New essays providing innovative ways of understanding the altered position of media in Germany and beyond.

Contrary to optimistic visions of a free internet for all, the problem of the ‘digital divide’ – the disparity between those with access to internet technology and those without – has persisted for close to twenty-five years. In this textbook, Jan van Dijk considers the state of digital inequality and what we can do to tackle it. Through an accessible framework based on empirical research, he explores the motivations and challenges of seeking access and the development of requisite digital skills. He addresses key questions such as: Does digital inequality reduce or reinforce existing, traditional inequalities? Does it create new, previously unknown social inequalities? While digital inequality affects all aspects of society and the problem is here to stay, Van Dijk outlines policies we can put in place to mitigate it. The Digital Divide is required reading for students and scholars of media, communication, sociology, and related disciplines, as well as for policymakers.

As the study of literature has extended to cultural contexts, critics have developed a language all their own. Yet, argues Mark Bauerlein, scholars of literature today are so unskilled in pertinent sociohistorical methods that they compensate by adopting cliches and catchphrases that serve as substitutes for information and logic. Thus by labeling a set of ideas an "ideology" they avoid specifying those ideas, or by saying that someone "essentializes" a concept they convey the air of decisive refutation. As long as a paper is generously sprinkled with the right words, clarification is deemed superfluous. Bauerlein contends that such usages only serve to signal political commitments, prove membership in subgroups, or appeal to editors and tenure committees, and that current textual practices are inadequate to the study of culture and politics they presume to undertake. His book discusses 23 commonly encountered terms—from "deconstruction" and "gender" to "problematize" and "rethink"—and offers a diagnosis of contemporary criticism through their analysis. He examines the motives behind their usage and the circumstances under which they arose and tells why they continue to flourish. A self-styled "handbook of counterdisciplinary usage," Literary Criticism: An Autopsy shows how the use of illogical, unsound, or inconsistent terms has brought about a breakdown in disciplinary focus. It is an insightful and entertaining work that challenges scholars to reconsider their choice of words—and to eliminate many from critical inquiry altogether.

The emergence of the Internet as a world wide web in the late 1990s made access to information and knowledge significantly easier. Soon after the Internet started reaching the masses, concerns about its unequal distribution appeared. The digital divide that is manifested in access and usage differences between individuals, groups, regions and even countries is created between those who have access to information and communication technologies and know how to utilise them, and those who do not. Empirical studies supply strong evidence that many of those who are digitally excluded are also socially excluded, i.e., digital inequality is strongly related to economic and social stratification. Specifically, empirical studies have examined the digital divide as reflected in gaps in digital access, digital literacy, digital competence, digital, Internet and computer skills, attitudes towards computer and Internet and digital uses between different population groups. This book further reviews the issues, recommendations and new research on the digital divide.

There is widespread concern that the Internet is exacerbating inequalities between the information rich and poor.

The 'digital divide' refers to the gap between those who have access to the latest information technologies and those who do not. This book presents data supporting the existence of such a divide in the 1990s along racial, economic, and education lines.

"Interviewing educators, government officials and technology professionals, Bolt creates a rich tapestry of voices that addresses the larger social concerns of the digital divide. He also profiles a number of organizations and institutions - from schools that are effectively partnering with technology companies, to Community Technology Centers in urban locations, to the increasing amount of web content being created specifically for women and minorities - that can be seen as models for positive change."--BOOK JACKET.