Abstract:

[Purpose/Significance] Safeguarding public cultural rights and interests for digitally vulnerable groups is paramount for implementing the national cultural digitalization strategy, fostering a fair, inclusive and accessible digital society, and building a socialist cultural powerhouse. While the intelligent digital transformation of public cultural services has played a pivotal role in satisfying people's spiritual and cultural demands and elevating the operational efficacy of public cultural services, it has concurrently given rise to "digitally vulnerable groups", resulting in a continuously widening digital divide, intensified digital exclusion and escalating digital risks, which undermines the full realization of the universal accessibility and inclusiveness objectives of public cultural services. Grounded in the contemporary context of the intelligent digital transformation of public cultural services, this paper conducted a systematic investigation into the safeguarding of public cultural rights and interests for digitally vulnerable groups, with the aim of promoting the universal, equitable and public-welfare-oriented development of public digital cultural services. [Method/Process] Following the conceptual definition and fundamental value analysis, this paper established a three-dimensional analytical framework of "Technology-Institution-Value" based on the Strategic Triangle Model of Public Value Management, to carry out a holistic study on the safeguarding of public cultural rights and interests for digitally vulnerable groups, systematically dissect the prevailing practical dilemmas and propose targeted optimization pathways. The digitally vulnerable groups, emerging in tandem with the development of public digital cultural construction, refer to social groups constrained by combined subjective and objective factors including uneven digital infrastructure distribution, inadequate digital literacy and algorithmic exclusion. These groups are unable to effectively access and utilize Internet information and intelligent digital technologies to avail themselves of public digital cultural services, thus occupying a relatively disadvantaged position in participating in public digital cultural life and sharing the dividends of digital culture. The safeguarding of public cultural rights and interests for digitally vulnerable groups constitutes an urgent imperative for satisfying people's spiritual and cultural needs and guaranteeing their fundamental cultural rights, a core prerequisite for advancing social equity and realizing social harmony, and an inevitable strategic choice for promoting national cultural digitalization and building a socialist cultural powerhouse. [Results/Conclusions] The fundamental objective of the digital transformation of public cultural services is to ensure that the dividends of digital culture benefit every member of society. Nevertheless, the safeguarding of public cultural rights and interests for digitally vulnerable groups stands out as a particularly prominent issue in this transformative process. This predicament does not stem from a single causal factor, but arises from the combined interplay of three dimensions: technology, institution and value. In terms of technology, challenges can manifest as inaccessibility at the access terminal, unavailability at the skill terminal, and inefficiency at the application terminal. The institutional dimension, deficiencies in legal frameworks, and regulatory vacuity are observed. In terms of value, problems such as public value alienation, subjective cognitive bias among stakeholders, and the absence of demand-oriented governance are prevalent. In the era of intelligent digitalization, the high-quality development of public cultural services necessitates the resolution of the safeguarding issue of public cultural rights and interests for digitally vulnerable groups, by reinforcing technological empowerment, institutional guarantee and value guidance, so as to construct a full-cycle, all-dimensional and implementable safeguarding system for this specific group. Looking ahead, targeted efforts should be made to strengthen technological empowerment to facilitate full-cycle adaptation, from access to application. Institutional safeguards should be improved to provide comprehensive support, covering everything from legislation to supervision. Value guidance should be enhanced to enable the transformation of conceptual frameworks into practical behaviors. These efforts will form a comprehensive, integrated system that safeguards the public cultural rights and interests of digitally vulnerable groups.

Key words: digitally vulnerable groups, public cultural rights and interests, public digital cultural services, delivering high-quality cultural resources to the grassroots level