Monday, I launched into the internet blogosphere for the first time.
Just coping with the mechanics of getting online accounts tells me that access is step one.
I and a helper struggled to get my electronic portal up and running. The paraphernalia of the electronic age is an automatic gatekeeper that weeds out those without internet access skills or tools. So the audience is pre-selected.
This creates a hidden bias in that the universe of potential interactors culls out voices that cannot meet a threshold level of sophistication.
For providers of content and purveyors of products, this performs a valuable sifting tool. When I worked the phone lines, we had "cold" calls--unselected, random targets a computer pulled from the phone directory(preselected pool) or even wider group of telephone numbers generated at random by an algorithm. These were low-percentage sales opportunities, and generated a lot of negative reaction on the recipients' part.
"Warm" calls were selected from a list of people who had some prior contact with the organization.They generated nicer responses and more sales.
But the universe of potential interactors was limited by those who had access to a phone. For the agency that did the phone calling, those not owning a phone not only were unavailable:they did not exist.
Access means potential participation. Access to internet depends on factors not obvious to those who already are participants. If for some reason, a person's TV doesn't receive your broadcast, he is not in reach of your presentation and it is possible he doesn't know you exist, either!
Thinking outside the bubble of your own circle of interaction demands creativity; it also demands humility to realize that your circle is not "all that."
If you have a message, keep in mind that there are those out there that you do not see.
You make an excellent point. In our own country there are hundreds of thousands of people who do not have access to new media. And as news and other media moves online and onto mobile devices, these people are left behind. In the world as a whole, the majority do not have access (although that is changing) -- and the divide is becoming larger and larger between the haves and have-nots. As our world becomes more and more entwined with technology and new media, it is easy to forget that not everyone has come with us.
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