Inequality and digitally mediated communication: divides, contradictions and consequences

This paper examines some of the relationships between economic and social inequality and digitally mediated communication.1 Researchers generally agree that there is a reciprocal relationship between expressions of inequality and changes in the digitally mediated world, but there are large differences in their views about how these relationships work and whether inequality is likely to persist into the future. In the digital divide research tradition, there are instrumental and critical approaches and some of the limitations of the instrumental approach are highlighted. The implications of asymmetries of control and authority between human beings and their machines and the consequences for economic and social inequality are addressed with the aim of assessing the opportunities for evaluating them and for encouraging a shift in the contemporary direction of digital technology innovation.