Celebration Of Diversity Or Separation?

However, peoples and cultures hold their ground against foreign influences with as much steadfastness as those who are eager to embrace the outside world. In essence, though, how is this different from any age prior to electronic media, with tribes, villages, towns, cities and countries having always protected and asserted their various cultures and identities? The notion of a global village is indeed an attractive one. Those who believe they are residents of such a village use too simplistic values such as Internet chat rooms, e-commerce, e-mail, tenuous cultural exchanges and the overall connectivity of the World Wide Web to justify their claims. The reality, however, is that more than 83 per cent of the world are oblivious to the Internet. Some do not have access to it and others choose to ignore it. And when a population making up 83 per cent of a supposed village do not even live there, how can we even say village let alone global village? Clearly, mass media plays a major part in defining our cultures. The way Americans report on their own affairs will always carry a certain bias, and the same thing is to be said of the media in Europe, Asia, Africa and anywhere else in the world. Tribalism is what defines borders and civilizations and the mass media continues to foster this multiplicity for the benefit of their own tribe. The word propaganda is quite appropriate here. Which is why people in the Middle East are no closer to understanding their peers in the United States and vice-versa. There is no true global village.