How Do Diaspora Media Help Construct Meanings of Community...
As a result of the western colonizing movement of the 19th century, a massive diasporic movement
of people across boundaries formed a unique group. This ongoing process of population movement
and mass exodus, as well as the effects it caused drew attention to the academic world at both
cultural and political levels. However, unlike the original residents, this diasporic shift demonstrated
distinctive traits such as identity and an ideology which evidently differed from those of the
natives. As Sreberny (2000. P179) argued: Diaspora has become a key term in theorizing about
immigration, ethnicity and identity and exerted a considerable influence historically, culturally,
socially and economically on developed capitalist societies.... Show more content on
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Diaspora media, especially electronic media, with its facility of connection between locations,
has successfully managed to improve the quality and speed of communication, as well as to
shape its identity in local, national and transnational levels within a modern social context. Direct
audio and visual experience allows audiences to get together and exchange opinions over a
variety of topics such as languages, fashion, lifestyle, political viewpoints. This daily regular
activity of sharing the same media has made people subconsciously advance the sense of
belonging in a common unity (Anderson, 1983). From our living experiences, it is not hard to
find out that there are so many resources of information to choose from, which means our world
has been filled with media, and the diasporic space is no exception. Through all these media,
people encode and decode information, accept and reject ideas, and (re)define (new) meanings of
culture, community and identity. Electronic media shorten the distance between locations and
helped dispersed people to share the culture of the same root, allow comparison, (re)construction of
symbols, present and mediate meanings of Diasporas, localities, communities and identities.
Therefore, in media cultures social interaction and relations are no longer dependent on
simultaneous spatial co presence (Lull, 2000. P97). Instead, they use symbols and direct visuality
to carry the latter day communal memories and offer new schedules for
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