Digital Inclusion Matters - Raising New Voices Online

E-Democracy seeks to demonstrate that all communities, regardless of income and diversity, can be part of an integrated neighbors online revolution.

According to the April 2013 Pew Internet report, 34% of all adults participated in online civic communication and 39% participated in civic communication offline in 2012, but:

• 47% of households making over $75,000 per year participate this way compared to 24% of households making less than $30,000
   
• And when looking at race/ethnicity, while 38% of Whites participated in online civic communication, only 23% of Blacks and 17% of Latinos did so

The racial gap in “learning about a political or social issue” is less than with other measure where 46% Whites, 38% Blacks, and 34% Latinos did so. However, “taking action” based on what was learned about an issue has an almost 2 to 1 gap by race with 20% of Whites taking some kind of action compared to 12% for Blacks, and 11% Latinos. 

Additional Resources

• Can you hear me now? The troublesome democratic divide online – E-Democracy Project Blog, August 2013
   
• "Inclusive” Civic Engagement in the Digital Age – E-Democracy Project Blog, April 2013
   
• Why Digital Inclusion for Community Voices? - White Paper (Google Docs), March 2012
   
• Neighbors Online – What have 27% of Internet Users Discovered?  - E-Democracy Project Blog, June 9, 2010
   
• Online Civic Engagement Research - A collection of ICEO research that informs our efforts
   
• New Voices Seminar Video and New Voices Working Group - Proposed, cross-sector initiative