Mass Media: fragmenting the world?

Mr. Silvio Waisbord in Media and the Reinvention of the Nation makes a very pertinent argument that "media organizations typically resort to cultural narratives and stories that resonate with home audiences rather than seeking to understand developments and contexts better."

This reminds me of the U.S. Public Diplomacy that it runs through 42 different language transmissions of the Voice of America (VOA). Soon after the 9/11 the VOA launched special radio transmission in Pushto with the name of VOA Deewa to target Pushtoon ethnic group in Pakistan and Afghanistan. One of the objectives of this transmission is to improve the image of United States and wean Pushtoons away from Al-Qaida and the Taliban.

Like with every language broadcast, Deewa radio resorts to cultural narratives and stories. Here is the flip side of the whole venture. If every language broadcast sticks to its particular cultural narrative, the listeners will fail make a holistic picture of the world. Resultantly, the society--and the world at large--will remain fragmented. It will also inflame nationalism which is rooted in chauvinism.

To give the audience a cosmopolitan view, the listeners should know about the context of others too. When people understand context of other nations or communities, only then a cross-cultural understanding can take place. By giving news in fragments in order to suit them according to local taste, it will increase a sense of distancing among people from fellow world citizens.

In this age of globalization, which is spearheaded by the mass media, the different nations of the world need to be brought together by knowing each others' context. By imposing a global context on people or isolating and insulating them by only local context, nations will fail to understand each other. This situation leads to "chauvinistic nationalism" and "xenophobic discourses."