Tuesday 7 August 2012

Verrrrry nice!

This week I begin by considering, whether the Olympic games really are a global event? Automatically, I think yes, as there are so many countries are involved. But recently I have become more attuned to the notion of globalisation and whether it is evenly distrubuted. This made me think of the digital divide, which refers to the gap between the low socioeconomic countries such as Ethiopia and Kenya. These countries have limited accessiblity to technology such as; televisions (news) and computers (internet) compared to the countries of America, England and Australia. Craig Warren Smith, the founder of the Digital Divide Insititue defines it as " gap between those who can benefit from digital technology and those who cannot."
It is interesting to note that Kazakhstan (I had to google how to spell it) still has more gold medals than Australia in these Olympics, yet before the movie Borat was produced, hardly anyone even knew about the country. Even now Borat is quoted constantly - "Very nice!!!" all over the world, which links to my previous blog concerning Americanisation.  This issue of the digital divide will become more prominent in future years as we are yet to fully acknowledge and implement any strategies to reduce the significant and devastating inequalities both economically and culturally.



Reference:
http://www.free-extras.com/search/1/borat.htm
http://mooreslore.corante.com/archives/digital_divide/
Smith, CW, (2010), 'Digital Divide Defined', Retrieval Date: 7/8/12, http://www.digitaldivide.org/digital-divide/digitaldividedefined/digitaldivide/
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5 comments:

  1. Anonymous9 August 2012 at 02:00

    Excellent post Tori, i came up with a similar contention when faced with the same issue. It's hard to argue for either side of the 'globalising event argument' purely because both sides have got merit, on one hand it's the biggest event in the world with the greatest television rations blah blah, but then again an African nation has never even hosted the games so it makes it hard. I liked your use of scholarly sources as well!

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  2. Nick9 August 2012 at 19:41

    I found this post i could related to almost instantly as the very same thoughts had been going through my head this past week. I am glad to see a post that mentions both views, most blogs only stating there own view and not even giving a mention to an opposing view. It is a great topic with a large amount of content you could of covered and i think you summarized it perfectly.

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  3. Unknown9 August 2012 at 19:54

    The relation you draw between the topic of the olympics being a global event or not and your previous blog about Americanization is really well done. Your writing style is easy to understand and seems to be unbiassed, as it shows both points of views. Your post was entertaining to read as well as scholarly and informative.

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  4. Unknown9 August 2012 at 22:48

    Nice post, Tori.

    It's good to take a slightly different approach to the topics and you've clearly done that. Your tone made this piece feel entertaining though still scholarly. Additionally, the references to Borat was a nice touch as it made the piece more relatable and it allowed you to tie the piece in to a previous topic.

    Cheers, Robert.

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  5. Blayden Meagher12 August 2012 at 08:20

    I found this a really great read, very interesting! You brought up some good points about accessing the ability to watch the Olympics where there is a divide or 'digital divide' between countries. I would have to agree with that point but it doesn’t mean that each country doesn’t get the chance to compete in every event. I also think you made a good point about the digital divide being more prominent in the future because as the saying goes; 'the rich get richer and the poor get poorer' (unknown).

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