Affects of Media, Technology and Education on the Communication Patterns

Q1: What is the role of media and technology over the impact of westernization on communication of Pakistan?

Media and transmission of culture are interrelated factors. In today’s world media is considered to be the strong carrier of culture values and norms. The West especially American media has upper hand on rest of the world. Hence, it also plays dominant role in transmission of western culture upon Muslim countries. This paper discusses various aspects of western culture invasion in Muslim countries through media. It also ponders on remedial suggestion for countering media’s culture invasion.
In the age of information technology, we cannot underestimate the role of Mass Media as a great “agent of change” in the society. Nowadays we frequently encounter media campaigns on TV, Radio, Internet or newspapers or magazines. Media has become a very effective and powerful weapon through which “authorities manipulate social attitude and behavior. The rapid rise of mass media utility and their potential influence has led many to wonder about the actual role and behavior. Mass Communication are all powerful that they determine thought and action to a major degree
Particularly electronic media brought a big change in the attitudes of the people. Among these television is a very powerful medium of communication.
Waves of western culture equipped with secularism and materialism are heading towards the Muslim cultures and societies very rapidly. There is a wave of these attacks in the form of computer, internet, TV, Cable network, dish antenna, VCR, Video Cassettes, films, newspapers and magazines. In present age this wave can be termed as culture invasion of the western countries.

This social change is due to the influence of the media.. An elite class society is shocked to see immoral practice, and attitudes of the youth of the day people make connections though social media, they maintain those connections outside of the specific platform and may extend those connections to email, a phone conversation or even in-person meetings.

The strong influence of Individualism on the consumption of the Internet, which is a relatively impersonal medium of communication, is also connected with the essential and product-specific aspect of cultural communication styles.

High Individualism is very often connected to "Low-context" communication, whereas low Individualism (Collectivism) very often is connected to "High-context" communication. members of Low-context cultures have less personal contact with each other, therefore communication must be very detailed and very explicit. A great deal of formal information is communicated in a direct way, often by way of written texts. In contrast, members of High-context cultures have closer and more familiar contacts with each other; a lot of information is already shared among them, and therefore their preferred mode of communication is more informal, indirect, and often based merely on symbols or pictures.
Technology has brought forth a revolutionary transformation in the way we communicate with each other.

As we progress through the information age, various technological devices such as the television, hand phones, and personal computers have come and established themselves in our everyday lives.This has definitely influenced interpersonal communication in many ways, both positive as well as negative.

With the invent of internet, the world has effectively become an interconnected global village. People from all corners of the world are able to easily converse with each other quickly and easily through cyberspace.

Email has established itself as a fast, free and convenient method to send messages, replacing traditional mail in the process. The internet has indeed made it easy and convenient for people to keep in touch with one another.

This ease of communication has many profound effects. In the business world, deals can be made through emails and video conferencing, and mobile phone technology has made it possible for people to check and send messages on the go, allowing us to be connected
The internet has affected the way how couples are formed. Couples are now commonly paired through dating websites using computer match ups. Chat rooms have become a common form of interaction between people as well, replacing a face-to-face meet up.

The internet has indeed changed the way people socialize. Although this has broadened the social circle of many people somewhat, couples are unable to meet face to face and this has many implications. Each individual has only the information which the other person decides to release. This may cause both parties to have unrealistic expectations about each other.

In the office, despite all the advantages offered by technology as mentioned earlier, there are many negative implications to be considered as well. Simple messages which used to be delivered face-to-face are now being sent through impersonal means such as email.
This has effectively reduced socialization within the office, thus contributing to the weakening of bonds within the workplace.

In addition, the convenience of emails and video conferences, just cannot entirely replace the feeling and warmth of a person's handshake or presence. Deals may be negotiated through emails, but many businessmen today will still want to view their business partners face-to-face in order to size their potential partners up before committing to any deals.

This has reduced the communication between parents and their children due to the lack of quality time spend together. The bond is weakened as compared with previous generations and this has a profound impact on society as a whole.

The benefits of technology are clear. it offers quick communication, and makes it possible to easily communicate with a large number of people.
But the convenience of communicating with technology comes with a price. Interpersonal communication, or face-to-face communication, is diminishing, and surprisingly, so is employee productivity. Technology's impact on interpersonal communication is multi-faceted, and should be tempered with the benefits of technology.
Technology today has given romance both good and bad traits. Prior to the information superhighway putting an onramp in your living room, single people needed to physically get out of the house and go somewhere else to meet people. Now, romance has the same convenience as online banking. We can now meet people all over the world from all walks of life well, almost.
Technology is having a definite impact on interpersonal communication. Virtual relationships are taking precedence over real life relationships in today's society. Due to the use of Internet, email, Blackberries, I-phones and other forms of technology, communication is now done on an entirely different level than it used to be.
Technology's influence on interpersonal relationships is both positive and negative
In conclusion, new technology such as the Internet has improved the efficiency and effectiveness of communication by eliminating distant and time barriers. The Internet has also provided additional source of revenue to companies which is beneficial economically. However, the Internet has led to a new set of ethical issues in communication practices, which has strong impact on social and business communication. Due to the lack of governing body, ethical communication issues such as the security of communication, integrity of information, minors exposed to corrupted information, plagiarism and the rights to privacy have been discussed. When ethical issues with regards to communication practices have been addressed, Internet technology can better enhance our lives economically and socially in responsible ways.
In conclusion, we are now more connected in today's globalized world, but are ironically more isolated from our friends and family as a result of the new technologies from the information age.

The ease of communication may have been improved but our lives have become more impersonal as a result. Technology has indeed made tremendous impact on society as well as on interpersonal communication.

Q: What is the role of education sector in promoting westernization in communication?
The private sector had already ignored Urdu in order to reap the commercial prospects of English as, allegedly, the best medium of learning. Now even the public sector has found the solution of our educational problem in replacing the Urdu medium with that of English. The false impression of rapid success in life by dint of English has, to our depravity, developed into a devoutly-held belief. If English were the only channel of development and modernization, China, Japan and Russia would not have been blessed with modern riches through the use of their own languages.
It is a fear that it is merely a modern version of cultural imperialism that will lead to the creation of a universal, ultimately Western society
Education is undergoing constant changes under the effects of globalisation. The effects of
Globalisation on education bring rapid developments in technology and communications are foreseeing changes within school systems across the world as ideas, values and knowledge, changing the roles of students and teachers, and producing a shift in society from industrialisation towards an information-based society. It reflects the effect on culture and brings about a new form of cultural imperialism. It brings rapid developments in technology and communications are foreseeing changes within school systems across the world as ideas, values and knowledge. The rise of a global society, driven by technology and communication developments are shaping children, the future citizens of the world into ‘global citizens’, intelligent people with a broad range of skills and knowledge to apply to a competitive, information based society. The future of countries often lies within their ability to compete in a global market where industrial based economies are giving way to knowledge based industries, realising the importance of "knowledge, skills and the intellectual capacity to meet the challenges of accelerated change and uncertainty"6. Education is becoming a lifelong learning and training process, developing transferable skills and knowledge that can be applied to competitive markets where knowledge and information is being traded as a commodity.
The introduction of technology into the classroom is changing the nature of delivering education to students is gradually giving way to a new form of electronic literacy , more programs and education materials are made available in electronic form, teachers are preparing materials in electronic form; and students are generating papers, assignments and projects in electronic form". Video projection screens, books with storage device servers and CD ROMs as well as the emergence of on-line digital libraries are now replacing blackboards. Even exams and grades are gradually becoming available through electronic means and notebooks are starting to give way to laptops. Also, students can be examined through computer managed learning systems and do tutorial exercises on a computer rather than in a classroom. Such developments in education portray that there has been a shift from industrialisation to information-based societies. Subsequently, technology is foreseeing a change in the education environment towards a reliance on electronic sources to deliver material. With such changes and the emergence of video conferencing and the Internet, the barriers of distance are being broken down at a rapid rate, due to the key aspect of globalisation. Children and adults can now learn in a variety of ways and no longer have to be physically present in an education institution in order to learn, a definite advantage of flexible delivery systems. It allows for exploration of new areas of learning and thinking. The rapid growth of television services, with their immense influence as media of mass communication, has been very relevant in the technological shift. Other large contributions to this shift include the transistor and space satellites. Communication and information based technology over the years is the Internet, which is a massive network of computers located throughout the world.