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Wikipedia features LA&PS student’s project on Canada’s Digital Divide

 

Wikipedia has featured student Andrew Hatelt’s article on the Digital Divide in Canada under its Did You Know? section, highlighting his work as among some of the most interesting articles recently published through the online encyclopedia.

Referencing Hatelt’s article, Wikipedia writes, “Did you know… that the Canadian government invests millions of dollars in First Nations communities to close the digital divide in Canada?”

Wikipedia WikiEdu article author and winner of YorkU Essay Prize Andrew Hatelt photo | 2017-12-15

Andrew Hatelt

The digital divide references the inequality of access among Canadians to the internet and other information communication technologies. Hatelt’s article lists a variety of factors as the cause for the divide, including high costs, income inequality, insufficient online connectivity in different regions and lack of digital literacy, among others.

Hatelt wrote his article for a class assignment when he was enrolled in Communication Studies Professor Jonathan Obar’s fourth-year seminar, Resistance and Subversion on the Internet.

Obar’s class explored the “political, social and technical aspects of resistance and subversion on the internet,” focusing on Wikipedia as a potential tool of such resistance.

The Digital Divide in Canada would go on to win Hatelt the 2017 Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies Writing Award.

Wikipedia is written collaboratively, with people around the world contributing and growing its content. Read more about the success of Hatelt’s Wikipedia article in Wiki Edu.