Model of Three Levels of the Digital Divide: Current Advantages and Limitations (Exemplified by the Republic of Tatarstan)

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Anna A. Gladkova

PhD in Philology, Senior Researcher, Chair of Media Theory and Economics, Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

e-mail: gladkova_a@list.ru
Vasil Z. Garifullin

Doctor of Science, Professor, Head of the Chair of National and Global Media, Higher School of Journalism and Media Communications, Kazan (Volga) Federal University, Kazan, Russia

e-mail: vasilgarifullin@mail.ru
Massimo Ragnedda

PhD, Senior Lecturer, Department of Social Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Great Britain

e-mail: massimo.ragnedda@northumbria.ac.uk

Section: New Media

This paper presents the theory of three levels of the digital divide, which has been widely used abroad since the 2000s for the study of digital inequalities but has not been thoroughly examined by Russian scholars so far. In a case study of the Republic of Tatarstan, the authors use the three-level approach to explore inequalities in access to the Internet and ICTs (the first level of the digital divide), digital skills and digital literacy of users (the second level), and the social benefits users can get by competently using digital technologies in their professional and private life (the third level). The research showed that the open access data the authors examined are not enough for a full understanding of the three-level digital divide in the republic, which in its turn emphasizes the need for an empirical research based on interpreting the primary data collected in the region.

Keywords: digital divide, three levels of the digital divide, Tatarstan, Russia
DOI: 10.30547/vestnik.journ.4.2019.4172

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