The mobile Internet and digital citizenship in African-American and Latino communities

Smartphone use is transforming the meaning of being online, especially for African-Americans and Latinos. To what extent has this enabled these populations to become digital citizens, able to participate in society online? Internet use is increasingly important for the exercise of the political, economic and social rights that have often been associated with citizenship [Mossberger, K., Tolbert, C. J., &; McNeal, R. S. (2008). Digital citizenship: The Internet, society, and participation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press], and can be measured by the political and economic activities that individuals engage in online. Using unique survey data from a diverse city, we use multilevel analysis and interactions to examine relationships between forms of access and activities online in 2013, controlling for neighborhood context as well as individual characteristics. In contrast with prior work, we find that while broadband access is most strongly associated with political and economic activities online, that mobile is as well. The effects are strongest for African-Americans and Latinos, especially for Latinos who live in heavily Latino neighborhoods – who have lagged behind furthest in Internet use.     

The Use of Online Social Support by Foster Families

ABSTRACT

The extent to which foster families utilize social support on the Internet is examined in a sample of 34 foster families in a digital divide intervention program and a comparison sample of 30 foster families who were not part of the program. In spite of increased Internet access, the frequency of using online social support is low. A minority of parents and children increased their use of the Internet to give and receive help, communicate with other foster families and e-mail with their foster care worker. More than half of foster youth have used the Internet to stay in touch with friends and relatives and have “made a new friend” over the Internet. Implications for child welfare practice and for further research are discussed.     

EFFECTIVE USE OF MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS IN E-GOVERNMENT: How do we reach the tipping point?

This paper investigates what is needed to make the mobile phone a more effective tool for the interaction between government and governed. Recent studies have shown that a significant proportion of the UK population have no intention of accessing the Internet; however, it is reported that there are more web-enabled mobile phones than there are PCs in the UK. Mobile phones may thus offer the most viable electronic channel through which to encourage large-scale take-up of online public services. Although people have integrated mobile phones into their everyday lives, we argue that unless there is a substantial change in social practices the much heralded 'm-government' will take a significant amount of time to become a reality. Despite these ongoing challenges, mobile technologies offer huge potential to represent mainstream government/citizen interaction. The paper will draw upon case studies of best practice from around the world to investigate the emerging ways in which large-scale usage of this type of government/citizen interaction can be achieved.     

Possibilities for Using the Internet in Japanese Education in the Information Age Society

As the globalization of the economy has accelerated in recent years, the Internet has become an essential part of the infrastructure, primarily as a communications medium. In the Information Age society, the ADC principle (autonomy, distribution, and collaboration) has become an underlying assumption, which also applies to the institution of education. The fading power of Japan may come from its educational system, which emphasizes standardization and uniformity, while discouraging creativity and individuality. Now is the time for Japan to reevaluate its educational system at every level so that it better supports the societal and business needs of the Information Age economy. Therefore, this paper proposes five kinds of changes to the Japanese educational system. They are community networks, digital kids and participatory education, growing up digital and youth education, online higher education, and media literacy education for the elderly. First, community networks provide citizens with better and more convenient access to local services, activities, and information. Second, the notion of the digital kid suggests that it should be participatory, including all members of the community. Third, as digital kids grow up digital using the Internet would enhance both intergenerational and intra‐generational communication in the twenty‐first century. Fourth, online higher education should become widely available in Japanese society in the twenty‐first century. Fifth, although media literacy education for the elderly in Japan is yet to come to its maturity, senior network groups are beginning to receive wider attention as they will provide Japanese elderly with a new avenue for communication. When and only when these educational reforms are pursued, will Japanese people be able to participate effectively in the global society.     

Techno‐social Life: The Internet,Digital Technology,and Social Connectedness

This essay explores what it means to be socially connected in a techno‐social world. It describes how a “triple revolution” in social connectedness has been catalyzed by the ever‐increasing use of the Internet, mobile communication, and social media networking (Rainie and Wellman 2012). It argues for the usefulness of the concepts of the community and the network in understanding how social connectedness is created and experienced in the use of digital (computerized) communication technology. It examines some of the consequences – both benefits and hazards – of being near‐continuously available to one another via the Internet, mobile phones, and social media. And it describes how digital (online) and face‐to‐face (offline) spaces become fully integrated and experienced as a single, enmeshed reality. The article concludes that people's use of digital communication technology tends to strengthen social connectedness and prompt, not deter, face‐to‐face interaction and local community ties.     

Government websites and social media's influence on government-public relationships

Recent years have witnessed the increasing use of online media, such as websites, blogs, and social networking sites, by the government for various public relations purposes. These government communication channels are often regarded to promote democratic values and public trust in government by helping the government provide the public with information and respond to citizen inquires. Further, such channels help the public provide the government with feedback. This study questions whether individuals’ experience with government websites and social media do, in fact, influence their perception of the government-public relationship (represented by public trust in government). The results, which are based on a nationwide survey of more than 2000 American citizens, showed support for a positive relationship between this online experience and public trust in government. In particular, experiences with informational online services and social media were associated with greater trust in government at the local and state levels, while those with transactional online services conveyed greater trust in the federal government. However, successful experience with the channels was more important than the experience itself, and an unsuccessful experience could even backfire in terms of trust in government.     

Assessing political participation on the Internet in contemporary China

Drawing on the resource model of political participation, this study examines the ways in which various resources, including money, computer and Internet access, Internet skills, and civic skills predict Chinese citizens’ political participation online. The results showed that income was a significant predictor of online political participation regardless of whether it was by using the Internet to contact governmental officials, monitoring public policies online, or participating in online protests. Civic skills also consistently predicted the three forms of online political participation. Computer and Internet access, as well as Internet skills, were significant predictors of some forms of online political participation, but not all of them. Political interest positively moderated the association between income and each of the three dependent variables. The theoretical and empirical implications of these results are discussed.     

Connecting Parliament to the Public via the Internet

A number of scholars have argued that the Internet could strengthen representative democracy. This article presents two case studies of online consultations run on behalf of the UK Parliament and tests a series of hypotheses about online public deliberation. One consultation involved women survivors of domestic violence; the other was linked to the examination by a Parliamentary Committee of the draft Communications Bill. The article concludes by suggesting that the success of online parliamentary consultations is dependent upon two groups of actors, parliamentarians and citizens, each of which must acquire new types of communication skills and develop new practices of operating.     

The contemporary US digital divide: from initial access to technology maintenance

As US Internet penetration rates have climbed, digital divide researchers have largely shifted attention to differences in Internet skills. Interviews with 72 low-income US residents from both a large metropolitan city and a medium-sized Midwestern town, however, reveal that many people still struggle to maintain physical access, supporting technology maintenance theory. Technology maintenance theory argues that although most of the US poor now use digital technology, access is unstable and characterized by frequent periods of disconnection. As a result, low-income users must work to maintain access, often experiencing cycles of dependable instability. In these interviews, nearly all used the Internet, but technology maintenance practices were widespread, including negotiation of temporarily disconnected service, broken hardware, and logistic limitations on public access. As a result, participants had limited access to health information and employment, and biased attitudes toward technology. That is, in some cases, negative attitudes toward Internet adoption reflected a rational response to disconnection rather than cultural norms or fears of the Internet, as suggested by previous research. Findings support and extend the theory of technology maintenance by emphasizing a shift in the US digital divide from issues of ownership to issues of sustainability; they also provide insight into the interrelated nature of access and attitudes toward technology. This new theoretical approach complements other theoretical approaches to the digital divide that foreground a contextualized understanding of digital disparities as embedded within a history of broad social disparities.     

Irresponsible Engagement and the Citizen Investor

The study investigates how shareholders are constructed and engaged with through public relations in the Australian financial sector. The web sites and annual and sustainability reports of major Australian companies and investment funds were examined through qualitative content analysis. Findings indicate that a hierarchical distinction exists within the discrete but amorphous stakeholder group known as shareholders, where privilege and disadvantage exist alongside disparate levels of power and agency. This is perpetuated by and through irresponsible public relations, which constructs a discourse of ownership that excludes citizens as legitimate stakeholders limiting their capacity to influence more ethical corporate decisions and practices. Recommendations are offered for how public relations might engage shareholders more responsibly.     

Bringing Technology to School: An Online Resource Guide for the School Social Worker

SUMMARY

The Internet can assist social workers and other human service professionals to obtain information that may potentially benefit both themselves and their clients. There is little doubt among those who are familiar with the Internet that this electronic medium has revolutionized the way we communicate and access knowledge. This article provides school social workers and other human service professionals with links to resources that can be incorporated into practice by offering specific Web pages related to school social work practice.     

It’s not cricket: examining political discussion in nonpolitical online space

Scholars of digital democracy share enthusiasm about the potential the Internet provides for democratic communication among citizens. Many applaud the prospect of an expanded, digital, public sphere; others are more cautious about whether the Internet may foster deliberative democracy. We attempt to provide a third alternative view by (1) focusing on everyday political talk in nonpolitical online forums and (2) expanding research beyond a singular deliberative model to attend to multiple frameworks for democratic discussion online. In this paper, we examine online political discussion of six globally prominent political issues in two transnational cricket forums. Our findings suggest that deliberative discussion coexists with liberal individualist and communitarian forms of communication in online sports forums. We discuss the implications of our findings for the future of mediated political discussion research.     

IS THERE SUCH A THING AS AN ONLINE HEALTH LIFESTYLE?

The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of the Internet for health-related purposes and whether this usage is part of larger pattern of health-promoting behaviors, or health lifestyle. Pierre Bourdieu's concept of habitus provides the key theoretical concept that links health lifestyle and the digital inequality framework to explain how social conditions (i.e. social status and quality of Internet access) influence attitudes and behaviors. Path analysis is used to examine the relationship between key endogenous variables on attitudes, health behavior, health status, and online health-related activities, while controlling for demographics and other factors. Data comes from the National Cancer Institute's 2007 Health Information National Trends Survey. The results demonstrate that online health behaviors can be usefully conceptualized as elements of health lifestyle. The combination of health lifestyle and digital inequality provides a broader theoretical framework that highlights the importance of social conditions to influence people's Internet habitus and routine health-promoting behaviors. The combination of health lifestyle and digital inequality provides a useful theoretical framework for future research investigating persistent social disparities in health and the potential for the growing reliance on information and communication technologies to contribute to socially patterned health outcomes.     

Are partnership boards really valuing people?

Observations were conducted in three county councils to find out whether the government’s ambition to develop Learning Disability Partnership Boards (as expressed in the White Paper Valuing people) are being realized. All the partnerships practiced various inclusive activities in order to involve people with learning disabilities in public service strategies. However, there appeared to be limited opportunities for citizens to be involved in recommendations or decision‐making for their area. This concurs with other research elsewhere on the involvement of citizens in state provision, i.e. public participation in civic affairs remains in the control of public sector managers. The lack of opportunities for citizens to direct the allocation of resources and strategies at a local level, regardless of their ability to process information, emphasises the limits of New Labour’s citizen–public sector partnerships.     

The rise of regulation of the public sector in the United Kingdom

Governments not only regulate business and society but also themselves in the form of regulation of publicly owned and/or funded bodies. Regulation of the public sector involves regulators operating at arms-length from those they regulate using systems of standard setting, monitoring and enforcement. In the past three decades in the UK, regulation has become increasingly important both in terms of absolute resources devoted to the activity and relative to other forms of control (particularly self-control by public sector professionals and control within large integrated bureaucratic structures). These trends have, in part, been fuelled by executive politicians' attempts to control public services and demands from citizens and users for better quality and efficiency. In the past decade, more explicit and extensive review of regulation of the public sector has been undertaken. Whilst not as developed as private sector Regulatory Impact Analyses these reviews have promoted the use of techniques including regulatory enforcement pyramids and risk based regulatory approaches. — Special issue: New patterns of institutions.     

Do the rich get digitally richer? Quantity and quality of support for digital engagement

This paper asks what predicts having access to and using social support networks that might help an individual in using the Internet. Following the course taken by the digital divide or digital inclusion research, this paper uses socio-cultural, socio-economic, social, and digital indicators to predict access to and the type of potential and actual social support networks that might help an individual in using the Internet. In addition, the paper examines the quality of the support received which is neglected in most investigations that mainly focus on quantitative indicators of support. The study draws on a representative survey conducted in the Netherlands; 1149 responses were obtained. The results show that while there are no real inequalities in access to and use of support, the quality of the support that people access is unequally distributed replicating existing patterns of disadvantage. Thus, access to support is another level at which the digital divide manifests and strengthens itself. Those who experience most problems online also seem to have the most difficulty obtaining high-quality support even when it is available, creating an even larger ‘gap’ between those who do and do not need support.     

Inequality in digital skills and the adoption of online safety behaviors

ABSTRACT

Cyber-safety behaviors are important in preventing the loss of an individual's digital assets and ensuring the safety of important daily online activities. Individuals’ cyber-safety is also critical for national cybersecurity. The issue is highly relevant for Israel, a country that relies on the digital capabilities of its workers for its major technology industries and is also often a target of cyberwarfare and cybercrime attacks. The purpose of this study is to identify the determinants of cyber-safety behavior. We investigate the role of age, gender and education in the use of safety-related digital skills and antivirus software. Using a 2014 survey of a national sample of Internet users in Israel (N?=?1850), we found that age, gender, education and quality of access are associated with the level of users’ digital security skills. In addition, these skills and the frequency of conducting financial activities online are the main determinants of antivirus behaviors. Our results expand the understanding of cyber-safety by showing that social and digital disparities are reproduced in the use of measures to prevent online threats, putting the digitally disadvantaged at greater risk of becoming victims of online threats.     

Stakeholder identities in Britain's neoliberal ethical community: Polish narratives of earned citizenship in the context of the UK's EU referendum

This article examines the narrative strategies through which Polish migrants in the UK challenge the formal rights of political membership and attempt to redefine the boundaries of ‘citizenship’ along notions of deservedness. The analysed qualitative data originate from an online survey conducted in the months before the 2016 EU referendum, and the narratives emerge from the open‐text answers to two survey questions concerning attitudes towards the referendum and the exclusion of resident EU nationals from the electoral process. The analysis identifies and describes three narrative strategies in reaction to the public discourses surrounding the EU referendum – namely discursive complicity, intergroup hostility and defensive assertiveness – which attempt to redefine the conditions of membership in Britain's ‘ethical community’ in respect to welfare practices. Examining these processes simultaneously ‘from below’ and ‘from outside’ the national political community, the paper argues, can reveal more of the transformation taking place in conceptions of citizenship at the sociological level, and the article aims to identify the contours of a ‘neoliberal communitarian citizenship’ as internalized by mobile EU citizens.     

Politicians,celebrities and social media: a case of informalisation?

With electoral politics no longer organised by social class, politicians increasingly seek to relate to a broad spectrum of citizens and part of their relatability is conjured through more casual, informal performances aimed at cultivating authenticity. The various platforms of social media promote forms of authentic communication by blurring the public/private divide, creating ‘spontaneous’ and instant access to ‘real life’. This article seeks to investigate the informalisation thesis by applying it to data from young people aged 16–21 years in Australia, the UK and the USA, asked about the way politicians and celebrities use social media. Findings reveal respondents’ desire for more authentic and accessible politicians, but this was in direct tension with traditional views and expectations of politicians needing to be professional, informed and worthy of respect. Informalisation amongst politicians is evident and welcomed by young citizens but persistent traditional views means it also threatens their credibility.