For my final post, I will be discussing yet another one of Cairncross' predictions for the future of the world regarding communications. One of his assumptions was that the modern world would see a rise of the English language in all the nations of the world. He coined his prediction, "the rise of English," and he meant that english would eventually become the global language. He believed that new communication practices and the dominance of English speaking people in business and entertainment would allow the language to become the most dominant language in the world. I think that Cairncross was accurate in his assumption that most nations in the world would adopt english as their second language. However, I think it has much more to do with entertainment than it does with business. Not all people are involved in the business world. Some people have careers that are not at all associated with international commerce or telecommunicating; therefore, I do not think business is the reason that english is such a popular language world-wide. I think it definitely contributes to the reason that english is a dominant language; however, the real cause behind English's dominancy is America's control of international media and Hollywood. Like I stated before, not everyone is in business; however, everyone loves to be entertained. With the emergence of new technologies in the twentieth century such as televisions, movies, and the Internet, people all over the world now have access to all these technologies and they want to watch television shows and movies. However, the film and T.V industry originated in America, one of the top english speaking countries. America is known for producing the best television shows and movies, and countries all over the world watch these programs and a lot of the time they can not be translated so non-english speakers end up watching the program in english. Since there are so many films and t.v shows that are produced in english, those programs end all over the world. The only element that all these countries in the world have in common is that they are watching programs in english and people of many different languages can connect with each other on the small amounts of english they have learned from the programs. Because of Hollywood, english has become the most recognizable language and therefore, people from different countries want to learn it. However, there is a down side to a common global language. An author named David Crystal wrote a book about how english become the global language. However, he states that, "the 1990s were a revolutionary decade, in that respect, with a proliferation of new linguistic varieties arising out of the world-wide implementation of the Internet, an emerging awareness of the crisis affecting the world's endangered languages, and an increasingly public recognition of the global position of English"(114). He is expressing that english became the dominant world language because of new technologies in communication such as the internet. However, he is also stating that the rise of english might be causing an endangerment of other less known languages. I think that it is important for the world to be connected by a common language like english; however, I also think that nations should keep their unique heritages and languages relevant so that we don't ever lose them.

References
Crystal, D. (2003). English As a Global Language. Cambridge, UK:Cambridge University Press.

CC

Mini-Project #5

At the end of Cairncross' guide to new communications, he makes a bold and somewhat unattainable prediction about the future of global morality and politics. Cairncross predicted that future communication technology would connect nations together and that bond would foster peace between all the nations of the world. He coined his prediction "global peace," and I think that in some ways he is accurate in his assumption; however, ultimately I believe that his prediction is too far fetched and is an incorrect description of the camaraderie between nations today. I think that he is right about the fact that global trade has given a lot of third world countries the chance to expand their economies and connect with other countries. I also think he was correct in believing that new technology, such as video cameras on phones and websites like Youtube, would give people from all over the world a chance to share videos about their own lives and cultures. The interconnectivity would allow people to start understanding other people's traditions and cultures and connect with them even though they live across the world from each other. There has definitely been an increase in connectivity between different nations because of new communication technology; however, I don't think it is enough to create global peace. The fact is, although everyone loves the idea of global peace, the imbalance of wealth in the world is still too vast for nations to be peaceful with each other. A lot of the time, impoverished countries are violent because they are unhappy with their economy and global status. There is an online article that explains the complex relationship between poverty and peace and it's authors states that, "[i]n today's increasingly interconnected world, the 'haves' cannot ignore the suffering of the 'have-nots',"(Chollet and Brainard 1). The authors are conveying that people in wealthy countries can no longer ignore the misfortunate people of impoverished countries because they are made aware of them on the news and the internet. However, the authors also state that people who want to help have a hard time doing so because impoverished countries tend to be violent. The authors expressed that, "[p]oor, fragile states can explode into violence or implode into collapse, imperiling their citizens, regional neighbors, and the wider world as livelihoods are crushed, investors flee, and ungoverned territories become a spawning ground for global threats like terrorism, trafficking, environmental devastation, and disease,"(Chollet and Brainard 1). As long as there is poverty in the world, there will most likely be violence as well because those nations are typically too unstable to hold a successful government. Although nations are more connected now than they ever were before, global trade and communications cannot create total economical success in impoverished countries. Therefore, Cairncross was right about new communication technology promoting the idea of global peace within the world; however, he was not correct in believing that future communication would be successful in eradicating war and violence from the Earth. 

References:

Chollet, D. H., & Brainard, L. (2007). Too Poor for Peace? : Global Poverty, Conflict, and Security in the 21st Century. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.

Mini-Project Post #3

In Cairncross', "The Trendspotter's Guide to New Communication,"he mentions many different ways in which he believed the future modern world would operate under new communicative technology. He thought that due to the widespread use of the internet throughout the world, people would start connecting with each other through similar interests instead of through proximity which he termed "Communities of Practice." For so long in history, people have connected together because of how close they lived to one another. There are so many different unique cultures in the world that emerged because people grew up in the same area and therefore developed similar interests and experiences. However, now that there is a technology that allows anyone from anywhere in the world to communicate, people can form communities based on their own unique experiences. Lawrence J. Kirmayer, Eugene Raikhel, and Sadeq Rahimi are all authors who wrote an article about how the internet has affected communities and they claim that, "[t]he networking afforded by the Internet is forging new social processes and new types of community founded on common interests and emerging identities, leading some to speak of a new tribalism" (172). They are stating that the internet has allowed people to network with others who share similar interests and values with them which creates new identities for communities. Throughout history, community typically meant people all dwelling within the same area; however, now through the internet communities no longer are held within the definition of proximity. Especially through the use of social media and blogs, people can find others who share the same interests, like hobbies or entertainment, and those people are connecting with others like them and creating little communities. For example, if someone loved the movie series Harry Potter, they could create a blog dedicated to their passion for the series. Other fans of Harry Potter could see that blog and decide to join because they want to connect with another devoted Harry Potter fan. Eventually that blog has the potential to garner thousands of other Harry Potter fans from across the globe. They can all communicate with each other through the blog and can even decide to meet up together for a movie premier or another Harry Potter event. What makes them a community is the fellowship they share for their interest in Harry Potter. Although people have always had their own individual characteristics and interests, before the internet they were never afforded the opportunity to connect with other people who shared their likeness. Therefore, I believe that Cairncross was right about future "Communities of Practice," because now there thousands of communities on the internet that hold people from many different countries across the world. 

References

Kirmayer, L. J., Raikhel, E., & Rahimi, S. (2013). Cultures of the Internet: Identity, community and mental health. Transcultural Psychiatry, 50(2), 165-191. doi:10.1177/1363461513490626

Cairncross proposes another element that he believes affects our society now. He states that there will be a shift from government policing to self-policing in the digital world. He thinks that there will be to much information on the web and too many people posting in order for the government to regulate content and therefore people will have to police themselves and others to keep the internet aligned with American morals and laws. I believe that Cairncross was accurate in his prediction that government policing would become impossible on the internet, and I also think he was correct in identifying that our society would start regulating our own content. One of the ways in which I think we have started to police ourselves is through social pressure and norms. With the emergence of social media and comment sections of blog posts and articles, authors of content are now held accountable for what they post and write. If someone is writing an offensive article or posting an obscene video online, other people can view it, share it, and then publicly bash him online. Daniel Villatoro, an author of an article that examines self-policing states that, "on the contrary to institutional rules, the responsibility to enforce social norms is not the task of a central authority but a task of each member of the society"(Villatoro255). He is stating that social norms are not enforced by the government, but instead by each member of society, especially online. We are beginning to self-police are selves and others on the internet because we have transferred social norms into the digital world. Although the government cannot provide regulation of all web content, I think that self-policing through social pressure does a good job of regulating the obscene and offensive content online.

When assessing Cairncross's "Trendspotter's Guide" in comparison to the two web content genres I chose, I realized that he was correct in a lot of his predictions. I first compared the entertainment genre today to his idea of the,"Increased value of brand." He predicted that products and personalities would become even more popular and that they would increase greatly in value without changing the cost of producing or promoting them. I think in many ways he was correct because of whats happened with the emergence of social media. Nowadays people treat their personal social media accounts like they are brands. Everyone wants to gain likes and followers so they can get interest from sponsors. Entertainers are especially good at gaining sponsorship and with all the money they receive from doing promotional work, their personality is now seen as a lucrative brand. It is amazing to witness how some people who are not traditional entertainers, such as singers or actors, have gathered a large following and are now seen as celebrities. Social media has allowed ordinary people to gain extraordinary attention and the following and support they get from their follows enables them to be seen as valuable to other brands. Some celebrities who have started out with a low following have been able to increase their celebrity value and status through social media. A perfect example of how Cairncross's idea of,"Increased value of brand," has played out in modern times is the rise and popularity of the Kardashians. The family first started out on reality television and were only famous for their step father who is a gold medalist from the 1977 Olympics. However, through social media, the entire family was able to elevate their celebrity status by sharing so much of their lives that people felt like they knew them and wanted to follow them. Now each family member is invited to the most upscale and luxurious celebrity events. They wear the highest fashion and are constantly paid by brands to sponsor their products.

Above is a picture from Khloe Kardashian's Instagram account where she mentions the brand of a protein drink in a very obviously sponsored post. Every Kardashian sister has posts that feature sponsorships and they get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to do them. Their social media brand is what has caused them to become ultra rich and ultra famous. Therefore, Cairncross was very accurate in his assumption that the entertainment business would become the most lucrative individual activity. 

I have decided to pick option 2 from mini-project 1 as my topic for mini-project 2. I have decided to pick entertainment and blog as my two genres of web content. I will be applying them to Caincross's "Trendspotter's Guide."