Convergence or Divergence?

Until about 30 years ago, it was quite reasonable to suppose that the whole world was converging as a result of modernization. It was widely assumed that news would increasingly become the province of highly-- organized corporations disseminating similar printed or electronic messages around the world. The great issue was who would control these institutions, both at a global and at a local level. But today, the idea that states could aspire to a monopoly on public information is absurdly out of date.

Modernization has, indeed, increased the audience for news. Many Africans are avid radio listeners, and it is possible to have a well-informed discussion of world politics in almost any village with someone who has obtained his information from the Voice of America or the British Broadcasting Corporation. But modernization has not created the world of homogenous readers and listeners that its proponents had envisioned.

Thus, what we have is an interesting paradox: the world is becoming more interconnected, with more people than ever likely to know the name of the US president and the world's top soccer players. Yet there is little evidence that the ways in which people construct and interpret news are becoming more alike. The world is turning out to be more fundamentally diverse than appeared likely in the days when development and modernization seemed set to sweep everything before them.