As part of the Lecturer Series in Media and Communication Studies, organized by Manipal Institute of Communication (India), I have been invited to give a talk on the concept of Digital Capital.
This talk contributed both theoretically and empirically to the literature by (a) consolidating the concept of Digital Capital as a specific capital, and (b) empirically measuring it. It adopts a holistic variable (digital capital), conceived and measured as a specific capital and which is comprehensive of a number of aspects related to both digital competences and digital devices. In this lesson, I underlined how the level of digital capital that person possesses influences the quality of the Internet experience and In turn, and how it may be “converted” into other forms of capital and reinvested in the social sphere to enhance social position. Moreover, I stressed how the interaction between digital capital and the other forms of capitals (personal, economic, social, political and cultural) generates outcomes not only in terms of types and quality of online activities, but also in terms of benefits or tangible outcomes. Digital capital, therefore, is a mediating capital that plays a vital role in transforming previous offline capitals into digital activities and, in turn, in transforming these activities into other capitals.
I concluded outlining how Digital Capital is intertwined with the “traditional axes” of social inequalities and how the model to measure it can be used and applied in other contexts.
Massimo Ragnedda 