Globalization and the Emergence of New Communication System and Culture: A Conceptual Framework

Globalization is closely linked with mass media communication which itself is transforming with the integration of various modes of communication into an interactive network. The formation of a hypertext and meta-language integrate into the same system the written, oral, and audio-visual modalities of human communication. The integration of text, images, and sounds in the same system, interacting from multiple points, in chosen time (real or delayed) along a global network, in conditions of open and affordable access, does fundamentally change the character of communication. Thus the emergence of a new (electronic) communication system characterized by its global reach, its integration of all communication media and its potential interactivity is changing our culture. One of the major components of new communication system, the mass media communication, structured around television which resulted into globalization and decentralization of mass media communications interplaying with culture and social behavior. It has transformed the media and helped in evolution of multi-media system in the 1990s. With advent of internet, different systems of communication organized around computer networking and the surprising, spontaneous development of new kinds of virtual communities. The merger of these two communication systems has far reaching consequences for the structure and culture of contemporary societies and the culture of real virtuality is now emerging whose contents, dynamics and significance have to be understood in context of developed and developing societies. In what ways this transformation is taking place is taking place in contemporary Indian Society is the major focus of the paper.