Preamble:
Every
sphere of human life and communication is undergoing alteration, transformation
and modernization with the advent of the Information and Communication
Technologies (ICTs), commonly defined as a tool used in creation, processing,
transferring and sharing of information. The ICTs have proven to be
indispensible tools for not just the human development but also fighting
against the poverty, injustice and transforming the economic, social and
political spheres alike. They have changed the course of human development
providing unprecedented opportunity by penetrating into activities outside the
‘production’; reshaping the markets, leisure time, access of information and
services etc while developing a strong sense of democracy.
Modern
ICTs include World Wide Web, Internet, E-mail, software applications, cell
phone, video conferencing etc. (Bergh & McKenna, 2004). However, the
diffusion and spread of the ICT worldwide has been receiving a mixed response,
creating a digital divide. Digital divide in simple words would be the
inequality of ICT utilization (Evers & Greke, 2004). The term Digital Divide is a new name given
to the information haves and have-nots used for the preceding generation. It is
gap assumed to exist between people having access to the modern information
technology and those to whom it is not accessible, between developed and
developing or under-developed countries, males and females, rural and urban
etc.
The
Civil Society is denied the effective utilizing of ICT due to lack of required
infrastructure, lack of open source tools, dearth of trained IT professionals,
inaccessibility of ICT to general population, and the effects of online
initiatives in reality etc... This paper is attempting to investigate the utilization
of ICT with a perspective of an alternative option for disseminating
information and mobilizing the civil society in Pakistan.
The
use of the ICT’s World Wide Web, in particular the social media; twitter and
facebook, cell phones and SMS have demonstrated an interdependence and
inter-relation with digital technology and new media at an international level,
and have also resulted in enhancement of interest in the social movement
theory. The ways in which ICTs are utilized and understood are being changed by
emerging social movements. According to Goodwin and Jasper (2003, p.7),
“research on social movements will undoubtedly continue to evolve as social
movements themselves evolve.”
For the purpose of definition, we
may refer to social change as a process that brings about a transformation in
social, political, and economic power structure in a society. It may not be for
poor, or positive for that matter, and depends on individual political
perceptions. However, the pro-poor process of social transformation will be the
one that results in a more even power & resource distribution in the
society ensuring basic civil rights for the people and enabling the state
institutions to provide protection to those fundamental rights.
The following
discussion is a preliminary effort at framing the debate around the need of
researching the use of ICTs by the civil society in Pakistan; a general
understanding of the situation concerning a digital divide that may, or may not
exists as a result of the utilization of ICT as an alternative landscape. An
attempt shall also be made to answer the questions like how ICTs are being used
by Pakistan's civil society for mobilizing the masses, and the effectiveness of
the mobilization of masses through internet in the Pakistani political and
cultural arena. Also how can the utilization of ICT’s help increase the
transformative nature of their work that can trigger long-term social change in
the country.
Social Movements
a Historical View:
Before,
delving into the discussion of the power the present day ICT’s enjoys and its
organization of social movements a historical summary of social movements will
help us understand the subject at hand better.
It
is a tough task even difficult to achieve with the help of documentation taking
place over a century to define social movements in terms of what they are, how
they play a part in organizing for mobilization of people and resources, and in
what ways social movements culminate. However, taking up Goodwin and Jasper
(2003, p. 4), definition for social movements can bring us closer to achieve
the task; social movements are a “complex sets of groups, organizations, and
actions that may have different goals as well as different strategies for
reaching their aims... [and can help] comprehend human diversity.” Also, social
movements “are a main source of political conflict and change” (Giugni, 1999,
p. xx).
“Until
the 1960s, most scholars who studied social movements were frightened of them.
They saw them as dangerous mobs who acted irrationally [...]” (Goodwin &
Jasper 2003, p. 5). The economic turnaround of 1965 resulted in a change in
this perception when the elite and the powerful themselves started
participating in social movements. During the decade of seventies, noteworthy
theories were proposed and were termed as the resource mobilization (RM)
theory. (Goodwin & Jasper, 2003, p. 6) According to Buechler (1993, p.
193), RM has been “[...] the dominant theoretical framework for analyzing
social movements and collective action within the discipline of sociology.” (p.
200) also comments that this theory ignores the macro-level social structure as
well as individual motivation, and focuses only on the organizational analysis
at meso-level, which is its major short-coming. The social movements started
showing political glimpses and involvement of state-actors, giving shape to the
political process (PP) model, proposing that elites belonging to
institutionalized organizations and opportunities provided by the state give
rise to the social movements. It is influenced by Marxist theory in some ways.
As McAdam (1997, p. 172) comments, they are political phenomena and must be
evaluated as a “continuous process from generation to decline.” Munson (2001),
while discussing the opportunities concept states that the PP “[...] model
suggests that mobilization can take place only under favourable political
conditions and focuses on the relationship between social movements and
political institutions to understand movement mobilization.”
The social movement theory went
through a cultural shift during the 1980s, and challenges were thrown at PP and
RM theories on the pretext that these while taking into account organization
and resources, do not consider the role that culture plays in collective
action. This resulted in a reaction from the social movement academicians which in every sense was an indicator of the paradigm
shift to cultural from structural analysis of collective action (Tarrow,
1998).
Constructivist
and post-modern theories made an impact on models like the new social movement
theory, proposed by Jamison and Eyerman (1997) mainly focusing on interaction
and communication amongst individuals and in the society, while approaching the
issues of transformation and development. Jamison and Eyerman (1997, p. 251)
consider social movements as producers of knowledge. The idea of collective
action as proposed by the new social movement theory, suggests that it may
“fill gaps in resource mobilization and political process accounts of the
emergence, trajectories, and impacts of social movements.” (Polletta &
Jasper, 2001).
In
a postmodern world, social change theories are needed to grasp and understand
the subtext and analyse the other side of the story not presented by the
mainstream corporate media, as it is marred by the capitalist ideology
presenting only the story of a global capitalism, an economic system and
hegemonic triumph. These social change theories help us answer pertinent
question related to why individuals organize in groups and follow a certain
goal or objective which can alter the society. It is important to ask these
questions, but, posing questions in a systematic
manner is extremely critical. The social change theories serve as guides to
both the policy creators and professionals.
Social change theories are a progression
towards the transformation of the power relations, appearing either naturally
or through a collective effort developed in resistance to oppression. It was
during the eighteenth century when many a social movements raised their heads
creating ripples through history by changing the course of individual
interaction with power. This interaction has impacted the modern world and had
engaged individual in a political process to carve a meaningful and effective
way to resist oppression. The concept of political economy was not directly
associated to the field of communications initially until Harold Innis, Adorno
and Horkheimer’s work elaborated and put forth the concepts of ‘monopolies of
knowledge’ and ‘culture industry’ respectively; producing mass deception and
control of certain social groups over the means of communication.
The factors
involved in the societal change are generally identified as political
influences: associated with the state; cultural influences: changing our
attitudes and behaviour affecting the value systems and social structures
(Giddens and Duneier, 2000); and the economic influences; based on the Marxian
analysis of the dialectical relation of the economic base and superstructure.
However, at an individual level Becker (2001) points out, that a behavioural change may occur through a positive
intention and commitment only. Although to practice this positive change in
behaviour the environmental constraints have to be at bare minimum, personal
standard and self image to be maintained and the advantages of the outcome
should outweigh the disadvantages (Backer, 2001).
What conditions
foster social movements and social change has been a point at debate for years
now. Although one thing is certain, groups play an important role in either
encouraging or discouraging the social change and the social movements. Marx
alleged that social movements or revolution are a result of opposition and
inexplicable economic and other social tensions in a society. Revolutions did
not happen in all advanced industrial society as Marx predicted. On the
contrary, theories suggest that social uproar has more chances of occurring in
societies with improving living conditions leading to higher individual
expectations, and not in those which are poverty-ridden. In other words,
relative deprivation results in social movements (Davies, 1962).
When people do
not have any institutionalized means of raising their voice, or when government
oppression is present curbing the public opinion, collective action and of
social mobilization are the by-products. The operation of social control
determines the way in which a social movement develops. Tourine (1977, 1981)
suggests that social movements may not necessarily be the responses to
situations, but may result as an abrupt or spontaneous effort to bring about
the social change. Thus he suggests that promoting the idea of social activism
and its interaction with social movement is more important.
The
social movement theories were traditionally viewed with a Marxian perspective
of a class bias, however, during recent times, a paradigm shift triggered this
collective action from a cultural standpoint. Before addressing the genesis and
analyzing the paradigm shift of the social movement theory from a structural to
a cultural perspective, it is apt to define the term globalization here.
The
term Globalisation has become an all encompassing paradigm for the social
sciences; however the available literature on globalisation suggests that the
term has to have acquired certain imperialistic characteristics. Scholars and
academics alike for years have added their own perspectives to define the term,
however here we will flesh out only those which serves our topic the most. Beck
defined globalization as a “processes through which sovereign national states
are criss-crossed and undermined by transnational actors with varying prospects
of power, orientations, identities and networks” (2003, p. 11). Smith (2000)
added the political, societal, and economic relation perspectives to the
process of globalization. However the understanding of globalization as
presented by Appadurai’s (1996) is the most relevant here. It considers the
process to be an inter-societal relationship facilitated by the electronic
media and the global mobility, which “transforms pre-existing worlds of
communication and conduct”, creating “diasporic public spheres, a phenomena
that confound theories that depend on the continued salience of the
nation-state as the key arbiter of important social changes” (p. 4).
Tarrow
(1998) points out that it’s also the facilitation of globalization of protest
and not only the globalization of capital, providing a subsequent boost to the
transnational collective action. Although there is no denying that globalization
is both dominating and exploitative and has served the interests of the an
elite minority, yet the “new information technologies [...] appear not just as
instruments for the circulation of commodities, but simultaneously as channels
for the circulation of struggles” (Dyer Witheford, 1999, p. 128).
The New Social Movement Theory:
The research on social movements increased its scope during the 21st
century to include the analysis of collective activism at a global level. At
that point in time, the frameworks of social networks were included in the
research to help explain the development of social movements. As argued by
Langman (2005), the emergence of ICT has resulted in rise of different and new
kinds of social movements. The rapid emergence and magnitude of “virtual public
spheres” and “internet-oriented social movements” has given rise to new queries
warranting a revisit of the social movement theory.
It
has been seen over years that the key to success for the social movement lies
in the process of mobilization of the masses. Although, information
dissemination and communication are the two integral parts of the process to
bring about the change, organization, mobilization of resources, common
interests, and opportunity are the rest of the integral ingredients needed to
mobilize groups for collective action. Tilly (1978). However, unless
facilitated by leadership, uninterrupted communication, availability of funds
and material resources, even these four essential conditions may not guarantee
a social movement.
The development of social
movement theory travelled a trajectory from the structural to cultural analysis
where the concept of culture is utilized as an analytical and theoretical tool.
Activist used this tool to investigate the collective action of the society
mediated through culture made the activist turn to “identity politics.” Scholars increasingly amongst the activists, concerned
with identity got involved with all facets of culture. This shift
denotes two distinctive standpoints, the political activism which seeks to
bring about a change at the structural level and activism with the subjective
experience of an individual in the world as its prime focus. Although focusing
on identity primarily has raised question from scholars in class and power
structures context.
As discussed above in the paper,
to bring about a social change human agency either in an individual or
collective form is the key. In the modern era, or the network society social
identity and identity based movements are the new mantra. Identity is both a
historical and cultural phenomenon which rises to the centre stage in a network
society for the development of social change. Castells’ sees the identity’s
role in development of the society instead of considering it just as a form of
a consequential tradition in a Marxist world. Castells’ proposed that identity
building is a dynamic process and proposed that "who[ever] constructs collective
identity, and for what, largely determines the symbolic content of this
identity, and its meaning for those identifying with it or placing themselves
outside of it" (Castells’, 1997, p. 7).
He goes on to identify identities
to be of three types; legitimizing, resistance, and project identity. However,
for the purpose of this paper we will briefly discuss the resistance identity
only, but later elaborate on it with the help of an example.
Resistance
Identity:
Resistance identity is a grass
root level collective identity formation extended by those social actors who
are being excluded by the civil society and other dominant institutions of the
society. These communes bring together the excluded and the denounced to gain a
collective experience as a survival strategy amidst otherwise intolerable
condition of oppression. The communities formed as a result of the resistance
identity do not mobilize within the parameters of the civil society, but remain
marginalized and pronounced ‘the others’ (Castells’, 1997, p. 10-12). These
communities are formed around a common meaning and are probably the most
dominant identities of our times which provide an opportunity to
individuals who shares social experience to process their thoughts towards new
social utopias and strategies.
These communities originating
from grass root level do not just stop here as fragments of the society but,
they become a force that transform the society. However, what conditions
aggravate these transformations is a question which Castells’ tries to answer.
Castells’ observes that these resistance based communities cannot mobilize
unless they create a network of their own and then become a network themselves.
This serves not only as a precondition to survive and cooperate within the
communities serving towards achieving the same goal, but also as a necessity to
operate in a virtual media. As Castells’ points out that power in the networked
society is due to its diffused hierarchical architecture is not something which
the social actors have to struggle for as rigorously as in the traditional
setups.
Social development cannot come
about without the support of a sound technological infrastructure, thus both
being inseparable. Castells’ (1996) in support of the social changes and
technological changes argue: "since technology is society and society
cannot be understood or represented without its technological tools" (p.
5).
Entering Networks:
The network society emerges when the
global information capitalism met the new technological revolution to become
socially organized and a flow and transaction of information, wealth and
culture takes place in real time between nation states superseding their
sovereignty.
McAdam
(1997, p. 179) observes, “the ability of insurgents to generate a social
movement is ultimately dependent on the presence of an indigenous
’infrastructure’ that can be used to link members of the aggrieved population
into an organized campaign of mass political action.” Nonetheless, we would not
be under-stating the facts by saying that the social networks are the
infrastructure, which act as the foundation for a new political agency
(Marchetti & Pianta, 2006).
A
redefinition of the social movements from a network perspective would be:
“[S]ocial movements are represented by campaigns run by civil society
organizations, and a social movement could be defined as ‘a network of informal
interactions between a plurality of individuals, groups and/or organizations,
engaged in a political or cultural conflict, on the basis of a shared
collective identity.”’ (Steve Wright as cited in Saeed, Rohde & Wulf 2008).
Passy
and Giugni (2001) found that networks accomplish three tasks for social
movements. First they connect prospective participants structurally to an
opportunity to take part. The participants are socialized to an issue for
protest. And in the end, a participant finally decides to participate.
According to Tilly (2003, p. 8) suggests that, “compared [to] the 20th century,
internationally organized networks of activists, international non-governmental
organizations, and internationally visible targets such as multinational
corporations and international financial institutions all figure more
prominently in recent social movements”.
Networks
are an essential part of how the global justice movements and contemporary
activism organize and unfolds themselves. An important part of the global
justice movements are transnational advocacy networks, which albeit work
internationally on common projects and issues yet share common values and
discourse (Keck & Sekkink, 1998). The purpose of these networks is to
provide an alternative channel for communication and “mobilize information
strategically to help create new issues and categories and to persuade, pressure,
and gain leverage over much more powerful organizations and governments” (p.
2).
Social Movements
and ICT’s:
Technology has
played a vital role in the mobilization process (Donk et al, 2004) with print
media used as a main tool for the dissemination of information in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and radio and television broadcasting is
associated with the twentieth century (Langman, 2005). ICTs brought with it new
forms of communication such as SMS, Emails, online advocacy and petition
campaigns which not just helped further the mobilization process (Surman &
Reilly, 2003) but also helped with the
magnitude and speed (Diani, 2000). However, the actual impact of these virtual
activities prescribed through in a virtual sphere may not hold much credence
due of lack of achieving the intended purpose (Diani, 2000).
The social
movements are computer mediated communication dependent on huge networks
instrumental in bringing about the social change. The sparks of virtual
resistance were first recorded in 1998 as a conflict between an internet based
company and Multilateral Agreement in Investment (MAI) which although turned
out as a failure then, due to various political reasons, but scholars
concluded, social groups armed with internet technology can carry out
successful protests (Aelstand et al, 2004). Later in the early 1990s, the
Zapatista movement were amongst the initial social movements utilizing the
internet. These were followed by protests against WTO in Seattle and Genoa
taking place in 1999, which was hugely supported by ICTs like short message
service (SMS) and emails, resulting in mobilization of a successful protest
through internet for the first time (Langman, 2005). Today, internet has a
history of almost 7 years of successful mass mobilization and information
disbursement.
These
developments, led the scholars to look into how and in what ways the ICT’s are
used, how cyber activism plays a role in this movement for peace, and how
technology and mass communication are being utilized as a tool for mobilization
by modern-day social movements.
Internet is
although considered as an informal, unstructured and decentralized organization
yet has resulted in a significant power-relations restructuring sometimes by
(McAdam, 1997, p. 178) reversing those power relations. Internet apparently
brings up a new type of public sphere making the chances of restricting access
and resources comparatively less. As argued by McAdam (1997, p. 180), the
strength and breadth of a communication network broadly decides the pace,
pattern, and scope of expansion of a movement. The emergence of social
networking sites like Facebook and spread of instant messaging etc has seen
development and spread of resources that meet those requirements. According to
Saeed, Rohde, and Wulf (2008), "ICTs have tremendous potential to serve as
tools for information dissemination and organizing protest along with
traditional mobilization methodologies for social movements." Civil
societies in developing countries have clearly started to be transformed
through the impact of ICTs and effects show the much needed transformation
through radical changes are taking place creating new opportunities.
Civil Society in
Pakistan:
The progress of Pakistani government
falls short of its own policy targets when it comes to progressing in human
development and providing sufficiently for the basic survival indicators. This
has resulted in emergence of a conscious and active civil society disappointed
with the state and taking charge of uplifting and transforming the situation in
their country. In generic terms, the civil society refers to formal or informal
citizen groups, networks and initiatives appearing in the context of social, cultural,
and economic arenas. The limited utilization of information technology by the
civil society in Pakistan can be gauged by the fact that most of the
organizations are yet to have an active websites. The campaigns started by the
civil society usually represent initiation of a social movement, which can be
defined as “a network of informal interactions between a plurality of
individuals, groups and/or organizations, engaged in a political or cultural
conflict, on the basis of a shared collective identity.” (Wright, 2004). A host
of problems including social, economic, political and those related to the
issues of governance pose threat to the country, indicating an immediate need
of an effective advocacy movement by the civil society for promoting economic &
social justice in Pakistan. Considering the increasing incidences of terrorism
limiting the possibility of ground-level activism, the ICTs can become a viable
and effective alternative.
ICT Infrastructure in Pakistan:
Understanding
facts such as literacy rates and elements of infrastructure before we make an
attempt at determining the impact of cyber-culture in the country is pertinent.
Pakistan is a country which is home to around 170 million people. The literacy
rate is 69% for men and 45% for women and is continuously growing according to
Pakistan Economic Survey of 2009-2010.
The penetration of cellular phones now stands at a staggering 97.2
million in 2010, which is much more than 50% of population according to
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority.
With the commencement of a project in 1993 called SDNPK (Sustainable
Development Networking Program) in Islamabad, funded by UNDP witnessed the
beginning of internet in the country. The primary objective of such an
initiation was to extend email services to the people providing support to
projects related to sustainable development, NGOs and others. The birth of
internet industry in Pakistan was marked by the launch of online internet
service by DIGICOM in Karachi in 1994-95. In 2008, PTA reported 22 million
internet users in Pakistan, out of which 14 million are connected to broadband
connections. Ninety percent of people who use internet in Pakistan live in the
major towns, though it is rapidly penetrating to smaller towns as well. There
are now 128 active ISPs (Internet Service Providers) in Pakistan.
Digital Divide
in Pakistani Civil Society:
The emergence of
information technology has revolutionized the life in Pakistan like the rest of
the world. Having said that, a deeper analysis reveals an important issue which
prevents the benefits of IT from reaching large strata of population, and that
issue is what we call a digital divide. Although the internet connections in
Pakistan have increased from 133,000 in the year 2000 to 18,500,000 in the year
2010 representing 10% penetration, but is that growth evenly diffused across
population? This is something which would provide a solid ground to assess the
possible impact especially in terms of social development and social movements
in the country. On the face of it, we come across Pakistani commercial
organization boasting state-of-the-art websites, corporate blogs, Facebook
groups/pages, and personalized emails for employees indicating a major role IT
is playing in the functioning of those outfits. However, there are many more
organizations which are lagging far behind in utilizing the fascinating
benefits IT offers. This again represents the digital divide we would like to
understand.
This issue was
taken up in a ground-breaking study (Saeed, Rohde, Wolf University of Siegen,
Germany), which analyzed the use of IT in Pakistani civil society. The
researcher chose to work on the civil society in view of the important part
information technology plays in their functioning. To make their analysis
objective and empirical, they selected 15 NGOs from less developed areas in all
the four provinces of Pakistan. A survey was conducted to gain insights, and
the findings this study revealed shed light on the issue we are discussing.
Let us first
have a look at the key findings before we can get to a position of drawing
conclusions:
·
Eight
out of fifteen sample organizations did not employ an IT professional.
·
Eight
organizations had zero or negligible budget for IT.
·
None
of the organizations had a formal mailing list, which is so crucial considering
the importance of people mobilization in operations of an NGO.
·
Nine
organizations did not have their own website and out of those who had, only one
was updated regularly.
·
Only
one organization was doing online campaigning.
·
One
organization was utilizing social media.
·
One
organization was maintaining online volunteers’ database.
·
One
organization was using options like video conferencing etc. to connect to donor
agencies while the rest at the best were using emails to communicate to them.
·
Six
out of fifteen organizations utilized emails to communicate to government
functionaries, which also reflect the state of government departments in terms
of IT usage.
The above facts
clearly indicate that with all the IT explosion we witness at the surface, deep
down there is a large segment of the society, which is nowhere in sight of
making use of the information technology like it is meant to be.
The main reasons
for this digital divide as described by the study are dearth of trained
professionals, and lack of financial resources. It must also have something to
with willingness of the decision-makers but we cannot undermine the importance
of the two responsible factors identified by the researchers.
If we attempt to
take leads from this insightful study, there seems to be a clear need of
government intervention at the policy level. Actions are required to make the
diffusion of technology more uniform, initiate projects leading to lower cost
of hardware and software, public/private partnerships on educational front, and
incentives for small to medium size organizations, both commercial and
non-profit sector to bridge the digital divide and spread the benefits of IT to
the general population uniformly.
ICT
and Social Movement in Pakistan an example:
Here
we will look into a recent anti-government movement taking place in Pakistan to
get a basic impression of the utilization of ICT by the civil society in
Pakistan. The movement known as the Lawyers movement received participation
from activists, students, lawyers, politicians, and general public alike. This
resulted in the declaration of a state of emergency and suspension of
Pakistan’s constitution by General Pervez Musharraf, the Chief of Army Staff on
November 03, 2007. This was followed by initiation of major changes in
judiciary and extreme censorship of private news media. The situation pushed
the civil society towards virtual battlefield and the first major movement,
which can be termed cyber-activism emerging in Pakistan. The TV channels defied
censorship by using websites to disseminate information and also to broadcast
news and video footage. Social networking websites like Facebook and Orkut were
widely utilized to mobilize public. The footage of organized protests and
discussions was widely uploaded at YouTube and Google Videos. Bulk emails,
online petitions, tweets, SMS, and blogs were widely used as well for
coordination and disseminating information. Government attempted to block the
websites but the public resorted to the use of free online anonymizer tools to
keep accessing the sites. (Yusuf, 2007).
Although, the above scenario indicates an optimum
use of ICT during this movement, but there is still a need for extensive
research on the civil society in Pakistan to correctly assess the extent of
participation in the virtual domain. Preliminary analysis however indicates
that the bulk of online resources utilized during this movement was initiated
and managed by Pakistanis living abroad.
Through this example we have seen how the citizen
journalists and advocates of democracy have utilized the new media options and
digital technologies for hyper-local reports and organizing community. Along
with the developed, the developing and the third world too are not a passive
consumer market anymore as new media platforms are becoming popular and the
communication tools are being reinvented to make consumers, the media producers
and participants interact online and discuss prevailing issues.
The popularity of new media in Pakistan can however
be attributed for a need to have access to information rather than an urge to
participate. The new media was actually cultivated to bridge the information
gap and keep the news and information flowing when the traditional media faced
obstructions. In a way, the survival of old media in Pakistan was helped by the
new media. This process gave rise to a phenomenon through which the information
reaches the audience through conventional, as well as the new media platform
with the use of digital technology so it cannot be censored or tampered by the
government. Today with active amateurs and activists, any news items can find
it ways to SMS, twitter, YouTube and blogs from mainstream media almost
instantly. However, we would be making a mistake to conclude that digital
technology and new media alternatives are confined in their use to only
information dissemination and organizing community by high-profile activists
and educated citizen journalists. In fact, some of the best examples of using
new media and digital platform are for addressing local issues, and are ad-hoc,
adaptive and specific to cultural realities. For example, people now are seen
utilizing such options very effectively to either navigate traffic during
monsoon, informing people in wake of terrorist activities, and other
incidences.
This demonstrates how common men with commitment and
willingness to serve their community can be extremely effective in addressing
local problems once they lay their hands on the powerful new media and digital
technology. The new media and digital technology is becoming so relevant in the
situation prevailing in Pakistan that the digital divide and participation gap
is being bridged in unfamiliar and unpredictable, but sustainable ways due to
sheer pervasiveness. We can confidently anticipate that this rapid emergence of
new media and digital technology in developing countries like Pakistan will
soon lead to development of new tools and interfaces in local languages and
with greater relevance in local culture, which will in turn, surely increase
the participation from general public, and will result in networking, community
mobilization, and activism in virtual sphere like never before. Although the
need for further research about the extent of public participation by people
based in Pakistan and the underlying patterns should not be ignored. Another
factors requiring investigation is that whether the emergence of cyber activism
is actually strengthening the civil society, or is leaving out a major part of
population that resides in rural areas and is largely not a part of the
cyber-world. The socio-economic background and dimensions of a region cannot be
ignored while evaluating the impact on the real life by the movements taking
place online. And most importantly, how the structure of social movements is affected
by the emergence of digital media is worth researching.
Conclusion:
Keeping the above discussed example in mind, we need
to make sure that there is spread of information technology at an affordable
cost to the general public. The benefits of which would spread in many ways;
for example people can have access to services which improve their productivity
and reduce the cost of what they produce, keep themselves aware of the
possibilities emerging in their field of activity, take advantage of online educational
and training possibilities, make their voice reach to a greater audience
regardless of the purpose, make informed decisions, and
on the whole be more profitable and gain more return on their investment and
efforts.
As discussed above, one of the major determinant of
emergence and success of ICT is rapid diffusion of technology across the
population. However certain work needs to be done in this area and can be
achieved by reducing the cost of hardware and connectivity, and developing
software in Urdu, which is the National language of Pakistan so as to bridge
the gap that the use of a foreign language creates, special for the population
whose medium of education hasn’t been English even though they may not be
illiterate as such.
Although it is perfectly understandable that if a
country has to buy proprietary software for initialization of IT projects, the
progress will always remain limited. Pakistan now has a large number of private
universities offering quality education in computer science and software
development, and a campaign at national level, preferably initiated by the
Ministry of Communication in line with the national IT objectives can surely
generate new software and those too in local languages to spread the use of
internet based technology, which is actually the future of IT. Unless a serious
understanding of this issue and determined steps are taken in the right
direction, we may keep lagging behind in spreading the benefits of IT to our
people. However, the unfortunate fact that Pakistan is largely dependent on
imported hardware is a major hindrance in the spread of use of personal
computers. The most useful machine remains unaffordable for the majority of
population, and even the government educational institutions cannot buy enough
due to limited resources. The sooner Pakistan goes into local manufacturing of
computers and software development, the better for the future of utilization of
information technology in the country.
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