The digital production gap: The digital divide and Web 2.0 collide

How does class intersect with claims of digital democracy? Most digital inequality research focuses on digital consumption or participation, but this study uses a production lens to examine who is creating digital content for the public sphere. My results point to a class-based gap among producers of online content. A critical mechanism of this inequality is control of digital tools and an elite Internet-in-practice and information habitus to use the Internet. Using survey data of American adults, I apply a logit analysis of 10 production activities—from Web sites and blogs to discussion forums and social media sites. Even among people who are already online, a digital production gap challenges theories that the Internet creates an egalitarian public sphere. Instead, digital production inequality suggests that elite voices still dominate in the new digital commons.

► I study producers, not just consumers, of online content for the digital public sphere.
► A logit analysis of ten activities, from Web sites to social media, spans nine years.
► I find a class-based gap among producers of digital content, even among those online.
► A mechanism of digital production inequality is controlling the means of production.
► Results challenge digital democracy claims, as elite voices still dominate.