Chapter 1: Internationalizing Internet Studies

Beyond Anglophone Paradigms

Gerard Goggin and Mark McLellandInformation Society &

MulticulturalismProfessor Han Woo Park

Presented byAzman Bidin

2009.9.10

Content

1. Introduction2. Is Internet International?3. Internet’s Different Histories4. The Implications For Internet

Studies5. Directions For Future Research

1. Introduction

• Tokyo Vs Palestine – gadget fetishism and technofashion & market driven. Not by business elite. Different “technoscapes”

• Downloading Music over Mobile Phone• Choice of Language over the Internet• Digital Divide

”.. Setting up Internet facilities in disadvantaged areas of the globe does very little to empower local populations that lack the cultural and social capital to render such facilities intelligible and useful” Tawil-Souri.

Geert Hofstede Cultural Dimensions

Description of Geert Hofstede Cultural

Dimensions• Power Distance Index (PDI) that is the extent to which the less

powerful members of organizations and institutions (like the family) accept and expect that power is distributed unequally.

• Individualism (IDV) on the one side versus its opposite, collectivism, that is the degree to which individuals are integrated into groups.

• Masculinity (MAS) versus its opposite, femininity, refers to the distribution of roles between the genders which is another fundamental issue for any society to which a range of solutions are found.

• Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI) deals with a society's tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity; it ultimately refers to man's search for Truth.

• Long-Term Orientation (LTO) versus short-term orientation: It can be said to deal with Virtue regardless of Truth

2. Is Internet International?

• Shift to non English has not been registered. Work done in non-English hardly get translated. Isolated worlds.

• Many useful studies but remain in English-language cyberspace. (e.g. The Cybercultures Readers, The Internet in Everyday Life)

• Lack of research on Non-Roman alphabet (Chapter 10). Chinese characters (Chapter 18 & 19)

• Internet going multilingual. Focus sociolinguistic. (e.g. The Multilingual Internet)

• The book focuses on: bring together understanding of culture, politics, community, use and the social shaping of technology – profound implication of internationalization approach towards the internet

http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats7.htm

435

509

514

558

608

634

637

853

959

3,041

0 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 3,000 3,500

Number of Articles in Thousand

Russian

Portuguese

Spanish

Nederlands

Italian

Chinese

Polish

French

German

English

Articles on Wikipedia Based On LanguageOctober 2009

2. Is Internet International?

• US “the supposed vanguard of the information society”. – ICANN (Washington DC) Vs ITU (Geneva)

“ we assume that people in other countries, using other languages, are probably doing the things with Internet technology that are pretty similar to those applications that we are familiar with. This book shows how wrong that assumption is” (Japanese Cybercultures)

• “The reverse flow is relatively rare” though Japanese researchers familiar with Anglophone.

• Western Countries PC high penetration and high bandwidth availability encouraged Internet development from mid 1990’s

• Blog is not just for the Anglophone users.“Korean blogs function as a socialization tool rather than as a venue for social activism.. Blogs in Korea are used more for interaction with others and passing the time than grassroots journalism” (Chapter 14)

• Instant Messenger; MSN, QQ (China). Photo sharing; MySpace, Flicker and YouTube or Cyworld (Korea). Web 2.0 UGC role of the users with different cultures.

3. Internet Histories

• West-Internet access PC-based. East, due to different characters PC penetration was low, mobile internet is more dominant (Japan 3G 53% of mobile users in 2006)

• Started as US military communication platform for sharing research data among scientists. Original language-English QWERTY keyboard.

• Problems of translation i.e. NOKIA in Hindi. Alta Vista in Chinese.

• “The iPhone is so yesterday in Asia” Eunice Yoon

3. Internet Histories

• Korea population ¾ live in 7major cities. All are connected. PC bangs.

• Internet enabled mobile phone. Cyworld “mini-hompy”. Going abroad is inconvenient for Korean students

• Problems of translation i.e. NOKIA in Hindi. Alta Vista in Chinese.

• Internet deals with different histories and experiences. Not a single phenomenon with simple history

4. Implications for Internet Studies

• Various “cultures” contribute to broader, ongoing assessment to the internet and culture at more general levels

• Internet as eminent global technology, yet international instantiations were not realised. i.e. mobile phone phenomenon

• Role of bodies like WSIS in shaping the internet

5. Future Research Directions

Though diminishing, English still remain dominant

5. Future Research Directions

• International meetings to promote discussion among researches i.e. 2005 International Conference on Mobile Communication and Asian Modernities in Hong Kong

• Concerned raised on US-centrism. Research funds and market for publication.

• Non English speaking researchers hard to penetrate “Anglo-American gatekeepers”

• Workshops, conferences, edited collections and other projects would enable transnational dialogues

• To build cross linkages among media studies researchers within and on non-Anglophone cultures globally.

Discussions

Thank You

azman.bidin@gmail.com