Globalization, Gender and New Media: A Study of Facebook Users in a Developing Country

Globalization is a process which is transforming developing as wells as developed societies of the world in last few decades. The new communication technologies play an important role in facilitating the process of globalization. The modern mass media have also been globalized by adopting new communication technologies. The new media differ from the modern mass media in two ways: firstly, it is based on computer and internet and enables the user to interact with other persons located in any other part of the planet earth in comparison to limited time and space dimension of modern mass media. Secondly, new media is global in nature and connects people on the principle of network. In this sense globalization and new media are interrelated. New media has been emerged as an important force transforming the people of the different societies in a variety of ways. Women, who have been dominated by the patriarchal structure and cultural milieu, are now exposed to the new media (also known as social media) in last two decades. The smart phone and other computer and internet based devices have revolutionized the social, economic and cultural sphere of women's life in the recent past. The exposure of the women to new media has empowered them to a great extent and now they are able to take their own decisions and express themselves in the wider society through different forums like, Facebook, Twitter and other social networking websites easily available to them through their smart phone/laptop/desktop/i-pad etc. The present paper makes an attempt to understand the role of social networking websites in the empowerment of the women in India. The paper is based on an exploratory study of the patterns of interaction of the women on the Facebook.