Introduction
A nation is often seen upon as a consolidated community, irrespective of the fact that a nation, big or small, may contain within itself numerous other communities, big or small, marked by some characteristic beliefs and features that set them apart from one another. Similarly, every nation or state has a set of characteristic beliefs and features, shared by all its members, and in some way unique to that particular nation-state only. These are known as national identities and can be defined and drawn on such grounds as facial and racial features, common dialect, pronunciation, culture, sports etc. Even a food brand or a sports icon can act as a mark of national identity. For example, when a mention of Williams Sisters, Serena and Venus Williams, is made, the second thing that comes to mind after Lawn Tennis is United States of America, which is their nationality, of which they have become a national identity. Though as individuals they arent shared and possessed by the citizens of the country, but they are themselves the citizen of it and share all the common values with the rest of them. The fact that a talent like theirs is unique to United States of America is what that has transformed them into being national identity, as well as national pride.
In addition to other factors that are involved in the construction of national identities, media plays a very important role in the process. It can make and break idealisms, concepts and public perceptions. Amongst its various other functions, it can make the members of the national community aware of the certain traits they share or otherwise and certain traits that are unique and sets them apart from their neighbors and the rest of the world. This is just one of the ways in which media contributes to the process of the construction of national identities. In fact, different media contribute in a slightly different fashion, and as such the developed state of any particular medium can also act as an object of national identity. For instance, Reuters is a national identity for Great Britain.
Moreover, the wave of globalization that had swept the world in late nineties and still continues to spread, had media and allied agencies under its embrace and had an all round effect on their structure as well as functioning. Media was no more confined within national territories but reached out to the thousands of world inhabitants. Media activism has become a common day practice and trial by media has led to conviction of many. The historic coverage provided by media to 911 and other post 911 terrorist events have united the nations in their fight against terrorism. So certain premises can be formed as well as discovered on which the globalised media stands to affect the process of identity creation. This paper will look into those ways and premises also give an opinion regarding the usefulness of media inclusion and the acquired identity and whether all such identities should be advocated and preserved or a nation should be selective about its national identities, at least those which are not inherent.
What is national Identity
Different nations have different cultures and each nation or culture has a set of traits, unique or otherwise, which can be attributable to them. Again, a proper listing of these traits, in a catalog fashion will furnish us enough information on the basis of which we may then recognize or underline the traits which are specifically unique to a particular nation or culture. These unique traits are what helps one distinguish one nation from another, figuratively speaking, and thus these traits can be termed as core traits or a nations national identity (Clark, 1990).
In recent times, identity has been conceptualized as a negotiation among forces both internal and external to the nation in question. Moreover, one of the most critical of external forces involved in this process is the reputation a nation enjoys in world opinion, as reflected in its more or less consensual perception by other countries (Rusciano, 2003). In fact, it is suggeted that when studying about national identities, one should not just stick to simple comparative analyses of citizen response of nations and take into account international public opinions.
What constitutes national identity
Various scholars and researchers have come up with different ways of defining the components that form a nations national identity. According to Global Opinion Theory, construction of national identity derives , in part, from a negotiation between a nations Selbstbild (or the nations national consciousness or image its citizens have of their country) and a nations Fremdbild (or the nations actual or perceived image in world opinion). And then added to the findings is the religious dimension that infuses some kind of different interpretability in the overall conclusions. (Rusciano, 2003)
According to a different theory (Bruce D. Keillor et al, 1998), National Identity is a combination of a countrys belief structure, cultural homogeneity, national heritage and ethnocentrism. The four parameters can be briefly described as follows
Belief Structure It is the part played by religion and the supranational beliefs in facilitating a countrys cultural participation and solidarity (Bruce D. Keillor et al, 1998). They basically have an impact upon the extent to which a culture is integrated with the national identity of the nation of which it is a part. For instance, Islam forms an integral part of the national identity of Middle East nations.
Cultural Homogeneity The number of subcultures within a given set of national boundaries is hypothesized to have an inverse relationship to the strength of national identity (Bruce D. Keillor et al, 1998). Japan, on the basis of this, is perhaps the most ethnically strong nation as there is no or very few sub-ethnic culture in the Japanese Diaspora.
National Heritage Defined in terms of the importance to historical figures and events in history, the national heritage component reflects the given cultures sense of their own unique history (Bruce D. Keillor et al, 1998). For example, the perception the citizens of commonwealth nations have towards the British administrators till date has its origins in the 16th to 20th century colonization regime it had unleashed upon these nations.
Ethnocentrism This comes into picture when a nations identity is being defined upon the perception the external world holds of it. An ethnocentric tendency is generally considered to be one in which individuals, or societies, make cultural evaluations and attributions using their own cultural perspectives as the base line criteria (Bruce D. Keillor et al, 1998). For example, a product manufactured in China will by default considered to be inexpensive as it is well known that Chinese manufacturers are in a position to reap the benefits of Economies of Scale.
Simplistically put, national identity or nation states can be formulated on various grounds. Some of these are Primordial in nature while others are based on social discourses. We will presently see what each term means and what types of identities fall under each of them.
Under primordial traits feature such traits as single descent, language connection, homogenous culture, same religion and same historical background. Each one of them affects the national identity to a different degree and much depends upon level of homogeneity in each factor within the racial constitution of the nation. That is to say, if a country has majority of its population descending from similar ancestors, then the descent will be a major trait that will be an integral part of its identity and may also be an important factor in its organization and build as a nation-state.
Linguistic, religious and cultural demarcations are perhaps the most commonly used grounds for defining national identities, when it comes to primordial means. Apart from the primordial ones, there are various identities that are formed n the basis of social discourses or social and economic structure of a nation. For example a nation can be classified as being socialistic or capitalistic, secular or communist, monarchy or democracy etc. Various movements or social order that has been a part of it, even once upon a time in its history, can act as a source of national identity. For example, Nazism is till date associated with Germany though it is no more practiced there.
The role of media
Benedict Anderson, perhaps the most popular and recognized authority on Nationalism and the allied subjects, famously opined that Communication is the cement of identity. It is through communication that cultures define themselves (Wheeler, 2000). The various media and modes of communication are considered important in envisaging and spreading the concepts of nationality and national identity. Basically, it was only with the advent of mass media that it became possible to inculcate the masses with a heightened sense of national identity, a form of national consciousness, which is crucial for any democracy to function. Even Anderson argued that nineteenth-century newspapers and novels played a crucial role in creating the imagined communities of modern nationalism and that the imagined community refers not only to the fact that newspaper readers gain a sense of commonality by virtue of receiving information about the same events but also to the way reading newspapers engenders underlying, common habits of thought - not just the manifest content, but the readers awareness that the article he or she is reading is also being read, at more or less the same time, by thousands (or millions) of others of whose existence he is confident, yet of whose identity he has not the slightest notion (Allen, 2009). The various forms of media contribute to the process of identity construction. Before the advent of electronic media, it was the news and the journalists, basically the print media that had the centre stage. But today, the electronic modes of communication and information dissemination contribute towards identity propagation on an equally large scale.
The role played by various media and communication channels can be summarized as follows
Television Television was first discovered in the year 1929 and since then on, there has been a colossal change in the way media came to be known as a force to reckon with. The invention of video technology also added to the power of the media as the recordings of important events could now be done and replayed again and again. Perhaps, the Gettysburg address by President Lincoln was heard by only those present at the occasion, and then later by those who read it in the newspapers and print journals, sans the effectiveness with which the President, one of the best orators of his times, delivered the rhetoric. But centuries later, when his contemporary counterpart, President Bush delivered his War on Terror rhetoric, the entire world saw and listened. At that instant lots of national identities were formed. US and the allied nations were seen as guardians of peace and Taliban and Afghanistan as perpetrators of terrorism. Osama Bin Laden lent Taliban an identity, which perhaps no other force could have, but that was an external one. The people of Afghanistan did not promote it or were in consensus with it.
Radio When Radio was first introduced, it was seen as a medium of universal city broadcast of important information. This important information at that time was pre-dominantly political in nature because at that time, news related to fashion, entertainment, sports, etc did not seem to influence the mass idea of national identity. Radio had gained special moment during the World Wars when the entire world was on tenterhooks and the Radio proved an important means of information dissemination. How it helped towards the creation of national identity is simply apparent from the excerpts of the information transmitted at that time, which some people still have in their mind or the way commentators tone of delivering information could have influenced the perception of the audience. Imagine the reaction of the listeners when they must have heard about the Holocaust and the kind of perceptions they must have had towards Germany, the Jews and the Allied and Axis Powers.
Internet This one single media force was capable of giving nightmares to the Ayatollahs and the rulers of military and Islamic regime in the Middle-East nations because never before they had to contain a form of media which was so universal and widespread in its reach and approach. Today the electronic culture is merging with the video culture and there is an expansion of cross-border flow of cultural influences in the Asia-Pacific region. Well this is not only restricted to the Asia Pacific region, but is also a story of almost all the regions of the world (Low, 1996). There has been reluctance in some countries to allow residents to connect to the Internet for there is awareness that the nation-state is no longer the sole arbiter of cultural identity. The spread of information technology undermines the control of totalitarian regimes over the expression of thought by their people (Low, 1996) . In short, the internet and the allied technologies have been helping people create an identity of their own and also redefine the previous identities.
The Dynamic character of National Identity
It has already been established that national identities are as such not dictums, pronounced upon masses by the government and other influential factors. They are perceptions based on concrete grounds and thus we can say that these identities are generated and reproduced through discourse. In fact, there is no such thing as one national identity in essentialist sense, but rather that different identities are discursively constructed according to context, that is according to the degree of public exposure of a given utterance, the setting, the topic addressed, the audience to which it is addressed, etc. In other words, discursive national identities should not be perceived as static but rather as dynamic, vulnerable and rather ambivalent identities (Ruth Wodak et al, 2000). And the change in these dynamic identities can only be brought about by the forces of media that promote cultural and information exchange.
The impact of Globalization on Media
If globalization blurred the international trade boundaries and led to setting up of more and more number of Special Economic Zones and Free Trade Agreements, then it has also led to disappearance of cultural boundaries and information flow restrictions across national frontiers. Not that information ever remained contained, but today the elements of media, such as books, songs, stories, and news are flowing across borers at such an unprecedented rate, that many people are now worried over the capability of media to move modern ideas and values in such huge quantities and at such a great speed (Low, 1996). The main reason to worry here is that this trend of information flow is leading to more rapid change of world and national culture which is all the more ubiquitous than it previously was. The people in Oriental countries fear Westernization of the masses and those in the West fear Americanization of the masses. Another major fear is homogenization of cultures, which have instilled a fear in the heart of leaders that this may lead to people forgetting their own native culture, which is one of the most important basis for the formation of national identity.
The impact of globalised media on national identity
As stated earlier, the most important and perhaps the most ubiquitous impact of globalised media is that it has led to homogenization of cultures across different countries. By this statement, it is meant that the free flow of thoughts, expressions and ideas between the citizens has eventually led to diminishing of the negative clauses and impacts of various cultures. This can be considered as a good and positive effect of globalization of media. For instance, eradication of the practices of Apartheid, the emancipation of the Blacks, the eradication of atrocious activities and practices in order to contain the growth of the minority classes as well as marginalization of minorities. Their cause is now transmitted across the territorial border in time and many action groups stand up for them and their interests. Moreover, the advent of global media has also led to propagation of pluralism, religious as well as communal, at workplace and other public places. This has led to greater harmony and co-ordination and can be cited as one of the positive effects of the media. As regards the question of National Identity, a country will do equally well to be identified as being secular as it would have being predominantly Islamic or Jewish.
But then this may also have negative effects. This can be established thus when we say that the spread of global media has led to homogenization of cultures, what we essentially mean is that the spread of global media has led to Americanization of cultures. This was stated once before in this paper as well. Basically, all the important sources of media are owned by American companies and it is their programs, sitcoms, music videos and movies that are watched the most the world over. A majority of these programs and movies display Americanism at their best and a major part of global audience is being influenced by this. This can be termed as lack of cultural and consequently, national identity.
Governments of some of the major countries have already restricted their media sources and the content that is streamed on them. The move is also being cited as undemocratic. This is another drawback.
Next is the fact that there is a digital divide that has been created between the nations of the world and has led to emergence of two distinct identities, namely, digitally advanced and digitally unprogressive. The state of new media emergence in a country depends upon the state of technology which in turn depends upon the level of pro-activity its citizens and the government shows in areas of scientific and technological research. This requires a lot of money and resources which not all the nations have at their disposal. So this acts as another demarcation that separates two sets of countries from each other.
Factors that may minimize the impact of globalised Media
Media is used for creating awareness, but in todays times, various governments and media content regulators will have to take measures to make people aware about how to use media. That is to say that, masses should be cautioned against the side-effects simple emulating the media or the movie content. They should be told that whatever is portrayed on the television or any other audio-visual media may not be the ultimate truth and that it is very necessary to apply ones discretion. As per government regulation over the access and content is concerned, there are many divided opinions about it. A faction supports it and another faction is up in arm against it. Recently when Chinese government had restricted the access to certain search results provided by Google China, many fundamental right activists protested. But the government stuck to its decision and lifted the restriction only when the concerned matter was subdued.
The need to preserve national identities
Globalization doesnt aim to make nations lose their national identities. These identities are an integral part of its facade, its being. The identity is the entity that combines its members together irrespective of the diverse Diaspora. The aim of globalization should be to inculcate the feeling of tolerance and pluralism among the members of the world community towards each other. It doesnt ask them to lose their individuality. Similarly, national dont have to lose their national identity. As said earlier, national identity is a combination of a lot of factors including a countrys history as well as heritage as well its belief. It cannot afford to lose any of it and it does not necessarily have to lose any of it just because of globalization.
Conclusion
In the above paper we saw as to what really national identity is and what all factors contribute to the creation of a unique national identity as well as nation-states. The concept of national identity has gone metamorphic changes and today the Indian nation cannot have better identity than Yoga or for that matter the Great Britain couldnt have a better identity than the Queen herself. Needless to say, this cataclysmic effect being mentioned can be attributed to the effect mass media has had upon the concept of national identity over the generations, especially after the advent of electronic media.
The media and its modes expanded at an unprecedented rate as a result of globalization and people began to fear its adverse effects and began to question the their own national identity and whether it was required after all. Studies have been compiled and researches have been undertaken to study the effects, positive as well as negative, the globalised media forces may have upon the identities and cultures of nations and perhaps, after so much efforts, the world still lies suspended between the two ends. But the author is quite clear when it comes to preserving national identity and opines that it should be done at all costs.
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