[Communication spread-Internet] How has the spread of communications technology afected cultures around the world Asess the extent to which the Internet is a medium for Western culture alone - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... The most immediate and obvious result of the spread of the internet and communications technologies in recent years has been the political destabilizing effects they can have for despotic regimes across the world. As with so much in history, this all boils down to a question of power.
Much of late industrial society was witness to the atomization of individuals with respect to their position in society. Consumerism broke down social bonds and links. The internet has somewhat reversed that trend. It has allowed people, not just for political reasons but also for cultural or religious ones, to unite and “re-connect” with one another. “Information Age gurus claim the Internet will alleviate global poverty, empower individuals, revolutionize commerce, and spread the light of democracy to far corners of the globe…” (Shapiro 1999). One well-known example was the case of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. When the government sought to crackdown on protesters, the internet allowed many to network with one another. Freedom loving peoples from cultures around the world have found in the internet a means of connecting. Just before the Olympics, Chinese human-rights activist Hu Jia was able to testify via the internet to the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights and “[deplore] the ‘human-rights disaster’ in China” (Billitteri 2008). Aside from bringing people together, the internet has exposed people to values and cultures other than their own in a way which was hitherto only possible with international travel. People can communicate across oceans and continents. A great part of this “exposure” has been the spread of democratic ideals and Western cultural values about freedom.
For much of human history, the de facto system of government was almost always tyranny of one form or another. In recent centuries, beginning in the West, there developed the idea that the public should have a ...Download file to see next pagesRead More