Programme: Master in Communication Studies 2013/2014

Advanced Theoretical Debates

Digital Inclusion in Brazil The Importance of Digital Literacy

No one would have any idea of what a smartphone would be, and even less so of what it would
be able to do when Daniel Bell foresaw the emergence of what we call today the information
society, in his work The Coming of Post-Industrial Society (1973). As mentioned by Webster
(2006), Bell appeared to have foreseen the turmoil that computer communications
technologies especially were bringing into being. If the development of information and
communications technologies (ICT) has been bewildering for its consumers, one can wonder
how it is for those who work creating and developing them.

As remarked by Carlota Perez (2009), the emergence of individual innovations is not random.
Universities, governments, and companies have been working together in a collective process
throughout the world to share and combine their knowledge and expertise to create new
products and services. And these innovations will lead to further innovations that are often used
for another purpose than originally foreseen. The innovation sector also covers a wide range of
activities in connected areas and promotes the creation of new markets and services.

The interrelatedness of technologies and of the knowledge and experience bases that
underlie their development, together with the infrastructures and service networks that
complement them and the multiple learning processes that accompany them, provide
externalities for all participants and advantages for the society in which they are
embedded (Perez, 2009, p.5)

Here Carlota Perez concurs with one of the main arguments made by Bell, who argues that with
the increase in the amount of technology and information available, there would be more and
new jobs in the services sector. She also seems to be close to the concept of the network society
defended by Manuel Castells (2004).


Unlike Bell
1
, Manuel Castells (2004) has observed that what characterizes this society as an
information society
2
has more to do with how the social structures and activities are organized
around microelectronic-based information technologies than with information itself. Still, the
role of information and knowledge is as important as it has always been throughout the history
of societies. Castells argues that all known societies were based on information and knowledge
as the source of power, wealth and meaning. If not, our societies would not have reached their
current state of development.

Following the concept of technological revolutions (TR) developed by Carlota Perez (2009)
3
,
we can clearly see the set of radical breakthroughs that started in the seventies with the creation
of the microprocessor and which had the ability to profoundly transform the economy and
society. Moreover, according to Castells, the increasing local and global networking capacity
of institutions, civil society, and governmental actors with the use of the available technology
is the key to modern society:

Connectivity and access to networks become essential. The right combination of
information and communication technology, development of human capacity to take
advantage of the full potential of these technologies, and organizational restructuring
based on networking becomes the key to ensuring productivity, competitiveness,
innovation, creativity and ultimately power and power sharing (Castells, 2004, p.42)

All technologies composing the basis of this new social structure stemmed from the human
capacity to generate knowledge and combine information to improve already available
technologies or to create new ones. But, as always happened, the different parts of the world
population take advantage of the available knowledge and technologies in different ways and
moments, depending on the level of development and social disparities among their societies.
These discrepancies are crucial now when the appropriation and assimilation of technological

1
'[W]hat counts is not raw muscle power, or energy, but information' (1973:127).

2
...which he prefers to call Network Society (2004).

3
According to her, there were five successive technological revolutions from the 1770s to the 2000s : the
industrial revolution; the age of steam and railways;the age of steel, electricity and heavy engineering; the age of
oil, the automobile and mass production and the current one, the age of information and telecommunications.


resources are pointed as one of the main solutions to create wealth by the economy. As pointed
out by Carlota Perez (2009):

The processes of diffusion of each technological revolution and its techno-economic
paradigm together with their assimilation by the economy and society as well as the
resulting increases in productivity and expansion constitute successive great surges of
development (p.7)

Silva Filho (2003) also has argued that social-economic exclusion leads to digital exclusion at
the same time that digital exclusion deepens social-economic exclusion
4
.

In countries like Brazil for example, the lower classes would not be able to have access to ICT
without the help of public programmes. But it is important to point out that even when people
have the chance to purchase technological devices or access the internet, these technologies are
of no use when their users are not able to understand how they work or what they are capable
of. Worse, most of the times the fact of owning these devices may cause the false assumption
of digital inclusion when in reality it is purely the product of a consumerist urge without any
effects on the possibility of using the potentialities of the devices to climb up the social ladder.

Digital Inclusion in Brazil

Online shopping, mobile internet, digital TV, smartphone, electronic services, online education;
all these services and products created by the ICT are known and become increasingly popular
across the country. But their existence does not imply that they work in their full capacity or
that are available to the whole population.

As happens in many emerging countries, Brazil still includes a range of different situations
regarding access to ICT, with a number of different realities existing simultaneously. The
seventh economy in the world has moved up seven places in the IDI
5
between 2010 and 2011,

4
Author's translation. Original in Portuguese: A excluso scio-econmica desencadeia a excluso digital ao
mesmo tempo que a excluso digital aprofunda a excluso scio-econmica
5
The ICT Development Index (IDI) was created by the ITU (International Telecommunication Union) to rank
countries performance with regard to ICT infrastructure and uptake, and the ICT Price Basket (IPB), a metric
that tracks and compares the cost and affordability of ICT services. The latest edition (2012) also features data

becoming the 60
th
best-evaluated nation among other 155, also featuring on the list of the most
dynamic countries. The report highlights that the growth in household Internet access is a first
result of Brazils national broadband plan Programa Nacional de Banda Larga (PNBL)
which has been implemented as of May 2010. The main goal of the plan is to bring fast and
affordable broadband access to 40 million Brazilian households by 2014.

Public policies aiming at expanding internet access have helped reducing the digital divide, but
the country still has a long way to go. Wide inequalities in access to ICT clearly reflect
disparities between social classes, rural and urban areas, and geographies in the country. As an
illustration of this, the price of computers and Internet access still are quoted as being the most
important economic barriers to access to ICT by urban dwellers. As far as rural dwellers are
concerned, the lack of infrastructure and of Internet access offerings, and even in some cases of
electrical power
6
, are cited as further barriers to access in addition to those mentioned above.
The latest issue of the TIC Domiclios
7
survey points out that the Internet penetration rate in
households has increased from 18% in 2008 to 40% in 2012 in urban areas, while in rural areas
the penetration rate is only about one in ten households. Additionally, attention should be paid
to regional disparities. Coverage rates in poorer regions are 21% in the North and 27% in the
North-east, while in richer regions they reach 48% in the South-east, 47% in the South, and
39% in Centre-west.

At the same time, the frequency of ICT use has been increasing substantially among those
Brazilians that are already ICT users. Internet has been consolidating its role in the daily life of
Brazilians. This has in turn triggered changes in the communication and relationship habits of
its users, most notably through social networking. Data from TIC Domicilios shows that the
high uptake of social networks is reflected through all social classes, with particularly high
adoption rates among younger users.


series and analyses concerning revenue and investment in the ICT sector. http://www.itu.int/ITU-
D/ict/publications/idi/

6
The Brazilian government launched the LUZ PARA TODOS programme in 2003 with the aim of ending the
electrical divide in the country. The programme has benefited more than 14,4 million Brazilians as of 2012.
http://luzparatodos.mme.gov.br/luzparatodos/Asp/o_programa.asp

7
TIC Domicilios is a governmental survey tracking the use of ICT in Brazilian households since since 2005.
http://www.cetic.br/


Digital Illiteracy

Digital literacy is the awareness, attitude and ability of
individuals to appropriately use digital tools and facilities
to identify, access, manage, integrate, evaluate, analyse
and synthesise digital resources, construct new
knowledge, create media expressions, and communicate
with others, in the context of specific life situations, in
order to enable constructive social action; and to reflect
upon this process (Martin, 2006:255)

Digital inclusion is not guaranteed by the mere availability of devices to citizens. As highlighted
by Silva Filho (2003), there are three main factors that are required to be simultaneously present
to make digital inclusion a reality: the actual existence of ICT, income availability (as there is
a monthly cost for electricity, Internet access, and devices purchase), and, most importantly,
appropriate education, understood as formal education to empower users to understand and
make the most of the possibilities offered by ICT. Without education, users are not able to
understand the contents created by ICT, and are even less able to create new contents.

Within the connected population in Brazil, there is a significant share that, while having access
to ICT, does not know how to adequately utilise these technologies. This is the case of many
schools in the country in which, as a result of insufficient training and the lack of appropriate
education policies relating to ICT, devices are underutilised. This highlights the decisive role
of basic formal education.

The very presence of wide inequalities in Brazil makes the creation of broader digital inclusion
policies that go beyond merely providing ICT equipment all the more urgent. Digital literacy,
as defined above by Martin, is a cornerstone to ensuring that users are able to master the
contents and language of the digital world. Only with this will digital inclusion policies be able
to foster the three elements highlighted by Silveira (2003): knowledge and use of civic and
political rights; better inclusion of poorer and less educated classes in the labour market; and
improve formal education of the youth that includes critical thought, better sociocultural
education, and effective participation into the Brazilian information society.


The elements highlighted above stress the importance of establishing digital literacy as a key
public policy to foster changes in social structures and, as a consequence, on income distribution.
To put it another way, merely providing the basic infrastructure in terms of ICT equipment will
not, in itself, allow users to gain the necessary knowledge to be able to use ICT. As
recommended by Levy (2001), the appropriate conditions should be created to ensure
meaningful participation in creative production processes of ICT content, with a particular
focus on poorer citizens. Only then will they no longer be mere passive users of consumers of
information, goods, services, and entertainment, and will they become active citizens of the
digital sphere.

Bibliography

Castells, M. (2004). Informationalism, Networks, and the Network Society: a Theoretical
Blueprinting, The network society: a Cross-Cultural Perspective.
Lvy, P. (2001). Cibercultura. So Paulo: Editora 34, 1999. As tecnologias da inteligncia.

Perez, C. (2009) Technological Revolutions and Techno-Economic Paradigms. TOC/TUT
Working Paper, 20. Online at www.carlotaperez.org

SILVA FILHO, A. M. Os trs pilares da incluso digital. Revista Espao Acadmico, ano III,
n 24, maio de 2003. Available online in:
http://www.espacoacademico.com.br/024/24amsf.htm

SILVEIRA, S. A. Incluso digital, software livre e globalizao contra-hegemnica. In:
http://www.softwarelivre.gov.br/artigos/artigo_02

Webster, F. (2006) Theories of the Information Society (3th edition), Sage Publications,
Chapter 3. Post-Industrial Society: Daniel Bell, pp. 32-59.

Sources

ICT Development Index - http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/publications/idi/

Luz Para Todos - http://luzparatodos.mme.gov.br/luzparatodos/Asp/o_programa.asp

Plano Nacional de Banda Larga -
http://www.senado.gov.br/noticias/Jornal/emdiscussao/banda-larga.aspx

Centro de Estudos sobre as Tecnologias da Informao e da Comunicao -
http://www.cetic.br/