Concepts/impact On Identities And Cultural Homo Flashcards
Castells-information age
‘Information Age’: technology and big data are big business and assets, our era is focused on information not mechanical advances like the industrial revolution era (shifted from industrialism to post to informationalism). Information is a huge part of our economy as companies profit growth off of sharing data and the growth of technology. Economic activity and production is now through networking and as information is shared quickly between companies which has sped up business and made the world smaller as we can communicate with speed. Social networks hold power: Trans National Corporations are companies in multiple countries who adapt wares to local cultures. Social networks make it easier to challenge the state system as some TNCs are more powerful than world leaders as they are in a range of places and the digital world isn’t policed
Castells -negatives
Negative consequences: in an Information Age, people in manual labour jobs don’t have technical skills so can’t reach professional jobs which leads to a digital divide and underclas
Our world in data . Org -digital revolution
there is still inequality (124 mobile phone subscriptions per 100 people in the uk compared to 54 per 100 in Botswana. Still evidence of a global digital divide as 92% of the population in the ukacessing the internet compared to 3.8% in the democratic of Congo. Clear evidence that there has been a huge digital revolution globally but the digital population worldwide in April 2017 was 3.81 billion people were active internet users and 2.91 billion were social media users.
Goffman
The presentation of self- individuals perform in order to project a desirable image. When a front stage actor performs, they know they are being observed so will follow social rules but backstage, it is not necessary. When in front stage we wear a mask and become a better version of ourselves. Phone conversations are not rich and lack visual cues, this richness has been enabled through a variety of media options like knowing someone’s favourite music, friends list, links and photos which are all identity indicators. An avatar can be seen as a mask and we create multiple identities in everyday life. The splitting of the self online and in person are different FOR EXAMPLE: social media means we can retake and edit pictures until we get the perfect presentation. People are becoming insta famous and influencers by selling their identities (molly mae). People are obsessed with how others see them and we may miss time with friends in real life
Ellison-identity
individuals can adopt multiple online personalities and online activities can leave visible traces which can be tracked and shared. These choices tell us a lot about individuals and attitudes in wider society and online identities can impact on people’s offline lives in negative and positive ways
Boelstorff-virtual communities (positive and negative)
second life. It can be used to change your identity via picking an avatars gender, age and race and do things like buy property and attend weddings. The controversies is that that you can commit crimes online (prostitution, pornography and ‘rape ad ons’ and murder’ which may be reflected in life and the Belgian police were asked to patrol online after reports of rape in the game. As boundaries are not well maintained in the game as little policing apart from agreeing to rules. Virtual communities may enhance interaction as it can help those with self esteem issues As it can give people confidence to connect but it is not realistic and can be a barrier to real life relationships
Carter-virtual communities -evidence of global village
cyber city as a virtual community. Explored how digital forms of communication are used in creating and maintaining relationships in a global context. Researched cyber city for three and half years which had a western sample and he used participant observations and questionnaires. It is used to meet people with similar interests, people give effort to relationships in cyberspace and continue online friendships -meet people globally and develop social network
Digital social networks
Snapchat can be used to help friendship groups as it has a chant function, you can send pictures which share in real time what you are doing which can strengthen relationships and reduced the issue of locality. LinkedIn can help work networks as it is an ongoing cv which is easy to update and add new work experience. You can access a wider range of jobs and companies can approach you for jobs, including promotions. WhatsApp can improve family networks as you can group messages, it allows a range of age groups to interact, you can mute to connect when you want to and also connect with people in different locations. Facebook and Pinterest can be used for hobbies and interests as Facebook allows members to organize events and share information to groups and Pinterest can be used to find people with similar styles on a global scale, use it to make mood boards for creative projects or gain inspiration
Boyle-media convergence
states that previously separate forms of media can now be accessed through one device also a range of media such as videos and texts can all be stored and accessed on one website. Social media platforms are interlinked (Facebook and Instagram to access friends) the convergence has been used to promote western capitalist ideas like material ownership presented as ideal via advertising.
Giddens-globalisation (no homogenisation)
discussed globalization in relation to culture. Local cultures resist the spread of the west. Example is the latinisation of LA as there is Spanish radio and tv, restaurants and shops. Reverse colonialism is the term used to describe when local cultures are asserting their own culture and revisiting westernisation- glocalisation (local cultures resisting the spread of the west)
Friedman-globalisation (evidence of homogenisation)
‘Globalisation has an American face’: it wears Mickey Mouse ears, it eats Big Macs, it drinks coke or Pepsi and it does computing on an IBM or apple laptop using windows 8 with an intel pentium 11 processor and a network link from Cisco systems. Brands have spread via advertising using digital communication e.g. social media as I say used to sell brands in other countries so cultural sameness is occurring.
Cultural homogenisation-fairweather and Rogerson (it is occurring)
cultural homogenisation is occurring due to: computer software not being localised so Microsoft reflects western ways of thinking, advertising by the west is on a global scale so presents what is desirable. Antisocial behaviour can reflect western ideas about morality and deviance (accessing private info, racism/sexism). Digital communication does not give rules or police ethics in local cultures e.g western views surrounding liberalism (use social media as examples)
Ghonim-evidence of cultural homogenisation -western ideals of democracy
Due to social media permanently connecting activists in Egypt, they were able to create an uprising, protesting community. Twitter, Facebook and YouTube were side to present government abuses of citizens and shape public opinions about issues of repression. The regimes used media as a way to counter the protests. Social media has given a voice to the previously ’voiceless and muted’ and has helped staged uprising and also talk about dictatorship regimes whilst sharing experiences with the west. Key website used Areeba areeba (means closer closer) used to unite protesters and bring rest of world closer to the Middle East and their issues
Fukuyama-evidence of cultural homogenisation -western ideals of democracy
The world is going in the direction of societies like western capitalist liberal democracies, it is spreading and increasingly being seen as the ideal. Examples are voting, individual rights, freedom of speech and countries with dictatorships are fighting for this. Conflict will remain in the form of the struggle to establish these in places they weren’t previously
Religious fundamentalists-lesaca-resisting western values (no homogenisation)
article ‘fight against isis reveals power of social media’. Suggests ISIS has anti western norms and values but use western tech to plan attacks and gain followers In past, ISIS has released videos encouraging young people in France to join the terrorist group and to commit terrorist acts. Russia has received the most threats via videos with more than 25 in 2 years with France having 20. (Using whatsapp, YouTube and Twitter)To counter this, the department of state has published more than 300 YouTube videos, one particular video was a raid to free 70 Kurdish prisoners held by ISIS in Iraq, gaining millions of views. Short videos have also been posted on Twitter accounts. Supports the idea that counter terrorism operations should be accompanied by a digital communication strategy, based on true stories, distributed through non government channels and contain real images and videos from operation to get more engagement
