How does technology of communication influence the nature and identity of community?

Furthermore, prior to the rise of the nation, governments explained to people why they have

the right to conquer them. They called it their divine right that God gave them the power to

do so. Both Joshua Barker and Sharon Kelly in “Technology and Nationalism” maintain that

“Prior to the 18th century, large-scale communities took the form of monarchies and religious

communities. Neither of these kinds of communities endowed their members with inalienable

rights. Whereas monarchies imagined persons to be subjects and religious communities

imagined them to be believers, nationalism asserted that they were citizens that possessed

certain alienable rights.” It was through the birth of technology and print that ideas such as

alienable rights could emerge. It was only through print, the masses became literate and

nationalist awakenings could take place. The masses got exposed to the idea that the general

will of the people might be the source of authority and so governments had to change their

legitimacy and instead of claiming that they govern through the will of God, they had no

choice to claim that they govern through the will of the people, the nation, essentially

changing the idea of what a community was and simultaneously give the nation a sense of

identity. It is important to note that the idea that the nation gives a sense of identity is entirely

a new concept. The rise of the sense of national identity occurred centrally because of the

consequences of print.

Print had produced information that was mass produced and distributed and so as a result

knowledge became accumulative, standardised and codified. Printing had pushed people to

fill in the incomplete knowledge of the world by their own research and their own ability to

convey maps and charts in a uniformed way. Joshua Barker and Sharon Kelly in “Technology

and Nationalism”(2008, pg. 127)  state that ‘Print technology helped standardized languages

through time and space, making it possible for a larger group of people to share both a

common language and the awareness that they had a common language. Given the centrality

of language to nationalist sentiments, it is easy to understand why the printing press might

therefore be seen as having been a major cause for the rise of nationalism.” Printing had

created the rush of knowledge and made mass communication available to everyone.

However, another valuable point to take into consideration in relation to technology of

communication influencing the nature and identity of community is that the spread of the

school systems, the education system and textbooks played a part as well in educating people

into the same common sense ideas. The schooling system and the capacity of rival elites all

gained direct access to the minds of people whom they never meet and influenced their

imaginings. Alas that it is a consequence of print which forms the fundamental basis of

national identity and nationalism.

It can be argued nonetheless, that though printing plays a crucial role in influencing the

nature and identity of the community, it is simply just the most dramatic medium; other forms

of communicational technologies has also helped in revolutionizing the way that communication is used and the way in which the world and communities are viewed. With

the invention of new technology, it has steadily allowed more and more people to

simultaneously interact and to share their perceptions of the world beyond boundaries of

physical proximity. Another important and effective tool of technology is mass media. Joshua

Barker and Sharon Kelly in “Technology and Nationalism” (2008, pg132)  argue that the

mass media’s capacity “to reach large numbers of people within a given national territory

makes it a popular means by which to spread nationalist ideas in hopes of creating a unified

public.” For example they illustrate this point with the example of how Mexican radio was

used “in hopes of shaping peoples’ perceptions of their national culture and heritage.”

through a mix of music. Communicational technology was now available to be used for the

purposes of unifying a nation, creating and influencing the identity of that nation by putting

forth ideas and messages that work towards mobilizing a community.

A core point that arises is that community comes out of commonality, it comes out of shared

experiences, shared ideas and shared features that shape the way humans understand the

world around them. David Brown in Lecture 4 of Ideas in Action (SSH100) entitled

“Imagining the Nation” asserts that “New technology spreads new consciousness-myths,

thence “the imagined community”. Joshua Barker and Sharon Kelly in “Technology and

Nationalism” (2008, pg129) propound that “Modern nationalism could not exists without a

shared and relatively uniform public culture. The “imagined” community (Anderson 1983) of

the nation depends on each person being able to imagine him-or herself as being one

individual among many similar individuals who share a culture and a set of rights.” It’s not

the fact that the same language shared that makes a community. It’s the fact that the same

stories, methodologies and the same ideals are shared that makes a community. Indeed,

language is a result of print which in turn is the basis of national identity. It is through print

that spread of myths of common history and ideas is possible. ”. Joshua Barker and Sharon

Kelly in “Technology and Nationalism” (2008, pg129) further expand that by stating that “A

public that was united could be mobilized for political, social or religious causes. This

unification was essential in the nationalist cause, once people could imagine their fellows as

sharing a public culture, it became possible to imagine that this public ought to share certain

fundamental rights and freedoms. As the Canadian theorist and technological determinist

Marshall McLuhan eloquently put it, print enabled people to see each other for the first

time.”It is only when the people can think for themselves and when they can read; they begin

thinking of the nation as a mother-land and themselves as a mega-family, thus mobilized as

one people, one nation. Nationalism holds the political ideology which propagates the idea

that each individual gets their sense of morality and sense of self identity from their

identification with one nation, their nation in particular. Each such nation then has its own

territory and state and the “technological achievements” that comes along “have often

become viewed as symbols of national strength and power” according to Joshua Barker and

Sharon Kelly in “Technology and Nationalism”. They add further by stating that

technological achievements like the “Panama Canal, St Petersburg’s Hermitage Winter

Palace, the Eiffel tower, and the Brooklyn Bridge capitalize on their considerable display

value to impress upon the public the technological prowess of the nation.” (pg134) These

technological achievements are symbols and representations of a nation’s identity, displaying

the genius and power of the nation.

While there is no doubt that technology has been highly influential and beneficial in the way

communities are viewed today, it has been argued that on the other hand, it can possess a

detrimental side as well that society must be aware of. Brian P. Levack in the chapter 2

entitled “The Intellectual Foundations” of “Witch Hunt in Early Modern Europe”

(Longman/Pearson, Harlow, 3rd edn, 2006) warns that one must be wary of the notion that the

elite have the tendency to just impose their ideas onto society. Levack in chapter 2 was

particularly referring to the topic of witchcraft in this instance. He asserts that it is “important

to note at the outset that these witch-beliefs, all of which concern the relationship between

witches and the Devil, were mainly the property of the literate and ruling classes and not the

common people”. (pg. 28) The elite in that particular community had used print to impose

their ideas on the community, allowing the concept of witchcraft to become widespread. As

such, Levack positions the printing press as an integral form and direction of the witchcraft

trials as well. According to Levack, the printing press enabled creation and dissemination,

which he brands it to be “the cumulative concept of witchcraft”. (pg. 29) Thus though

technology is beneficial in shaping and unifying a community, it can be also perceived as a

double edged sword as it can also corrupt and influencing and mold a community with

oppressive and erroneous ideas.

Thence, it is of little wonder why Joshua Barker and Sharon Kelly in “Technology and

Nationalism” (2008. pg. 135) expound the importance technology is bestowed with in

relation to the influence of the nature and identity of community by declaring that technology

has “been used by the elite to shape public consciousness and to cement existing social

hierarchies and system of political domination and they have been used to symbolize both

national greatness and shame. As a result, they have affected the way citizens experience and

perceive their nationality and citizenship”. Certainly, technology is a game changer in terms

of giving rise to national identity but it is not solely alone in doing so as the elite manipulate

technology to produce and inflict their desired idea of a community and nationalist ideas.

Thus the sense of national identity varies with each community.

Conclusively, technology has shifted many of the previous views in which community was

perceived. The use of technology of communication gave birth to the idea of “imagined

communities” in which people now get their sense of identity from. It was through

technology, specifically print, that the masses became literate and nationalist awakenings

took place. The rise of the sense of national identity was only possible because of technology.

Joshua Barker and Sharon Kelly in “Technology and Nationalism” (2008, pg. 136) sums it up

aptly by stating that “Technological change has played a critical role in the development of

nations, facilitating their creation and maintenance of power. It has also helped initiate forms

of communication and contact that has ultimately led to a more globalized understanding of

interconnections and entanglements among persons and nations.”

References

J.Barker and S. Kelly (2008), “Technology and Nationalism” in Guntram Herb and David Kaplan (eds), Nations and Nationalism: A Global Historical Overview, Vol. 1, ABC- CLIO, Santa Barbara, pp.126-136.

Andrew Webster Lecture 3, Ideas in Action (SSH100),“The technology of imagined communities”, Murdoch University, (2011)

David Brown, Lecture 4 of Ideas in Action (SSH100 “Imagining the Nation”, Murdoch University, (2011)

B.P Levack (2006), Witch Hunt in Early Modern Europe, Longman/Pearson, Harlow, 3rd edn, Ch.2 : The Intellectual Foundations