The Implications of Digitisation on Local Cultures

Author’s note: This blog is the third in a series of four, exploring the topic of culture from a digital perspective and highlighting what some of the key local, national and international considerations are. See blogs one and two for further details.

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“The dress is white and gold!”

“No it’s not, it’s blue and black!”

“Hang on, it’s both!”

“Nope, it looks brown and blue to me!”

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Who remembers the viral debate over “the Dress”?

The image became a social media sensation in 2015 when people all over the world erupted into a lively dispute over the colour of the dress. While all the attention did wonders for the reputation of the designer of the dress, what this scenario also did was clearly demonstrate how people’s perceptions can influence how a message — or in this case an image — is interpreted or perceived within the digital realm.

I explored the concept of perspectives in my previous blog and explained how one of the first key steps towards successful cross-cultural interactions is having an awareness that differing worldviews do exist. For organisations in particular — that are looking to expand into international markets — this piece of knowledge is essential for formulating strategies to effectively engage, communicate and interact with varying cultures across the globe, in either face to face interactions or in a digital context, and can also help to minimise the likelihood of any unnecessary cultural misunderstandings from occurring.

However, knowing that culture and worldviews can influence how a message may be interpreted or perceived in an online environment is only one aspect of culture that organisations need to be cognisant of.

Exploring other cultural considerations in the digital realm

Several studies have explored the ways in which cultural orientation influences IT adoption belief, or the impact that new technologies, processes or new ways of doing things has, or can have, on local cultures (Hwang & Grant, 2011; Cyr & Head, 2013; Choi, Jung & Lee, 2013; Xu & Mocarski, 2014).

In this blog we’ll look more closely at the latter concept and explore the implications that the adoption of new technologies or processes, such as Digitisation, could have on local cultures, their knowledge and heritage.

Digitisation and Culture

Digitisation (also referred to as Digitalisation) is the term used to describe the system in which analog images and audio files, such as documents, photographs, art works and video recordings, are transferred or rendered into digital representations of the original objects, usually via scanning or similar. This allows for records of various formats to be digitally stored in a consistent manner (Wikipedia, n.d.).

One of the key benefits of digitisation is that records transferred into electronic format can be digitally preserved, which is ideal for documents of historical value, fragile records or any materials that need to be retained or maintained over long periods of time because, unlike paper-based records, digital records are not subject to degradation (Fabunmi, Paris, & Fabunmi, 2006)

Around the globe, organisations, such as libraries, are undertaking projects focused on the digitising of resources as they become increasingly aware of the importance of preserving records of civilisations and historical and cultural artefacts (Fabunmi et al., 2006). On the downside however, digitisation can have implications for local cultures in a number of ways, with many of them being attributed to differences in cultural perspectives and worldviews.

To better understand what this means, let’s revisit the prior discussion on different worldviews and Hofstede’s notion of Individualism Vs Collectivism to try to explain this further.

Differences between Individualistic and Collectivist Worldviews

Individualistic cultures emphasise an “I” as opposed to ‘We” mentality, and demonstrate behaviours and actions that promote self-determination and independence. Many western laws and principles are constructed from such a perspective. For example, current copyright laws are designed to demand exclusivity, require ownership and authorship to be clearly defined and will ultimately protect the individual.

Whereas collectivist cultures accentuate “we-ness”, and members will act as part of a cohesive unit and for the benefit of the collective, rather than the individual. In Māori culture, for instance, traditional cultural knowledge is not confined to a single perspective, nor owned by anyone individual. Instead it is a shared accumulation of knowledge and heritage, which all Māori are considered custodians of, and are collectively responsible for protecting and maintaining its sacredness and integrity across the generations (Solomon, 2005).

Using the example of copyright laws above, because western laws and principles are designed to support an individualistic worldview, they do not adequately cater to the collectivist cultural perspective. Therefore, any cultural knowledge that is digitised, such as Matauranga Māori (or Māori knowledge) for example, is at risk of being inadequately protected by these current laws because they tend to recognise ownership as opposed to guardianship.

Additionally, as digitisation will result in traditional cultural knowledge being more widely accessible, without proper control over this information in the digital realm, it is then at risk of being accessed, re-used, repurposed and commercialised, not only once but potentially many times over, and across various different platforms.

The risk of traditional knowledge being misused for commercial purposes or for personal financial gain could be considered extremely culturally offensive, not only because it may be used without direct or prior knowledge, involvement or permission, but because the knowledge may not be appreciated or understood unless taught or applied in practise under the specific circumstances in which it was intended for.

Finding the right balance between culture and technology

Whilst the introduction of new processes and technologies, such as digitisation, presents new challenges for local cultures, if managed correctly, there is also significant value that could be gained from them. However, in order for these potential benefits to be realised, some key considerations must first be addressed, which may include:

• Developing a detailed understanding of what is required to ensure the access, protection, and integrity of the concepts of traditional and intellectual knowledge contained within the digitised realm,
• Undertaking adequate consultation processes to ensure approvals are first gained, and that at all times throughout, local cultures are properly represented and involved in decision-making processes,
• Ensuring appropriate systems and controls are put in place that are designed to protect the intellectual property rights of traditional knowledge, with an emphasis on the prevention of any unauthorised access to, and the subsequent misuse of, this information.

By no means is this blog intended to provide an exhaustive list of all the advantages, disadvantages or recommendations surrounding digitisation, but instead, the intention is to give you a basic idea of some of the other cultural considerations that organisations need to be mindful of when exploring the potential adoption of new technologies or processes, and how they may ultimately end up impacting on local cultures.

Thanks again for reading!

References

Choi, J., Jung, J., & Lee, S.-W. (2013). What causes users to switch from a local to a global social network site? The cultural, social, economic, and motivational factors of Facebook’s globalization. Computers in Human Behaviour, 29, 2665–2673.

Cyr, D., & Head, M. (2013). Website design in an international context: The role of gender in masculine versus feminine oriented countries. Computers in Human Behaviour, 29, 1358–1367.

Hwang, Y., & Grant, D. (2011). Behavioural aspects of enterprise systems adoption: An empirical study on cultural factors. Computers in Human Behaviour, 27, 988–996.

Fabunmi, B. A., Paris, M., & Fabunmi, M. (2006). Digitization of library resources: Challenges and implications for policy and planning. International Journal of African & American Studies, V (2), 23–36.

Solomon, M. (2005). Protecting Maori heritage in New Zealand. In B. T. Hoffman (Ed.), Art and cultural heritage: Law, policy and practice (pp. 352–362). Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Wikipedia. (n.d.). Digitizing. Retrieved September 4, 2016, from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digitizing

Xu, Q., & Mocarski, R. (2014). A cross-cultural comparison of domestic American and International Chinese students’ social media usage. Journal of International Students, 4(4), 374–388.