Impact of digital communication on politics, culture, conflict and change

Question 1

Growth of religious fundamentalism

Answer 1

• Fundamentalists believe in a literal interpretation of their religion. They also want a return to religious traditions in late/post modern society
• Giddens argued that they can be seen to have several key features:
• An authoritative, sacred doctrine
• ‘Us’ versus ‘Them’
• Aggressive & Reactive
• Patriarchal
• Believe in Prophecy
• Believe in Conspiracies
• Use of modern technologies
• The use of digital communication has had a huge impact on history both on a small and large scale. Digital communication has started to play a key role in the spread of religious fundamentalism and recent concerns over groups such as ISIS illustrate just how profound these effects can be.
• It has been reported that groups such as ISIS have begun to use digital communication devices in order to gain support and also plan and share their activities

Question 2

Lesaca

Answer 2

• ISIS have used social media to pose threats: Russia and france received threats by ISIS via videos broadcasted on social media (Russia - More than 25 in two years. France - Almost 20 in the same timeframe).
• ISIS released videos encouraging young people to join the terrorist group.
• The Department of State Published more than 300 videos on YouTube that counter the violent and extremist messages of radical jihadist groups in social media.
• ISIS and the Department of State used twitter and youtube to pass on messages

Question 3

Howard

Answer 3

• Christian fundamentalist groups were using the internet as a key role to promote their ideologies
• found that virtual church was built around those who embraced common ideologies and his study ‘Digital Jesus’ shows how like-minded people created a large web of communication on the internet
• This saw the creation of new types of religious movements without a central leader. In order to gain an in-depth insight into the use of the internet by this group Howard carried out an ethnography

Question 4

Global risk consciousness

Answer 4

beck

Question 5

Beck

Answer 5

• Today we face new kind of dangers in our society: manufactered dangers
  e.g. dangers are climate change, war, immigration etc which is man made
• in the past, our dangers were famine, drought etc - natural dangers
• we therefore become risk conscious and try to avoid and minimise as many risks as possible
• this then had led to increasing concerns about border patrols to protect countries from perceived threats of immigration for example
• This has created internal conflicts within society and between societies, and significant political changes eg. Brexit

Question 6

exploitation of developing economies

Answer 6

• taylor
• Rothe and Friedrichs

Question 7

taylor

Answer 7

• suggests that globalisation, by giving free rein to capitalism, has led to greater inequality which could even be considered criminal
• e.g. transnational companies who switch production to low wage countries for cheap labour.
• The international drug trade can only operate in a globalised world, in which much of the processing of illegal drugs (heroin, cocaine, fentanyl) takes place in the developing world (Mexico, Columbia, Myanmar, Afghanistan)

Question 8

Rothe and Friedrichs

Answer 8

• looked at international financial organisations such as IMF and World Bank who provide huge loans to developing countries
• World Bank has 188 member countries but its policy voting rights are dominated by five countries – USA, Japan, Germany, Britain and France (rich developed countries)
• These organisations have therefore highly pro neo-liberal views which imposes regulations which benefit the richer countries at the expense of poorer, for example privatisation of public services across the world
• This creates major problems in certain counties eg. mass unemployment in Rwanda in the 1980s

Question 9

Dealing with disasters

Answer 9

• Sutton, palen, scklovski

Question 10

Sutton, palen, scklovski

Answer 10

• also acknowledge that new forms of digital communications are becoming increasingly important when aiming to deal with disasters
• carried out their research during the Southern California Wildfires in 2007 and found that the use of new digital communications helped to pass on community information. They argue that this is impacting on the way in which institutions and organisations respond to disasters

Question 11

Development of online campaigns and social movements

Answer 11

• kirkpatricks
• ghonim

Question 12

kirkpatricks

Answer 12

• the facebook effect
• focuses on how Facebook has revolutionised the way the world uses the Internet
• Facebook has spread around the globe and touched on how it creates surprising effects, such as when it has been used as an instrumental part of political protests from Colombia to Iran
• Kirkpatrick also looks at how 19 year old Harvard student, Mark Zuckerberg, has transformed the Internet and even the way that communication, marketing, politics and business is occurring in not only the US but on a global scale…this he calls is ‘The Facebook Effect’

Question 13

Ghonim

Answer 13

• arab spring
• Middle East and the impact social media has had on political protests
• Previous to this the use of social media in the Arab World was mainly, exclusively used by the elite due to restrictions by the state, in an attempt to prevent Western influences and maintain cultural traditions. Ghonim studies how social media was at the forefront of revolutions taking place from 2011 onwards with individuals stating that Facebook, weblogs, Twitter and YouTube played an important role in these events
• These events are now referred to as the Arab Spring
• it is clear that the interactions between individuals can create collective action
• e.g. the case study of protests in Egypt saw that due to social media permanently connecting activists they were able to create an uprising, protesting community
• Twitter, Facebook and YouTube were used to present the government abuses of citizens and also shape public opinions about issues such as repression. The regimes in Egypt then used digital communication, such as traditional media and new media, as a way of countering these activist protests

Question 14

cultural defence and ‘glocalisation’

Answer 14

• Sreberni & mohammadi
• giddens
• croteau & hoynes

Question 15

sreberni & mohammadi

Answer 15

points out that the image of Western media and domination is exaggerated and ignores complex interactions which occur between cultures (they can influence each other)

Question 16

giddens

Answer 16

• ‘reverse colonisation’
• where in fact western cultures are not dominating less powerful groups, but in fact the reverse of this is occurring such as the ‘Mexicanisation’ of California, where food, dress and music has become a key part of Californian lifestyle

Question 17

croteau & hoynes

Answer 17

• argue that global digital media companies have also been forced to take into account local markets/audiences eg. McDonalds menus

Question 18

Positive impact on Global conflict

Answer 18

• Ghonim- Arab Spring
• Kirkpatrick- Facebook effect e.g. BLM
• Fukuyama: Westernisation has brought end to conflicts between capitalism and communism

Question 19

negative impact on Global conflict

Answer 19

• Lesaca
• Howard
• Beck

Question 20

positive impact on global conflict

Answer 20

• Ghonim - Arab Spring
• Kirkpatrick - Facebook Effect eg. Black Lives Matter
• Fukuyama - Westernisation has brought end to conflicts between capitalism and communism (following fall of Soviet Union)

Question 21

negative impact on global conflict

Answer 21

• Lesaca - ISIS and religious fundamentalism
• Howard - Christian fundamentalism eg. Westboro Baptist Church
• Beck - risk society, creating fears of immigration, creating riots, Brexit etc.