How the media contribute to diasporic identities
Today, the global migration produces a multitude of transnational diasporic groups related by culture, ethnicity, language, and religion, not only in the sense of transnational dispersal but also in terms of intense and constant interaction at a transnational level. They contribute to the generation of transnational flows in the areas of population movement, finance, politics, cultural production and, as a result, are considered to be in the vanguard of the forces that deepen and intensify globalization (Clifford 1997). In this setting, diaspora creates constellations of communication flows and networks. The diasporic media has become a considerable and highly diverse array of organizations, practices and settings where diasporic narratives are constructed.
The ‘diasporic identity’ has usually a close connotation to ‘national identity’. As Ezra and Rwoden note in their book (2006, 16), national identity is… about the experience of belonging to such a community being steeped in its traditions, its rituals and its characteristic modes of discourse. This sense of identity is not actually rooted in the fact that one lives in a certain geographical space of a nation. Thus, emigrants form communities that reflect their national sense of belonging to that same community as they did prior to their geographical disperse and despite of their transnational dispersal. Certainly, we see a lot of examples of how the diasporic media manifests that national identity in their representation of media. The homeland, being the center of inspiration and the main pattern of information flow.
A relatively new phenomena for the diasporic media is the ‘periphery in the center’ – when the diasporic media have strong impact in shaping and influencing the media of their host countries. For example, Cunningham and Sinclair (2000) suggest that the flow of media not only occurs from the centre to the periphery, but also from the periphery to the centre through centers such as Hong Kong, Mumbai, Mexico City, Cairo which are defining new world regions. They state that ‘the media space of a diaspora tends to be of this kind, to the extent that it is spread throughout several of the national markets which have been the territorial unit for international media distribution in the past’ (2000, 3).
Rethinking place, geography and belonging
Coming back to the diasporic identity, Gilroy in his book ‘The Black Atlantic’ suggests as an alternative to the metaphysics of “race”, nation, and bounded culture coded into the body, diaspora is a concept that problematizes the cultural and historical mechanics of belonging. It disrupts the fundamental power of territory to define identity by breaking the simple sequence of explanatory links between place, location, and consciousness.’ A good example of this are the ‘digital communities’ linking the global and the local by making time and space virtually insignificant.
Tradition challenged by Translation
In their book ‘Spaces of Identity’, Morley and Robin suggest that: ‘In the experience of migration, difference is confronted; boundaries are crossed; cultures are mingled; identities become blurred….The experience of diaspora, and also of exile,…allows us to understand relations between cultures in new ways. The crossing of boundaries brings about a complexity of vision and also a sense of the permeability and contingency of culture.’ In contrast to the concept of ‘blured identity’ I would like to bring up the notion of the ‘evolving identity’. Identity as such, cannot be simply a set of given values, even in isolation, but rather as something ever evolving. Time, space, people and cutures become important influencers in re-shaping the ever evolving diasporic identities.
