When we talk about basic necessities, the things that usually come to our mind are food, water and shelter, but with technology becoming a major part of life I feel Internet is becoming as important as any other basic need. Belonging to an upper middle class family and living in the city, the Internet connection is something that is usually taken for granted. However, when not being able to have access to it makes me feel handicapped. In “Connection at Ewiiaapaayp Mountain” Sandvig talks about these Native Americans who didn’t have this privilege till in the recent past, and shockingly some of them still don’t. Sandvig points out that one of the major reasons that they were deprived the access was because of the demography these reservations live in, which doesn’t give any incentive for the major telecommunication companies to provide this basic need. Even though, there are reservations that do receive subsidized Internet access, there looms a “moral burden” on them to utilize it only for educational purposes only. This gives them a feeling of acting as a disadvantaged group receiving benefits, rather than someone who is exercising their rights to get their basic necessities. Similar to Sterne’s article Sandvig raises the issue about racial gap affecting Internet access. | Apart from the users of digital media there is a divide between the people who are involved behind the scenes in the world of media as well. Wilson III and Costanza-Chock in their article “New Voices on the Net?” say, “We imagine that people of color should be better represented, in terms of station control and employment in public broadcasting than in print or in commercial broadcasting …”, this points out that even now, when a black man is living in the white house, the color of the skin matters when employing someone in a particular field of media. This makes me wonder are we always going to be stereotypical about someone based on his or her skin color. Will a black woman always be portrayed as a divorced single mother struggling to pay her bills and a white blond female shown belonging to a wealthy family, will the Asians be always be made to feel as calculators? People having different colored skins can either be discriminated on the basis of it or be seen as people bringing diversity to the society. I believe instead of alienating people belonging to different social and racial groups, media companies should take help from them and broadcast the stories and experience they have to offer. I would like to see it as Wilson III and Costanza-Chock best put it “Multicultural society requires not only multiple channels, but truly diverse ownership, employment, participation, and content.” |