***  Haus der Kulturen der Welt: Forum1 Archive  ***
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   [Date]: Tue, 7 Dec 1999 20:48:58 +0200
   [From]: "Ami Isseroff" <ami_iss@netvision.net.il>
     [To]: "Cultural Exchange via Internet" <forum1@herz.kbx.de>
[Subject]: Re: [forum1] Re: Access

Hi Kim,
"Agreeance" isn't a word is it? OTOH,
If we are in agreeance that it is a word then maybe it becomes one :-)

RE exchange  - don't get your hopes up.
As Olu wrote, look at all the obnoxious stuff coming at you from the banner advertisements etc. on the Web - it is all USAculture (personally I love Usaculture because I was born in N.J. - can't help it).
Actually, exchange opportunities will be there in the same way - and to the same extent - as they are for TV.
You _could_ learn about Senegalese art (or Tibetan poetry or whatever) by watching a documentary on cable Channel 97 - just as you could find out about Kuwaiti art by looking at www.mideastweb.org/culture.htm  (plug :-) ) but more people are apt to be looking for pictures of Brittany Spears or Pamela Lee Anderson.
Ultimately, the www will look like society and a world-wide society will tend to 1. look the same all over and 2. cater to the somewhat philistine tastes of the majority of its constitiuents.

The web is a place where hi-tech type esthetics flourish.
This will not encourage pluralism, and I don't think it will help popularize ethnic art or minority views.
For better or worse, it  will popularize one language and one way of looking at the world.
Ciao,
A-