PROJECT SUMMARY
Mapping the Digital Gap
Focus Area: News and Media
Research Program: People
Status: Active
Improving digital inclusion outcomes and access to services in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities is critically important for informed decision making and agency. We are experiencing an accelerating digital transformation in many aspects of economic and social life.
However, there is a digital inclusion gap between First Nations Australians and other Australians, with those living in the 1,545 remote First Nations communities and homelands among the most digitally excluded people in Australia.
Mapping the Digital Gap is a supplementary project of the Australian Digital Inclusion Index (ADII), established through the ADM+S Centre in partnership with Telstra in 2021 to address a lack of data on remote First Nations digital inclusion. The objectives are to:
- Generate a detailed account of the distribution of digital inclusion across Indigenous communities;
- Track changes in measures of digital inclusion for these communities over time;
- Inform the development and evaluation of appropriate local strategies for improving digital inclusion capabilities and services enabling informed decision making; and
- Provide evidence to inform policy and program resourcing by government and industry.
Mapping the Digital Gap utilises a communicative ecologies approach to data collection that considers all ways that remote First Nations communities access and share information; from internet access and digital services to basic telephony, TV and radio and face-to-face communication. The research team partners with local organisations and employs co-researchers in each community to ensure Indigenous leadership is involved in all steps of the process, and local engagement in the project.
Working in partnership with 12 local First Nations organisations in remote communities over three years across 2022-2024, the ADII and Mapping the Digital Gap found a national digital gap of 7.5 between First Nations people and other Australians. This gap widens significantly with remoteness to 24.4 for remote First Nations people and 25.4 for very remote.
Mapping the Digital Gap has been renewed for an additional four years and will commence research in new sites from 2025-2028, continuing to track progress against Closing the Gap target 17 and inform government and industry on targeted policy and program investment in First Nations digital inclusion.
MORE INFORMATION
PUBLIC RESOURCES
Australian Digital Inclusion Index
Target audience: Government agencies, researchers, general public
The Australian Digital Inclusion Index uses data from the Australian Internet Usage Survey to measure digital inclusion across three dimensions of Access, Affordability and Digital Ability. We explore how these dimensions vary across Australia and across different social groups.
First Nations Digital Inclusion Dashboard
Target audience: Government agencies, researchers, general public
This First Nations page provides a snapshot of the scale of the Digital Gap for First Nations people compared with other Australians, by remoteness categories. It includes results from 10 remote and very remote communities surveyed under the Mapping the Digital Gap project (2022-2024).
2024 PUBLICATIONS
2024 Outcomes Report
3 December 2024
The Mapping the Digital Gap project was the first comprehensive study of remote First Nations communities’ participation in, and access to, the digital economy. It examines progress against Closing the Gap Target 17 that by 2026, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have equal levels of digital inclusion. Between 2022 and 2024, project researchers undertook 32 site visits to 12 communities, conducting data collection in partnership with local First Nations organisations. This report updates the 2023 Outcomes Report, with a focus on the most significant changes registered over the 2022-2024 period. During this time, there has been significant investment in improving telecommunications infrastructure, including a new mobile service and roll-out of Wi-Fi mesh networks or hotspots in several communities.
2023 PUBLICATIONS
2023 Outcomes Report
27 September 2023
This first outcomes report provides an overview of the first year findings from 2022 research visits. It covers key survey results and indicators of the digital gap; context and findings for each of the ten research sites; and analysis of results across the three ADII dimensions of digital inclusion – Access, Affordability and Digital Ability – as well as the crucial role of service delivery and news and media access in these communities. Case studies, photos and quotes from interviews highlight the on-the-ground experience for residents and service providers across the research sites.
2022 PUBLICATIONS
Mapping the digital gap: Erub (Darnley Island), Zenadth Kes (Torres Strait) Queensland community outcomes report 2022
4 Nov 2022
Tennant Creek, Barkley region, Northern Territory community outcomes report 2022
17 Nov 2022
INQUIRIES
Please contact mtdg@rmit.edu.au with any inquiries
RESEARCHERS
RESEARCH SUPPORT
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