Geographies of New MediaKCB202 Week 3

Agenda

• Attendance• Relevance of Geography to the

future of new media• Readings & Activities• Wiki Time• Consultation time for topic

selection

The Relevance of Geography

• How is geography relevant to new media?

What is the relationship between new media and:

• Cultural • Physical• Political• Economic• Linguistic

From the readings…

• «Africa, more than any other continent, is vulnerable to a cultural tidal wave coming out of the North » (Brunet et al, 2002).

• Comparison of internet to other technologies – what might happen if internet technology develops along similar lines as mobile technology?

• What are some characteristics about the relationship between technology and training?

• Visit: http://irititja.com

Activity: What are the meanings and implications?

• Check out and play with: http://www.tatacommunications.com/map/gfp.html

• Strength of Connections:• http://www.telegeography.com/product-info/map_inter

net/images/internet_map_2010_lg.png• “North American”:

http://www.isp-planet.com/img/backbones/savvis_logo-full.jpg

• Australia: http://blogs.educationau.edu.au/ksmith/2008/12/17/australian-internet-access-how-good-is-it/

Concept: Digital Divide• First, the metaphor suggests a simple divide between two clearly divided

groups with a yawning gap between them. However, in contemporary modern society we may observe an increasingly complex social, economic and cultural differentiation. The expression of a stretching of the whole spectrum of positions across populations might be more appropriate. If any demarcation would be required a tripartite distribution might be a better distinction than a two-tiered society. On the one side we would find an ‘information elite’ and at the other the digitally illiterates or excluded, but in between the majority of the population in contemporary high-tech societies having access in one way or another and using digital technology to a certain extent (see van Dijk, 1999).

From: http://www.utwente.nl/gw/vandijk/research/digital_divide/Digital_Divide_overigen/a_framework_for_digital_divide.doc/

Concept: Digital Divide• The second wrong connotation of the term digital divide is that it is

unbridgeable. This does not seem to be the case at this early stage of diffusion of digital technology. There appears to be a scope for policymaking by governments, corporations and civil societies. That is policymaking with the intention to prevent inequalities becoming unbridgeable structural divides.

A third misunderstanding might be the impression that the divide is about absolute inequalities, that is between those included and those excluded. In reality most inequalities in the access to digital technology are more of a relative kind. This means that some are earlier than others, that some people possess more hardware, software and skills than others or that one group uses the technology more than another. It should be granted that this does not make these relative inequalities of a lesser importance, particularly not in an information or network society (van Dijk, 1999).

Concept: Digital Divide• A final wrong connotation is the suggestion that the divide is a static

condition. In fact the authors in this issue are stressing that all kinds of access are continually moving. In doing this some inequalities are growing while others diminish (van Dijk & Hacker, in press).

The Relevance of Geography

• One laptop per child: http://laptop.org/en/ • Finland – Broadband as Constitutional right

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10374831-2.html

• What can you find? Find a story & relate to geography

Visual Traceroute

• Visit: http://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/visual-tracert

• Check out: www.sohu.com or youkou.com piratebay.com and tata.com

• Where are these websites based?

Questions from Last Week:

• Check out your permissions…on the wiki – you now have organiser access

• Assignment 1: Do reference your posts Harvard Style

• Assignment 2: It is a group evaluation – assessing your wiki as a class

Wiki Time

• Check out your permissions…• Don’t forget this week is the first

week to make a post to the Wiki• Feedback week 5 – I suggest that

you generate a post to make use of it