If you live in the U.S., like I do, odds are you are either planning your trip to the ballot box, have already participated in early voting or are eagerly awaiting your absentee ballot in the mail.
Like many people, other than the names at the top of the ticket, the general election can be a mystery, full of people we are not familiar with, or issues we might not have researched fully. So what is an aspiring informed voter to do?
In years past, the newspaper played a strong role in informing voters of candidates and issues appearing on the ballot—but now, more than ever, this kind of valuable resource lives online. Resources like the Center for Voter Information help answer questions about how and where to register and vote. Vote411 allows voters to preview a ballot so they know which names to research. The Brookings Institution provides a clear, non-partisan, fact-checked presentation of the issues shaping the election.
If I did not have access to the Internet (like so many people in the U.S. and globally), I wouldn’t be able to use these resources to inform my choices at the ballot box. I might not understand specific candidates’ platforms and I may end up voting against my own best interests or values.
The fact is, information is power, and those who have home broadband access have access to unlimited amounts of it.
With just 14 days left before the hotly contested U.S. presidential election, we at the Marconi Society are thinking deeply about the intersection of democracy and digital inclusion—more specifically, digital literacy.
During the 2019–2020 campaign season, political advertising spending significantly overtook the record previously set in 2018. As the lines differentiating paid material (native advertising), independent journalism, and biased content disguised as third-party reporting become increasingly fuzzy in all online environments, audience members need to approach every new source with questions: Who produced this material? What else is on this website, and does it betray a specific bias? If I search the facts reported in this article, will I find corroborating evidence?
Many media literacy programs target young people: the New York Times reported on an increased interest in these curricula in K–12 schools after the 2016 election. Teachers can access numerous online resources and toolkits to implement in their classrooms. But a study in Science Advances found a strong correlation between age and rate of misinformation sharing on social media; that is, seniors over the age of 65 have the highest rates of sharing false information online.
In 2017, the Pew Research Center found that only 17% of U.S. adults are what they term “Digitally Ready”: “They are active learners and confident in their ability to use digital tools to pursue learning. They are aware of the latest ‘ed tech’ tools and are, relatively to others, more likely to use them in the course of their personal learning.”
Additionally, the MIT Technology Review reports efforts to target misinformation at Hispanic voters, which will be the largest section of non-white voters in the coming election. Demographics-based disinformation campaigns further exacerbate an existing digital literacy divide between white people and people of color.
Our first challenge as a digital society is to help support the unconnected among us to get connected. That means supporting legislation that provides funding to expand access, providing digital skills training programs, sending our old computers to refurbishers so they end up in the hands of someone who will use them rather than a landfill, and more.
But this only addresses the first element of the digital divide. Even once we are able to connect the world, an additional divide will remain: one based on digital literacy. We have a long way to go. But for now, make sure you vote.
