The role of digital media in globalization’s growing speed could not be underestimated because it made people in all countries immensely interconnected. Therefore, new media indeed influences intercultural communication. The current paper provides answers to the questions concerning the possibility of interaction between different cultures, digital media’s impact on music, and citizen journalism’s effectiveness.
Firstly, new media makes intercultural communication in global society possible. Chen (2012) argues that it is so because digital media provides the representatives of various cultures an opportunity to express their thoughts and build relationships with people worldwide. At the same time, new media facilitate the expansion of the communication gap between different cultural groups (Chen, 2012). It occurs because patterns established by new media vary from traditional ones. This, in turn, leads to “the loss of traditional cultural logic” (Chen, 2012, p. 4). However, notwithstanding the challenges, I suppose that those created by digital media could be overcome, and the benefits are more influential. Thus, intercultural communication under the context of new media in a global society is possible.
Secondly, digital media influences not only intercultural communication but also music. I am a melomaniac, and my playlist contains classical music, neoclassical music, rap, rock, and pop songs. I listen to music on my way to college, during the walks and workouts, and at home. To access music, I mainly use iTunes, a free Apple app. Since I belong to a generation that cannot live a day without a smartphone, my habits in accessing music have not changed significantly during the last decade. Still, digital media gave the generation of our parents a possibility to listen to music whenever and wherever they want, which was impossible in the days of their youth.
Answering the last question on the effectiveness of citizen journalism, it should be noted that there are numerous cases when ordinary people via social media reveal facts a government tries to hide. One of the peaceful cases, when citizen journalism was useful, was the elections of Macedonia’s president in 2009. Using the sizes of candidates Facebook groups, researchers manage to predict the winner. That year the elections were won by Gjorge Ivanov, who had the largest group on Facebook. Still, citizen journalism could be problematic because electronic devices could be easily traced, and this poses a danger to the security of journalists.
Reference
Chen, G. M. (2012). The impact of new media on intercultural communication in global context. China media research, 8(2), 1-10.