Whether New Media Will Create or Undermine the Global Village

¶ … Digital Divide and the Global Village Digital divide does pose a serious problem for developing countries because it is, as Aleph Molinari states, "a new illiteracy" (Molinari).

Just as the Industrial Revolution put the Western nations ahead of the rest of the world, the digital divide is putting a gap between those same industrialized worlds and the developing world, which is falling behind -- behind in terms of having access to information that the developed world has, behind in terms of being able to take advantage of tools and technology that can allow persons to connect to one another across the planet for free, and behind in terms of possessing the tools to be able to meet the requirements and demands of the business world in the 21st century.

The further the gap widens, the farther behind the developing world is being left. Thus, it is important that developing countries fill the gap if they want to compete with the rest of the world. The Internet and the digital technology that is used all around the developed world is how business is conducted today. It is how nations educate themselves, how information is conveyed, how communication is conducted and how teams are able to work together in separate continents.

For developing countries to be left out of this loop is for them to essentially be back in the Stone Age. It is as though they simply do not exist. To assess whether new media will create or undermine the "global village" it is necessary to understand what is meant by the term "global village." As Patricia Campbell et al. point out, the term arose in the 1960s when Marshall McLuhan popularized it.

He did so with a pessimistic vision of the interconnectedness of the global village, believing it to be a conduit to "terror and totalitarianism" (Campbell 9). However, others viewed the concept of the "global village" as a good and positive thing. Thus, it is important to understand in which context the global village is being discussed: is it a concept that has a negative connotation or a positive one? Or is it capable of having both.

In all actuality the global village is both a force for interconnectedness and for the possibility of terrorism. As terrorist groups like ISIS are able to recruit via the Internet, it is obvious that the global village has its downside. At the same time, the way in which we are able to communicate and spread information at the drop of a hat is a positive. Thus, there is a good side to the village and a bad side.

Once this fact is accepted it is possible to begin to assess whether new media will create or undermine the global village and all that it entails. New media is essentially here to stay. It is not going away. It is replacing old media at a rapid clip. Already books and newspapers are on their way out, as the Internet is the new focus for readers of the news. It is always with us, on our phones, everywhere we go.

Books on the other hand are cumbersome and take up too much space. Newspapers are virtually out of date by the time they are printed and delivered. News.