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:
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With the new media, a global communication community is emerging. The various designations and descriptions are based on a common experience: the detachment of communication from direct face-to-face relationships in the direction of media-transmitted communication. Communities now needn't any longer be constituted only by those physically present: but can be organized in a global network, which has neither temporal nor spatial limits. Communication becomes almost completely separated from its physical, psychic and social substrate.
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On the whole, the Internet makes the universalization of opportunities for communication. In principle, everyone is contactable, and almost everything can be represented in the Net, provided it is digitizable. Even the most remote cultures can be "delivered" into one's home in real time. This has unforeseeable consequences for the comparability, the diversity and the consumability of culture, which can fundamentally change or understanding of culture's significance. In this connection, the following may be of importance: the loss of the experience of authenticity of cultural monuments and of their power for establishing identity. Walter Benjamin's hypothesis on a work of art's loss of its aura in the age of its technical reproducibility can be broadened to the question of changing the function of culture in the age of its digitalization and commercialization.
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Through Globalization, the Region regains importance. Global access to numerous cultural worlds seems to let the attractivity of regional culture - as a home and as a place where tradition is founded and handed down. In the case the New Media mediate the process of de-traditionalization, the abolition of tradition, and the establishment of new traditions.
Created: 27.09.2004 - Comments to:
Gotthard Bechmann