But the concept is also one that has been used in misleading ways. It has sometimes suggested that poor folks, people of color, many women, and others with less power in the culture are just too uneducated to desire a digital world.
Conversely, it has been implied that merely providing the technical means to "access" new media will magically solve complex issues of inequality.
In fact, things are far more complicated than that. The "divide" has multiple dimensions that require several different approaches.
The people doing most of the production of electronic information in and about the US and the wider world, represent only a relatively small portion of society.
People of color and women of all ethnicities, the poor, many rural folks, the disabled, and others who have often been marginalized by "mainstream" society in other ways, also remain severely under-represented in the fields of new media production.
Not surprisingly, they are also under-represented in the content produced and distributed by these important new means of communication.
Economic inequality, and lack of physical access to computers do play major roles in this problem. But there is also a sizeable number of people who should be described not as "have nots" but as "don't wants."
This includes many folks who feel the World Wide Web and other new media have little or nothing to offer them, people who see these new media as just repeating the same stereotying as found in the older media. These folks do not see their cultural values, histories or ways of representing themselves substantially present in these increasingly important new communication tools.
For these folks, the "divide" is very much "cultural," as well as economic, and can only be bridged when lots more folks have the ability not only to access but to contribute substantially to how their communities are represented in these powerful new mediums of communication.
Life is good at WSU.
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A unique richness of students, faculty, location, activities, and organizations creates a full, lively student life at the University. This section gives you the insider's view on student life and a sampling of the opportunities here.
"Glimpses." Students talk about life at WSU
These brief posts are written by WSU students to give you a personal look through their window on campus life.