Constructing Multicultural Society on Web: Minorities on Information Society

Introduction

There is much criticism directed at the media about the absence of pluralism. The economic and political conditions do not allow to support pluralism in the media. But in democracies, different voices are needed to be heard for the health of the society. If only power elites control and dominate the media, then pluralism which is one of the main functions of democracy, cannot stay alive and flourish. Globalisation produces a global culture that is spread through the World by the mass media very easily. If the media is used for getting more profits, multiculturalism is difficult to take root in the society. The circulation of goods and culture make a profit for the cultural industries. The groups inside the society must be similar and homogenous in order to maximize profit. On the other hand, the nation states prefer to protect their national culture and cultural identity. In these circumstances, on one hand, there is a cultural industry that effectively spreads global culture and on the other hand, there are nation states that try to protect their cultural identity. Apart from these, there are some groups of people who want to protect their own distinct cultures within these circumstances. Minorities are among these groups.

If people cannot find a channel to voice themselves in traditional mass media then multiculturalism may find a new channel in the “new media”. Assyrians are a minority group in Turkey who like to protect their minority culture. In this study, the aim is to find out that how a minority group uses new media facilities and how they contribute to the multiculturalism in the society. For collecting data, the website called www.suryaniler.com is used for content analysis and in depth-interview is realized with the assistance of founder of the website. In this study, mass society, information society multiculturalism and new media, minority are the key words.