The final FOCAS session explored the global implications of next-generation media.  These new technologies certainly have not made many of the world’s most intractable problems—poverty, violence, tyranny—disappear, but they may offer new possibilities for addressing these problems. 

     At the same time, every technology has a dark side and can be exploited for bad purposes as well as good. As former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright noted, radio can be a powerful disseminator of information, but in Rwanda it contributed to genocide when it was used by the government to spread hatred.  In The Washington Post column cited previously in this report, David Ignatius argued that technology can have the perverse effect in developing countries of widening the gaps between elites, who have the ability to connect with and communicate with the larger world, and the rest of the population, who are isolated by a lack of access.  It is difficult to see how the Internet, by itself, can offer much hope to the 1 billion people in the world who earn less than $2 per day. 

    What role can or should the new technologies play in expanding freedom?  Marc Nathanson, vice chairman of the NDI and FOCAS co-chair, noted that 3 billion people—nearly half of the world’s population—now live in free societies.  On the other hand, 1.6 billion people (18 percent of the total population) live in partly free societies, and the remaining 36 percent, 2.3 billion people, are living in societies that are not free. Among this latter group, nearly 70 percent are under the age of 25.

     Nathanson posed the following questions: “Will the new world of the next generation of media isolate us or bring us together?  Will we embrace our differences, or will it cause us to retreat into our own virtual xenophobic jungle?”  He then proposed that a new goal be added to the eight goals set by the UN Millennium Development Project for the international community to expand human development globally (see box). The ninth goal, according to Nathanson, should be to “provide access to appropriate new technologies.”

     Jeff Cole of the Center for the Digital Future at the USC Annenberg School noted that in the developed world just about everyone who wants to be online can be.  That is not the case in much of the rest of the world, however.  In Mexico, for example, Internet penetration is only 18 percent.  Even if we try to “push people online,” we may not make much progress.  For the residents of these countries, technologies such as radio and cell phones are likely to be much more critical.  Access to these technologies may be as critical for development as ensuring access to food and water.

     Yale’s Yochai Benkler explained that there is a growing global movement supporting “access to knowledge” as a basic right.  At the core of this movement are two ideas. The first is that every component of human development is heavily affected by information and knowledge.  The fundamental means for social improvement—medicine, better agricultural practices, news media, books and software—are all “knowledge-embedded tools.”  The second point is that the new user-centric media enable people to do more for themselves if they are given the ability to collaborate.  We need to recognize that how we manage knowledge is central to development. As Craig Newmark observed, the role for people who are trying to help is to provide these tools and then get out of the way.

     Kwaku Sakyi-Addo of BBC World underlined the value of these strategies by describing the conditions in his home country of Ghana, where the average per capita income is $390 per year.  Although Internet access remains very limited, other technologies are having a major impact.  The country also is struggling with an AIDS epidemic.  Even when drugs are made available to poor Ghanians, they have to be taken on a strict schedule to be effective. To take their drugs on schedule, people must have watches and understand how to use them.  Communication technologies such as mobile phones and radio are extremely important.  Using these technologies, ordinary citizens in remote parts of the country can phone a call-in radio program to ask questions of government ministers.  
 
     Sakyi-Addo described a new initiative by Google and Technoserve to sponsor a business plan competition in Ghana.  Forty winners received between $5,000 and $15,000 to start new businesses.  Among the winners who appeared on Sakyi-Addo’s radio program was one person who proposed to raise pigs organically and another who wanted to establish an environmentally conscious car wash.

     Nigerian radio host Funmi Iyanda noted that she grew up in a very poor family in southwestern Nigeria.  Books provided Iyanda with access to a different world and let her see beyond her immediate environment and aspire to do more with her life.  She believes that new technology can play the same role in the lives of young people today.  More than half of Nigeria’s population is under age 25, and this generation wants to be on the Internet and have cell phones. Like young people anywhere, they understand the power of technology.  By empowering them, technology may make it possible to “leapfrog” the past and move the country toward greater prosperity.

     Iyanda explained that she intends to go to the country’s universities and secondary schools to find young Nigerians who “understand the language that people like Chris Sacca, Cory Ondrejka, and Craig Newmark are speaking” and give them a platform to express themselves. She plans to recruit young people who are making creative use of technology to appear on her television show to inspire others. To encourage use of the Internet, she will ask people who want to be on television to go online and apply to be on her show. Her goal is to help young people to create their own community where new ideas and new values can be encouraged.

New Roles in a New World

     Finally, the FOCAS participants returned to the question of how the rise of next-generation media has changed the role of the United States in the world.  Peter Hirshberg offered another “modest proposal”—that the leaders of this country should recognize that they have the responsibility of managing “Brand America.”  What every good brand manager knows is that the first step in the job is to listen to a brand’s customers and understand what they are thinking. Unfortunately, feedback from the world suggests that we have not been doing a very good job of managing and promoting the U.S. brand. 

     The new technologies provide powerful means of engaging with the world and allowing others to tell us what they think.  From the perspective of public diplomacy, we need to move from a top-down, one-way advertising/propaganda model of communication to a peer-to-peer model that is based on real dialogue, on listening as well as speaking.  A public diplomacy strategy that looks more like Wikipedia or craigslist might be much more effective than continuing to expand the reach and wattage of Voice of America. 

     Former FCC Chairman and FOCAS co-chair Reed Hundt summarized these insights by asserting that the new media are creating a new vision of the relationship between the individual and society.  Leadership no longer needs to come “from above;” it can emerge from the collaborative efforts of the people themselves.  In the 21st century, progress may well depend on leadership from below. 

Back     Next