The risks of the gender digital divide among teenagers
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2021.ene.12Keywords:
Digital divide, Gender digital divide, Gender differences, Gender stereotypes, Habits, Consumption, Adolescence, young people, Youth, Teenagers, Videogames, Storytelling, Social networks, Applications, InternetAbstract
The gender digital divide between teens from seven countries in Europe, in Australia, and in countries of South America through a socio-cultural perspective is analyzed. The article compares which habits of use and consumption are attributed and performed by adolescents in multiple media and social media, and explores if these uses are grounded in the historically established gender roles. The data come from the Transmedia literacy research project (2015-2018) that had two main objectives: to explore what are teens doing with media and how have they learned to do it. An ethnographic approach was used, combining various research methods as questionnaires, interviews and participant observation, among others. In this article we focus on the analysis of the questionnaire implemented to map teens´ habits of use and consumption (N=1,520). To respond to the objective of the article, a descriptive univariate and bivariate analysis was carried out. The results show that the digital gender divide still exists and it takes shape through the persistence of gender stereotypes and roles associated to men and women and their relationship with media such as videogames practices (associated with boys) and the creation of stories (associated with girls).
Downloads
References
AEVI (2018). La industria del videojuego. Anuario 2018 de la Asociación Española de Videojuegos. http://www.aevi.org.es/web/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/AEVI_Anuario_2018.pdf
Anderson, Monica; Jiang, Jingjing (2018). Teens, social media habits & experiences. Washington, Pew Research Center. November, 28. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/11/28/teens-social-media-habits-experiences-2018
Ardèvol, Elisenda (2017). Kit for field researchers. Transmedia literacy project report, Barcelona. https://repositori.upf.edu/handle/10230/33909
Barrantes-Cáceres, Roxana; Cozzubo-Chaparro, Angelo (2017). "Age for learning, age for teaching: the role of inter-generational, intra-household learning in Internet use by older adults in Latin America". Information, communication & society, v. 22, n. 2, pp. 250-266. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2017.1371785
Brunton, Colmar (2015). Children´s media use study: How our children engage with media today. https://www.bsa.govt.nz/oldsite/assets/Research/Childrens_Media_Report_2015_FINAL_for_publishing_2.pdf
Cañón-Rodríguez, Ruth; Grande-del-Prado, Mario; Cantón-Mayo, Isabel (2016). "Brecha digital: impacto en el desarrollo social y personal. Factores asociados". Tendencias pedagógicas, n. 28, pp. 115-132. https://doi.org/10.15366/tp2016.28.009
Calderón-Gómez, Daniel (2019). "Technological capital and digital divide among young people: an intersectional approach". Journal of youth studies, v. 22, n. 7, pp. 941-958. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2018.1559283
Cooper, Joel (2006). "The digital divide: The special case of gender". Journal of computer assisted learning, v. 22, n. 5, pp. 320-334. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2729.2006.00185.x
Correa, Teresa (2010). "The participation divide among "˜online experts´: Experience, skills and psychological factors as predictors of college students´ web content creation". Journal of computer-mediated communication, v. 16, n. 1, pp. 71-92. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2010.01532.x
Cote, Amanda C. (2018). "Writing "˜gamers´: The gendered construction of gamer identity in Nintendo Power (1994-1999)". Games and culture, v. 13, n. 5, pp. 479-503. https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412015624742
Crenshaw, Kimberlé W. (1991). "Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color". Stanford law review, v. 43, n. 6, pp. 1241-1299. https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039
Dixon, Laura J.; Correa, Teresa; Straubhaar, Joseph; Covarrubias, Laura; Graber, Dean; Spence, Jeremiah; Rojas, Viviana (2014). "Gendered space: The digital divide between male and female users in internet public acces sites". Journal of computer-mediated communication, v. 19, n. 4, pp. 991-1009. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcc4.12088
Dolan, Jennifer E. (2016). "Splicing the divide: A review of research on the evolving digital divide among K-12 students". Journal of research on technology in education, v. 48, n. 1, pp. 16-37. https://doi.org/10.1080/15391523.2015.1103147
Dueñas-Cid, David; Pontón-Merino, Paloma; Belzunegui-Eraso, Ángel; Pastor-Gosálbez, Inma (2016). "Expresiones discriminatorias, jóvenes y redes sociales: la influencia del género". Comunicar, v. 46, n. XXIV, pp. 67-76. https://doi.org/10.3916/C46-2016-07
García-Martín, Sheila; Cantón-Mayo, Isabel (2019). "Uso de tecnologías y rendimiento académico en estudiantes adolescentes". Comunicar, v. 59, n. XXVII, pp. 73-81. https://doi.org/10.3916/C59-2019-07
Gray, Tricia J.; Gainous, Jason; Wagner, Kevin M. (2016). "Gender and the digital divide in Latin America". Social science quarterly, v. 98, n. 1, pp. 326-340. https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.12270
Hargittai, Eszter; Shaw, Aaron (2015). "Mind the skills gap: The role of Internet know-how and gender in differentiated contributions to Wikipedia". Information, communication and society, v. 18, n. 4, pp. 424-442. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2014.957711
Hargittai, Eszter; Walejko, Gina (2008). "The participation divide: Content creation and sharing in the digital age". Information, communication & society, v. 11, n. 2, pp. 239-256. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691180801946150
Hilbert, Martin (2011). "Digital gender divide or technologically empowered women in developing countries? A typical case of lies, damned lies, and statistics". Women´s studies international forum, v. 34, n. 6, pp. 479-489. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2011.07.001
Hoffmann, Christian-Pieter; Lutz, Christoph; Meckel, Miriam (2015). "Content creation on the Internet: a social cognitive perspective on the participation divide". Information, communication & society, v. 18, n. 6, pp. 696-716. https://doi.org/0.1080/1369118X.2014.991343
Joiner, Richard; Stewart, Caroline; Beaney, Chelsey (2015). "Gender digital divide. Does it exist and what are the explanations?". In: Rosen, Larry D.; Cheever, Nancy A.; Carrier, L. Mark (eds.). The Wiley handbook of psychology, technology and society (pp. 74-88). First edition, John Wiley & Sons, LTD Published. ISBN: 978 1 118772027
Martínez-Cantos, José-Luis (2017). "Digital skills gaps: A pending subject for gender digital inclusion in the European Union". European journal of communication, v. 32, n. 5, pp. 419-438. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323117718464
Masanet, Maria-Jose (2016). "Pervivencia de los estereotipos de género en los hábitos de consumo mediático de los adolescentes: drama para las chicas y humor para los chicos". Cuadernos.Info, n. 39, pp. 39-53. https://doi.org/10.7764/cdi.39.1027
Nielsen (2017). Mobile kids: The parent, the child and the smartphone. New York: A. C. Nielsen, LLC. ISBN: 978 1 789730364
Monks, Helen; Barnes, Amy; Cross, Donna; McKee, Heather (2019). "A qualitative exploration of electronic image sharing among young people: Navigating the issues of conformity, trust, intention and reputation". Health education & behavior, v. 46, n. 25, pp. 1065-1135. https://doi.org/10.1177/1090198119873921
Ofcom (2020). Children and parents: Media use and attitudes report 2019, UK. https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0023/190616/children-media-use-attitudes-2019-report.pdf
Pink, Sarah; Morgan, Jennie (2013). "Short-term ethnography: Intense routes to knowing". Symbolic interaction, v. 36, n. 3, pp. 351-361. https://doi.org/10.1002/symb.66
Ragnedda, Massimo (2017). The third digital divide. A Weberian approach to digital inequalities. London, New York: Routledge. ISBN: 978 1 472471260
Rashid, Ahmed-Tareq (2016). "Digital inclusion and social inequality: Gender differences in ICT access and use in five developing countries". Gender, technology and development, v. 20, n. 3, pp. 306-332. https://doi.org/10.1177/0971852416660651
Resta, Paul; Laferrière, Thérèse; McLaughlin, Robert; Kouraogo, Assetou (2018). "Issues and challenges related to digital equity: An overview". In: J. Voogt et al. (eds.). Second handbook of information technology in primary and secondary education, Springer International Handbooks of Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71054-9_67
Robinson, Laura; Cotten, Sheila R.; Ono, Hiroshi; Quan-Haase, Anabel; Mesch, Gustavo; Chen, Wenhong; Schulz, Jeremy; Hale, Timothy M.; Stern, Michael J. (2015) "Digital inequalities and why they matter", Information, communication & society, v. 18, n. 5, pp. 569-582. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2015.1012532
Schradie, Jen (2011). "The digital production gap: The digital divide and Web 2.0 collide". Poetics, v. 39, n. 2, pp. 145-168. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2011.02.003
Scolari, Carlos A.; Ardèvol, Elisenda; Pérez-Latorre, í’liver; Masanet, Maria-Jose; Lugo-Rodríguez, Nohemi (2020). "What are teens doing with media? An ethnographic approach for identifying transmedia skills and informal learning strategies". Digital education review, n. 37, pp. 269-287. https://doi.org/10.1344/der.2020.37.269-287
Scolari, Carlos A.; Masanet, Maria-Jose; Guerrero-Pico, Mar; Establés, María-José (2018). "Transmedia literacy in the new media ecology: Teens´ transmedia skills and informal learning strategies". El profesional de la información, v. 27, n. 4, pp. 801-812. https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2018.jul.09
Smahel, David; MacHackova, Hana; Mascheroni, Giovanna; Dedkova, Lenka; Staksrud, Elizabeth; í“lafsson, Kjartan; Livingstone, Sonia; Hasebrink, Uwe (2020). EU kids online 2020: Survey results from 19 countries. Project affiliated to The London School of Economics and Political Science, Lab Irtis. https://doi.org/10.21953/lse.47fdeqj01ofo
Starkey, Louise; Eppel, Elizabeth A.; Sylvester, Allan (2018) "How do 10-year-old New Zeelanders participate in a digital world?" Information, communication & society, v. 22, n. 13, pp. 1929-1944. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2018.1472795
Van-Deursen, Alexander J. A. M.; Van-Dijk, Jan A. G. M. (2009). "Improving digital skills for the use of online public information and services". Government information quarterly, v. 26, n. 2, pp. 333-340. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2008.11.002
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Dissemination conditions of the articles once they are published
Authors can freely disseminate their articles on websites, social networks and repositories
However, the following conditions must be respected:
- Only the editorial version should be made public. Please do not publish preprints, postprints or proofs.
- Along with this copy, a specific mention of the publication in which the text has appeared must be included, also adding a clickable link to the URL: http://www.profesionaldelainformacion.com
- Only the final editorial version should be made public. Please do not publish preprints, postprints or proofs.
- Along with that copy, a specific mention of the publication in which the text has appeared must be included, also adding a clickable link to the URL: http://revista.profesionaldelainformacion.com
Profesional de la información journal offers the articles in open access with a Creative Commons BY license.
