Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty and the Internet World‐Wide

Citation

Coppock, K. (2003), "Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty and the Internet World‐Wide", info, Vol. 5 No. 1, pp. 77-78. https://doi.org/10.1108/info.2003.5.1.77.3

The lack of systematic analysis on the political impact of the Internet in diverse societies led Pippa Norris to undertake a multi‐level, multi‐country study of this phenomenon. Yet instead of focusing on the political realm, she extends her analysis to the socio‐economic factors behind Internet penetration rates. Norris’ book concludes that Internet usage rates largely reflect traditional patterns of inequality, social stratification and civic engagement. However, given that the Internet is a more powerful tool than many previous information and communication technologies, Norris stresses that it offers the potential to level the playing‐field between political institutions, even if it may be unable to positively affect short‐term socio‐economic development.

The book is divided into 12 chapters, grouped into three areas: an introductory framework, the virtual political system, and democratic divide. Norris examines Internet usage across 179 nations in an attempt to answer three broad questions associated with three digital divides: Global divide: will the Internet serve to reinforce or erode the gap between information‐rich and info poor nations? Social divide: will it exacerbate or reduce social divisions within countries? Democratic divide: Will it strengthen representative democracy, as many hope, or will it buttress the power of established interests, as others fear? Given the dynamic nature of Internet technology and its relatively nascent state, Norris’ book is better at explaining these questions in the context of the past ten years, rather than in predicting future patterns.

Part one of the book presents a conceptual framework which describes the levels of analysis (macro, meso, and micro) and the three types of digital divides (global, social, and democratic). To set the stage for the discussion, Norris plays devil’s advocate, providing rationales for the “cyber optimist” and “cyber pessimist” perspectives and then concluding with the results from her own analysis. Cyber optimists believe that digital technologies will overcome economic, social and democratic divides, while cyber pessimists believe that they will reinforce, if not exacerbate, existing inequalities. Norris often takes the middle road between the two.

Norris finds strong evidence that income levels are the primary determinant of differences in Internet access rates across countries and intra‐country differentials (at least in the case of Europe) are explained by education, income levels, occupation and gender. Furthermore, she found that the usage rates of all types of information and communication technologies were intercorrelated and hence Internet penetration rates simply mirror existing social divisions within industrialized countries. Societies and individuals that are consumers of “old” types of mass media, such as newspapers and radios, are more likely to also be users of “new” media, such as the Internet. Norris’ broad conclusions appear well founded, yet she lacks coherence, and at times appears to contradict herself, when discussing the policy ramifications of these findings.

Part two explores virtual political systems. Norris draws from the classical Schumpeterian tradition of representative democracy, focusing on how organizations are able to exploit the information and communication capabilities of the Internet to enhance the capacity of political institutions. She analyzes the usage of Web sites by government departments, parliaments and political parties on two levels: information transparency and interactive communication. In the 179 countries, she finds that 14,500 government departments, 100 parliaments and 1,250 parliamentary parties are online. Technological development, or Internet diffusion rates, is the primary factor determining the presence and/or level of interactivity of these Web sites, with democratic development also being significant in determining the interactivity of online parliaments and socio‐economic development also being significant in determining the presence of virtual parties.

Many political institutions are very conservative in their use of the Internet, employing it as an alternative distribution channel rather than exploiting its interactive power in communications with constituents. Yet Norris leans toward cyber optimism in her discussion of the potential of the Internet to equalize political institutions, at least in terms of their ability to communicate and collect information. She argues that newer and smaller political institutions, with less established processes and bureaucracies, may be more prone to exploit the unique characteristics of the Internet to their own advantage. Yet it remains to be seen, if this occurs or not.

Part three explores cyber culture and the democratic divide, particularly focusing on experiences in the USA and Europe. Norris uses socialization theory to predict long‐term changes in global values. She posits that, since there is evidence of a unique cyber culture and children increasingly use the Internet, cyber culture will influence children’s values, eventually leading to a change in global value system. Given that the author herself admits that the evidence of a distinct cyber culture remains limited and her data are only from the USA and Europe, the link between cyber culture and the transformation of world‐wide values is tenuous at best.

To explore the democratic divide, Norris uses data from the Eurobarameter survey to analyze the digital divide in terms of electronic civic engagement in Europe. Her results of this analysis lean more towards cyber pessimism, as she finds that the Internet does not simply reflect, but actually reinforces, the level of engagement of civic activists. Conversely, those uninterested in public affairs will not become engaged in politics simply because it may be less expensive and easier to do over the Internet. However, this does not mean that the Internet will weaken representative democracy, as the most vocal and active civic participants may not always be the most powerful.

The strength of this book is its unique focus on the political ramifications of the Internet for political systems and institutions, issues not often addressed in ongoing discussions about the digital divide. Furthermore, for those with a penchant for econometrics, Norris presents detailed tables with the results of the regressions she ran. Its weakness is twofold. First, the complexity of the framework – three levels and three digital divides – and similarity in the root cause of the various divides – economic development – make the results appear convoluted and repetitive. This is particularly true in the discussions of the global and social divides. Second, it attempts to provide conclusions applicable to both industrialized and developing nations, yet the results may be biased towards patterns in industrialized countries as only data only from the USA and Europe were used in several chapters.

This book would be most interesting to academics and policy makers as it presents a comprehensive overview of the global, social and democratic divides and provides numerous references to studies and databases related to these issues.