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Culture and National Identity
There is a fundamental difference betweent television and the Internet: interactive communication. The Internet allows for the creation and dissemination of products, services, and information customized to individual and group needs, while television generally involves the one-way transmission of cultures and values that are different from the local realities of developing nations.
Furthermore, the cost of producing and transmitting Salvadoran reality worldwide using television is very high; however, creating and disseminating electronic information via Internet is relatively economical, and has the same impact worldwide as locally for the same cost, regardless of distance. In El Salvador, a recent national investment in the creation of a network of Infocenters will permit even broader participation in this effort.
In the context of culture and national identity, the Internet offers an opportunity to develop them in a participatory fashion, project them to the world, and enrich other cultures with local contributions. This opportunity takes on great importance in the context of postwar efforts to define Salvadoran identity with greater precision.
Salvadoran cultural heritage
A learning society must make special efforts to translate into information its history, culture, languages, and values, as well as its uniqueness and diversity, and to disseminate them by taking advantage of the revolution in information and communications technologies (ICTs). Targeting the national audience is just as important as dissemination abroad, since many Salvadorans are unaware of the immense cultural wealth and variety which exists in their own country, and these are very important complements to the school curriculum. In addition, Salvadorans abroad have relatively widespread access to the Internet and maintain a fervent desire to preserve cultural links to their homeland. Thirdly, the rest of the world has much to learn about Salvadoran reality, which can enrich a nation’s own cultural context.
Some important efforts in this vein have already begun; the following are some sites worth mentioning:
Since the Internet facilitates combinations of text, images, video, and audio, it would be relatively easy to transmit many important aspects of national culture using this medium, for example:
National values and identity
A targeted effort by a diversity of national actors to produce detailed documentation of El Salvador’s cultural heritage would create an enabling environment for broader and more participatory research and debate around national values and identity, using all forms of available media.
Art and society
As connectivity evolves throughout El Salvador, access to art and culture will become more democratic for all, and will allow traditionally-excluded sectors to participate. It is key to develop this potential particularly through the educational system.
Markets for art
Salvadoran artists face a daily struggle for survival due to the lack of adequate support from public and private sources. One of the factors underlying this problem is the absence of adequate means of dissemination of their talents and achievements. In other words, the transaction costs involved in identifying opportunities for support, presentations, professional training, and/or sales are very high.
In a learning society, in which the public has a reasonable level of access to connectivity, artists can take advantage of this medium to project their achievements around the world, in multimedia, and thereby better identify opportunities for scholarships and courses, seek and obtain sources of national and international support, sell their creations and/or obtain presentations, and interact with other artists in related disciplines throughout the world.
Leisure
The Internet contains many sites dedicated to leisure and cultural activities, organized in the form of virtual museums, virtual strolls through parks and other sites of interest, sports, music, on-line games, humor, real-time electronic conversations (chat) on a variety of issues, and others. As Salvadorans acquire the habit of participating in these mechanisms at a distance, they will begin developing local versions of the same leisure-related activities, providing more relevance while at the same time enriching national culture.
All rights reserved. Permission is granted to reproduce all or part of this publication as long as the complete source is cited: Conectándonos al Futuro de El Salvador, "Strategy for Building a Learning Society", San Salvador, 1999, http://www.conectando.org.sv/English/Strategy/
