The concept of an imagined community was
first coined up by Benedict Anderson in (1983). It states that because
thousands to millions of people socially construct a ‘nation’, there is no
possible way that they can know each person by name or by face. In order to
know that these communities are working and still exist, they perceive and
imagine themselves in it and project the idea that others are also a part of
these particular groups.
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| Egypt (Arnold, 2011) |
 |
| Prince George (Azstarnet.com, 2013) |
Despite ongoing globalization, imagined communities
still exist. For instance, through the British Royal Family, we can see how media
can create an imagined community of nationalism. This is largely because the
Royal Family is constantly in the media and the connections that people form
with them often depend on media connotations (Scannell & Cardiff, 1991) . With the newlyweds
Prince William and Kate often photographed by the paparazzi, many people have
imagined themselves as a part of the community that celebrated the event. Were
you a part of the ‘Royal Family’ celebrating the arrival of Prince George when
the event was covered by the media? If you said ‘yes’, you were probably part
of the royal Family ‘nation’ despite being geographically distant.
Over the years, the imagined community of the
‘Royal Family’ has often been formed through images and representations of the
‘Royal Family’ by the media. For instance, in the film ‘The King’s Speech’, historian
Roberts (2011) highlighted that portrayal of the ‘Royal Family’ by the media had
sucked more people into the imagined community as a result of media.
How would one create an imagined community
through film or print media? Cayla and Eckhardt
(2008), for instance, assert that an imagined community was formed between
Europe and Asia through a Tiger beer poster that depicted various images of
Asians enjoying the product in an Asian setting. Would the imagined community
be formed if Tiger had opted to depict Caucasians the poster instead? Probably
not as the poster would have failed to communicate the ‘Asian’ part of the
message and failed to conjure any imaginations about Asia. Furthermore, one may ask if the selection of
an appropriate image is necessary to create the bonding between people in an
imagined community. With globalisation taking place at a rapid place, can standardised images in media effectively
communicate to culturally diverse audiences and form an imagined community?
In today’s globalizing world, one major
debate in cross-cultural communication is whether to have an internationally globalized
message or one that is glocalized to suit diverse audiences. Both globalized
and glocalized messages have their advantages and disadvantages. For example, a
globalized message saves cost but may not necessarily be effective in
communicating its meaning and risk misunderstanding and violation of cultural
norms (Samiee & Roth, 1992) . To overcome
cultural differences, effective cross-cultural communication often involves
glocalizing the message (Kanso & Nelson, 2002) .
Before further discussion, it is important to
define what culture is. Over the years, culture has had more than 160 definitions assigned to it (Krober &
Kluckholn, 1952) ,
and one of the most accepted definitions was given by Tylor (1871:1) who
asserts that culture is a “complex whole which includes knowledge,
belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired
by man as a member of society”. McCracken (1986)
further adds that culture is the “lens through which the individual
views phenomena”. As such it determines the different ways that one would
perceive and interpret phenomena. In other words, a common occurrence could be
perceived to convey different meanings across different cultures. Among a
plethora of other factors, the existence of different ‘lenses’ add on to the
challenges of effective cross-cultural communication.
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| Lightbulb |
The use of symbols and images may help to
alleviate the challenge in such circumstances. Cyr
and Trevor-Smith (2004:6) assert that “Symbols or images are ‘metaphors’
denoting actions of the user”. In other words, a symbol has more meaning
that what it superficially appears as. For instance, a light bulb may contain
the meaning of ‘enlightenment’.
Back to the earlier notion of cultural
‘lenses’, symbols and their carried meanings may be interpreted and perceived
differently across cultures. The concept of cultural ‘lenses’ can be best
explained by a campaign ran by HSBC called ‘Different points of Value’. In this
campaign, the print advertisements underline the different interpretations of a
similar symbol/image across different cultures. For example, a rug may be a
place of prayer to an Islamic community but others may see it as a
souvenir.
 |
| Different points of value (The Financial Brand, 2009) |
This campaign accentuates the challenges of using
a single consistent image as it may lead to the formation of different imagined
communities away from its original intention or totally fail as a catalyst for
forming bonds between people. Therefore, it strikes that when attempting to
communicate across cultures to form imagined communities, senders should ensure
that the symbols/images used are equally decoded across cultures and that they are culturally
sensitive.
 |
| Flood (TheNounProject, 2012) |
The term ‘equally decoded’ across cultures strikes
the notion of an attempt to have universal or globalised symbols for effective
cross-cultural communication by the United Nations Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA). Universal or globalised images often involve
the need for them to have the ability to transcend cultural and language
barriers. According to The Noun Project (2012),
a number of such symbols have been submitted to communicate complex information
to illiterate people effectively in event of disasters. The idea is that by
sharing a universal symbol, the community that sees the same symbol share
common understanding and have a feel for the situation in the disaster zone.
For example, when the ‘flood’ symbol flashes across the T.V. screen, the
audience are able understand that there is flooding going on and could relate
to the situation in the disaster zone.
 |
| Landslide (TheNounProject,2012) |
Although this concept is still a work in progress, one may ask if it would be plausible that sharing universal symbols/images can form a larger imagined community or are glocalised images still necessary. What are you thoughts?
Bibliography
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It is true that images can be interpreted in more ways than one, I reckon it goes back to the audience and also their background and/or culture.
ReplyDeleteThough it astonishing to see when images are simplified and turned into symbols that it can easily be interpreted less liberally. But that can also be an effect of regulation, for instance road signs, it's generally universal all around and it's usually designed in the most simplest form and exposure through driving school exposes you to these forms and to their meaning. From that point on, it is embedded in one's memory.
However, in terms of images, I do believe that glocalised forms of communication is still an essential aspect to our community. Despite globalization, it has not transformed us to a global village with one culture. There are still too many different distinct features within the array of cultures available all around the world.
The imagined communities nowadays, due to technological advancement, it is rapidly evolving, therefore there is a constant need in evaluating what the current 'imagined communities' are. So yes, it is quite interesting though to see where our imagined communities will be at in the future.
I do believe that the idea of 'imagined community' can be also illustrated through events of the popular culture that bind people together on a global scale and is used as a platform in constructing unique and collective identities of global audiences in representing themselves to the rest of the world. This effort is evidently present in the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC).
ReplyDeleteMany believed that the age of globalization brings about the process of re-identification and creation of identities that are unique to a certain group in this period where locality has often been displaced, thus constituting the rise of nationalistic notions in the construction of social and cultural aspects of a nation.
The ESC serves as an important toll in shaping and disseminating the idea of the EI throughout Europe. Since 1956, the ESC has been broadcasted annually with the thought og bridging nations together to submit and perform original songs aired live by their respective public broadcasters, which are lated voted to determine the “best European song of the year” (Jordan 2009, p. 40). The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) initiated the ESC to unify Europe and lifting them out of post-war blues in order to promote cultural understanding and appreciation, whilst initiating new broadcasting techniques such as live telecast to countries (who are members of the EBU) concurrently. Since then, the ESC had became one of the world’s longest-running television programmes with an increasing number of competing countries participating especially from Eastern Europe, while being seen as a “symbolic representation of Europe” (EBU 2010; Jordan, 2009, p. 41). Furthermore, the winning country of the year’s ESC will be host to the ESC during the following year. (Mitrovic, 2010).
The building of the EI through the ESC involves audiences to identify themselves beyond just being nationalistic towards their countries on a European global level. Nationalism in this sense is “an ideological movement of attaining and maintaining autonomy, unity and identity on behalf of a population deemed by some of its members to constitute an actual or potential nation” (Smith, 1991, p. 73). Cloonan (1999, p.193) notes that the nation-state is a body which “claims sole jurisdiction over a given territory and the right to implement particular policies within that territory”. The nation is also “an imagined political community” as in the minds of each nation’s members lives an image of their communion despite having not made any contact with their own members within the sphere (Anderson, 1991, p. 6).
In relations to the ESCM the “imagined community” of a nation exists within its audiences as they witness their country’s representatives performing onstage, thus becoming symbols of national identities when audiences relate themselves to the artist and the overall performance. Furthermore, the ESC had provided opportunity for participating nations to “re-image” themselves in a global scale through displaying certain narratives of national identity or heritage to the European audiences – Scotsman Kenneth McKellar performed in a kilt while representing UK in 1964 (Jordan, 2009, p. 46).
The re-construction of national identity is also displayed visually through self-representations as shown by performance of Serbia and Montenegro’s Zeljko Joksimovic in 2004. His orchestral members were dressed in “quasi medieval garments” whereas his suit was “modern, white and minimalist” with typical but modified Serbian costume belt while sporting a sophisticated look. This reflects the Serbian team’s attempts to shift the Balkan/Serbian male’s “militant and non-cultivated savage image…into someone civil, emotional, yet archaic” (Mitrovic, 2010, p. 174).