Page 9 - Culture Technology Communication

viii Foreword

computer networking’s origin in the US, and the continuing pre-
dominance of English-language, US-based content on the Internet
today, fear that the technology will accelerate cultural homogeniza-
tion and further consolidate US cultural hegemony on a global scale.
As yet, however, there has been little scholarship that evaluates crit-
ically the effects of computer networking on the world’s cultures. The
present volume contributes towards filling this gap.
The volume takes as its point of departure the assumption that
the globalization of computer networking is inevitable, and indeed,
is already well underway. Undeniably, Internet use is spreading
around the world at a rapid rate. As recently as 1996, only 10% of In-
ternet and World Wide Web traffic was in a language other that En-
glish. As of this writing, non-English content has risen to 46%, and
it is projected to reach 67% by 2005 (Global Reach, 2000). Among the
fastest growing languages on-line are Chinese and Spanish, the two
languages with the largest numbers of speakers in the world (En-
glish has the third largest number of speakers). Internet access is
now available even in poor, struggling nations such as Somalia, and
to indigenous ethnic minorities in Latin America. In nations which
are already “wired,” Internet use continues to spread to ethnic mi-
norities, low income groups, and late adopters. For better or for
worse, the world appears to be headed for universal Internet access,
or something close to it, reminiscent of the spread of television in
previous decades.
At the same time, universal access does not guarantee equal
power to shape the technology or choose what content it purveys.
That power is still overwhelmingly concentrated in the hands of an
English-speaking, Western elite, and is not likely to be shaken loose
in the near future. Mother-tongue English speakers comprise 5.4% of
the earth’s population, yet they are overrepresented by a factor of 10
at 54% of Internet users, and will still be overrepresented (by a factor
of six) at 33% of Internet users in 2005. Not coincidentally, most In-
ternet and Web content is permeated by Western values of individual
freedom (including freedom of expression), religious agnosticism,
open sexuality, and free-market capitalism. For cultures that do not
share these values—for example, cultures valuing group harmony,
religious faith, sexual modesty, and/or economic restraint—the Inter-
net may be perceived as a vehicle of foreign ideology, and resisted to
a greater or lesser extent. Moreover, the technology itself—its codes,
software, protocols, and interface designs—incorporates an English-
language/Western cultural bias that may limit the ability of users
from other cultures to maximize its potentials if not translated or re-