Explain and analyze the phenomenon of the “digital divide” as discussed in your textbook.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The proliferation of news sources may, at first look, provide political scientists with a source of optimism that competition will cause these sources to become less biased and more accurate. However, nothing can be further from the truth. Today, we have seen a rise in partisan bias create a great digital divide between those on the left (liberals) and those on the right (conservatives), with each gravitating to its own source for news and information. The result is a great chasm of difference between the perceptions and understanding of liberals and conservatives. Even more worrisome is that so many sources of information exist that people must navigate through a “brave new world” of information in order to gain the knowledge necessary to make an unbiased political choice. Rather than narrowing division between these sides, Internet sources and social media sites have made the division exponentially worse. Since those with lower incomes, those whose primary language is Spanish, the disabled, and the elderly are less likely to use the Internet, another digital divide exists between the information “elite” and those who do not have the same level of Internet access.