Sheila L. Tefft

Bio: Sheila L. Tefft is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Democracy & Politics. The author has an hindex of 2, co-authored 2 publications receiving 936 citations.

Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty, and the Internet Worldwide

Abstract: Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty, and the Internet Worldwide. Pippa Norris. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. 303 pp. $60 hbk., $20 pbk. Forecasts that the Internet heralds a world of more democracy and less poverty seem as inflated as dot.com stocks. This rosy view has electronic voting, political chat rooms, and email access re-engaging apathetic publics in politics. Digital technologies redress economic disparities, and the benefits of the Internet percolate down to transform poor societies. Equally exaggerated is the gloom of naysayers. The Internet Age has done little to narrow the gap between rich and poor countries, the information haves and havenots, cyber-skeptics contend. Indeed, digital technologies could create new inequalities and reinforce the dominance of power elites. In her new book, Digital Divide, Pippa Norris, associate director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University, steps into this fusillade of cyber-hyperbole, lowers the decibel with a well-written and thoughtful examination of Internet use and access in 179 countries and dissects the claims and counter-claims. Her research and findings place her on middle ground, somewhere between current reality and optimism. The Internet era seems to be changing "politics as usual" in a number of countries, expanding and loosening information about governments and politics, allowing the entrance of new political players, and fostering international movements on the environment, women's rights, and other issues across borders. The disappointment is that digital technologies are activating the already politically active and passing up the disengaged and uninterested. A major challenge to digital democracy is the gulf between the United States, Scandinavia, and other early Internet adopters and the rest of the world. That gap is now so wide that at the turn of the century, more than three-quarters of the online community lived in the developed world. Internet use tracks the path of economic and technological development. But that situation could begin to change, Norris says. The Internet is in its technological adolescence. Costs of access are falling. And governments can make a difference if policymakers take the initiative. We have the historical patterns of other communication technologies to study. Norris examines theories of technological diffusion and points out that the American response to the Internet is more akin to the rapid spread of televisions and VCRs than the slower adoption of telephones and radios. American dominance could recede as Internet access grows worldwide. Contrary to what officials of the Bush Administration contend, Norris finds that the digital divide between rich and poor within the United States remains substantial. Europe mirrors that trend. In the long run, the Internet could become more accessible to the excluded: lower income families, minorities, and women. …

The Right to Tell: The Role of Mass Media in Economic Development

Abstract: The Right to Tell: The Role of Mass Media in Economic Development. World Bank Institute, ed. Herndon, VA: World Bank Publications, 2002.322 pp. $35 pbk. One only has to look at SARS and its devastation in China to see how secrecy can hurt a developing economy. Just weeks ago, Beijing's new generation of Communist leaders basked in improved international standing and an energized economy. Then the spreading epidemic shattered the official cover-up and the Chinese sense of well being. The government admitted hiding information, faced domestic and world criticism, and confronted economic damage. China's crisis is a cautionary tale that a shackled press and controlled information can carry an economic cost. It illustrates the main point of a recently released World Bank study arguing that a free press "is at the core of equitable development." "The media can expose corruption. They can keep a check on public policy by throwing a spotlight on government action," James D. Wolfensohn, the World Bank president, said in a forward to the study, The Right to Tell: The Role of Mass Media in Economic Development. "They let people voice diverse opinions on governance and reform, and help build public consensus to bring about change." The report, a collection of nineteen studies released in November 2002, seeks to go beyond the long-standing assertion that political transparency and a free press are human entitlements. The main premise is that openness also boosts economies and reduces poverty. How much the press helps this process depends on its independence, the quality of information, and people's access to the news media. Illuminating this intricate interaction is not an easy undertaking. The research is often conflicting. And in its rush to expose the peril of state media ownership the World Bank at times seems to overlook the dangers of private media conglomerates. Monopolies, government or private, limit voices worldwide. Bank research is rooted in the work of Amartya Sen, the Nobel Prize-winning architect of contemporary developmental economics. Sen is noted for his contention that famines do not occur in democracies and, indeed, that democracy and openness must go hand-in-hand with development. Joseph Stiglitz, a Columbia University economist and a Nobel Prize recipient, acknowledges this legacy. "Free speech and a free press not only make abuses of governmental powers less likely, they also enhance the likelihood that people's basic social needs will be met," Stiglitz writes. But Sen himself increasingly draws complaints for oversimplifying. In a recent article in the New York Times, critics said the economist overplays the impact of democracy and ignores widespread hunger and malnutrition in democratic countries such as India. …

Understanding Smart Cities: An Integrative Framework

Abstract: Making a city "smart" is emerging as a strategy to mitigate the problems generated by the urban population growth and rapid urbanization. Yet little academic research has sparingly discussed the phenomenon. To close the gap in the literature about smart cities and in response to the increasing use of the concept, this paper proposes a framework to understand the concept of smart cities. Based on the exploration of a wide and extensive array of literature from various disciplinary areas we identify eight critical factors of smart city initiatives: management and organization, technology, governance, policy context, people and communities, economy, built infrastructure, and natural environment. These factors form the basis of an integrative framework that can be used to examine how local governments are envisioning smart city initiatives. The framework suggests directions and agendas for smart city research and outlines practical implications for government professionals.

Gradations in digital inclusion: children, young people and the digital divide

Abstract: Little academic and policy attention has addressed the `digital divide' among children and young people. This article analyses findings from a national survey of UK 9—19-year-olds that reveal inequalities by age, gender and socioeconomic status in relation to their quality of access to and use of the internet. Since both the extent of use and the reasons for low- and non-use of the internet vary by age, a different explanation for the digital divide is required for children compared with adults. Looking beyond the idea of a binary divide, we propose instead a continuum of digital inclusion. Gradations in frequency of internet use (from non and low users through to weekly and daily users) are found to map onto a progression in the take-up of online opportunities among young people (from basic through moderate to broad and then all-round users), thus beginning to explain why differences in internet use matter, contributing to inclusion and exclusion. Demographic, use and expertise variables are all shown to...

The effects of e-government on trust and confidence in government

Abstract: Arguments that e-government may improve citizen trust in government have not been sufficiently tested. We are interested in exploring the potential for e-government to influence citizen attitudes about government, across various population groups, including those with limited technology access and skill. This paper surveys literature relevant to e-government and its effect on civic trust, and summarizes our previous research on citizen attitudes on e-government. We propose further research using an Internet-based experiment that will expose a random sample of respondents to government web sites that are chosen to represent best practices for different types of sites. Surveys administered before and after exposure to the sites will measure any significant changes in attitudes about government in general, as well as perceptions of e-government. Oversampling of low-income and minority respondents will allow us to explore any differential impact across demographic groups.

The digital divide shifts to differences in usage

Abstract: In a representative survey of the Dutch population we found that people with low levels of education and disabled people are using the Internet for more hours a day in their spare time than higher educated and employed populations. To explain this finding, we investigated what these people are doing online. The first contribution is a theoretically validated cluster of Internet usage types: information, news, personal development, social interaction, leisure, commercial transaction and gaming. The second contribution is that, based on this classification, we were able to identify a number of usage differences, including those demonstrated by people with different gender, age, education and Internet experience, that are often observed in digital divide literature. The general conclusion is that when the Internet matures, it will increasingly reflect known social, economic and cultural relationships of the offline world, including inequalities.

Does Internet Use Affect Engagement? A Meta-Analysis of Research

Abstract: Scholars disagree about the impact of the Internet on civic and political engagement. Some scholars argue that Internet use will contribute to civic decline, whereas other scholars view the Internet as having a role to play in reinvigorating civic life. This article assesses the hypothesis that Internet use will contribute to declines in civic life. It also assesses whether Internet use has any significant effect on engagement. A meta-analysis approach to current research in this area is used. In total, 38 studies with 166 effects are examined. The meta-data provide strong evidence against the Internet having a negative effect on engagement. However, the meta-data do not establish that Internet use will have a substantial impact on engagement. The effects of Internet use on engagement seem to increase nonmonotonically across time, and the effects are larger when online news is used to measure Internet use, compared to other measures.