How Media Intertwines with Culture

Media and culture need each other to coexist. Furthermore, in today's society the media serves the interest of culture which is the vehicle of free speech in a diverse multicultural society. The media is part of our day to day lives inculturation in which the members of the society are used to the culture of television, radio, internet and any other forms that we use in viewing of the media of our culture.

Culture is the way of life led by a group of people as defined by their, language, religion, rituals, norms, behavior and values. It is simply a people’s way of living as distinct from other groups. Media is part of culture and culture is part of media for media practice takes place in a cultural context. Most people live their lives and learn to be what they are in their culture through what they see in the media. We can say media brings out aspects which are likely to be expected from people in different societies.

 For any medium to outline information or a story about a certain society, that medium first of all has to thoroughly understand their culture, basically how those people live. The media manages to create our cultural values, norms, rituals and religion and also further shapes us to have a perspective of our own way of life, religion, beliefs and the way we live in our different environments and backgrounds.

Media takes place in a cultural environment of any given society therefore resulting we say media is part of culture and culture is part of media because they interconnect together and are indispensable components in society. Our cultures are changing fast due to urbanization and globalization mainly being vehicled by the media in our societies. We have lost our culture as Zimbabweans, this comes due to the fact that we have so much adopted the western culture into our daily lives or we can simply say that we have been drugged by the aspect of Americanization.

We have so much relied our lives to the media that each and every little thing we do is because of the media because we live our lives exactly as to what the media expects us to do. We have local programs that broadcast on media television like Mai Chisamba Show which showcases on ZBC. This program talks about the norms and cultural rituals and practices that are expected of Zimbabweans. Fellow citizens watch this program and hence live to the expectations by Mai Chisamba who is the show host, and also live according to what other peers portray or bring out on the show.

Most Zimbabweans no longer rely on our local media news broadcasting programs like ZBC news and rather focus on other international global news networks. People state that the local news is too biased or not entertaining. They mostly listen to and watch media of the foreign nations mainly that of the western world, and as they do so, they slowly adapt their type of culture and at the same time destroy our own cultural values. Henceforth we say that media is part of culture and culture is part of media therefore they are indispensable components in the society.

In order to understand how the media has a great impact on our lives, we generally and first of all have to explore the cultural context in which the media operates and basically understand why it operates like that. Media is like surveillance for people within a society and it mirrors our cultural values and the way we live in our societies. For example call-in programs on Star FM radio station which is a platform where people within a society get together to share and resolve problems affecting them. So media also brings people together.

Culture may be defined as the symbols of expression that groups and societies use to make sense of our daily lives and to articulate their values. With the massive development and improvement of globalization, media and technology, it is practically difficult for most people to live without media in their daily lives for media mirrors the way we live. In essence we can say that media is part of culture and culture is part of media and these two components need one another for them to co-exist.

Globalization: A Form of Colonialism to Developing Nations?

Most people in developing nations may regard globalization as a vehicle to modern day colonialism while others actually appreciate its existence for the many benefits it provides, like bringing the world together in terms of communication, the exchange of cultures, values and beliefs between nations, the openness of border and circulation between nations.

Globalization is the worldwide movement toward economic, financial, trade, and communications integration, it implies the opening of local and nationalistic perspectives to a broader outlook of an interconnected and interdependent world with free transfer of capital, goods, and services across national frontiers. According to Anthony Giddens “globalization refers to the fact that we all increasingly live in one world, so that individuals, groups and nations become ever more interdependent”.  

Globalization is not a form of colonization to the developing nations; rather it is a vehicle to massive development of these nations in terms of economy stronghold through trade and employment. With the introduction of globalization, there is now the availability of goods through state border trading. A massive expansion of technological material was and still is a huge benefit to the developing nations like in Africa.       

It is an economic phenomenon and it is connected with the rise of transnational corporations and the proliferation of markets that regularly cross state boundaries. Globalization has increased personal freedom, and has allowed communication between nations. For instance, before the globalization era, in most countries around the world, people did not have the means to communicate and travel. It is very much easy now to communicate with someone who is a thousand kilometers from where you are through the internet by use of communication levels like emails, Skype, Facebook, Whats app text messaging and twitter.

There are now better standards of living and a good quality of life simply because of the implementation of globalization. Globalization has benefited individuals because there is now better access to external financing in terms of purchasing a vehicle or a residential place through internet financial transactions, there are more opportunities for international travel and tourism, more opportunities to work abroad due to immigrant laws and foreign worker programs and there is a greater consumption of worldwide entertainment, music, sports, arts and culture. There is an unprecedented scope of world trade involving a much broader range of goods and services than ever before. There is also the rapid spread of consumer products like food, clothing brands to other countries within the developing nations themselves.

There has been an exchange of cultures amongst different nations worldwide. This only came up due to globalization as an individual can now communicate with other people from different cultural backgrounds and understand their way of living. People are exposed to other cultures when they travel and also experience them in person as compared to what they see on the television, all because of international travel and tourism due to the introduction of globalization.

However, to some extent we can advocate for the ideology that globalization is practically a hidden way of modern day colonialism by the western nations towards the developing nations in Asia and Africa. The western countries take our resources as form of debts and then sell them back to us as finished goods. This is a hidden way of colonialism whereby those people under this form of colonialism may not even notice it. It is practically happening and nothing much can be done by the developing nations as they basically rely on the western nations.

Each developing country owes to the western world nations, private international banks, World Bank, IMF and other financial institutions, billions of dollars which they have borrowed with high interest rates. The repayments are done in hard currency which these developing countries have to earn by selling their raw materials – like coffee, fish, cotton, minerals, metals, crude oil, timber, uranium and every other conceivable resource, these developing nations have. These western nations would buy these materials at very low prices and sell their own product at very high costs back to us in Africa where the products originate from.

Globalization is a modern form of colonization of the developing nations by the Western powers as it has changed our cultural values. We have vastly adopted the western culture through the means of media and education through globalization. However, globalization is a form of tremendous development in the developing nations. Transnational corporations now have massive operations which stretch across national borders; there is now an electronic integration of global financial markets and enormous volume of global capital flows and there is easy communication between nations.

Our Lost Culture

We all grow up manifested in a certain type of culture whether born in Africa, Asia, Middle East, Europe or any where else in the world. But as a concern to some scholars like me, most of the children in this generation do not know much or none at all about their cultures today especially the youths of Zimbabwe.

Firstly, some people confuse the difference between culture and the aspect of tradition. According to the oxford dictionary Culture is the art of being enlightened and having discipline acquired by mental and moral training for human intellectual achievement, it is basically a people’s way of living. Tradition is the unwritten delivery or oral delivery of information, opinions, customs and practices from one person to another, mainly from father or mother to their child.

What boggles the mind of many Zimbabweans is why our culture is no longer being implicated by young adults and youths. Only to imagine how wonderful and amazing the core values of our culture is, it would have been so magnificent if they were actually put into practice and passed on from generation to generation. If we try look deep into the causes why the youths of today do not practice our cultures, it would be quite depressing because to some extent the parents and basically the whole society are the ones to blame as a result of it not being put into action.

Some youths are so enthusiastic and very much keen to learn about their culture but do not know much because they are rarely taught about it at home or in schools. While on the other hand they are actually taught about it but are simply ignorant whereas they quote it as ‘an old school practice’ due to the time of age we are in now, and that it is an embarrassing thing to do.

One factor hindering us from performing our cultural skills is that we now know a lot about gender equality, which although could be a contrary fact to some aspects of our culture. Originally in our African culture it is a taboo to find a female citizen being above the male in terms of education or the position of power, of which is exactly what is happening of today and is being implemented worldwide on a large scale. However this fact alone cannot hinder a society as a whole from practicing their cultural beings. 

Respect is one major aspect which resembles our culture, but it seems as if it is not being looked upon well by the youths as something of great importance. This is because they think that they are more educated or wiser and also that they have more money causing them to think that they are superior henceforth lacking respect towards their elders in the society.

These days, most Zimbabwean children are being taught English as their first language and some kids even find it embarrassing to be heard speaking in their own language. It is true and it is actually happening which simply shows that the pride for our culture has dismantled thoroughly. It is absolutely not a bad idea to be taught the English language, but it has gone to the extent that some children cannot even communicate well with their grandparents, relatives or other members of the society because they cannot speak Shona or Ndebele well. We should not always think and talk like other people.

Colonialism was and still is one cause as to why our culture is deteriorating. We adopted the western culture so much to the extent that some youths do not even know where they originate from; some youths are even annoyed by the fact that they are referred to as an African, which I think is practically a pathetic thing to be annoyed about. During colonialism, the white settlers brought up a system called assimilation whereby you are transformed or incorporated into a specific type of way. It was simply a way of wiping away our cultural resources from within our society and to assimilate us with their western culture which they achieved quite well at.

We have been tied up and put to a corner of dependency that we practically cannot do many things for ourselves. By being too dependent towards someone, it is quite easy for that person to diminish that of our belongings. We need to take heed of our ancient Shona and Ndebele culture and implicate it, for culture resembles who we really are and we can prove to other human beings where we truly belong.

How Virtuous Is Patience

Not every human being has the ability or willingness within themselves to wait for something to come or happen. People say patience is a virtue, but have you ever asked yourself what it means and why it is a virtue? On the other hand why can’t we say being impatient is a virtue?

Patience is the ability to accept or tolerate delays, problems and/or sufferings without becoming annoyed or anxious. In addition, virtue is a quality considered morally good or desirable in a person. In simple terms, the phrase ‘’Patience is a virtue ‘’ means the ability to tolerate problems or sufferings is desirable in oneself. But some people would consider that statement absurd in their times of trouble or difficulty.

Patience is a virtue but at times it is not that virtuous depending on what you wait for, right? It is best to know what you wait for and how desirable it could be when you obtain it, if that is what you really wanted to wait for. “Good things come to those who wait but greater things appear to those who move and make it happen’’ stated one High school student. He further on went to say ‘’we might be patient to receive something but at the end we notice that it is not really what we ought to have and had ridiculously wasted our time, so why wait for some things in life?’’

Acquiring some things in a hurriedly manner might not be considered morally good because you may not be ready for them or it is basically not the perfect thing for you. Some people say you must grab the things you want in life or you may never get them, opportunity comes once in a life-time. It is true, opportunity comes once in a life-time but at times it’s simply not the right one for you.

Being patient now depends exactly on what you are waiting for. Some people want to hurry and do some things because their peers are doing them not knowing how their peers planned and managed to do it. It would be better for you to wait and get it at the best time when you can manage it where-as-well it could possibly be desirable. This is when you would say patience is a virtue.

Being impatient is not really a wise thing to do therefore is not considered morally good or desirable in a person. Being patient teaches you to be calm and control yourself in some predicaments; moreover it teaches you to appreciate the things that you have in life at that moment noticing that someone is actually eager to have them. Waiting for something thoroughly gives you the time to think immensely about it and have a good outcome when the right time comes.

Sometimes you will realize that what you get later on after waiting is better than the one you eagerly wanted to get. One university student named Christine Tanhira once said ‘do not go for the worst just because you are too impatient to wait for the best, take your time in whatever you do.’’ It might seem as if our timing is better but God’s timing is always the best. At times just being patient is the best medicine.

How The Zimbabwean History was Distorted

Distortion of any history is mainly done by the historians, the people who write it and who tell it. People as a whole really have to be careful of the people who tell their history or that of any nation and watch out for the information they are provided with.  

Oral tradition is one form that was used by historians to try telling the history of Zimbabwe. There is very little information or written documents we get from our Shona and Ndebele historians and /or ancestors because they did not manage to record any history. There was no effective form of transitioning history by our ancestors. Due to that, other people start writing our own history for us and by so doing, incorrect information is passed on from generation to generation.

 

Misinformation of history by some of these historians is done unintentionally mainly because they know nothing much about the history they are writing. On the other hand, some of these historians write or record incorrect information intentionally in order to mislead the people of their own history. The first European to visit Great Zimbabwe was a German geologist called Carl Mauch in 1871. He was skeptical that the Africans alone had the architectural ability to build the magnificent Great Zimbabwe walls. He thought Africans at that time were not civilized enough to the extent of building such monuments with wonderful coordination.

 

Carl Mauch concluded that Great Zimbabwe was not built by the Africans but rather by the Arabs who came from the Eastern side of Africa during the 14^th century at the time of the rise of the Great Zimbabwe state. This misinformation could be on a basis of racism. These white European settlers like Carl Mauch and Cecil John Rhodes were ignorant towards the works of the Africans and they wanted people to believe that they were the ones who brought in civilization to Africa. Professor Manu, A stated that “a European scientist by the name Theodore Bent was sent by Cecil J. Rhodes to analyze the ruins of Great Zimbabwe and Bent concluded that “the Africans were not yet civilized at that time to be able to build such articulate stone walls”. They were clearly distorting the native Zimbabwean history, resulting in fellow Zimbabwean scholars of today not being sure of their own history.

The media mirrors the way we live in our societies but it does not always do so. People actually learn to be what they are through what they read, listen to and see in the media. However, media can be used as a way of misinforming people and make people believe what is actually not true because of other peoples interest.  One scholar stated that “some sources of history are not always accurate; information passed on can be changed by people from generation to generation”. For example, the true fact about Great Zimbabwe is that the stone walls were built by the Shona people, but some forms of media were used by the Europeans so as to assimilate the minds of the Africans and make them believe that the stone walls were not built by these Shona people.

A journalist by the name Gregory, E once wrote ““Those of us exposed regularly to the international, especially British media, found it hard to match what we heard on the TV and radio and read in the newspapers with what we were finding on the ground”. The Europeans plant in the minds of the uneducated Africans that they brought education and civilization to Africa hence them being the ones that would have constituted to the architectural ideologies of the stone walls.

Africans now simply believe that the historical information that they obtain from the Western archaeologists is true because they do not have proper sources of information about their own history. History can also be distorted due to misinterpretation. For instance, the Europeans who came and settled in Africa could have written the actual facts about the Zimbabwean history but that information could have been misinterpreted into the Shona or the Ndebele language. The form of language used to inform people about their history can be very distracting because other people may not understand and end up having their own assumptions as to the events that took place in the past.

Preservation of any history in a country is very important for it entails what the future of a nation may become without repeating its old misconceptions.History is distorted by twisting a story and it being written falsely. In order for that not to occur, events need to be taken note of, recorded and archived. This information can be used to teach and tell people the true facts without letting any information being wrongly misinterpreted or result in distortion.

Media can play a huge role in preserving historical facts and events of a nation that would have taken place. Traditions and cultures of a society and the meaning to these traditions need to be applied to school curriculum education systems. This in a way helps in preserving our history. It is very difficult for history to be distorted at this stage when people are educated about traditions and the culture is often practiced.

Now with the incredible expansion of technology, it is easy to store some documents containing information about a county’s history. Tanya Lewis, a blogger stated that “Protecting artifacts against degradation is one of the Library's primary jobs. Most paper documents are digitized, but the Library works hard to preserve the originals”.Not mush history can be distorted at this stage of time in this century and correct information can be passed on.

Picture Courtesy of www.zimmail.co.zw