About this Website
I chose a global issue now on the list of the UN goals for 2030: the ‘Digital Divide.’
With the growing use and rapid development of technology in the 21st century, the divide between those who have access to the internet and those who don’t, is rapidly increasing. Access by all to technology infrastructure is important for access to education, business, employment opportunities and cross-cultural global communication. When there is limited access, there are significant negative impacts on individuals and society.
In Australia, both location and socio-economic status can vary people’s access. In major cities, 88% of households have access to the internet, but only 79% have access in remote or regional areas. Furthermore, only 44% of lower income households in Australia have a tablet, in comparison to 76% of the highest income households. Other communities with limited access are Aboriginal and elderly communities due to their upbringing or way of life.
In developing nations, the digital divide is significantly greater. In Sub-Saharan Africa, only 50% of the population have access to the internet, which is substantially lower than in Australia. Remote poor areas do not have the infrastructure to access the internet, this means that developing nations are not digitally interconnected with economies of the world. This is now flagged by the UN (United Nations) as the ‘black hole of information capitalism.’
Closing the gap on the digital divide internationally, is extremely important. The cost of computers and access technologies is one of the main contributors to the deepening of the digital divide. However, greater funding and donations from first world countries should provide better facilities and faster internet for people to use. The generous Gates Foundation, established by Melinda and Bill Gates has recently announced a plan to fund $328 million dollars’ worth of internet and computer services to countries such as Botswanna, Latvia and Lithuania; as well as education in technology skills and programs to other countries to help close the digital divide around the world.
Bibliography – References
1. World Bank
2. Internet World Stats
3. The Conversation
Techniques used in this website
On the front of my webpage, I have placed an image of people surrounding a globe with an internet connection symbol in the middle; to communicate the fact, that people around the globe must have improved access to technology almost as a basic need.
I also used a drop- down menu of tabs, to allow the responder to explore different aspects; such as statistics by country in a non-chronological or structured way.
Furthermore, I have combined images of different types of technology with the use of written text to engage the responder with the content and increase interest and engagement.
I specifically added colourful images for impact.
Representing a social issue via a website gives the responders the freedom to explore issues in their own way, removing the traditional narrative text and allowing the user to determine how they access, interpret and view a text.
Within the context of increasing use of technology, presenting highly functional and usable texts, in visual formats, increases the user awareness and engagement.
Relying on an ICT text with multimodal features, such as tabs, drop down menus, images text, video and moving vector images, I was able to communicate the issue of the deepening of the Digital Divide across the globe.