The cultural function of the internet - Pluralism and rationality of culture in a globalized world

Bechmann, G.
Vortrag bei der Chinesischen Akademie der Wissenschaften - Department of Sociology.
Peking, China, 08.07.2004


Abstract

With the advent of the new electronic media, perception, information and communication are liberated from the constraints of spatial and temporal presence to the advantage of permanent, virtual contact ability. By means of the digitalization and combination of text, pictures and sound, it is now possible to interact with symbolic structures. Virtualization means just exactly this fact, as a radical transformation of communication: virtualization is, at present, being realized in two variants - as "hypertext", and as "virtual reality". Hypertext disbands the linear flow of text into recursive loops; virtual reality refers to the technical possibility of not only looking at pictures, but also of entering the image space and of directly manipulating the surroundings depicted. With this innovation, a new, computer-mediated form of communication - which, in its entire structure, is completely different from both of the others - not only joins oral and written communication, but also changes the relationship between public and private communication, because publicity is used as a medium in a forum for building a collective memory and for societal debates.

Computer-mediated communication makes the creation of artificial worlds possible, which, in their turn, make experiences and manners of operation possible, which differ immensely from those of oral and written culture - as can be seen, in particular, on the example of the speed, the wealth of information and the number of possible participants.

The Internet as the centre of computer-based communication has, in at least three respects consequences for a developing world culture:



Created: 27.09.2004 - Comments to:     Gotthard Bechmann