Globalization and Means of Communication: An Ethnography of a Nepali Village

Abstract

The modern means of communication has become an integral part in the everyday life of people and contemporary society. The people, global culture and economic activities are connected through different means of communication. The means of communication has influenced livelihood and local institutions. In this context, this study explores the changing landscape of means of communication, influence of the means of communication on livelihoods and local institutions, and producers and consumers of the means of communication, focusing on rural villages of Nepal. The means of communication includes television, radio, newspaper, social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), cultural/folk media, mobile phone, telephone and Internet. They are broadly grouped under four categories: mass media, social media, information tools and folk media. As the means of communication wield enormous influence in everyday life, it was deemed necessary to deepen the understanding of the production and consumption patterns of the means of communication and their influence on livelihood and local institutions from the perspectives of power, expansionism and globalization. This study employed interpretivism and criticalism. Interpretivism helped in understanding the social world of the participants and their subjective constructions because the means of communication enabled the local people to construct their own world and reality. Criticalism enabled me to explore the voices of the people. Ethnography was chosen as an appropriate research design to observe the influence of the means of communication in socio-cultural settings of the village. The influence of the means of communication in the rural life was explored through observations, interviews and reflections. The research revealed that the folk means of communication are gradually disappearing from the rural village, with the growing domination of the modern means of communication. Changes seem to have been taking place at a fast speed, overcoming or overlapping the traditional means of communication in rural villages. The research unmasked the situation that the modern means of communication have emerged as a tool to spread the ‘standard culture'. The patterns of local production, farming and everyday life have been changed. Industrial products and consumption culture are gaining popularity. The modern means of communication have spread the global views, resulting in the loss of volunteerism, participation and cooperation. Local institutions have become weak and defunct. The study concludes that despite a common assumption that the means of communication are the agent of change, they are the instrument to control the society to fulfill the pre-set objectives of the people in power.