Introduction to Communication Technology & Cultural Imperialism

Introduction

We are communication students from Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Faculty Arts and Social Science undertaking subject UAMG 2064 Digital Communication Technology. This blog is created solely for assignment purposes. The main objective is to investigate the relationship between Communication Technology & Cultural Imperialism. The topic of communication technology has been raised in many global conference and it is definitely a hot issue now. It triggers the discussion among the professionals and the public. We hope that the write-up of our blog would inspire you to see the worldwide effects of communication technology on cultural aspects. There are more to know in the subtopic below! Let's begin!

What is Communication?

First of all, most of us would think that "communication" is simply a conversation between human and human. However, it is more than just a conversation. When we intend to extend the definition of "communication", it can become rather complex. For years communication theorists has been trying to develop a general yet on point definition for the word “communication”. According to (Danesi, 2009), communication is the exchange of messages through some channel and in some medium. There are a few communication theorists who classified communication by the mode of communicate, either through non-verbal or verbal methods. It is mentioned that even the gesture, proximity, facial expressions of ones convey about certain messages. Therefore, “communication” has a broad definition that varies according to different context and communicator.

'Communication' & 'Technology'?

Since communication is a broad topic, we are going to narrow down and focusing on the use of technology in communication.  Undeniable, technology eased our daily life, especially on the aspects of communication. Can you imagine our world without smart phone, laptop, tablet, wireless connection, mobile access data? I think we barely can. The reason is that we have been immersed in the world that surrounded by technology everywhere. Instead, ‘technology’ is not just a tools but a great part of our life. In addition, technology drives the advancement of a country. According to (Farhadi, Ismail, & Fooladi, 2012), many structural changes such as reorganizing of economics, globalization, and trade extension is caused by the progress of information and communication technology advancement. This situation has lead to the capital flows and the enhancement of information availability in the recent years. From this, we can see that the advancement of technology contributed to the country’s development status. While we discussing the topic of technology, we should discover a bit further about the current advancement of technology worldwide, Industry 4.0.

Industry 4.0

Here is a short summary about the industry revolution. (Nardinelli, n.d.) says that the fact that industrial revolution was one of the most important events in the history, marking the rapid transition to the modern age is undeniable by the historians. There are a total of 4 industrial revolution throughout the history. Industry 1.0 started with the invention of water power and steam power that thrived the transportation ad mechanization system. Later, Industry 2.0 introduced the method of mass production that maximized the production efficiency. The use of electricity benefited the whole world and it further the development of the industry. Then, Industry 3.0 presented the people with the concept of automation and computer system. This act as a fundamental base for the advance development of technologies in the coming eras. When computer is first introduce to the world, it largely affected the communication system of human. Traditional media is no more the only source of information and the accessibility of information is just one click away. Since then, people started to embrace the use of technologies in their life. Now, as we step into the 21st century, we are witnessing the 4th industrial revolution which involved cyber physical systems and artificial intelligent. When compared with previous industrial revolutions, the Fourth is evolving at an exponential pace. Moreover, it is disrupting almost every industry in every country. And the breadth and depth of these changes herald the transformation of entire systems of production, management, and governance. The possibilities of billions of people connected by mobile devices, with unprecedented processing power, storage capacity, and access to knowledge will be multiplied by emerging technology breakthroughs in fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles, 3-D printing, nanotechnology, biotechnology, materials science, energy storage, and quantum computing (Schwab, 2015). 

Thus, the advancement of technology has promised a better life for everyone. In the meanwhile, technology affected the communication field as well. Communication with technology becomes more powerful and impactful that reaches more people worldwide. As the day past, the people are influenced with cross-country's culture and there are exchange of information constantly between each country. For example, Korean-Pop, Indian Bollywood movie, Fashion Trend which eventually leads to globalization. The world does not seems as big as it seems to be before and our world seems more connected through the advancement of communication technology. Please visit the link below to know more ! 

https://youtu.be/h9t06cyC7Es

What is Cultural Imperialism?

In international communication theory and research, cultural imperialism theory argued that audiences across the globe are heavily affected by media messages emanating from the Western industrialized countries. (Kraidy, M., 2002). Cultural imperialism is an idea similar to Globalization. It is about the Nowadays, each country's culture is shared among people from foreign country. People started to embrace the difference between people and they have even practice the foreign culture back in their home country. According to (Kraidy, M. 2002). Globalization influenced almost all the aspect of society, include about culture. Globalizations attacked human soul, mindset, and psychology. So globalizations give some impacts to human behavior and lifestyle. For instance, in Malaysia, in terms of food choice, we already have a lot of choices to be choose from. However, due to the cultural exchange that happened around us, foreigners have decided to spread their business overseas and it further accelerated the speed of globalization. Now, Malaysian are exposed to different food originated from the foreign country. However, when cultural exchange happened around us, Malaysia started to have Korean restaurant, Japanese restaurant, Mexican restaurant. 

How Communication Technology in-related to Cultural Imperialism?

As the advancement of technology take places in the development of our country, it greatly increase the rate of globalization. The major culture worldwide has become a trend that dominate the media industry. For instance, the rise of Korean Pop Culture went viral in the 20^th century. Soon, different country adopted the Korean culture that portrait by media.

In the past, we have witnessed “westernization” in various country. We have been pursuing the lifestyle of the westerner as it seems more luxurious and classy. However, when the communication technology in the Asian country became more advance, there is actually a change that western country is adopting some culture from the Asian too. Therefore, it clearly shows that cultural imperialism can be happened not only on “westernization” context. The advancement of technology is the main reason that contribute to the existences of ‘Cultural Imperialism’.

Reference List

Danesi, M. (2009). Dictionary of media and communications. New York, NY: Armonk.

Farhadi. M, Ismail. R, Fooladi. M (2012) Information and Communication Technology Use and Economic Growth. PLoS ONE 7(11): e48903. doi:10.1371/ journal.pone.0048903

U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (n.d.). Industrial Revolution and the Standard of Living. Retrieved from http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/IndustrialRevolutionandtheStandardofLiving.html

Schwab, F. (2015). The fourth industrial revolution. Retrieved from https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2015-12-12/fourth-industrial-revolution

Kraidy, M. (2002). Globalization of culture through the media. In J. R. Schement (Ed.), Encyclopedia of communication and information (Vol. 2, pp. 359-363). New York, NY: Macmillan Reference USA. Retrieved from http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/325