As I conclude my blogging journey, it has become gradually more apparent that blogging about development often does not remain a merely virtual process, but instead inspires real-life connections with deep, lasting impacts (Denskus & Papan, 2013). This final blog post will tie together the topics I have explored in my four previous posts, which will be referenced throughout this text. I will expand on these topics and will discuss the role of new media and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in bridging the digital divide. I will also discuss how women and girls are still underrepresented when it comes to accessing technology, and the prevalence of the relationship between the Global North and the Global South in relation to foreign policymaking. Moreover, the focus of this final blog post will be to explore how alternative narratives, tools, and discourses are expanding globally and are borne from the pervasive Internet culture in an era of platform capitalism.
The digital divide – which I will shortly discuss in greater detail – has an implication on healthcare, education needs, social structures, legal frameworks, and economic strategies – I explored this topic in a blog post titled “mHealth and the Gender Digital Divide”. As countries transition to become more dependent on the use of digital technology and the Internet, women and girls specifically remain at risk of missing out on opportunities to participate in digital economies (Graham, 2019). If the gender digital divide is not adequately addressed, technologies that continue to evolve could widen this gap. This is something that was also deliberated during a webinar I attended and blogged about, titled “The Past, Present, and Future of Canada’s Feminist Foreign Policy”. By the same token, nations as a whole on the wrong side of the digital divide may be further excluded from economies that are classified as knowledge-based.
Conversely, technology is also helping those in the Global South get around the mechanisms of censorship, and amplifying voices and presence at the regional and inter/national levels, while also encouraging individuals to forge new alliances (Skalli, 2006). I explored the topic of digital censorship in my first blog post, where I studied how Uganda’s digital economy is being threatened by government censorship. It is important to note that digital technologies can be leveraged as practical and tangible tools for individuals in the Global South to overcome longstanding inequalities. This was another topic I tackled in one of my blog posts that focused on the barriers to ICT accessibility in the Global South. ICTs can also enable meaningful participation and make individual voices heard, as proven by the role of digital networks in various social movements and campaigns that started via social media, such as the #MeToo movement.
I will spend the rest of this blog post expanding on the above-noted topics, in an effort to tie these issues in with the broader theme of new media, activism, and technology.
THE DIGITAL DIVIDE
Digital technologies have significantly driven transformative changes in the global economy, and the virtual world offers radical new settings for communications, as well as empowerment through digital activism. Moreover, ICTs and the Internet offer new and unprecedented opportunities for human development and empowerment in areas ranging from education and the environment to healthcare and business. The digital divide, however, defines the inequalities that exist on a global scale and describes the disparities between the north and the south in relation to access to technology (Graham, 2019). The digital divide refers to the differences in access to technology, whereby the difference between them is known as the gap. Digital technologies, and various modes of mobile communications, have long driven transformative changes across the global economy. However, most available evidence on digital economies remains focused on wealthy nations, with relatively little being known about the implications for those at the global margins (Unwin, 2017). While little is known about the implications, Internet usage is continuing to expand at a rapid pace across the globe, with developing nations now having the opportunity to keep up with the various advancements and changes (Graham, 2019).
It is not surprising that there remains a gap in education, healthcare, employment opportunities, skills, and careers associated with technology. There are several reasons for such a gap; for instance, in many developing nations, technology is not effectively integrated into the educational curriculum to raise awareness and develop basic digital literacy skills (Unwin, 2017). Furthermore, poverty, illiteracy, lack of equipment, and language barriers are the chief factors hindering access to the ICT infrastructure. This was a topic I tackled in one of my blog posts that focused on the barriers to ICT accessibility, with special attention paid to language barriers in particular. As discussed in this post, countries in the Global South with a high proportion of “bottom-of-the-pyramid” citizens are often left out from many services that are otherwise widely available in the Global North for two key reasons I previously mentioned: native languages not being supported and/or technological limitations.
Another phenomenon is that in some developing countries where individuals have Internet access, they still often do not use it or do not know how to use it (Best & Kenny, 2009). In other developing nations, individuals live in poverty and do not have Internet access at all. As such, the impact of how new technologies have contributed to poverty reduction has not yet been adequately measured (Anwar & Graham, 2020). There is reason to believe that poverty reduction cannot be solely attributed to technological advancements. There is also reason to be skeptical about the role of technology, especially the Internet and mobile communications when it comes to poverty reduction. In one of my blog posts, I discussed the topic of barriers to ICT accessibility and how businesses have developed and implemented technological solutions in the Global South, where access to technology has traditionally been limited. Some studies suggest that technology tends to be biased towards productivity; however, it cannot be denied that the Internet creates opportunities for businesses and individuals to engage in globalization (Anwar & Graham, 2020).
The growth in Internet use shows a trend that characterizes the difference between low and middle-income countries (Graham, 2019). Most parts of the world are characterized by low Internet penetration with a high growth rate. The Internet offers a pathway to lift individuals and communities out of poverty, but it is easy to see how the South has fallen behind in technology compared to the North (Anwar & Graham, 2020). This is a topic I discussed in my first blog post, where I studied how Uganda’s digital economy is being threatened by government censorship and how nations in the South often face challenges that would seem outrageous and completely foreign to those in the North. As a result, the global digital divide is sometimes referred to as the “north-south divide”, which refers to the wealthier nations in the north, as compared to the poorer nations in the south.
TECHNOLOGY & GENDER INEQUALITY
As previously discussed, the digital divide is a major obstacle to achieving equality, specifically as it relates to gender. The gender digital divide is mainly characterized by three components. One of these components is the ease of access to digital technologies and the Internet (Mutsvairo, Bebawi, & Borges-Rey, 2020). The next component is the development of skills that are necessary to make effective use of digital technologies and to ensure that women can participate equally. The final component is characterized by women’s empowerment to participate in leadership and decision-making roles related to emerging digital technologies (Unwin, 2017). As I came to learn in the previously-mentioned webinar I attended, access to technology is a key foundation for achieving digital inclusion. I discussed this in greater detail in my blog post titled “The Past, Present, and Future of Canada’s Feminist Foreign Policy”. I came to learn that, in several countries, there are structural inequalities that increase the barriers of access to digital technology, and women and girls are less likely to have such access (Mutsvairo, Bebawi, & Borges-Rey, 2020).
Digital technology and mobile communications are not the only way through which women and girls engage with one another and within their communities (Mutsvairo, Bebawi, & Borges-Rey, 2020). However, it is not just women’s access to technology and/or digital skills that matter. The circumstances in which women are able to make use of ICTs are equally, if not more, important. The participation of women in this context is unequal and limited. With this degree of access, women groups – particularly in the countries of the Global South – are most likely to be counted among ICT ‘have nots’. There remains a significant gender disparity in access to digital technology and the Internet since women are less likely to make use of emerging digital technologies, as I discussed in my blog post titled “mHealth and the Gender Digital Divide”.
Even though there is a lack of accurate and reliable data, especially on a global scale, to provide support to the discourses concerning gender and technology, it is essential to understand and recognize the relevance of gender equality as it pertains to the use of the Internet (Miller et al., 2016). There exist several assertions that technology, mainly the Internet, is characterized by the potential to achieve the goals of sustainable development. Enhanced use of the Internet is necessary to promote gender equality, and ICTs have the potential to completely redefine traditional gender roles, especially for women who have limited skills or who lack the resources to invest in higher education (Kelkar and Nathan, 2002).
As Natasha Primo (2003) asserts, women’s access to ICTs is often hindered by factors that go beyond issues of technological infrastructure and socio-economic circumstances. With the Internet underpinning sustainable development goals, it is necessary to understand how widely such beliefs are held. Similarly, it is vital to understand the positive effects of leveraging evolving technologies, such as the Internet, to promote gender equality (Panayotakis, 2020). This is a topic that was discussed during the webinar I attended and previously discussed, “Canada’s Feminist Foreign Policy: Past, Present, and Future”. Ending gender discrimination is not only a human rights issue, and it is essential to harness the available human resources that can be channeled towards sustainable economic growth.
Mutsvairo, Bebawi, and Borges-Rey (2020) argue that gender is analyzed through the intersection between the material world and the social. Some digital optimists believe that the Internet provides a foundation that makes it possible to create new gender identities. Based on this perception, the Internet facilitates the expression of a woman as an agency (Mutsvairo, Bebawi, & Borges-Rey, 2020). Some other challenges in attaining gender equity are associated with issues such as income distribution, levels of education, as well as expenditure, which assist in the identification of the fundamental factors of the gender gap (Miller et al., 2016). The south is characterized by a higher gender disparity, especially in Internet use. Such differences are less prevalent in the north, which is characterized by higher levels of income. Consequently, gender inequality is unsurprisingly more widespread in the least developed nations (Unwin, 2017).
CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS: MY BLOGGING JOURNEY
New media and technology offer endless opportunities to close the digital divide, as well as to empower those around the world that have seemingly been forgotten as ICTs continue to evolve. There are countless social and economic implications that unfold when we explore the relationship between the developed north and the developing south, which is a matter of concern for policymakers (Graham, 2019). Looking towards the future, governments should develop rigorous policy instruments that are meant to eliminate barriers to access when it comes to digital tools and technologies. To achieve gender equality and minimize the digital divide as a whole, policymakers ought to focus on accessibility, affordability, safety, and security of such technologies, to build a more inclusive future.
When I look back on my blogging journey as a reflective exercise, one thing that surprised me is just how easy it is to connect with other individuals in the world of development studies. While I do consider myself to be a tech-savvy individual, I have never attempted to use any form of social media to start a discussion about topics under the development umbrella, such as the prevailing gender digital divide I discussed through my blog posts, for example. I also never paid much attention to the concept of digital activism before embarking on this blogging exercise, but I have experienced a paradigm shift in just two short months, and I can now better appreciate the challenges and determination of digital activists. As argued by Tobias Denskus and Andrea S. Papan (2013), “active engagement with social media has become an important feature for communication and feedback on development issues and practices”. This is something I found to be very relatable when I was attempting to expand the blog’s audience and readership, and I found the best way to engage with others was through social media.
Another reflection following my blogging journey is that it was quite difficult to remain confined to my one chosen theme – New Media, Activism, and Development – and I found myself constantly blurring the lines between all three themes, with the underlying topics of ICT4D, Aid Work, and Communicating Development, and well as Social Media, Datafication, and Development also making their way into my blog posts. In reading Tobias Denskus’ post on blogging as a strategy to communicate development differently (Aidnography, 2019), I was able to better understand and observe the direct impact of selecting thought-provoking digital literature and altering my writing for different audiences. Though I sought to stay focused on my chosen theme, by inadvertently exploring the other two themes, I was also able to better understand how these issues are intertwined and how ICT and new media can positively contribute to social change and development in a digital world.
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REFERENCES
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