信息穷人与信息富人:个人层次的信息不平等测度述评

Information Rich and Poor: Review of the Information Inequality Measurement

文章梳理了20世纪70年代以来信息不平等相关研究对信息穷人、信息富人的界定方式以及对信息贫困和信息不平等的测度方式。结果显示,尽管"信息穷人"与"信息富人"的概念随信息社会的兴起而日渐流行,但多数研究都将社会经济意义的弱势人群等同于信息穷人;同时,尽管存在很多描述信息贫困和信息富有的指标,但这些指标尚未合成对信息穷人和富人有效区分的尺度。文章认为,现有研究对信息穷人和富人的粗放式划分和测度,既不利于全面认识信息不平等现象,也不利于深入考察信息不平等与社会经济不平等的关联。

This paper reviews related previous studies concerning the definition of society＇s information rich and poor and the measurement of information poverty and inequality. It is found that in spite of the popularity of the information rich and poor concepts, most studies have defined the concepts in economical rather than informational terms, and that the assorted existing indicators for describing the information rich and poor are yet to form integrated measurement for categorizing people informationally. The authors argues that the existing methods for defining the information rich and poor are too crude to be useful for understanding information inequality and its relationship with society＇s socio-economic inequality.