Abstract
Digital inclusion research has focused overwhelmingly on access to information. But access to information by itself is of limited value unless the intended beneficiary has the capacity to use it. It is the use of information that delivers the benefits. However, in information and communication technologies for development literature, there is little empirical work on the process by which use of information delivers benefits. This study fills the gap by studying information use by poor female mobile phone users in rural India. It identifies six stages in the information use process and models them.
Notes
1 . Total population of India is around 1.2 billion.
2 Here it is worth noting that digital divide researchers have started taking a process-oriented perspective (Barzilai-Nahon Citation2006; Lenhart and Horrigan Citation2003; Meredyth and Thomas Citation2002; Warschauer Citation2002; Warschauer Citation2003).
3 Information behavior is defined as the many ways in which humans interact with information, especially the ways in which people seek and utilize information (Bates Citation2010). In effect, information behavior encompasses both access to information and use of information, which more comprehensively can be described as follows:
The totality of human behavior in relation to sources and channels of information, including both active and passive information seeking, and information use. It includes face-to-face communication with others, as well as the passive reception of information as in, for example, watching TV advertisements without any intention to act on the information given. (Wilson Citation2000, 49)
4 These findings contradict those of several studies (Huyer et al. Citation2006; Ling Citation1998; Ling Citation2004), which reported that poor women use mobile phones mostly for personal and social reasons alone and not for professional or work-related reasons.