Pollard, Kelvin (author), Jacobsen, Linda A. (author), and Population Reference Bureau (author)
Format:
Book chapter
Publication Date:
2021-06
Published:
United States: Appalachian Regional Commission
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 205 Document Number: D12620
Journal Title Details:
Online
Notes:
Includes a series of charts and tables detailing personal computer and cellular ownership statistics for each county in Appalachia., 26 pgs, The data contained in this Chartbook describe how residents in the Appalachian Region were faring before the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020. As such, these numbers do not measure the social and economic impact of the outbreak. The Chartbook data do, however, provide a benchmark: As data from the pandemic and post pandemic period are released in the coming years, these figures can serve as a point of comparison that ultimately can enable data users to better measure the pandemic’s effect on Appalachia’s social and economic dynamics.
18 pgs, Access to information and resources via the Internet is an increasingly vital dimension of contemporary life. However, there can be several impediments to optimal Internet utilization in the form of access, skills, and motivation. Even when access is available, several digital inequalities arise as citizens often lack the skills and motivations to pursue those vital uses through the Internet to the best of their advantage. Digital inequalities in the hills of the Appalachian area of Ohio are often manifested in terms of social, cultural and geographic divides. Not only do the hills block wireless signals and make cables expensive to install, but regional poverty also drives away telecom investment. We conducted a survey of Appalachian Ohio to explore digital inequity issues and the determinants of online participation for things that matter. Through a number of analyses, we explore how Internet access and digital skills impact online contribution to the community in terms of services and resources considered to be basic social needs: health, employment, education, and social media. These social needs, what we have called Vital Internet Use (VIU) can determine citizens’ political and civic participation, societal contribution, and overall benefit to their communities. Centered on the concepts of digital access, Internet skills, and benefit outcomes, we extend knowledge in this domain and propose a comprehensive framework of VIU.
Online via https://doaj.org, Article deals with the role of information and communication technologies and the related infrastructure to induce innovations for sustainable rural development." Authors examined the role of social innovation to create a new demand for products, services, and organizational models for farm and rural enterprises.
18 pages., via online journal., Findings in rural communities prompt authors to recommend a customized policy framework that is responsive to the diversity and uniqueness of local contexts in connectivity and digital inclusion.
6 pages., via website,Ryerson Review of Journalism., Between the hours of about 4 p.m. to midnight, Ashleigh Weeden goes dark. Not for the usual reasons, though. In Weeden’s southwestern Ontario town, the internet connection becomes—for all practical purposes—nonexistent during those hours. The PhD student at the University of Guelph lives in Ariss, Ontario, a “dispersed rural community” sandwiched between urban centres like Guelph and Kitchener. Despite paying about $250 monthly for internet access, she finds herself shut out of the internet. “…[S]ometimes [internet speed] goes one, maybe half a megabyte down,” she says. “I can’t grade, I can’t do anything, there’s no point, I might as well give up until about midnight.”
Online from the New Yorker., Fibre-optic cables strung above a home in Jackson County, Kentucky, one of the poorest countries in the country. High-speed broadband has been used to bring internet-based jobs to the region.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 205 Document Number: D12621
Journal Title Details:
Online
Notes:
3 pgs, A new mapping tool shows where households have taken advantage of a federal stimulus program that defrays some of the cost of broadband for lower-income Americans.The tool, which was created through a partnership between Rural LISC and the nonpartisan nonprofit Heartland Forward, was designed to help target families that may qualify for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) but who aren’t participating.
