Behaviour in School-Aged survey on adolescents aged 11-15 across 35 industrialised countries. Longitudinal analyses reveal that low-SES adolescents and girls experience higher mental health problems as they increase their time using digital devices, compared to high-SES adolescents and boys. Cross-national analyses indicate that, while boys spend more time in digital activities, girls are at higher risks of experiencing mental health problems from engaging with digital activities. However, the magnitude of these gendered patterns differs markedly across national contexts. Cross-country comparisons on SES yield mixed results: in some countries low-SES adolescents are mentally more harmed by their digital engagement (i.e., Switzerland, Austria, Norway), but in other countries high-SES adolescents are those at higher mental health risks from using digital devices (i.e., Portugal, Czech Republic, Bulgaria). The chapter findings are discussed within the existing literature on digital inequalities and young people’s well-being.
Provider: - Institution: - Data provided by Europeana Collections- Online crowdwork platforms have been praised as powerful vehicles for economic development, particularly for workers traditionally ...excluded from the labor market. However, there has been insufficient scrutiny as to the feasibility of crowdwork as an income-source among socio-economically deprived populations. This paper examines device requirements and differential access to digital infrastructure, both of which act as potential barriers to not only basic participation but also to economic success. Given the increasing prevalence of mobile-first and mobile-only populations, research on this topic aids in understanding the crowdwork ecosystem among differing socio-economic sectors. Based on a survey of 606 crowd workers in the United States and India, this paper uses both quantitative and qualitative data to explore whether reliance on mobile devices is detrimental for the economic outcomes of crowdwork. The results point to substantial inequalities in device use and received benefits from crowdwork, within each country and between the two contexts.- All metadata published by Europeana are available free of restriction under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. However, Europeana requests that you actively acknowledge and give attribution to all metadata sources including Europeana
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