Old and new discourses in Emerging States: communication challenges of the digital age

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we introduce a collection of articles included into thematic issue on multicultural discourses in ‘Emerging States’. Along with discussing challenges all multicultural and multiethnic societies are facing under ongoing digitalization process (digital divide, challenges to ethnic and community media, etc.), we focus on several themes that deserve further investigation by scholars. Among those are current communication and media policy aimed at supporting offline and online activities of cultural, linguistic and ethnic groups in ‘Emerging States’ as well as intercultural communication; social, political, economic, technological and cultural transformations ‘Emerging States’ evolved in twenty to twenty-first centuries and the way these transformations influenced cross-cultural communication and people’s identities from a cultural discourse studies perspective; digital communication as a dimension of ‘soft power’ in ‘Emerging States’, and many other topics.

KEYWORDS:

• Cultural discourse studies
• multiculturalism
• digital divide
• pluralism
• ethnic media
• ethnic identity‌

In this paper, we introduce a collection of articles included into thematic issues on multicultural discourses in ‘Emerging States’. Along with discussing challenges all multicultural and multiethnic societies are facing under the ongoing digitalization process (digital divide, challenges to ethnic and community media, etc.), we focus on several themes that deserve further investigation by scholars. Among those are current communication and media policy aimed at supporting offline and online activities of cultural, linguistic and ethnic groups in ‘Emerging States’ as well as intercultural communication; social, political, economic, technological and cultural transformations ‘Emerging States’ evolved in twenty to twenty-first centuries and the way these transformations influenced cross-cultural communication and people’s identities from a cultural discourse studies perspective; digital communication as a dimension of ‘soft power’ in ‘Emerging States’, and many other topics.

The rise of ‘the rest’: from a global economic transformation to an academic shift

Back in early 2000s, scholars drew their attention to the phenomenon that was metaphorically called the rise of ‘the rest’ (Amsden 2001). After World War II the world changed significantly, with a select number of countries (China, India, Korea and others) becoming economic powers by the end of the twentieth century. Their strategies that involved intense learning, an extensive role for the government, and the formation of specific types of business enterprise helped them gain market shares in modern industries, altering global competition and introducing new players on the international stage (Jaffrelot 2009). In addition to strengthening their positions in the global economy, countries aspired to increase their presence in modern geopolitics, too, thus fostering their overall visibility and impact in the world.

The rise of ‘the rest’ however was not limited to the economic growth only. Very soon a tendency for de-Westernization of politics, culture and communication together with an increasing presence of Russia, Brazil, India, China, South Africa and other countries (Argentina, Australia, Colombia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and others) the term ‘Emerging States’ has been sometimes applied to became evident. As a result, numerous research projects on de-Westernization, decentralization and differentiation appeared. Scholars discussed de-Westernization and further internationalization of communication research and media studies (Park and Curran 2000; Takahashi 2007; Thussu 2009; Wang 2010), film studies (Ba and Higbee 2012), cultural and discourse studies (Shi-xu 2014), comparative media system studies (Hallin and Mancini 2012) and many other areas. The general idea that to some extent united all these works was an idea of ‘scholarly Westcentrism’ understood as the predominance of Western actors, modes of research, values and standards, topics and questions, etc. on the one hand and the subjugation and exclusion of non-Western scholarships and issues on the other (Shi-xu 2014, 2).

As a response to this Westcentric model, scholars called for a more active participation of academics from BRICS and especially from developing Third World societies in the construction or re-invention of various cultural frameworks of research (Shi-xu 2016, 6). This appeared to be particularly important for cultural discourse studies, approaching culture not just as innocent ‘difference’ in knowledge, values or customs external to action and communication, but rather as a historically evolved set of ways of thinking, concepts, symbols, representations (e.g. of the self and others), norms, rules, strategies, embodied in the actions and artifacts of a social community in power relations with those of other communities (Guilherme and Dietz 2015; Shi-xu 2009, 2016). Following up this idea, we maintain that culture is integral part of the life practice of a social community in relation to others, complex and dynamic, rather than fixed to people or place or time. Today, we approach culture as a complex multilayer process that involves many actors, as well as their interactions, intercommunication and interdependencies. This special issue therefore pursues a need for a more nuanced and detailed examination of cultural processes taking places in the non-Western world, using two main theoretical paradigms – Cultural Discourse Studies as a broad theoretical area (Shi-xu 2016), and a non-Westcentrism model as a general approach to culture and multiculturalism affairs in the ‘Emerging States’.

‘Emerging States’ and communication challenges they face today

The historical path of ‘Emerging States’, accompanied by major social and political transformations, territorial shifts and changes of political regimes in the twentieth century, as well as the growing presence of these countries in global economy, politics, culture and communication, make them an interesting and timely case to study. In this vein, approaching multicultural discourses in ‘Emerging States’ from a Western perspective is not always applicable or suitable to countries with a different historical path of development, as well as political, social and cultural legacy. Landmark studies on the BRICS countries (Thussu 2013; Nordenstreng and Thussu 2015; Wasserman, Zhang, and Mano 2016; Pasti and Ramaprasad 2018; Vartanova 2018b) and current research on different manifestations of culture in the digital environment (Castanheira 2020) analyze trends in media and communication fields in BRICS following non-Westcentrism approach and focusing on national specifics and cultural context of each country. Still, there are several themes that remain in some way underrepresented in scholarly literature when it comes to cultural discourse studies, multiculturalism affairs and policy domains in BRICS and ‘Emerging States’. This special issue attempts to tackle these themes and highlight some areas for future research.

First, we argue that regardless of national specifics and current peculiarities of ‘Emerging States’ communication systems, there are challenges all multicultural/multiethnic societies are facing under the ongoing digitalization process. One of the most important challenges in this vein is the change enabled and intensified by the overall spread of ICTs in the world, including the rise of digital divide and digital exclusion, which are still serious issues in BRICS and other countries of the ‘Emerging States’ group. Previous research shows how the remaining digital gap is affecting communication across cultural and ethnic groups, and how digital inequalities in access and skills – often related to economic wealth and social status/class of people (Norris 2001; Attewell 2001; Hargittai 2002; Van Dijk 2006) are developing into social inequalities (Van Deursen and Van Dijk 2013; Ragnedda 2017; Gladkova and Korobeinikova 2016) in the multicultural setting of these countries. Another important topic here is the analysis of different state and public policies aimed at overcoming digital divide in multicultural societies (Ragnedda and Muschert 2013; Vartanova 2015).

In this vein, the paper ‘Digital divide and digital capital in multiethnic Russian society’ by A. Gladkova, E. Vartanova and M. Ragnedda contributes to the academic discussion about digital divide being a complex challenge – both technological and social. Furthermore, it presents the first attempt ever to measure the level of the digital capital of two large ethnic groups – Russians and non-Russians, based on self-identification of the survey participants. The paper specifically addresses the third level of the digital divide as a divide in benefits or tangible outcomes people receive through their online engagement. Given the fact that social and digital inequalities tend to reinforce each other, the paper argues that those who are more socially advantaged tend to get the most out of the Internet, further reinforcing their social position by using ICTs. This problem gains particular importance in big multicultural and multiethnic societies such as Russian society, where providing equal opportunities for online engagement for all minor groups spread across a huge territory of the country can be a serious challenge.

As a proof that digital inequalities are in some way typical for many ‘Emerging States’ and not just Russia, the papers ‘Determinants of digital skills in Northeast Anatolia, Turkey’ by D. Özsoy, E. Akbulut, S. S. Atılgan and G. W. Muschert, and ‘An empirical verification of social time theories: investigating digitally induced temporal change in Germany and China’ by M. Faust and X. Jin discuss the second (differences in skills) and the third (differences in benefits people receive through their online activity) levels of the digital divide. The study on Turkey measures the digital skill levels of the people living in the Northeastern Anatolian region of the country and shows how age, gender, education and household income significantly predict digital skills level. The study on China and Germany discusses how temporal inequalities are bringing social consequences of temporal change through digital media to the fore. The authors examine divides across several lines – urban/rural, gender and others – comparing and contrasting two countries with quite different cultural contexts – China in the Global South and Germany in the Global North. Just like the paper on Russia, both papers show that digital inequalities are still on place in many countries of the ‘Emerging States’ group, and that a big challenge digital exclusion can create is hindering equal representation of various cultural, ethnic, linguistic groups in online space.

Second, following D. McQuail (2005), D. Thussu (2019), M. Matsaganis, V. Katz, S. Ball-Rokeach (2011) and others, we argue that media consumption practices vary across different ethnic, cultural and age groups, from anthropological and social discourse studies perspectives. Media consumption itself is becoming an important part of modern culture (Dunas and Vartanov 2020). This is particularly important for ‘Emerging States’ where digitalization is still ongoing, having certain impact on all cultural processes taking place in the society. In this vein, the paper ‘Emerging ‘digital media culture’ in Russia: modelling the Generation Z media consumption’ by D. Dunas and S. Vartanov fits an important gap of studies related to media consumption in ‘Emerging States’ today. The authors show how a new type of media culture is evolving in multicultural and multiethnic Russian society today – the digital one. Their study reveals an important trend that can possibly be later analyzed in other national and cultural contexts too: that self-actualization and socialization are becoming more important for young people in their media consumption compared to some previously identified basic needs, such as information need or even a need for security. Another paper included into this special issue, ‘Digital communication in the making of cosmopolitan spaces for São Paulo’s migrant communities’ by V. Riegel in some way develops the idea of self-actualization and socialization of cultural communities too. The paper analyzes how migrants’ communities in São Paulo mobilize digitally to make cosmopolitan spaces in the city, from the development of local networks in support of migrants, to training into digital skills and the production of visibility within digital media.

Lastly, previous research showed how media in ethnic languages across the world are currently transforming their editorial and content strategies in the digital environment (Yu and Matsaganis 2018; Sahin 2018; Gladkova et al. 2019), and how the role and functions of journalists working for such media are changing in the modern convergent newsrooms (Kolesnichenko et al. 2018; Vartanova 2018a; Vyrkovsky et al. 2019). In this vein, the paper ‘Ethnic news media in the digital age: the impact of technological convergence in reshaping journalists’ practices in Pakistan’ by S. Jamil broadens the understanding of ethnic media using a case study of a country from the Global South. The paper explores how technological convergence is reshaping the journalists’ practices of news production and distribution in Pakistani ethnic media, as well as how ethnic news media use ICTs to promote cultural cohesion and societal peace in Pakistan. This is particularly true for multicultural and multiethnic societies of ‘Emerging States’, where diverse cultural, linguistic and ethnic groups with different historical traditions and backgrounds co-exist, and where the multiculturalist stance (Shi-xu 2006) – on state and public levels – plays a very important role.

Mapping topics for future research

In this introduction, we briefly outlined several themes that so far remained under-examined in the context of cultural discourse studies in BRICS and ‘Emerging States’, and that shaped the collection of articles included into this special issue. Still, we believe there is a whole set of other themes that deserve thorough examination in further research. Among those are current communication and media policy aimed at supporting offline and online activities of cultural, linguistic and ethnic groups in ‘Emerging States’ as well as intercultural communication (De Smaele 2012; Nordenstreng and Thussu 2015); social, political, economic, technological and cultural transformations ‘Emerging States’ evolved in twenty to twenty-first centuries and the way these transformations influenced cross-cultural communication and people’s identities from a cultural discourse studies perspective (Shi-xu 2016); digital communication as a dimension of ‘soft power’ in ‘Emerging States’ (Thussu 2013; Wasserman, Zhang, and Mano 2016); digital inclusion of various ‘vulnerable groups’ in the society including ethnic and cultural minorities (Choudrie, Kurnia, and Tsatsou 2017), and many other topics.

The Cultural Discourse Studies paradigm can be in this way a sort of thread bringing together these topics within one theoretical framework. Following Shi-xu, we argue that culture is integral part of the life practice of a social community in relation to others, complex and dynamic, rather than fixed to people, place or time (Shi-xu 2016, 2). We show in this special issue that in the new digital environment, ICTs and Internet studies are no longer limited to the technology domain, becoming important topics for communication/discourse/cultural studies too, with new digital cultures appearing and new digital means enabling us to ‘identify, characterize, explain, interpret and appraise culturally divergent, productive or competing discourses’ (Shi-xu 2016, 3).

In this vein, we believe there is a need for more research focused on multicultural affairs and communication in the new digital setting of ‘Emerging States’ and BRICS, revealing national specifics as well as common trends typical for all countries of that group. Finally, there is a remaining need for re-conceptualization and further internationalization of Eastern and Western paradigms of cultural discourse studies (Shi-xu 2009) and for developing theoretical frameworks and paradigms that take account of, and therefore are more relevant to, the cultural context in which research is accomplished.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Professor Dr. Elena Vartanova is Dean and Chair in Media Theory and Economics at the Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University (Russia). She is the President of the National Association of Russian Mass Media Researchers and corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Education.

Dr. Anna Gladkova is Leading Researcher and Director of International Affairs Office at the Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University (Russia). She is also IAMCR Ambassador in Russia and vice-chair of the Digital Divide Working Group in IAMCR.