Post in Read any useful research lately, unanswered research questions

Jul 22 10:47 UTC

Michael Allan  > Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2008 10:13 AM
> This happened roughly two centuries ago.
<cut>
>  These proceedings began to appear in the press.

But what proportion of the population could then read?  Or have access to the
newspapers?

We have undoubtedly made progress since then, but last night a Channel 4
documentary stated that 5 million adults in the UK could
not read or write.  That is 10% of the adult population of the UK, all excluded
from access to written information, in 2008.  Maybe
they get their "political" information (sensu lato) from watching television.
But if they cannot read and write, they almost
certainly don't vote in any public elections.  Do they participate
(effectively) in other ways?

Can these 5 million adults use computers?  Do they use computers?  Maybe they
can and do, to gather information from on-line videos?
Implications for eDemocracy, eParticipation?

James Gilmour

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