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.