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Pager, Sean A.; Candeub, Adam --- "Introduction: Navigating in the Dark When Bits Have No Borders" [2012] ELECD 687; in Pager, A. Sean; Candeub, Adam (eds), "Transnational Culture in the Internet Age" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: Transnational Culture in the Internet Age

Editor(s): Pager, A. Sean; Candeub, Adam

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9780857931337

Section Title: Introduction: Navigating in the Dark When Bits Have No Borders

Author(s): Pager, Sean A.; Candeub, Adam

Number of pages: 17

Extract:

Introduction: navigating in the dark
when bits have no borders1
Sean A. Pager and Adam Candeub

I.1 INTRODUCTION

Digital communications, it is often claimed, accelerate cultural conver-
gence, disrupt local cultures and threaten the nation state itself.2 Whether
termed a "Flat Earth" or "Global Village," the planet's shrinking and
linking is widely accepted as a fait accompli.3 Many celebrate this sup-
posed acceleration and integration, seeing freedom in globally networked
communities or profit in the accumulation of eyeballs to monetize. Others
fear a monocultural wasteland; the vision of global unity celebrated by
Disneyland's "Small World" is derided as a Potemkin village masking
inequalities of access and influence.
But the metaphors and pundits' prognostications hide how little is
understood about how the globe produces, consumes, and exchanges
cultural media. For example, is it in fact true that the richness of cultural
diversity has retreated in the Internet age? The evidence is mixed. Closer
examination reveals both peaks and valleys in the "Flat Earth," and the
"Global Village" turns out to be as much "Cyberbalkans" as homogenized


1 The chapters in this volume were first presented as papers at a confer-

ence entitled Bits Without Borders: Law, Communications and Transnational
Culture Flow in the Digital Age, held September 24­25, 2010, at the Michigan
State University College of Law. We thank the Michigan State College of Law,
the Quello Center for Telecommunication Management and Law at Michigan
State University, and the Donald McGannon Communication Research Center at
...