Disconnected: Haves and Have-Nots in the Information Age

by William Wresch

In the Information Age, information is power. Who produces all that information, how does it move around, who uses it, to what ends, and under what constraints? Who gets that power? And what happens to the people who have no access to it?

Disconnected begins with a striking vignette of two men: One is the thriving manager of a company selling personal computers and computer services. The other is just one among thousands of starving...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813523702
• ISBN13: 9780813523705
• Release Date: November 1996
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Shows that information access and usability is many-layered

Lots of messages from the media, businesses, and government push access to new media and information technology. This book, written by a computer scientist, doesn't dismiss the importance of technology by any means -- but Wresch shows that there's a lot more to information and participation than having a radio or a modem. The difference between the affluent and the poor lies in the kinds of information offered (for instance, you can easily get stock quotes -- but not pointers to social services for welfare recipients), access to traditional sources like universities, and even "who you know." Wresch sees the problem of information poverty on many levels; this means that some of the topics are only loosely related (for instance, why American TV shows and movies beat out local programming around the world) but there's a new insight in every chapter.