PUBLIC DISCOURSE IN THE AGE OF TV

 

In the last sixty years the way of living has changed significantly due to the technological discoveries and the mass producion of electronic devices utilized. Throughout the years, the affordable price of such equipment made possible for most people, initially in the developed countries, to have at least one radio and a television set in each house.  At the beginning of the radio and television era there were only few broadcast stations which were normally state controlled.     That was the moment when the content of TV and radio programs were mainly based on political discurses, scheduled at timings when most people were supposed to be watching televisions or listening to the radios. On the other hand, the monopoly of state controlled assets did not allow to have a wide spectrum of ideas or opinions.  With the proliferation of tv/radio broadcasters there was a clear cultural change when almost every political party/ cultural movement understood the importance to enter “virtually” in many houses and to present their ideas/opinions. That was also the moment when those tools have started to be used as vectors to convey commercial advertisements.

It was at that stage that the competion among them  reached the peak and any broadcaster initiated to abandon the classic methodology and tried to catch spectators with different methods. Some started to show less dressed women, some  distribuing large sum of money with games, some with live sport events. Common for all was to give news in a sensational way, always more negative than positive ones. Political and cultural programs did not enjoy many spectactors and started to be scheduled  in hours considered not primary and seen by always less people. This was the time for a commercial televisions whose interests were based not on the quality of programs but on the percentage of people watching theirs programs. Accordingly, it started to gain importance how the people look  rather than the idea they express. Also the advent of Internet and other electronic devices contribuited to change significantly our daily life. Any kind of such equipment is capable to store a different level of information, included the ours.

Once I asked a teacher if all these devices (calculators, electronic agendas, etc…) could limit our ability to store information and learn formulas. The answer i received was strange but satisfied my doubt. He said that while we can get advance of such electronic devices, we do not need to spend a lot of energies to learn formulas or to remember information by hearth. With these savings we can use our mental capabilities to new discoveries and to utilize our brains in a more efficient way. The appearance of Internet has significantly changed our way of living more than anything else. Through the network we may satisfy most of our needs surfing the net. The quantity of information available is growing exponentially though the quality is not always satisfactory. However, if used cleverly it helps a lot, from any kind of shopping to booking hotels, from reading all kind of experts opinions to mainteining contact with people worldwide. Accordinly, anything you are looking for something you receive thousend of links and it is not easy to define which is the best unless you have a look to some of them.

Time is one of the worst enemy for many people, since the day hours can not be longer, many persons have changed their way of living. Most of the people today are exposed to a huge quantity of information on every media, television, radio, newpapers, magazines, interntet, etc…. what has become common for most of the people is to listen/read only headlines or introduction, conclusion and abstracts in the books. This process is closely monitored by media networks which try to adapt to the customer needs otherwise they will loose them.

Regarding Internet, it should be enphatized that not all that is available is positive. In the net there are many fraudolent web sites, normally camuflaged under different activities but conduct illegal ones, as an example pedophilies that try to engage with young people or exchange proibithed movies and photos having teens, or even younger, as main players. Also the way to communicate through internet or through mobile phones is changening our languages, specially to the young generations which are more exposed to these systems. 

In conclusion, the availabilty of new equipment, as it happens anytime there is a new technological development, is destinated to change our life. i am also sure that humans have a great attitude to adapt to changes. However, it is of utmost importance not to underestimate the danger that any system also represents, and national institution should always conduct awareness campaign to educate theyr own citizens, specially the youngers which are more exposed to and attracted  by new equipment. For the alter is also important the role of parents that have to supevision their children and have to verify the content of the websites their children normally visit.

CULTURAL IMPERIALISM

The importance of media has grown in an exponential way in the last decades. It has gone side by side with the well being of the developed countries and with the scale production of electronic devices and their relatively low costs. The massive distribution of electronic equipment in almost every house in the western countries created an opportunity for goods producers as well as for politicians to widely broadcast their messages able to reach a huge percentage of the population. In parallel, a high number of commercial companies have appeared and different communication techniques have been developed to reach all the segments of the different societies.

 

Naturally, most of these broadcasts were also able to reach all angles of the globe due to the development of sophisticated means of transmission such as satellite communications assets and a worldwide distributed computer network (internet) initially utilized only by military organizations and converted for civilian use when the cost of terminals has become affordable. Consequently, ideological, political and commercial messages could be sent to any country, specially to those which were under dictatorship and ideological constrains and with media controlled by the local leaders. In most cases it was enough to have a dish and a decoder or a personal computer to have access to a wide spectrum of information.

 

The increased importance of media broadcasts has also heavily influenced the culture of any country. The “export” of  all kind of messages (ideological, political and commercial) has mainly been from the west to the east, from developed countries to the underdeveloped ones. This unbalanced process has created different kind of processes. In one hand many people have been moving on the opposite direction of the media. In fact, messages of well being have attracted people to move to the west looking for a better life. In the other hand, countries have been influenced either culturally commercially and politically. American movies and world broadcasters have created an immense market exporting the American dream and products worldwide. A clear example of it is the distribution to almost all over the world of American products, ideas and language, even in those countries that do not enjoy the same political views.

 

In the last years there have been many attempts to counter this western (American) hegemony also within European countries.  There have been countries which have been fighting the “Americanization” of their national languages and / or have been trying to implement technical solutions to control the flux of information through internet whenever they are considered harmful to the country interests. It is in this framework that Arabic countries have established, beside others, television networks capable to broadcast also in English worldwide.

 

I conclusion, this western (American) hegemony in one side has improved our ways of living on the other side it represents a risk for those countries that do not have enough means to counter this  cultural imperialism. The messages arriving from the west showing the good sides of the developed countries have started an irreversible trend of attracting desperate people from poor countries looking for a better life. This large and often uncontrolled movement of people is also becoming a cultural trend in which culture, food and different lifestyles are becoming popular in any developed countries.

E-GOVERNMENT

The rapid development of such distributed network connects daily millions of users with millions of public institutions enterprises and organizations. It has also helped citizens to get closer to their public institutions. 

 

Due to the extensive use of such networks, any country is trying to improve its institutional on-line services in order to provide a better service for its citizens in all fields. From the downloading of forms to the telemedicine, from the job advertisements to the on-line voting during elections. It is also used by politicians to receive a feedback on their actions or to get new ideas/proposals from their voters.

 

Clearly, the on-line systems may present some challenges. The first one is that each system has to be secure, redundant and flexible. The institutions have also to be ready to provide alternative services anytime the networks are out of orders. However, in general, especially governments and embassies presence on the web, is a very useful tool which permits people to satisfy their needs in their own houses, avoiding therefore to waste a lot of time in going personally.

THE GLOBAL NETWORK SOCIETY

Globalization has been a driven factor to change our lifestyle and has influenced all aspects of our lives throughout the age spectrum. I can mention many examples of it but the most significant, in my opinion, are the availability of a huge amount of information in real time, the opportunity to shop worldwide staying sitted in front of your workstation and to virtually meet many people from all over the world. 

 

All has been possible due to the availability of integrated network system which allow any user to be connected with all available web sites either free or through the payment of subscriptions. through this worldwide communication systems it is possible to explore every aspect of our daily life, to contact people from any part of the world, move capitals, etc... Consequently it raised the need to review our daily habits. Nowadays is very common to see the new generation spending so much time in front of the PC to satisfy their needs. Many persons communicate using text messages or through e-mails. 

 

This significant changes have also brought many advantages since many daily activity can be conducted staying at home such as buying train/air tickets, shopping, contacting people, being informed in what is happening in any corner of the world in real time, etc... On the other hand, some negative aspects are easily identifiable. Human contacts are becoming to be replaced by virtual ones and the dangers associated to them. This trend can not be stopped though some political leaders want to retain the possibility to shut down the network services for their advantage. This is the case in areas where there is a lack of democracy and the leaders want to avoid that their population have access to information that they want to deny.

 

Inevitably, we have to live in this new dimension, we have to get used to it and we should try to benefit from it. However, since everybody may access it and the use done by everybody is not the same, it is essential that the network is regulated to protect the users and controls be executed by national authorities to prevent illegal use of it.