Prof: Leonardo Mendoza
Scholars have said that despite the domination of our current information society, infromation itself and its technology have remained in the hands of the economically elite. This criticism is most commonly expressed in terms of core and periphery theory which maintains that gloabl imbalances exist between "core" (i.e. rich, industrialized nations of the First World) and "periphery" nations (i.e. poorer, rural countries of the Third World) in both the flow of media products and information. In this view, information and its technology are controlled by the core nations, and its flow is seen as one-way from the core to the periphery with little opportunity for peripheral nations to participate in the process.
Hamilink offers a variety of empirical evindence to suuport the core and periphery view of the world. The following statistics were gathered from UNESCO:
* The peripheral countries of the world own only 4% of the world's computer hardware.
* 75% of the world's telephones (700 million) can be found in the 9 richest countries, while the poorest countries own less than 10%.
* There are more telephones in Japan than in all the countries of Africa, which as a continent had (in 1988) four times the population of Japan and 80 times the land mass.
* In 39 peripheral countries, there were no newspapers and in 30 others there was only 1.
There are more than 1600 daily papers today (1995) in the United States alone.
* Europe produced an average of 12,000 new books per year, while Africa produced under 350. In addition, Europe averages 1,400 libraries per country to 18 in Africa.
Bby the end of 1992, Eastern Europe had installed just 15.65 telephone lines per 100 people compared to more than 45 lines per 100 in Western Europe.
How do you think Korea fits into all this?
How important is technology to society?
How is culture spread through technology?