Globalization and Cyberculture: An Afrocentric Perspective

This book argues for hybridity of Western and African cultures within cybercultural/subcultural forms of communication. It demonstrates that when both Western and African cultures merge together through new forms of digital technology, marginalized populations in Africa are able to embrace communication, aiding in the socio-cultural and political development of the continent. The book also engages Electronic Colonization Theory in order to demonstrate how developing areas such as Africa experience a new form of imperialistic subjugation because of electronic and digital communication. Kehbuma Langmia is Fulbright Scholar/Professor and Chair of the Department of Strategic, Legal and Management Communication in the School of Communications at Howard University, USA. He publishes in the areas of intercultural communication, social media, and information communication technology. <

Globalization and Cyberculture -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Contents -- List of Abbreviations -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Traditional African and Western Modern Cultures -- Physical Reality of Communication -- Religion -- Folktales and Music -- Widowhood/Gender Rights/Polygamy -- Education -- Western Culture -- Virtual Reality of Communications -- Individualism Versus Communalism -- Religion -- Gender/Class -- 3 Cyberculture, Cybersubculture, and Africa -- Cyberculture -- Nonelectronic Culture -- Cybersubculture -- Cyberspace -- Imperialism/Neocolonialism in Africa -- 4 Road to Cyberculture in Tropical Africa -- Print Media -- Broadcast Media (Radio) -- Television -- Mobile Televisions -- 5 Requiem for In-Person Verbal/Nonverbal Communication -- Cyber Texting and Western Values -- Interpersonal Communication and Communal African Cultures -- Cry the Beloved Nonverbal Communication -- Language and Spacio-Temporal Communication -- Online Message Recall -- Anonymity/Hacking and Online In-Person Communication -- 6 New Media New Cultural Dependence -- New Wines in Unclean Bottles -- Dependency Theory and the Fate of Africa -- Adapting New Communication Technologies in Africa -- Digital Media Adaptations in Africa -- "Arab Spring" and Digital Technology -- Knowledge Transfer and Sharing -- Digitalization of Non-European Languages -- 7 Cyberculture and the Digital Divide -- Cyber Literacy -- Gender Cyber Divide -- Age Disparities -- Class and Cyberculture Divide -- Language and Digital Divide -- Digital and Electronic Communication Divide -- 8 Cyberculture and Identity -- Cyber Criminality -- Living with SIRI: Real World and Virtual World -- Cyberculture and Political Communication -- Anonymity, Privacy, and Trust -- 9 Cybernetic Psycho-Syndrome -- Technoculture and Cybernetics -- African Humanity and Western Transhumanity