Communication Infrastructures

The world is becoming more connected and involved with online activity thanks to the ability to access the internet through our multiple devices and communication infrastructures. But with the increase of accessibility, a divide between classes has emerged and is growing. This ‘digital divide’ can be attributed to communication infrastructures, geographical locations, low incomes or digital literacies.

If we focus on Australia’s economy, a country with adequate employment, education and health, we can still see a divide in digital economy forming. In a digital economy, many every day and essential economic activities such as education, e-government and health care are moved online (Nansen et al, 2013, p66). With the demand for these economic services to go online, people who are in the digital illiterate category can start to be left behind. This has a potential to affect Australia’s adequate economy in the future because these services will not benefit everyone.

Another reason for the ‘digital divide’ can be attributed to the new communicative infrastructure, the NBN. Wilken et al believe that the high-speed broadband has not had a positive impact in rural households because they are struggling to gain reliable access to the network (Wilken et al, 2014). People with slow or unreliable NBN connections become almost incompatible to people with better connections. For example, an electronic games animator submitting work onto the cloud from home to the company’s head office servers overseas. The time it takes might be too long and the company may give the opportunity elsewhere. Nardi and O’day see that “an information ecology is marked by strong interrelationships and dependencies…” where if “…one on element is changed the effects can be felt throughout the whole system” (Nardi &O’day, 1999, p51). In the case of the gaming animator, the change in the communication infrastructure has given advantage to someone else and the new innovation of the NBN has failed. In order to make Australia’s economy prosperous we will need a reliable and accessible communication infrastructure for everyone so that we’re not locally or globally left behind.

References:

Nansen B., Wilken R., Arnold M, Gibbs M, 2013 ‘Digital Literacies and the National Broadband Network: Competency, Legibility, Context’, Media International Australia, 145: Nov, p66–74.

Nardi, B., O’Day, V., 1999, Information Ecologies: Using Technology with Heart, MIT Press, Cambridge, pp. 49–58.

Wilken R., Nansen B., Kennedy J., Gibbs M., Arnold M. 2014, ‘NBN benefits regional centres, but rural Australia is still left wanting’, The Conversation, viewed 20 August 2018 <https://theconversation.com/nbn-benefits-regional-centres-but-rural-australia-is-still-left-wanting-34532>.

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