Digital Divide, The

Theoretical Development

The theoretical origins of the digital divide can be traced to the knowledge gap hypothesis introduced in 1970 by Phillip Tichenor, George Dono-hue, and Clarice Olien at the University of Minnesota. The knowledge gap hypothesis explains that mass media and the underlying structure of society cause knowledge to be disproportionally appropriated by high socioeconomic groups, thus increasing the knowledge gap with low socioeconomic groups. The digital divide applies this reasoning to information models (such as ICTs or the Internet), rather than only to knowledge flow.

The term digital divide was used as early as 1996, when it sporadically began to appear in the U.S. press, such as in the New York Times, and in political speeches, including some by Vice President Al Gore. The most popularly cited origin of the term is a 1999 report from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which defined the digital divide as “the divide between those with access to new technologies and those without.” In this context, “new technologies” referred to information and communication technologies (ICTs) generally, which included telephones and computers in addition to the Internet. As the Internet became popularly accessible through systems other than dial-up access, the nature of the Internet as a free-floating system disembodied from telephone lines became increasingly apparent. Then the term digital divide came to apply to the demographic disparities exclusively in Internet use and access.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the digital divide started to become recognized as a complex multidimensional phenomenon and thus not amenable to simple dichotomous analysis. Analysis now entails (1) an understanding of the criteria for the divide, including the definitions of being online or off-line, both in terms of Internet access and Internet use and (2) the context of the divide, which includes the extent to which economic, social, and political forces have shaped and continue to shape the divide.

The abundance of usage options permitted by the Internet, ranging from social networking and finding information to shopping and seeking entertainment, allows for various new conceptions of the Internet user. Hence, while the term digital divide intuitively delineates a gap between the two groups of users and nonusers, additional groups are now being compared. These groups can be delineated by temporality of use, for example, as early adopters, late adopters, continuing users, and dropouts—but not only. For example, as early as 2002, the idea that different Internet users hold different approaches to using the Internet gave rise to what Eszter Hargittai termed the “second-level digital divide.” More recently, as collaborative online cultures have emerged, supported by technological developments such as Web 2.0 and legal developments such as Creative Commons copyright licensing, the idea of a gap between online content producers and online [Page 704]content consumers, or a “production gap,” has also started to develop.

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