In this insightful and interesting TED talk by blogger and technologist Ethan Zuckerman, he challenges some of our misconceptions about the global nature of the internet. As stated on TED’s website:
Sure, the web connects the globe, but most of us end up hearing mainly from people just like ourselves.
Zuckerman shares several stories and pieces of data that show the bias slant with which information is communicated online. He also offers some initial solutions to better engaging the rest of the world. Zuckerman’s focus of study is on how the whole world uses new media to share information and moods across cultures, languages and platforms.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this video.
This post is tagged Ethan Zuckerman, Global, global solutions, global voices, imaginary cosmopolitanism, Internet, TED, TED Conference, web
2 Comments
Without having watched the video, my initial response to the title of this post is this: because of the operative assumptions of a free market economy driven society, the voices that get promoted and most heard are what is popular with the people, the voices that have the most monetary value, the voices that sell more books and products and event seats, the voices that have the connections to those with institutional power and resources. With that being the case in first world countries, it’d be very challenging to hear global voices, and voices that are worth hearing on its own merits instead of its monetary value.
Thanks DJ for the note.
Well said. You are definitely articulating some of the causes that may prevent us from hearing voices out of the main stream. In addition, this video shows that there are large groups of culture-specific people that are very active on platforms like twitter that we may not be aware of because it’s unlikely that most of us will go out of our own circle of influence.
For example, one of the largest ethnic groups on Twitter is Brazilian. They are very active and yet most Americans may have very little idea about their presence. He also points to African/Black Americans who regularly trend topics on Twitter but may not be recognized as large contributors.
Some some interesting notes… He also mentions new technology that will help us cross language and cultural barriers.
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