Digital Skills for Internet and Intelligent Media

This chapter develops a detailed framework for understanding and measuring seven digital skills in the context of internet and connected intelligent media: strategic media choice, operational, formal, information, communication, content creation, and strategic media use skills. It argues that meaningful participation in a smart society requires more than technical proficiency, as users must also be able to select appropriate media, navigate complex and adaptive interfaces, evaluate information and AI-generated outputs, communicate responsibly, create content ethically, and use digital media strategically to achieve personal, professional, and societal goals. By specifying indicators for each skill, the chapter shows how digital skills can be studied empirically while emphasizing that these skills are sequential and conditional but not automatically acquired. The chapter concludes that inequalities in digital skills are likely to deepen as internet and intelligent media become more complex, making sustained support and education essential for maintaining agency, responsibility, and inclusion.