Influence of New Age Media on Culture in Third World Countries.

October 30th, 2010

In last week's blog I had mentioned about the growth of the telecommunication industry, the expansion of mobile phone and internet users in the third world regions. This week's blog explores some of the cultural changes effected by new age media in developing countries. This article explores the internal cultural changes rather than the impact of western culture or globalization in third world regions.

A recent article by Adrian Morrow on the Globe and Mail http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/developing-world-embracing-mobile-devices-social-networking-survey/article1751973/ says that the developing world is leading the way in using mobile devices as communication tools. It also mentions that social networking sites are outpacing emails as the choice of communication tool! TNS Global conducted a research on online users and found that users in developing countries are much more active online and embrace new channels and application in much more active way compared to the western world. The research suggest that developing countries have are more active bloggers, and post more updates on social networking sites compared to their western counterparts.

Another article by Chistian Kreutz tells us about the emergence of social networking sites and use of mobile technology in third world countries.

http://www.web2fordev.net/component/content/article/1-latest-news/69-social-networks

Japan has the second largest twitter community. China has the largest social networking site QQ with 300 million users. India’s biggest social networking site is Orkut with 12.8 million users as of Dec 2008. In Africa, Social networks seem to be run increasingly on mobile phones. Mxit is a mobile social networking application in South Africa with more than 5 million users. Facebook launched a Swahili version of its network targeting around 110 million people.

Clearly the developing world is catching up at a faster pace with new age media on the internet. New Age media has changed the way people lead their lives. Cultures of India and China are considered to be more collectivistic. I think social networking and new age media has helped in two dimensions. One dimension is to help promote the collectivistic culture. This has been through the formation of networks, groups and communities on social networking sites. Several social campaigns and activism projects and collective action have been accomplished through social networks. For example, the Facebook group, A million voices against FARC in Columbia initiated rallies in 165 cities across the country. (http://www.crisscrossed.net/2009/07/20/social-networks-for-a-good-cause-–-growth-culture-and-impact/)

The second dimension is to promote individualism and self expression in a collectivistic culture. People post pictures, and create unique identities for themselves and actively seek friends in networks outside of their own comfort group. People form individual opinions and choose to support causes that they believe in without the peer pressure or influence of their immediate communities.

New Age Media has also moved the culture from ‘traditional’ to ‘modern’. For example, Traditional religious institutions like temples, and churches use new age media like skype and interactive audio/video platforms to create access to holy rituals and develop educational material on religious subjects.

Traditional forms of education in India and China have been the transfer of knowledge from the teacher (who is a highly revered individual) to student within the classroom. New Age Media have changed the relationship between teacher and student where both are considered to be learners in the evolving platform. In modern age, the teacher is valued more for his/her experience rather than a knowledge expert since both the teacher and student have access to the same knowledge through the internet. The education pattern has shifted from one of ‘knowledge transfer’ to one of ‘shared understanding’. Often students seem to be more updated on current happenings because of the 24/7 access to news and information through new age technology.

The rapid pace of shifting from ‘traditional’ to the ‘modern’ however is not good for the internal digital divide in these regions, as the gap seems to be getting wider. I would however say that overall, the trend has been positive and beneficial to the communities.

Evolving New Age Media in Third World Countries

Oct 23^rd, 2010

This week’s blog will examine how new age media is evolving in the developing countries.

The western world is currently living in a digital age where everything right from news, work, entertainment to business are all done in the digital space. It is difficult to imagine life without the mobile and internet. For this week’s blog I want to focus my attention on the developing regions of the world and examine how they are advancing in the digital age.

A recent report by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), an arm of the United Nations suggests that 162 million of the total 226 million new internet users will be from developing countries in 2010 where internet users are growing at a higher rate. (http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2010/10/20/global-039net-users-pass-2-billion-2010-61-trillion-texts-sent).

A peep into the communication industry in the developing regions reveals the following statistics.

Internet use in Africa increased by 2,357 percent in the last ten years and mobile phone usage jumped 550 percent between 2004 and 2009.

According to Ministry of Information Industry (MII), China which has the largest telecommunication market in the world has 420 million internet users as of June 2010, more than 976 million telephone (both mobile and land line) subscribers as of 2008 and an average 4.78 million new users register each month.

The Indian telecommunication industry, projected to be the fastest growing in the world has 706.37 million telephone (landlines and mobile) subscribers as of Aug 2010 and has the second largest market next to China. It is projected that India will surpass China’s subscription count in 2013 and the industry is expected to reach a size of US $77.61 billion at a growth rate of 26 percent, generating employment for around 10 million people. There are several 3G licensed operators and Apple’s iPads and iPhones are extremely popular devices in developing countries.

All this statistics indicate that users are definitely moving to the online and digital space to access information and carry out daily activities. They are catching up at a rapid pace with the western world. People get their news online, do online trading of shares, and spend a lot of time on blogs, twitter and social networking sties. Not just News media but Advertising is also undergoing sea changes. A recent article from Livemint Wall Street Journal analyzed how marketing has changed in India with the influence of New Age Media. The article talk about how consumers are invited to co-create content and be brand ambassadors for the products they endorse through interactive video, user reviews, online media and viral campaigns. Some example discussed were Huggies Diaper ‘Baby movie star’, HSBC Inc’s ‘talking point’.(http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2010/10/20/global-039net-users-pass-2-billion-2010-61-trillion-texts-sent). I think New Age media has empowered the consumers and increased their voice and presence in the market.

However an interesting point to note with New Age media is that, the developing regions have not yet caught on to the concept of e-commerce or online shopping in a big way. People still prefer to go to the store and shop for products. There are issues of trust and credit card misuse that prevent them from going online to shop for products. That is a space that has huge opportunities for growth.

Another space that is yet to catch up with the West is the use of social networking sites for Marketing, Public Relations and Advertising activities. While personal social networking sites like Facebook and Orkut are still popular among the youth, these platforms have not yet been explored by the corporate sector as advertising or marketing platforms.

As a last observation, the flipside to these statistical figures is that- the rapid expansion in new Age Media is restricted to the urban areas. While the reach maybe more, the penetration is not deep. Several people in the poorer parts of the country still do not have access to internet or phones or even basic facilities like electricity and water supply. Clearly the digital divide within third world countries is huge and they have a long journey ahead to catch up with new Age Media.

The Virtual Classroom

Impact of New media in the education sector in Developing Countries

The Virtual Classroom

(October 16th, 2010)

My blog for this week is going to explore how New media is changing the education sector in third world countries particularly with respect to e-learning.

(image downloaded from www.softwaremag.com)

Some research on this topic reveals that the biggest change effected by new media in the education sector has been through the concept of e–learning. By e-learning I refer to the use of internet and communication technologies, in imparting interactive distant education as well as classroom education through interactive learning tools including video, audio and online gaming, apart from the traditional textual content made available online. One of the biggest impact of internet and technology in e-learning is the ‘digitization of content’ which makes it economical to distribute and reproduce.(Sahay,2009) http://www.ten.us.com/resources/CSICP.pdf.

In a projected $52.6B e-learning industry, Asia is expected to account for 20-30% growth in 2010. http://thejournal.com/articles/2007/07/30/elearning-market-to-hit-526b-by-2010.aspx. In countries like India, China and Africa where demand always exceeds supply, e-learning has been a great boon to the education sector. For these countries, the issues with making education available to all have always been - dearth of teachers, lack of infrastructure, schools and resources.

For example the Tanzanian government in Africa has launched a program called “Tanzania Beyond Tomorrow” to deal with the shortage of 85,000 teachers in its secondary schools. This project is a partnership with leading technology companies to create the 21^st century classrooms by introducing computers to both students and teachers and making remote education possible. http://www.elearning-africa.com/newsportal/english/news257.php

The Indian government has latched on to the concept of e-learning in a big way. Several policies and frameworks are in place to get e-learning into higher education systems.

http://www.merinews.com/article/e-learning-in-india-the-electronic-way-to-learning/15764276.shtml. For example, the government launched the National Mission on Education through information and Communication technologies at a cost of more than 5 billion in 2008-09. Institutional like the NIIT have provided training to more than 500,000 students annually across 33 countries through e-learning. Another project called the NPTEL(National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning) launched in 1999 by the Ministry of Human Resource and Development aimed at engineering education in college universities met with good success.

The E-learning market in China is in the growth phase. According to a 2008 report, http://www.pr-inside.com/report-on-china-s-e-learning-market-r900369.htm

12.2 million people were enrolled in online education in 2007 which was a 25% higher enrollment compared to the previous year. However the biggest challenge with promoting the concept of e-learning in China has been the mistrust and resistance in the acceptance of online educational certificates and diplomas.

Challenges with e-learning:

Across all regions in Asia and Africa the common challenges with implementing e-learning programs have been.

1. Enhancing infrastructure and providing ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies), high speed internet connectivity and system compatibility for high tech software for all e-learning programs.

2. Imparting training on use of ICTs and internet to teachers, students and educational service providers. Particularly in government schools and rural classrooms.

3. Setting standards for e-learning in an extremely competitive market.

4. Attracting self motivated students to enroll and remain focussed as this is not the same as a classroom scenario (in the case of distance e-learning).

5. Building trust and bridging cultural gaps when creating a virtual classroom with international students in an online e-learning environment.

In spite of these challenges the influence of new media in the education sector is increasingly becoming popular and holds great potential for the future of education in developing countries.

New Age Media & Health Care in India

New Age Media & Health Care in India

(Oct 9th,2010)

Last week I discussed the relevance of new age media and technology in developing countries. In the past few days I have been trying to find out what impact technology innovations and internet have had in developing countries such as India. (My frame of reference for this week’s entry is going to be India). One thing that really jumped out in terms of benefits is the health care sector.

I had no clue that rural populations residing in remote villages in India were getting access to health care through mobile services operated by several private and public sector partnerships. For example this Youtube video demonstrates how doctors and health care providers are driving up with their mobile vans (equipped with sophisticated technology) and using the internet to deliver diagnostic and consultation services! A thing that one could not have possibly imagined in the past.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFGQqm2If_s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_qqdmHWQLw

Doctors are providing consultations through video conferencing and webcam based technology such as skype. The potential for telemedicine is really high and has tremendous scope especially for the rural population.

An article by Sanjo Bagchi http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1420376/

explores the challenges and the progress made so far by the ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization). Through its geo- stationary satellites, ISRO aims to connect 650 district hospitals, 3000 sub district hospitals and 23,000 primary health centers across the country. Their larger goal is to connect all private and public hospitals in Asia and Africa. With advancement in technology and several internet service providers showing up across the country, ISRO is making steady progress in its goals. More than 25,000 people received health care through telemedicine within the first few years of launching the program and the numbers are steadily increasing.

But there are several challenges with the implementation and growth of telemedicine and health care interventions through the use of technology. Some of them are:

1. Education- service provider and patients need to be trained to administer and avail the services. People (especially illiterate population) are not very trusting of advanced technology which is beyond their comprehension. . Rural populations are used to the traditional medicine systems such as ayureda, homeopathy and unani system of medicines. Mobile/Tele medicine is not equipped to provide such services. There is alos a fear of ‘loss of job’ among local health care providers
2. Budget investment- Indian government is unable to invest enough to meet the health demands of the exponentially growing population. India is ayoung country in the sense it has maximum youth population, it is a growing country and the ‘demand always exceeds supply’
3. Commute and Access- several villagers need to travel by foot for hours together to even access these mobile health clinics. There is poor infrastructure and creates a lot of frustration among the masses.

New Age media, especially the internet is being integrated into government school systems in order to educate not only children but also adults on the benefits it can offer. But the road ahead is really challenging. We need to bring about social change to integrate technology and help the audience make sense of new age media. One way is to introduce them to benefits it can offer and mobile health services is one way of doing it.

New Age media and the digital divide in developing/under developed countries.

Does New Age media have an impact in third world regions?

(Saturday October 2nd, New Jersey-USA)

Blog description:

This blog will briefly explore the relevance of New Age media in developing and underdeveloped countries. Is New Age media relevant to people living below the international poverty with no formal education?

Muni’s day begins at 4 am. Her small single room hut protected by a thatched roof that leaks during the rainy season in Chennai (in India), is shared by her family of five, including three grown up sons. With just a single 60 watt bulb that lights the whole house and no fan or air conditioner to brave the scorching summer temperatures, Muni needs no alarm clock to wake her. The sound of the sate run water tanker’s engine revering up in her street is enough to get her on her toes. She need to hurry to join the large queue waiting outside to get the allocation of one bucket water per family. Muni is thankful that she is atleast able to get that one bucket. Others are not as fortunate as her. Muni slogs all day working as a domestic servant in several houses (including mine) during the day and rushes home to cook and fend for her family at night. Life is a struggle. Muni is one among millions of slum dwellers in India who struggle to get a bare minimum supply of electricity, water and healthy sanitation. She has no health insurance and has had no formal education and doesn’t know to even sign her own name or read an alphabet.

Does new age media/technology matter to people like Muni who are worried about how to provide the next meal to the family? Perhaps not. Why should we be concerned about Muni? Let’s take a look at world statistics to get a larger picture.

According to the US census bureau (www.census.gov),the world population is around 6.8 billion. Of this world population, developing and underdeveloped regions like Asia and Africa account for more than 75%. (India and China alone constitute 40% and Africa accounts for 26%). According to the World Bank statistics, as of Aug 2008, it is estimated that 1.4 billion people in the world live below the international poverty line (US $1.25 a day). It is also estimated that 885 million people across the world were illiterate as of year 2000 according to UNESCO report of 2002. So here is a population that is poor, has no access to technology and cannot read or write. Why or how would new age digital media make a difference to their lives? Is it even relevant? These are the issues I am exploring in my blog entry this week.

Researchers indicate that new age media is indeed making inroads in the developing and underdeveloped nations. In the Global Media Journal, Mindy A. Sipe-Haesemeyer’s (2005) article on Integrating technology access across the globe, (http://lass.calumet.purdue.edu/cca/gmj/fa05/graduatefa05/gmj-fa05gradinv-sipe.htm) dicusses some pertinent issues on the role of globalization and the third world countries’s access to technology. One research indicates that that it took the radio 30 years, television 13 years, and the Internet only four years to expand its audience to 50 million people,,” (Chernov, 2004, pg. 22). The internet and new age technology is penetrating the developing world in a rapid state.

Today most average Indians living on the borders of the poverty line owns a mobile phone. In fact people use the mobile services to call street hawkers and simple auto rickshaw drivers for their services. Every slum dwelling home is being provided with a cable television in India. For people like Muni, her only source of entertainment, relaxation and connection to the world outside the four walls of her slum is the cable TV provided by power hungry politicians for the vote she would cast to bring their party to power. An article by Robert Jensen (2008) http://home.uchicago.edu/~eoster/tvwomen.pdf spells out the power of TV in India. The number of television sets has increased more than six fold in Asia from 100 to 650 million. According to the National Readership Council 2006, 112 million households in India own a television with 61% having cable and satellite service.

This is just one example of rapid invasion of technology and new age media in the developing world. While the newspaper, internet, and online media may not be a good platform to reach out to this uneducated population, new age media through television and mobile services is definitely creating waves in the region. Consumption pattern of media is changing. Education, health and government interventions through radio, television and phone services are increasing. Awareness on world issues is increasing in the developing world thanks to new age media. But there is also resistance to this overwhelming invasion. People are resistant to the world wide web and the western influences in their societies and cultures that result from it. What are some of the pros and cons of new age media intervention?

Over the next several weeks, this blog will explore the various aspects of new age media and the role it plays in the developing world.