All over the world, in contemporary societies accessing to the new media, there is much discussion regarding the digital divide between youngsters and older generations, between different language and cultural groups, between established citizens and new immigrants. This poses barriers for a society, like Portugal, which wants to push forward in digital media development. In Portugal, these gaps present some peculiar characteristics, due to cultural and educational differences, as well as the literacy skills that affect how adults and children consider digital media access and uses. In this state-of art text, data from the Portuguese context are articulated with research results from Portugal and Austin, Texas.
As pointed out in the Portuguese report for EU Kids Online Network Project (Hasebrink et al., 2007), in the last 50 years, Portugal has undertaken a modernization process at several levels, but the nation remains to some extent in a certain in-between position.
Education provides us some indicators of this picture. In 2006, when compared with other European countries, Portuguese adults (male and female) in the age of being children’s parents (30-55 years) had the lowest level of schooling, with the majority reaching no more than 8 years (European Social Values, 2006). The gap in education with their parents has implications for digital media use that must be addressed. Research in Austin, Texas has shown that better educated children can help pull their parents into digital media use, but the process requires further research to understand (Rojas, Straubhaar, et al, 2004).
Working skills and professions structure also reflects previous discrepancies and contradictions. Most agriculture employment decline was not replaced by a corresponding growth in technological sophisticated industries and services, but new employment is predominantly in a traditional transformative sector, low skill “personal services” sector (restaurants, hotels, etc) and “social services” sector (public administration and police forces included).
Digital divide research in the USA shows that training programs can help create digital skills among working class and service sector employees, but larger questions of education, child care, transportation, etc. must also be addressed (Tufekcioglu, 2001).
Portugal has a history of emigration and for decades, Gypsies were the only significant ethnic minority in the country. However, since the 1980s there has been a sudden growth in immigration. Migrants from the former Portuguese colonies in Africa (Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau and Angola mostly) and from Brazil constitute the main immigrant communities. In the last decade, there has been an increase in migrants from Eastern Europe. Most of the migrants’ communities live around Lisbon and in Algarve. This movement has impact on the scholar population: in the Lisbon area, 8% of the primary school children weren’t born in Portugal (Ponte & Malho, 2008). This raises the question of how to effectively combine digital inclusion initiatives with those designed to help children acculturate. There has been significant research on how immigrants are portrayed in the press (Ferin, 2006) and some research on the changing demographics of immigrants, but little on how they are using media to adapt to life in Portugal.
There are promising models in the literature about immigrant media use, including in-depth interview studies underway in Austin, Texas by Straubhaar and Rojas and in Pennsylvania by Schement.
With the end of the dictatorship (1974), Portugal moved from a “closed” society to an “open” one, with an increase in production and distribution of all sorts of products and services, namely free media. However, structural features like a persistent level of considerable illiteracy explain the rather low levels of printed media and the hegemony of the television in the households. Digital media and Internet have a low penetration and most of the adults are reluctant to use it, particularly those with low education levels and elderly people. This is also true in the USA as well as reflected in the studies by the Pew Charitable trusts (ongoing -http://pewinternet.org/). New research in the USA shows that those who speak non-majority languages and new immigrants also suffer from similar low use of new digital media (Straubhaar, 2008).
While Internet access at home has been rising significantly in Portuguese households, there are still a number of barriers that need to be better understood. In 2005, the reasons given for not having Internet at home were: the high cost (40,1%), lack of knowledge of how to use it (23,1%) and questions about its usefulness (13,3%). In 2006, 56% of those without Internet justified their choice by the lack of utility/necessity they saw in this kind of technology, showing a higher level of resistance. In second place, ex-aequo, came the high cost of the equipment and the absence of technological skills. The high cost of accessing the Internet (51%) and linguistic problems with it (33%) were also arguments (OBERCOM 2007). This situation occurs mainly in households without children. This reinforces the need to understand generational interactions and differences better.
There are also clear asymmetries in the Internet access by region. In 2006, Lisbon led with 53% of rate penetration and 24% in broadband penetration, while Alentejo, in the South with an aging population, reported figures of 35% and 16% respectively.
These pictures should be taken into consideration since children and young people grow up surrounded by different generations of adults, at home and at school. The way in which adults deal with ICT, how they think about ICT, and the meanings they give them, is certainly presented in everyday life and in the influence of adults’ mediation with children. It is not only a question of regulation in the households, it challenges also public policies and programs for promoting media literacy and education, which affect both adults and children.
A cross-national comparison involving 21 European countries (Hasebrink et al, 2008), showed that Portugal was one of the few countries were children were overall more likely to use the Internet than their parents (the other was Poland). As concluded, “in these countries, therefore, policy expectations that parents can, in practice, take responsibility for their children’s internet safety, should be especially carefully qualified” (idem: 63).
This cross national study also identified that insofar as findings are available, the evidence in almost all country points to a correlation between SES and exposure to risks (Iceland was the exception) and it was suggested that the lower class children were more exposed to online risks. In terms of safety awareness, the report points out that these findings suggest the value of targeting interventions at lower class children and their use of the Internet especially (idem: 70).
As far as Portugal is concerned, a qualitative research focused on lower SES children (12-16 years) showed how they dealt with the absence of online access at home and challenged their digital exclusion through risky strategies. The study also show how their parents act in a situation that they didn’t control: avoiding and ignoring it; complaining; asking for training and accepting to be taught by their children (Candeias, 2008).
The comparison between the answers from the mostly info-included parents and their children (9-14) in the Lisbon area (Ponte & Malho, 2008; N= 510) shows clear differences in the ways online uses are considered in the family:
- Half of the children place themselves as the Internet experts at home, ahead of their siblings, fathers and (further ahead) mothers.
- 43% of the children declare that they had learnt how to use the Internet by themselves. Fathers, older peers and older siblings come next, further ahead of mothers and teachers, which were only identified as helpful for Internet learning by only around 15%.
These social, economic and cultural scenarios place great challenges to the social and media researchers and to those aiming to promote digital inclusion and participation: policy makers, regulators, the media industry including the public broadcasting system, NGOs. Informed decisions based on a field research that considers users’ agency, exploring both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, may contribute to identify the gaps between the partners involved and to design more productive projects and products.
References:
Candeias, C. (2008). Crianças e Internet: na balança dos riscos e das oportunidades. UNL, Lisboa. MPhil thesis presented at FCSH-UNL, 120 pages
Ferin, I., (2006) (Org). Imagens da Diferença. Media & Jornalismo, n. 8. MinervaCoimbra
Hasebrink, U., Livingstone, S., Haddon, L., Kirwill, L., & Ponte, C. (2007). Comparing Children´s Online Activities and Risks across Europe. A Preliminary Report Comparing Findings for Poland, Portugal and UK. London. LSE (www.eukidsonline.net)
Hasebrink, U., Livingstone, S., & Haddon, L. (2008). Comparing children´s online opportunities and risks across Europe. London: LSE. (www.eukidsonline.net)
Ponte, C., & Malho, M. J. (2008). Crianças e Jovens. In J. Rebelo (Org.), Públicos de Comunicação Social em Portugal. Lisboa, ERC.
Rojas, V., J. Straubhaar, et al. (2004). Still divided: Ethnicity, generation, cultural capital, and new technologies. Information and Communication: The local and the global in Austin and Salvador. Editors: O. Jambeiro and J. Straubhaar. Salvador, Brazil, Edufba Press.
Straubhaar, J., S. Strover, et al. (2008). Broadband Divides of Age, Immigration and Language in Two Rural Texas Communities. IAMCR 2008, Stockholm.
Tufekcioglu, Z. (2001). Rethinking the thoery Behind the Digital Divide Initatives: It´s Mot all Good All the Time in the Age of Deskilled, Low-Paying “Hi-Tech” Jobs. International Communication Association Washington, D.C.