New Technology, New Media: New History.

“Victory for human civilization”, today homo sapiens are on the cloud nine celebrating the world
of interconnectedness. However, of this algorithm-based technology, the initial interpretation on human
needs and necessities have signified us that there are significant of intangible forces in driving digital
technology revolution.
I shall delve on how our world history is contracted into global community through technology
in order to outline the unseen predicament. According to Samovar, Porter, McDaniel, et. al (2013),
global community has been occurred since centuries, which later has been internalised the workforce
industry. It has driven people over the world to become more aware of social and economic discourses
through new media technology. To draw the relation between how technology is subjected into global
community, we shall question the truthiness about ourselves. Are we really witnessing the global media?
Does new technology is really something new, like a fresh bun from the oven?
Perhaps this critical questions could help to scrutinise the genealogy of new technology, which I
argue new technology is an enabler tool for social transformation which marries with the notion of
modernity and development. Strathern (1996) has well described that technology is the production of
knowledge that represents non-technological sense of knowledge. Because we think it is normal, and we
always allocate the tradition context at the periphery, we take advantage of it by simplifying its multiple
meaning. Well, it is not surprise that new technology is nothing new, but rather its function as an enabler
that helps to enhance the power of human surveillance.
Stuart Hall’s cultural studies the effect of media towards identity exemplify the production of
digital technology has been inundated in mainstream history. He claims that identity is the position
which we as the subject is obliged to the tradition of ‘always know’ (Hall, 1996, p.7). In other words, the
reality that we always think that we already know is the fraternity of post-colonial worldview since
information knowledge have been cloistered in the shadows. But then again, what and who are the
shadows?
Indeed, the construction of knowledge of development is a manifesto of the ideology of
democracy and capitalism. In the article written by Slater (2017), Old dominance, new dominos in
Southeast Asia, it encapsulates how the old dominance is rooted from the similar of the past ruling
government have strengthened their power and stabilised position over years. Subsequently, it has
legitimised the corpus of imbalance information which I refer as the shadows. Merican (2017, p. 61)
criticises new technology and socio cultural connectivity have made the flow of information invisible
under the rhetoric of globalisation.
The crux of the discourse is profound that has outlived the configuration of Cold War.
Technological advancement unconsciously has made the world to refrain humanity, albeit the institution
today calls for sustainability development. I, on the other hand, would rather not to define and
conceptualise the term; globalisation and technology, but to emphasize that the result of globalisation is
homogenisation through the idea of modernisation. As what has Karl Marx depicted, technology and
globalisation help the capitalist to expand for development, whilst the marginalising those inferior is
today’s norm. It is the worst scenario for the sake of economic development.
And again, I would like to question, what is to be done? And who? Maybe you, maybe me. Or
neither of us. But one thing for sure, economic and development are the ghosts that will always linger
around technology.

Reference:
Hall, S., & Gay, P.d. (1996). Questions of Cultural Identity. London: SAGE Publications.
Merican, A. M. (2017). IN OTHER WORDS: Ideas in Journalism, Social Science and Society . Kuala
Lumpur: Institut Terjemahan & Buku Malaysia Berhad.
Samovar, L. A., Porter, R. E., McDaniel, R. E., & Roy, C. S. (2013). Communication Between Cultures
(8th Edition ed.). International Edition: WADSWORTH CENGAGE LEARNING.
Slater, D. (2017, October 25). Old dominance, new dominos in Southeast Asia. Retrieved from New
Mandala: http://www.newmandala.org/old-dominance-new-dominos-southeast-asia/
Strathern, M. (1996). Enabling Identitiy? Biology, Choice and the New Reproductive Technologies. In
S.Hall, & P.d.Gay, Questions of Cultural Identity(pp. 37-52). London: SAGE Publications.