Widening information gaps
and policies of prevention - 1

Advice to the Information Society Forum of the European Commission - July 1997

By Dr. Jan A.G.M. van Dijk
Utrecht University

1. From knowledge gap to usage gap
One of the most hotly debated issues of the information society is the divide of the so-called information have's and information have not's. What is most striking in this discussion is the simplification of the subject which actually is very complicated. It is a matter of information inequality which can be defined as the inequality in the possession of and the usage of sources of information and communication in a particular society. In this contribution it appears that information inequality is a subject matter with many aspects and that some of them may grow while others decline in importance. Anyway, a dichotomy of homogeneous groups of information rich and poor, with a yawning ever widening gap in between, is shown to be a false image of a two-tiered society. It is far too simple as contemporary society actually is characterised by a very complex differentiation. This also goes for the distribution of resources and uses of information and communication. It will be claimed that the potential divide between information rich and poor would have to be seen as the stretching of a continually differentiating spectrum of positions taken by people anyway.

The notion of increasing differences between information rich and poor is very old actually. With every arrival of a new medium in history this notion has appeared. In contemporary society it was reinvented by Tichenor et al. in their thesis of the so-called knowledge gap: "as the infusion of mass media information into a social system increases, segments of the population with higher socio-economic status tend to acquire this information at a faster rate than the lower status segments, so that the gap in knowledge between these segments tends to increase rather than decrease (Tichenor, Donohue and Olien, 1970, p. 159). Two notes should be added to this thesis. First, it is about increasing differences, not about the first appearance of them. Second, the gap widens as (mass media) information is distributed in society, not because access is denied to some people. The thesis of the knowledge gap was not supported by sufficient empirical evidence in a large number of research projects conducted during the seventies. Some data supported it, others did not. See the summary of Gaziano (1983). In the eighties comparable theses were made following the advent of computers and the perspective of the information society. Now the supposed differences were called an information gap. While the thesis of knowledge gap was only about information supplied by the mass media and about differences in cognition and information processing, the information gap theses were much broader. They dealed first of all with conditions of access, that is to say the differences in social and economic position and the usage opportunities of different kinds of information technology users. Particularly they were about the possession of computers and the skill to master them. These characteristics were seen as conditions of participation in the information society and the ability to use the information gathered and processed with ICT. The usage itself was barely investigated. In the nineties it becomes clear that usage patterns actually are of prime importance. In this chapter it will be argued that inequality of access to ICT appears in at least four successive stages presenting themselves as barriers to people who want to participate in the information society, which means that they want information and communication by means of ICT and cannot be called 'information want not's'.

The common-sense concept access to technology actually is a multifaceted concept. Access to ICT not only means possession of the necessary computers, software and connections, but also basic skills of using them and actual usage of these resources. It will be claimed that precisely the last-called aspect is the most important one and ultimately the biggest barrier of participation in the information society. It means that if information gaps can be shown to exist among people, the growth of a usage gap will have the most lasting effect. Although one can imagine that the large majority of the Western populations will possess a computer and a network connection within a few decades, and is able to serve them, it is still to be expected that people will do increasingly different things with these new media.

First of all, we have to give sufficient evidence, not only of the existence, but also of the increase of information gaps between different kinds of people. We can look at their age, education, income, sex, ethnicity and country or region of origin. The reason is that knowledge gaps, information gaps and usage gaps have always existed among people, at least since the invention of writing and perhaps even since the first primitive division of labour. And they are very likely to remain in advanced societies. What would be striking is the growth of these gaps using particular media in a given society, in this case the media of ICT in contemporary Western society. Moreover, it has to be made acceptable that the growth of these differences is no temporary phenomenon, as we have witnessed at the advent of the radio, the TV , the telephone and the video-recorder. After a slow and sometimes very long start (the telephone) these media were adopted by the majority of the Western populations and used in a relatively equal way.

We will supply all the evidence we can get to describe the present situation of information (in)equality in the perspective of the potential user of ICT. Successive barriers of entry and use will be analysed empirically. Then the data will be explained presenting a number of backgrounds of current information inequality. In section four the situation will be evaluated. What is wrong with increasing differences in the usage of ICT in a pluriform and differentiating society anyway? Finally, a contemporary policy with regard to information inequality will be suggested.

2. Four barriers of access to the information society
1) Lack of basic skills and 'computer fear'
The first barrier looming up for a user willing to use electrical devices in general and computers in particular is a matter of routines and psychology. For a large number of people, first of all the old and illiterate ones, the command of these devices is found to be difficult. First attempts might have produced negative experiences. One should not underestimate the number of these people. In 1996 a general survey was made for the so-called digital skills of the Dutch population (Doets & Huisman, 1997). The Netherlands belongs to the North-Western European countries which are in de vanguard of using ICT. Still the results must be shocking to people daily talking about the splendid opportunities of the Internet, multimedia and the information super highway. Among the Dutch population between 18 and 70 years old a large proportion does not master, or very poorly masters the following actions on the electronic equipment they possess or have access to:

• playing a CD (33%),
• using Teletext -on TV- (23%),
• play(back) a video-recorder (52%),
• programme a video-recorder (62%),
• pay with a PIN-card (23%),
• buy a train ticket from a vending-machine (61%).

Large differences of mastering these actions and applications appear between the young and the old and between people with high and low education. However, almost every-one finds it difficult to programme a video-recorder and serve the just-called PC-applications. Most important is the fact that the majority of the people interviewed calls the lack of these skills a personal shortcoming: one finds them important, but is not able to practice them in a satisfactory way. Not being able to command a PC is experienced as a great personal shortcoming by 26% of the Dutch below 50 years of age and more than 40% of the people above 50. Sixty-two percent of the respondents agrees to the proposition that if you cannot use electronic equipment and cards you will eventually become marginalized in society. However, the survey finds a negative attitude to the 'digitalisation' of society among 28% of the whole dutch population, 66% of its low educated, 41% of its unemployed and 54% of its old people (64-70) (Doets & Huisman, id.26-28).

Neglecting the objective level of difficulty of these applications and the lack of present experience with them for a moment - they will be considered below- one has to admit that subjective and emotional factors are a prime cause of the lack of these basic 'digital' skills. The feelings of personal shortcomings (causing insecurity), the fear of being excluded and the negative attitude towards 'digitalisation' of people lacking these skills the most may lead to 'computer fear' or 'fear of switches': the actions and applications mentioned have the image of being difficult and one shrinks away from putting them into practice.

2) no access to computers and networks
Some people might suppose that the removal of this first barrier is just a matter of time. It concerns people with old age and low education in the first place. The ageing of the 'digital generation', the dying of the old generations, the penetration of computers in society, rising educational levels with much more computer courses would solve this problem all by themselves. This assumption would be partly incorrect. Moreover, it would be ethically unacceptable. The survey mentioned above reveals that a majority of the Dutch population below 50 experiences personal shortcomings serving a PC and 60% of people above 50. Still many elderly people want to learn to command a PC (29% of the aged 57-63 and 20% of the aged 64-70). With these kind of figures in mind it would be ethically unacceptable to give up the elderly for participation in the information society in which they have to live for so many years to come yet.

Now, suppose that the people experiencing personal shortcomings manage to get across the first threshold and are ready to use computers and networks like the Internet. Then they would meet the following barrier: not possessing a computer and a network connection or not having access to them at work or at school. The discussion about this barrier dominates the public opinion about the accessibility of the new media. From every investigation of the social composition of computer and network users it becomes evident that the differences are large and permanent among most social categories. So it seems justified to call them gaps. The vast majority of users is male, relatively young, well-trained, having a high or medium-sized income and is originating from an affluent Western country, most often even an advanced region of it (GVU-centre 1994-1997, Nielsen Media/ CommerceNet, 1995, Cyberatlas, 1996, Nielsen Media Research, 1996 and the Dutch survey described above). A large longitudinal survey among American households even showed that most of these gaps have widened between 1989 and 1993. It means that while access to computers and networks is rising in absolute figures among all social categories, the young, the well-trained, the relatively rich and the people from affluent Western countries and regions are increasing their advantage to the old, the less-educated, the relatively poor and the people from poor countries and regions (western and non-western) (Anderson, Bikson, Law and Mitchell, 1995). There is only one exception: the gap of possession and access to computers and networks between males and females is narrowing (Anderson et al. 1995, GVU-centre, 1994-1997).2 Three widening gaps and one narrowing gap are drawn by the author of this contribution from the results of these surveys (see Figures 1- 4).

Of course, many economists and media experts will immediately react, claiming that this development is a normal pattern of adoption of new media, also perceived at the introduction of the telephone, the radio, the television and the video-recorder. Considering computers and their networks we would presently be in the phase of the pioneers and the early adopters in the first curve upwards of the famous S-curve. Indeed, it is very well possible that such a curve will be the future pattern of adoption of computers and networks. But even in this case the question remains whether this curve will rise that fast and that high as we have seen during the adoption of the radio, the television and the video-recorder. It seems likely that the pattern will be more like the diffusion of the telephone - which took about seventy years to reach a more or less general diffusion and still is very unevenly distributed between, and within Northern and Southern countries of the world -, than it will be like the distribution pattern of radio and television. Most people are assuming much too easy that computers, the Internet etc. are plainly following the radio, television and other mass media of the twentieth century. In fact it is doubtful whether the limit of a 90%, 80% or even a 70% distribution will ever be reached within two or three decades by personal computers and computer networks. The author of this chapter has given a large number of reasons for this prediction (van Dijk, 1991/1994). The most important ones are:

• all expenditures taken together the new media are considerably more expensive than the old ones, despite the steeply declining prices of computer capacity, among other reasons because they are obsolete much faster and because continually new peripheral equipment and software are needed;
• with the development of multimedia the need of audio-visual hardware and software is increasing; however, they are the most costly in terms of equipment, bandwidth and intellectual property rights;
• old media do not disappear; new media are adopted besides the old ones in a pattern of accumulation; however, in the total household budget the part spend for media and communication reveals not much elasticity and extendibility, certainly not for the low incomes;
• the general diffusion of old media like the television and the telephone emerged in a period of strong economic growth, massification and levelling of incomes in the Western world; the new media are introduced in a period of a relative slackening of economic growth, individualisation, social and cultural differentiation, increasing income differences and the rise of so-called modern poverty in Western countries;
• the diffusion of these old media was supported by a policy of universal service and public service, mainly supported by the state; the spread of new media, including the construction of information super highways, is almost completely left to the market with the inevitable result that commercial motives are getting more important and universal and public service are getting under pressure. Nevertheless, it still cannot be ruled out that within 20 till 25 years a large majority of most Western and some Eastern-Asian populations will possess computers and networks in their homes or have access to them at work, at school or at public buildings. One should be very careful with these kind of predictions. Computers and their networks are becoming available in ever more simple and cheap versions: besides game and home computers we now get palmtop and network computers. The Internet becomes available on cable television networks in a primitive version. However, even when the elementary condition of simple access to the new media will be fulfilled within two or three decades, questions with regard to the accessibility for their users in practice remain. What can the users do with these media and how will they actually use them?

3) insufficient user-friendliness
Until recent times personal computers and, even more computer networks were notoriously unfriendly in their operations. With the advent of new graphical and audio-visual interfaces and operation systems the situation has improved. Still, it is all but rosy as one can gather from the data of lacking elementary skills supplied above which certainly are caused partly by the insufficient user-friendliness of hardware, software and operating instructions. Among the most popular electronic equipment this qualification is the most valid for video-recorders and personal computers. In Holland fourteen percent of the population would like to have a computer but has not purchased it because the operation is perceived to be too difficult; 23% of people possessing PC's does not use it at all for the same reason (Doets & Huisman, id. p. 37).

A broader interpretation of user-friendliness is the usage style offered. Some say that the usage style offered with the new media is not attractive to many women, low educated people and ethnic minorities (van Zoonen, 1992, van Dijk, 1991/1994). This style would not meet the needs and practice of seeking information of these categories. Not much has been proved yet on this score, but actually it would not be a surprise, according to a theory of technology as human effort, that the design of new media techniques leaves the traces of the social-cultural characteristics of its producers: predominantly male, well-educated, English speaking and being members of the ethnic majority in a particular country.

Though, insufficient user-friendliness and unattractiveness of the usage style offered might not even be the most important reasons for the lacking elementary skills described above. The user-friendliness and usage style of the new media can be improved and made more popular relatively easy, and this will certainly be done by the ICT-industry for evident commercial reasons. Even more important seems to be the lacking experience with PC-applications which in turn is caused by lacking and unequally distributed usage opportunities. It will be claimed that this fourth barrier is the most difficult to remove.

4) insufficient and unevenly distributed usage opportunities Word processing appears to be by far the most important usage opportunity of personal computers in practice. At a distance it is followed by other applications mentioned above who, with the exception of games, are used by less than 10 or 20 percent of the people having PC's. So the personal computer is some kind of advanced typing machine for the average user. It is well-known that this multifunctional device is in fact utilised far below its capacity. Other applications than word processing, computer games and, recently, reference and education using CD-ROM's are with minor exceptions only used by professionals for work and education. Household applications are still lagging behind. Many home-computers, purchased in subsidised private PC-projects or for the benefit of the children are left unused at the study or the garret. Published figures of the sales of hardware and software only show steep lines upwards. No attention is made to, for instance, the eleven percent of Americans who put their computer away between 1989 and 1993 because they did not use it all (Anderson et al.,1995) or the 21% of Americans who claimed to have access to the Internet in 1995 and not anymore in 1996 (CommerceNet/Nielsen Internet Demographics, 1996).

In the mean time the usage opportunities for professional applications at work or at school are increasing rapidly. Even to such an extent that many users get the impression of not being able to catch up anymore. Already a new version or update is available before the old one is mastered. However, this is a reality for about twenty or thirty percent of some Western populations. Those who have nothing to do with computers in education or occupation presumably are not going to use them at their own initiative. The only exception is made by parents of children attending school who are among the most important purchasers of home computers giving themselves the opportunity as well of learning to command a computer, often with the help of their children. The usage areas of American home computer owners are listed in Table 1.

A closer analysis of the data reveals that college graduates reported substantially more uses of their home computer for business or work (Nielsen Media Research, 1996). Among people with less than college and among young people entertainment/ games and school are the most important uses. This is what is meant here by a usage gap. The important thing is that it is likely to grow, instead of decline, with a larger distribution of computers among the population. If this is true, the difference between advanced and simple uses would increase. It is a prediction which has to be tested in research producing time series for a large number of years in computer use. Unfortunately, the data at this moment are still scarce.

Lets draw a first partial conclusion. It might happen that the first three barriers described will be removed after some time for the majority of the, first of all Western populations, although the threat of exclusion remains for a substantial minority. - These days there are still hundreds of thousands illiterates, the mentally handicapped excluded, in every Western country except for the smallest ones. It seems likely that the number of digital illiterates will be substantially higher for many years to come. - It is to be expected that basic skills will improve gradually and that 'computer fear' will wither away. Access to computers and networks might reach the large majority of Western populations in the medium term. The user-friendliness of hardware, software and operating manuals can be improved considerably. The usage style may become more attractive to broader segments of the population. All this does not rule out the potential increase of differences in usage, which is already becoming actual. How can this be explained? Why should a technology, so much suited for a spread of information in society and into the world, in practice lead to more private appropriation and greater inequality in the usage of it?

3. Backgrounds of increasing information inequality
This contradiction is perceivable in a large number of problems of the information society which appear to be difficult to solve. Take the protection of the right of intellectual and material property in the context of ICT (authors rights, copyright, safety of payments) and the right of privacy. The difficulty of these protections in digital environments is both an expression of the societalization of information and the desire to keep it into ones own hands. The tendency of societalization is technologically supported by the ease of registration and copying by digital media. However, in current (Western) societies there are a number of strong counter-tendencies supporting the opposite way, that is private appropriation.

The first tendency is a social-cultural one. It is a combination of processes of social-cultural differentiation and individualisation in (post)modern society. ICT supports these processes because its most important medium, the computer, pre-eminently is a device to be served by individuals, although it is also able to connect individuals in groups and communities by networks. Social-cultural differentiation is supported as well by computers and networks because their uniform digital substructure helps to produce and spread all kinds of cultural artefacts in every quality and quantity desired. So, increasing information inequality might just be an aspect of general social-cultural differentiation in society.

Though there is more, if we look at a second tendency which is a part of current social-economic development. It is the rising material inequality and differences of incomes perceivable in all Western countries to some degree since the beginning of the eighties. This tendency causes increasing unequal divisions of material resources and in extreme cases even an exclusion or marginalisation of segments of the lower social classes living on welfare or minimum wages. The means of information and communication are a part of these resources. In this case increasing information inequality might be a consequence of rising costs of information and communication in general and the goods and services of ICT in particular, while the household budget is shrinking or remains the same.

The third tendency is a political one. It serves to tolerate rising material inequalities. It is the policy of privatisation and stimulation of the free market economy in most countries. It is leading to the commercialisation of formerly public information supply and communication facilities and the surge of private education. Inevitably it expands the opportunities of information inequality.

Finally, we have to mention the continually diverging areas of application of ICT. This technological tendency originates from the multifunctional capacities of computers. The most important property of these devices is that they are (re)programmable for extremely diverging activities. One can use computers for very advanced and difficult applications, but for familiar and simple affairs as well. Computers are used for complex economic and political decisions and for high-level education. They are also applied, sometimes even the same computers, for relatively simple actions like paying and receiving money, ordering products, typing letters and playing games. The multi-functionality of ICT is much more extended than the ones familiar from old media like the press, broadcasting and the telephone. The press and broadcasting only have information contents of a different kind and level. The telephone allows all kinds of interpersonal communication. The extended multi-functionality of ICT is a neutral property in its own right, but in particular circumstances it offers much more opportunities than less functional media and techniques to expand existing information inequalities.

Such a combination of circumstances is the key to an understanding of present information inequality. When the four tendencies described above come together and interweave they produce a force which easily induces greater information inequality and is very difficult to prevent when this would be desired.

4. An evaluation of present information inequality
What is wrong with increasing differences among people anyway? Some might perceive a tone of concern and threat in this text. It seems like it would be the prime purpose of the author to help anyone, without exception, to have access to a computer and use it to the maximum as soon as possible. Of course, the fact that large parts of the population experience personal shortcomings not having a computer or being able to command a computer or other electronic equipment, would be a sufficient reason for wanting to make up for these shortcomings. Still, this is not the prime motivation and concern expressed in this text. To say it bluntly, using a computer or another new medium does not necessarily makes one more happy. It is not even sure that it gives one a better position in society, certainly not when the entertainment applications prevail. The consideration here is primarily strategic. It is based on a support of the most important values of civil society since the French revolution (freedom, equality and solidarity) and a sober scientific analysis of structural information inequalities growing in network society (van Dijk, 1991/1994, Castells, 1996, Schiller, 1996). Network society is an expression for a society shaped by more or less diffuse social networks increasingly realised by media networks gradually replacing so-called mass society of dense gatherings of people with primarily face-to-face interactions (van Dijk, 1997). In network society the positions people take in media networks will be decisive for their influence in taking decisions on all kinds of social affairs. To have access to this media, in all the senses described above, is absolutely vital for the participation in this society. However, it appears to be that the present use of ICT is much more to the benefit of the existing information elite, as it is to the rest of society. There is even a risk of social and communicative exclusion of groups already marginal in society. Once again this is no simple dichotomy, as in fact between these two sides of society, the elite and the marginal, the whole spectrum of positions, taken by the majority of the Western populations, is being stretched. This goes for positions on the labour market, in education and in social-cultural life. The same goes for the dichotomy observed by Castells (1996) in the usage of communication networks. On the one side he describes the development of a fairly homogeneous, globally operating elite using their networks and other media to appropriate, transmit and control capital and information without limits of time and place. At the other side all kinds of subordinate groups, much more tied to time and place, are filling these resources and media with labour, data and increasingly heterogeneous cultural expressions without having any hold on the market, technology and the world outside (Castells, id., p. 469 a.n.).

The assumption behind this analysis is certainly not that information inequality is a new phenomenon. As has been said, this type of inequality has existed ever since the invention of writing, at least. It is very likely to remain. The position is not even taken that information inequality is not allowed to grow anymore or that the information gaps described should be closed. In a certain way rising information inequality is a companion of a differentiating information society. The assumption is that the usage of ICT might contribute to the development of such deeply rooted structural inequalities that every political, social and cultural democracy is getting hollow and many citizen rights will be emptied of their substances. In fact we would get first-, second- and third-class citizens. The structural character rests with processes of inclusion and exclusion and in holding or not holding positions in society and its communication infrastructure.

5. The prevention of structural information inequality
It is possible to mitigate information inequality, but it is necessary to prevent structural inequality in the way just described. This is a matter of the right strategic choice of opportunities which determine whether people are included or excluded in the information society. For this purpose one can devise more general and more specific information policies. These policies are not only a matter for governments and public administrations, but for the organisations of civil society and socially responsible private corporations as well. First the general policies. The most important action to be taken is the realisation, in one way or another, of a minimum of provisions of information and communication for every citizen, if not every inhabitant of a particular country. The question is which information and facilities of communication everyone should have in an information society.

In the first place it is a matter of giving access to the following basic sources of information and communication elaborating policies of extension of universal service and modernisation of public service in an information society characterised by economic privatisation and technological convergence (Information Society Forum, Plenary Report Working Group 3, 1997):

1. Basic private and public communication connections, to be able to participate in society and social life generally. Until now this function, along with face-to-face communications, has been realised to a large degree by the telephone and printed mail. In the new media environment it has to be extended to electronic mail and audio-visual channels of broadcasting in a short or medium term.
2. Public information and communication, to be a citizen who is supposed to know the law and is able to participate in a democratic society. In the new media environment the means of public administration have to be extended to, not replaced by , electronic copies. As citizens have the duty to know the law and the right to inspection of official documents adopted by parliaments, councils etc., all documents containing laws and regulations or decisions of official bodies and sources of information used for these decisions -paid out of tax money! - will have to be supplied in electronic shape for free or very low prices - the price of real extra costs of electronic supply as a maximum- . Moreover, citizens will have to be given the opportunity to react to them along electronic channels (communication).
3. In public broadcasting it has to be safeguarded that all citizens keep access to a diversity of sources and feedback channels with regard to the trends towards narrowcasting and pay-TV.
4. Health communication and information, for evident vital reasons, for example emergency services)
5. Educational information and communication as a logical consequence of compulsory education.

Besides these resources basic skills of dealing with them are essential. The transformation of these resources in meaningful usage opportunities is an important capacity to acquire as well. Of course, one has to be able to command hardware and software for this capacity. Still, it is not the most important skill in this case. This is the capacity to search, select and process information from the fast growing supply of information and media. This capacity is perhaps the most unequally distributed one among Western populations. Yet, it is decisive for the potential to live and work in the information society. School subjects of information and communication in general or media education will only partly satisfy the need for this potential. Much more important than these fairly marginal subjects are the main school subjects of mathematics and language. They will have to be partly transformed in data processing and in the search, selection and processing of information respectively. In the language courses much more attention should be given to the language of images and to audio-visual contents.

More specific policies for the prevention of information inequality should confront the four barriers described in the most direct way. Let's mention the policies required briefly.

The basic skills in the command of electronic equipment, computers in particular, are acquired first of all in everyday uses and in education. Sometimes the extra stimulus of a computer drivers license is proposed for this purpose. However, it is questionable whether this instrument will help people across the first threshold. It reinforces the image of computers being difficult. It stresses the technical aspects of operating instructions. Admittedly, a computer drivers license is a nice analogy for the right of participation in transport circulation. Though, in practice a computer drivers license does not offer any right to participation in the interchanges of society, no right to a job, no right to further education for example. Moreover, it is not to be established which skills and programmes should be mastered. The hardware and software of computers are changing continually. Therefore, it seems better to integrate the learning of computer skills in education, first of all in the obligatory subjects, in adult education and in the mastery of equipment at home. In the last mentioned context people can also learn from each other: the young and better-trained may teach their older and lesser-trained household members in practice. A common use of the same equipment by house-mates might be helpful against the current inclination to use them alone. However, most important is the disappearance of the technical image of digital devices. This might happen when more user-friendly digital equipment is integrated in everyday activities.

The possession of and the access to computers and networks can be supported by the distribution of the four resources of public infrastructure called above. The extension of universal service and the modernisation of the offerings of public administration, broadcasting and other public information services in general will motivate all people in need of these services and improve their chances to purchase the hardware and software needed themselves. Ultimately, this has to happen in every household. The supply of provisions in public buildings is only a second-best solution, although it offers better opportunities to guide starting computer users.

For the remainder possession and access are a matter of general income policies. These are much more popular in Europe than in de US. Still both of them have some policy for welfare, poverty and minimum wages. However, the basic subsistence level deemed necessary in these policies is running behind all kinds of developments in modern society. The increasing part of average household expenditures for communication and media is not taken into account at all. It follows that some European countries with relatively high levels of social welfare feel urged to provide the people living on welfare and the unemployed with supplementary benefits of telephone connections, daily newspapers and even computers with Internet connections (an experiment in Amsterdam in 1997).

The user-friendliness of hardware, software and operating instructions can improve considerably yet. For commercial reasons the industry concerned will certainly do this. However, this does not mean that the users and their organisations (user groups, consumer organisations and trade unions) will be engaged in the design. This ideal - for many concerned- has barely been put into practice. It means, for instance, that users get the chance, in one way or another, to 'negotiate' about designs offered and to learn what fits to their daily practice (Leeuwis, 1996). Unfortunately, it is still common practice that suppliers reason too much from the capacities of their own technical and economic supply and too less from the needs and contexts of users. It follows that the usage styles offered remain unattractive to exactly those parts of the population already having the less usage of the new media.

Finally, the lack of meaningful usage opportunities might also disappear with increasing user-friendliness and the penetration of new media in households, schools and working places. When this happens, the chances of an unequal distribution of these opportunities grow accordingly. In its own right this cannot be prevented, and it does not have to be prevented. What matters most is the removal of stiffening structures systematically sticking particular parts of the population to some applications while other parts get the chance to choose every application. For example, this would happen when the lower social classes will only use the new media for cashing and paying electronic money, teleshopping or consuming multimedia entertainment at home and data entry or the plain execution of computer tasks at work. In the mean time the higher social classes would primarily use the new media for the interpretation and utilisation of data in advanced applications for taking decisions at work and for supplementary professional work and educational multimedia programmes at home. Such divisions are extremely difficult to prevent. They are deeply entrenching themselves in our societies. Therefore, they cannot be changed by specific information and communication policies alone. Much broader and generally supported policies would be needed. They would have to deal with lifelong learning, mobility on the job, schemes of job rotation and the fight against unemployment and for the emancipation of women and ethnic minorities, to mention only the most important ones. Challenging structural information inequality should be an integral part and effect of these general policies first of all.

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Nielsen Media Research, (1996), Home Technology Report, july 1996, New York: Nielsen Media Research Interactive Services; http://www.nielsenmedia.com/ news/hotech-summary.html

Occhini, G ,(1997), European Computer Driving Licence, Final Report, Contribution to the Information Society Forum, Brussels: European Commission/ISPO

Schiller, Herbert, (1996), Information Inequality. The deepening social crisis in America. New York, London: Routledge

Tichenor, P.J., G. Donohue & C. Olien, (1970), Mass media flow and differential growth in knowledge, Public Opinion Quarterly, 34 , pp. 159-170

Zoonen, Liesbet van, (1992) Sorry, left the book at home!

For more discussion of the prospects and limitations of the Information Society, click the following:

• Info-City Black Britain
• Digital Cities
• Black Bristolians
• Danger
• The One-dimensional Network Society of Manuel Castells