Digital media and information rights

This entry advances theoretical reflections in the area of digital media access and citizen engagement and participation through digital communications. Specifically, it seeks to provide a framework to investigate the relationship between social development, civic and political participation, and access to digital media in countries where rights such as freedom of speech and information are not always upheld by governments. The authors observe that improving access to digital media in a country by providing good quality, low-cost Internet service and information technology literacy does not unquestioningly facilitate a country's development when those media are subjected to government control. The issue this raises, in contrast, is that improved digital media access may result in increased control and restriction of freedoms in cases where telecommunications and Internet infrastructures are under government control.