The emergence of the Internet does not necessarily appear to be a boon for true freedom and critical thinking. What is often happening is that the Internet is becoming just another television for most people. How many persons are using the Internet mostly for serious purposes, as opposed to various graphical amusements? Ironically, the development of bigger broadband on the Internet, where ever clearer video-streaming becomes possible, is likely to dumb down the content -- away from text, where more intelligent ideas can sometimes be more readily expressed.
It could be argued that today, American pop-culture and the world media-culture can be seen as becoming virtually coterminous. Media is thus, it could be argued, the instrument for American cultural imperialism, for the homogenization, rationalization, and technologization of the world. It is the visibly concrete way in which non-American cultures are attenuated, and opened up to consumption. Probably no country can long resist the excitement proffered by American sex, violence, and flash, which raises the ire of nationalists and traditionalists, who can see no way of confronting the seepage, and sometimes turn to violence and xenophobia.
Dalsza część artykułu dostępna po wykupieniu subskrypcji. Kup tutaj!
