Just back from a great dissertation defense of Deb Procopio’s work on the Internet and the Knowledge Gap. One important finding (I gave my copy with makes on it back the Dr. Procopio so I’m working from memory) is that Internet use works aggressively to close the Knowledge Gap of Lower Socio-Economic Status (called SES in the trade) people. Internet use doesn’t just move up everyone’s knowledge equally although it does move everyone up. But it demonstrably and significantly helps out citizens of lower SES. Dr. Procopio worked with some large datasets from the Knight Foundation surveys covering several years and several communities and her findings were consistant throughout.
Look for more about this.