When asked to interview a member of
my family about the effects of globalisation on them and their lives, there was
no way I could go past my 76 year old grandfather. Andre is a product of physical globalisation
himself, he was born in Mauritius and immigrated to Australia in the 70s for
work as a secondary school maths teacher.
He seemed almost too good to be true to ask about the benefits of
globalisation. But then I remembered
that this was also the same man who doesn’t know how the TV remote works, so I
decided to ask about information flows, knowing I would get some real gems of wisdom
from the old bloke. He did not disappoint.
Firstly, I should point out that
Gramps doesn’t even know what the internet is; such is his knowledge of new
media. He does not own a mobile phone or
a laptop; he relies on old media formats such as analogue TV, radio and the daily
newspaper. He despises all ‘this new
technology rubbish’ (his words...), and is more than happy with his methods of
media consumption. Because it still
works for him. He still gets all his
information from back home in Mauritius from community radio. SBS and ABC are all he needs for TV, although
I’m not sure who’s going to try and teach him how a digital TV remote works
when he has to make the switch, he only just got the basics on his current
remote.
In the modern world, mass-media supplies a cultural menu for
millions of individuals and shape their cultural experience (Munteanu 2011, p.
427), yet isn’t my grandfather living proof that you don’t necessarily need all
the new forms of media outlet and know what is going on in the world? He still gets all the international
information he needs without having any kind of social media presence. For him
it’s all down to good old ABC, SBS, community radio and newspapers, things that
most of my own generation don’t really bother with. Something
to think about…
