Economics and Culture, Media and community

http://www.shirky.com/writings/national_identity.html

I used this link to research into the cultural aspects that relate to, and influence the access to media. This article researched into how easily some nations have accessibility to the internet in comparison to less economically developed countries. For instance this article discusses how results have shown that the 'USA has 100 times more internet users than Arab states, and Europe has 70 times more users per capita than sub-Saharan Africa'. This is clearly a dramatic difference between the countries which the article claims the reasoning of dramatic economic difference is 'common knowledge'.


The united nations goes on to suggest that the clear contrast in internet access between these nations is bound to occur due to nations such as the USA and Europe being the ones who were first involved with creating the internet. They suggest that the use of internet within low economically developed countries will change not when the internet growth gradually increases but when there is economic and cultural change within their society's structure. Furthermore the message the United Nations seem to displaying to the reader is that these nations do not contribute as much as other nations to the media because they have greater issues to worry about , such as providing contraception and medicine for the majority of their population.Wealthy nations take their economy for granted and can therefore manipulate their easy access to the internet and not worry about issues other nations have to worry about.


The United Nations claim that countries which are ready for internet adoption need to through certain changes before it can be achieved. They suggest that political freedom is a big issue which needs to be accomplished in these low economically developed countries before people within society can feel free to use the internet without worrying, and to gain easier access to the internet without being restricted to their amount of usage. They also claim that the money resources in these countries need to be increased greatly in order to increase the telecommunication infrastructure. They are stating that money needs to be made in order for states such as the Arab and African states to be on the same telecommunication levels as American and European states.

The HDR report claim that increase in internet access in low Economically developed countries , or nations with high political control and Dictators are not going to achieve better internet access any time soon. The report claims that the United Nations are stupid for suggesting this increase because the last thing dictators would want people in society to have is a place such as online groups to stick together and create a feeling of unison. This would create a feeling of threat for dictators and highly controlled political groups as society within these suffering nations would gain a better collective identity and fight back for civil rights.