The Media of Diaspora - Essay Example

The common notion of a globalised world is that it is composed of governmental organizations and big corporations, but this is not always the case as shown by large segments of the global population living in countries not their own but merely adopted. It gave the notion or concept of a movement that is “globalisation from below” and dispelled conventional wisdom also that a diaspora refers to the Jewish people only or exclusively. Discussion There are significantly large numbers of people living in other countries today due to the advent of modern forms of travel, such as the steamships and airplanes, which made travel easier and much cheaper. Prof. Karim H.

Karim has sought to spotlight the public discourse on this growing number of people who uproot themselves to move to another country which he calls as transnational groups. These groups in turn use a variety of media to communicate and keep in touch with the original communities in their home countries, using various forms of communications such as postal mail, telephone, fax, satellite television, audiotapes, video cassette tapes and with the Internet, through e-mails and chat groups (Karim 1).

The main purpose of Prof. Karim is to examine how these transnational groups have utilized various communication tools at their disposal and what the social effects are on them. The study of diapora today has been expanded from its previous closed set of characteristics to a broader definition in terms of its social scientific parameters regarding human dispersals. Some of the main points or arguments raised by Prof. Karim are that diasporas do not fit nicely into a neat definition at all times, except perhaps their common feature of being powerless in a foreign land; but even this definition does not hold true in all instances, as there are exceptions to this, such as ethnic groups which ended up as ruling elites, as in some Caribbean nations.

A common misconception likewise dispelled by Prof. Karim is that diasporas are not exclusively among Asians, Africans or Latin Americans only but also include some of white ethnic groups such as Greeks, Macedonians, Italians and white Rhodesians, although these groups may have an easier time in assimilating because they are also white like the majority of Anglo-Saxons. The key marker or characteristic of a diasporas’ group is a non-dominant position in the global cultural context. Within this definition, the worldwide community of Muslims can be included because they do not have much access to global communications networks such as the CNN or the Reuters news organization like what other groups or main majority of citizens have.

Diaspora does not pertain only to people going out of their native countries, as it is also applicable to indigenous peoples who have been displaced (or forcibly removed) from the traditional homelands they had previously occupied for centuries. The definition applies to the Inuit natives of Alaska and other parts of the Arctic circle who had remained within boundary of their countries but not in the earlier same exact geographical location (ibid. 2) and a clear manifestation of this condition is being “de-territorialised” as a nation of people.

Pursuant to this longing for an ancestral homeland, many diaspora groups end up claiming certain lands in other territories despite some conflicting claims on it, like Israel in