The digital divide among races and populations is an issue that has been building on for decades. The problems associated with lack of access began when society began segregating racial groups in schools, public, and everyday life. One of the major periods of segregation in our American culture was the period of time when Native Americans were forced to live on reserves as outlined in Race After the Internet's "Connection at Ewiiaapaayp Mountain: Indigenous Internet Infrastructure". Since indigenous tribes were relocated from their homeland to reserves they were deprived the various new and innovative technologies that came into existence such as personal computers, the internet, phones, smartphones, ipods, etc. Without these very technologies we would not be the thriving society that we are today in America. However, since tribes out onto reservations were deprived of these innovations, they could not thrive with us and began to fall behind in terms of successes and opportunities. Today the government is subsidizing the placement of computers and computer labs on reservations. However, just Jonathan Sterne mentioned in his article about computer literacy in education, simply providing access to computers is not enough. If we do not teach or demonstrate how to use computers and the internet at a level that the rest of society functions at how can we expect the access gap to narrow.
Another aspect of the issue is whether or not to allow new voices on the internet. One phrase that I found particularly interesting from this weeks reading comes from the chapter "New Voices on the Net? The Digital Journalism Divide and the Cost of Network Education" ....."In the information society, diverse communities' capacity to tell their own stories is especially critical" (246) The authors and contributors of this chapter go on to say that America has entered a world of illusion since Barrack Obama's election to the US presidency in 2008. That many citizens believe that America has entered into a "post-racial" era, when in fact this is not the case at all. Yes, we are not persecuting them, or keeping them out of schools, and higher education directly, but we are indirectly hindering them and their ability and opportunity to thrive by keeping minority communities and societies out of the media and the journalism world. Today, only about 15% the media, journalism, and news industry is composed of minorities. By not allowing minority populations to express their ideas via the internet and the innovative actions that are the 21st century how can we expect to narrow the digital divide. First, we must tackle computer literacy, and then we must allow these minority races and social classes to not only engage in technological forms of communication for education, but also to engage in a leisurely manner and therefore cultivating and expressing their thoughts and opinions.
Another aspect of the issue is whether or not to allow new voices on the internet. One phrase that I found particularly interesting from this weeks reading comes from the chapter "New Voices on the Net? The Digital Journalism Divide and the Cost of Network Education" ....."In the information society, diverse communities' capacity to tell their own stories is especially critical" (246) The authors and contributors of this chapter go on to say that America has entered a world of illusion since Barrack Obama's election to the US presidency in 2008. That many citizens believe that America has entered into a "post-racial" era, when in fact this is not the case at all. Yes, we are not persecuting them, or keeping them out of schools, and higher education directly, but we are indirectly hindering them and their ability and opportunity to thrive by keeping minority communities and societies out of the media and the journalism world. Today, only about 15% the media, journalism, and news industry is composed of minorities. By not allowing minority populations to express their ideas via the internet and the innovative actions that are the 21st century how can we expect to narrow the digital divide. First, we must tackle computer literacy, and then we must allow these minority races and social classes to not only engage in technological forms of communication for education, but also to engage in a leisurely manner and therefore cultivating and expressing their thoughts and opinions.