I am honoured and happy to be elected as co-vice chair of the Digital Divide Working Group of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR). The Digital Divide Working group was established in 1998. The main goal of this working group is to stimulate new theoretical approaches and empirical findings resulted from the research of digital inequality as a multi-dimensional phenomenon influencing various aspects of social life in different countries
The Digital Divide Working Group aims at providing a forum for scholars researching various aspects of digital inequality across the world.
Those aspects include but are not limited to:
- technological means of access to the ICTs;
- possession of the necessary skills and competences for using technical affordances;
- pros and contras of public policies aimed at overcoming digital gap in different countries;
- co-relation of such factors as age, gender, ethnicity, income, education, location and technical skills to use ICTs;
- co-relation of media literacy and social inclusion in the modern society;
- digital and analogue generations: different ways of media consumption and media production;
- digital transformations and the creation of new audiences;
- ways and instruments for overcoming digital divide
Currently we have 90 members (May 2018), according to IAMCR members’ data https://iamcr.org/s-wg/wg-digital
Scholars from 30 countries have joined DDWG so far, including Europe (Austria, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Russia, U.K., etc.), South Africa, Japan, Canada, U.S., India, Brazil, Colombia, Australia and other countries. The majority of DDWG members come from Europe, India, South Africa, and U.S.
I am more than happy and honoroued to work with Professor Elena Vartanova (First chair), Dr. Olga Smirnova (Current chair), Dr. Anna Gladkova (Current co-vice chair) from the Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia.
Massimo Ragnedda 