Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.5673/sip.50.3.1
Digital Divide and the Information and Communication Society in Spain
José Manuel Robles
; Complutense University of Madrid, Spain
Cristóbal Torres - Albero
; Autónoma University of Madrid, Spain
Abstract
Internet use is unevenly distributed among the population of most
developed countries. The literature on the subject offers an abundance of evidence
regarding the variety of factors that affect this type of inequality referred to as the
Digital Divide. Taking Spain as a case study, our empirical goal in this paper is to
put forward a model of analysis to improve our ability to predict the effect of a
heterogeneous set of variables on the Digital Divide. This model uses as independent
variables the Nationality (Immigrants and Spanish Citizens), gender, age, education
level, employment status, size of habitat and regions. Our findings show that the level
of education variable has the greatest weight in explaining the Digital Divide in Spain.
On this basis, we address our second – theoretical - goal in this paper, namely, to
discuss the inequalities brought about by the Digital Divide. To do so, we introduce
the concept of third Digital Divide.
Keywords
Information and communication society; Digital Divide; social inequalities; Internet; social participation
Hrčak ID:
96095
URI
Publication date:
8.1.2013.
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