Book Review: Media Ethics and Global Justice in the Digital Age

Where Van Dijk has to acknowledge that there are no clear answers, he still poses all the relevant questions and pathways toward answers. A further general achievement of the book is that it showcases the combined application and usefulness of theories: students can retrace how theories generate relevant research questions and how they help interpret empirical patterns of digital media use. The book features eight figures (of 19 in total) that represent causal processes, for example, of how the four phases of access depend on resources and produce outcomes, which feed back into resources. These models are immensely helpful in making the emergence and consequences of usage gaps apparent. Perhaps, further development of Van Dijk’s resources and appropriation theory can consolidate these ‘zoomed in’ views into a comprehensive digital inequality model.