Mapping Out Digital Inequalities & Activities

• In Event: 3267 - Section on Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 3. New Technologies & Inequality

Abstract

In this research we examine the relationships between digital inequalities, digitally mediated activities, and academic achievement among high school students attending a low SES school. Data comes from survey and interview data from 740 graduating seniors. We examine academic achievement in terms of GPA and school tracking, unequal durations of home and school internet use, and intensity of digital activities including search, social media, media streaming, and email. To analyze this data, we employ QCA to produce predictive subset configurations for two academic outcomes (GPA, academic track placement) and two outcomes related to intensity of social media and search. With these crisp set analyses, we use QCA to reveal multiple pathways to the same outcome and further explore these findings with data from matched qualitative case studies.

Author

• Jeremy Markham Schulz, University of California, Berkeley