CULTURE CHANGE

Culture Change

Introduction

In the phrase “culture change,” change has its usual meaning; culture, however, is being used in a sense technical enough to need a bit more discussion here at the outset. Culture, as classically defined by Edward B. Tylor in 1871, refers to that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. Once we realize that by the word “art” Tylor meant all the artifacts customarily made and used by a society, we see that this is a broad definition indeed: It includes the customary things with which people surround themselves, the customary ways they interact with one another behaviorally, and the ideas that are more or less shared among them. This report will attempt to show that the media and internet have changed the culture unintentionally.

Discussion

Three major trends define the power of the groundswell to upend traditional sources of authority. The first is that our relationships with institutions are changing. From advertising to government, Americans place less faith in traditional authority figures and more trust in “people like me.” Scholars consider that digital culture is an emerging value system and set of expectations as particularly expressed in the activities of news and information media makers and users online. The digital age is characterized by the proliferation of thousands of social networks around the World Wide Web. Most important, digital culture encourages participation, a participatory peer culture that invites many, including those who were previously excluded from central networks. (Waterman, 2003)

The second important trend is that media and information consumption patterns have changed. Media fragmentation is increasing. In 1984 the average U.S. household received five television channels. The average U.S. household now receives 118 TV channels as opposed to 27 in 1994, according to Nielsen. Fragmented media poses challenges as it allows us to listen only to those with whom we agree but also affords marginalized groups to create their own space and freely air their own opinions without interference from the dominant group.

Third, technology gives the consumer creative control. The rise of social media means a shift from consumption of media to participating in media. First heralded by Dan Gillmor in his 2004 We the Media, the former audience is now creating and consuming content. This is the very core of social media, and it has a profound impact on how we define leadership. As peer-to-peer relationships become more important, the traditional definition of a singular leader becomes less relevant

Whereas anyone over 30 recalls growing up in a world where those designated with formal authority had the ability to singularly define truth and set agendas, the digital age changes this equation profoundly. New media models cause traditional systems to shift. For example, in the old world, information was based on taxonomies, hierarchical ordered systems. In the digital age, folksonomies emerge.

Folksonomies allow Internet users to use a labeling process called tagging. Folksonomies are powerful because they bypass the traditional gatekeepers of ...