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Cultural Differences

Regional and national custom and culture have a great deal to do with the likes and dislikes of audiences and as such present complications when mass communications become international in scope. Language is the most obvious example of cultural differences: effective translation may require a full knowledge of local lore, including vernacular, humor, and proverbs. 24/ In visual media, the same picture evokes varied images and responses among different audiences; although it is common to refer to pictures as an international language, “actually, nothing could be further from the truth. The Anglo-Saxon, Latin, Scandinavian and Germanic races do not use pictures in the same way to communicate ideas. The subject is not divided up according to the same rhythmic patterns, nor is living matter tackled in the same way. Their tastes are not identical and they simply don't see the same thing when looking at the same picture.” 25/

 

Some program topics -- e.g., space exploration and nuclear fission are susceptible to a single treatment suitable to all European audiences, whereas, anti-Semitism, as a topic, required such different treatment to fit the situations of audiences in various countries that it was impossible to present on the twelve national European networks participating in Euravision. Thus, as commercial, national, or international interests move into multinational fields, the application of anthropological methods to gain cultural insight will become very important. L6/

 

The increased opportunity for familiarization with other peoples which satellite-based TV may provide carries with it potentials for enhancing either tolerance, indifference, or antipathy. Thus, it will eventually be desirable to conduct research to:

•     Evaluate and apply, in the interests of effective multinational radio and television exchange, the substantial knowledge presently being accumulated by anthropologists, social psychologists, and other social scientists on culture differences and on the means for anticipating and reconciling them when it is desirable to do so.

 

Time Differences

One of the most frequently proffered arguments for the attractiveness and utility of international TV via satellite is the opportunity for live reception, as one sits comfortably in front of the home set, of entertainment from the far corners of the earth. It is, however, somewhat sobering to compare times around the world, using 8 p.m. in New York City as the take-off standard:

 

It is clear that prime listening time seldom matches the time at which the events to be seen are likely to occur. On the other hand, the time lags sometimes require radio transmissions when atmospheric interference degrades signal quality; the high frequencies used with satellites would obviate such interference, Presumably, a major value of the satellite is that it permits transmission to be live rather than prerecorded, but it remains to be shown that the cost and benefit; would favor live transmission more than tape or film flown by jet to central ground transmitters. For the areas not in the range of central ground transmitters, study could perhaps discover whether world events would be of enough significance to the potential audience of these areas to make it profitable to reach this market, too, at the time of the happening rather than some days later. 271 Research would help to determine:

•     The cost and benefits of “live” transoceanic or transcontinental telecasts or radio transmissions compared to those of producing and distributing audio and video tapes or films. This study should be done for specific operational contexts -- for instance, markets and time -- and specified states of the technological art.

 

Conciliation of interests

Resolution of the potential problems and differences will, of course, depend upon knowledge about the problems involved as well as the auspices under which interested parties negotiate. As the situation now stands, there will be very few major sources of communication satellites for the foreseeable future -- possibly only the United States and Russia. Questions of satellite use and privileges, audience and user markets, reciprocity, program content, and the like would thus presumably be resolved between all other interested countries on the one hand and these two satellite sources on the other -­unless one or both were to turn over the capabilities to an international agency. in Russia, negotiations would be with the government; in the United States, it is not clear at this time whether negotiations would be with the government, private enterprise, or some combination thereof.

 

Receiver antennas and other receiving equipment (and possibly transmitters, too) might belong to the receiving country or to the U.S. or USSR transmitting agency, being built and operated by the USSR or the U.S. by agreement, in the receiving areas involved. Problems of the nationality and training of operating personnel would also have to be negotiated.

How successful these negotiations would be if conducted within the present perspectives of national telecommunication philosophies, legal constraints, and organizations is not- clear. Perhaps there will have to be a willingness to try new approaches to the problems, if the potentialities of communication satellites are not to be thwarted. The world is full of examples of valuable technologies only partially used because of unresolved conflicts of political, social, and economic philosophies. There is no reason to assume that the same might not happen to communication satellite technology.

 

Especially delicate is the question of program censorship and control. In the first-place, a program might inadvertently contain insulting or otherwise objectionable material which would be deeply resented by the audience or the governments involved. (This is the more likely so long as the difficulties of programming for different cultures are ignored or little understood.) If local governments controlled reception, they could cut off the disapproved program. Protests to or from the United States would present different problems if the program were planned and broadcast by the government then if it were a private product free from government censorship. In the second place, while the first major applications of satellite communications would probably be in the fields of commercial telephone and data transmission, it is reasonable to expect that eventually, government interests in propaganda and incitement will be served by radio and TV satellite communications. The international antipathies thus generated could be exacerbated by the active repeater system, which makes control of private receivers more difficult.

 

If all or part of satellite communications capability and control were internationalized, negotiation procedures would probably be different and, very likely, so would the emphasis on satellite uses, about which negotiations would be conducted. Another approach might involve a split in control of functions, with radio and TV legally the responsibility of, say, a special UN agency, and telephony, for example, left for national negotiations. Whether such an arrangement would permit easier resolution of national differences over program content and purpose remains to be determined. Preliminary to negotiations, studies should be undertaken to discover:

•          What pertinent economic, cultural, and technological factors in each nation or region involved could complicate or facilitate the conciliation of interests in sing and controlling satellite based communications. What technological, economic, organizational, and legal arrangements could be developed to overcome specific major differences as detected in the above and to take advantage of specific major similarities. **

•          The cost and benefits to the United States, compared with those to private enterprise, of private or public ownership of United States satellite facilities, in terms of the effects of owner ship on areas of international agreement or disagreement on the use or sharing of United States facilities.

•          Appropriate arrangements between the U.S. government and private

                        U.S. organizations for control of and responsibility for programcontent, censorship.

•          The costs and benefits of turning over to an international agency those communication functions which are either inherently on profitable or which have the potential for stimulating international unrest. Under what conditions would such a transfer of function be in the interests of the United States? In the event these facilities were internationalized, what activities might be prohibited or subjected to international control and what should be the functions and powers of such an international body?

 

Uses and Implications

The eventual uses of space communications systems via satellites fundamentally depend upon a willingness to undertake system development in the face of conflicting politics, social values and institutions, and standards of living. It is likely, too, that not all the uses will present themselves rapidly and that the existence of the satellite system itself will create new opportunities over time.

 

It is worth recalling here that the first truly large amounts of presently unavailable channel capacity will most probably occur in the radio and radio­telephony range rather than in the TV range. In view of possible major developments in cable and other forms of transmission not dependent on satellites, it is not clear how much actual need there will be for a massive, multichannel TV capability in a satellite system when the system finally exists. 28/ By that time, moreover, the major social implications may have already been introduced via other TV carriers. 29/ Nevertheless, since the problems related to the use of massive 'multichannel TV coverage have in general some of the most pressing aspects of all, attention will be here directed to their implications as well as to those of radio, facsimile, data processing, and telephony.

 

Telephony

It is often asserted that demands for overseas telephone circuits will greatly increase in the next few years and that satellites, at least for the present, appear to be the best means for meeting them as well as for providing service at reduced cost. 30/ However, it is not clear what the consequences are for a peaceful world, if these demands are or are not met.

 

For business and other far-flung organizations, the opportunity for frequent, extremely rapid, voice communications between various functional sectors implies possibilities for increased control and coordination -with an amplification of the advantages and disadvantages for society which are presently matters of speculation and research. 31/ It may give the bigger, more complex organizations a further increment of capability over the small organization and thus hasten further the demise of the small organization. However, easy communication may increase the ability of the small organization to compete with the bigger ones. Whether savings or increased earnings accrue to users big and small, and if so to whom, remains to be studied.

[-41] An important part of the operations of world society could become dependent on the pace of the new system; the possibility is not too remote that a high­speed, high-capacity type of social organization heretofore unknown would develop. Interruptions in the communication system could therefore be costly -- and perhaps disastrous -- economically and socially.

Also deserving study are the implications of high-speed global telephone service for diplomacy and international relations.

 

There are many in the diplomatic profession who feel that the pace is already too great for careful analysis and reaction, and that more input without corresponding capabilities to analyze and synthesize the information -- and without better informants -­would simply complicate an already vastly overtaxed situation. On the other hand, the availability of sufficient and immediate channels of communication might encourage a form of international relations wherein peer (at least at the middle executive levels) would work in continuous contact, thereby achieving an informal threshing-out of problems of mutual interest. Such a capability might be especially useful for widely dispersed international and multinational agencies, The long-term result in all cases might be a gradual lessening of identification with national interests and an enhancement of identification with the mission or goal. 321

 

Research may be rewarding on the following questions

What appear to be the specific costs and benefits for the nation of the additional commercial telephone calls carried by a satellite system? What are the relative costs and benefits of alternative, if slower, means for enlarging this capacity? On the basis of such findings, what are appropriate bases for allocating costs and the rewards of investments in development and operation between the general public (as represented by the government) and private enterprise?

 

What are likely to be the consequences for international relations and diplomacy of world-wide high-speed telephony? How can the advantages be exploited for the nation and the world, and how can the disadvantages be minimized?

•     Are there consequences for society from substantially more phone calls for personal purposes, which might be of sufficient import to merit study?

 

Data search. retrieval, and processing

An area large in potential implications for society, and one which needs only radio and telephony bandwidths, is that of data search, retrieval, and processing. Satellites might be used as the communication links; or the wire and coaxial cable circuits freed-up by shifting telephone and TV to satellites might be used instead. The search and processing requests would be handled automatically, through computers and other devices, actuated by coded signals and, in turn, transmitting the findings by coded signals. Organizations could thereby centralize their computer facilities and perhaps enlarge them with the savings gained. Special facilities otherwise not easily or economically available could be established around the world for the use of scholars, scientists, businesses, and governments. (As noted earlier, possibly one of the most immediate uses for a communication satellite system would be transmitting the vast amount of data anticipated from a world-wide weather data collecting and processing network.) In some situations, whole control systems might be operated and controlled by the feedback from remote computers and data-searching devices. It might also be possible to code the contents of major world libraries so that scholars could search them remotely.

 

While some organizations have begun data processing at a distance, the use of such techniques are not as extensive by any means as present technological capabilities would appear to make possible. 33/ Costs may be a factor. Possibly there is in most cases no clear evidence to those concerned that the competitive advantage is sufficient at present, to make economic and psychological investment in such systems worth while. Traditional perspectives and/or institutional inertia may also be deterrents. However, the growing emphasis on high-speed, far-flung, relatively inexpensive communications, which the satellites themselves will provide, may shift perspectives and competitive strategies sufficiently to make data search, retrieval, and processing at a distance an integral part of the coordination and control philosophy of business, government, and social enterprises of all sorts.

 

For full development, major contingent developments would also be necessary, including the production of sufficient numbers and types of computers for more routine purposes and the training of sufficient personnel to code data and interpret responses, and to build and maintain the computers. Agreement on international standards of component compatibility would be mandatory.

 

Success would in good part depend on the reliability of the various systems; redundant codes, check codes, etc., would need to be developed for the particular problems involved.

 

Whether or not codes could be developed which would permit nonquantitative scholarly research at a distance remains to be seen, The demand might not be great enough or the benefits to scholarship and the rest of the world sufficient to justify the immense coding effort involved. Scholars would need training in the use of codes for creative study, and funds would be necessary to support these activities. To the extent that the satellites provide the potential for this form of international scholarship they may also help to expand present efforts to develop machine translation and other codes for qualitative data. 34/

 

As a direct and important consequence of the above, the long-needed tool and stimulus might finally be provided for a concerted attack on the tremendous problem of using the mountains of data, new information, and old information in new forms which presently threaten to overwhelm this civilization. Most observers believe that the major challenge lies, not in obtaining more information, but in using what we have efficiently.

 

Another likely area of profound implication for society may be the effect on the organizational pace of institutions produced by this highspeed interlocking of data, actions, and decisions. Whether this would put more or less strain on decision makers at all levels is not clear. While decisions may have to be more precise, more complicated, and more rapid, the computers, tied in via satellite, might east the stresses by organizing and displaying complicated data in ways easier to grasp and act on. on the other hand, the pressure to outthink the competitor with his data processors may place more pressure on the decision maker. It is also not clear what the consequences would be, for society and specific users, of abrupt or partial stoppages due to faulty communication circuits.

 

If there are many TV channels available, they might be profitably used for on-the-spot surveillance of situations. In principle, all decisions which depend on visual impressions ought to be possible by using high-fidelity, three­dimensional TV instead of on-site inspections. Psychological and cultural habits may mitigate against this use, though research should be able to provide methods for over I coming these habits.

 

If such data processing systems develop, there are obvious implications for those activities which now depend on carrying printed information and people to and from the data users and the data processors. Economic readjustments would seem inevitable. The implications for the postal system, (especially as that system changes under the impact of other new technologies specifically intended to make it more efficient) would be worth studying.

 

Finally, large-scale organizations of men and machines tied together in a vast computer context probably have implications for attitudes and values toward man and his purposes held by those who live in such a society. (See Chapter 5 for further discussion of this.)

 

In summary, research might be undertaken to determine:

•          What required changes in performance, function, and pace could be expected to face decision makers--given specific types of data, available to specific decision making sources, in a context using the actual time span expected to be involved for the sequences of decisions and the related data search? 35/ What changes in curriculum and training should be undertaken for specific types of decision makers? Are different selection criteria in order?

•          In what ways would high-speed access to data repositories enhance the interpretation and use of specific existing data? What would be the specific cost and benefits involved in realizing this accessibility if preliminary study indicated that it appeared worth while in principle?

•          What are the factors which determine satisfactory visual evaluation at a distance, compared to on-site evaluation? Under what circumstances is three dimensional vision necessary?

 

Education

Education and Culture Change in Underdeveloped Areas. The possibilities of teaching in underdeveloped areas via satellite-based radio and TV have been much commented on. Again, it is necessary to keep in mind that both the technical prerequisites for extensive satellite-based TV capacity and the reception requirements make it clear that the opportunities to use TV in underdeveloped areas on anything more than a demonstration basis are very probably some years distant.

 

Auspices which did not require potential profits or national gain as prerequisites for technological-investment might be able to accelerate the development. In addition to satellite development costs the costs of adequate local receivers, adequately distributed, would be involved. Requirements for reliability, maintenance, and replacement capabilities must also be met. (Obviously, the problems are of a different order for a one- or two-channel radio than for a facsimile printer or TV receiver.) Receivers could be provided by the local government or political party organizations, or under international auspices. How the costs are to be met and what the benefits are will of course determine who risks development costs and how much is risked.

 

If accelerated development appears likely, research is urgent on teaching in nonliterate societies via radio, TV, and possibly facsimile. The motivation to learn is not inherent in the human in any sense important here; rather, it depends upon culturally given attitudes toward learning per se, toward what is worth learning, and toward the pace of change which is acceptable in traditional terms. 36/ Moreover, learning usually depends for its support on the source of the message in particular on face-to-face experiences. This is especially true in underdeveloped or tradition-oriented societies.

 

In the complex relationship between demonstration, memory, and application that makes up a good share of the learning process, a variety of problems arise in connection with the translation of what is seen or heard into doing and behaving according to the standards conveyed by the communication. There is a large question of what can be learned through radio and TV unless there is sufficient physical contact with the world from whence the subject matter and the conveyed values arise, In fact, it is not at all clear to what extent, and for what kinds of material, literacy is a prerequisite for effective learning from radio and TV. 37/

 

In general, then, what is conveyed successfully (or what boomerangs) will be a function of the semantics and format of the message, and the extent to which it is meaningful within the values of the receiving culture.

 

These problems are complex, but they are very familiar in principle to anthropologists and other social scientists who have studied other cultures and the processes of learning. 38/

 

When it is clear what societies or regions might benefit more from teaching introduced via satellite than from traditional or less costly forms. specific answers to the problems discussed above will have to be derived for the particular cultures involved. However, much preliminary fundamental research will be necessary to discover the general nature and dynamics of the relationships of radio and TV to learning and culture change in underdeveloped societies. For instance, research should: [-46]

•          Determine what it is desirable to teach persons in underdeveloped areas. This requires a systematic study of the uses to which the teaching is to be put -- and importantly what local persons want to learn -- and the consequences if no such teaching is undertaken or if it fails.

•          Determine what available knowledge is applicable to teaching and learning in different culture contexts by radio, facsimile, and/or TV.

•          Apply and further develop knowledge and methods for understanding the values and behaviors in specific cultures which encourage or discourage the learning of specific types of ideas, attitudes, and behaviors ( as distinct from the learning of traditional ones).

•          Apply and further develop knowledge and methods for understanding the factors which affect the degree and type of learning from TV, radio, and possibly facsimile, as functions of literacy, subject matter ,auspices, format, and opportunities to use what is learned.' These studies must be aimed at meshing the content and purposes of telecommunications with other forms of communications from interested government groups, private organizations, and international agencies.**

•          In the light of the findings from the above -- determine the cost and benefits of teaching and introducing culture change by more traditional means compared to those made possible by satellite communications. Then appropriate means need to be explored for stimulating, financing, and operating the required contingent developments under varying circumstances of private, government, or international ownership, or combinations thereof.

 

Education in Advanced Countries

Exactly how much and in what ways the exposure to ideas, processes, and world-wide, on-the-spot events that is made possible through radio and television affects the general educational level in advanced countries is simply not known -- despite the plethora of opinions on the matter. 39/ Careful and qualified observers are inclined to believe that children have acquired a good deal of factual knowledge from their TV experiences which they would probably not have acquired otherwise. The same thing is probably true of adults. But whether there have been any important gains in understanding or shifts in perspective because of this is another unknown; moreover our present information on the subject suggests that there is -little basis for expecting that there might be. 40/

 

[-47] One aspect of the question merits special mention. It is frequently asserted that access to extensive communication facilities will bring about better understanding between peoples and nations of the world -- on the assumption that exposure, per se, to values:--and attitudes other than those of the listener or viewer leads to greater tolerance. What evidence there is on the matter does not make it clear that the assumption is justified; in fact, there is some evidence that exposure to other values may reinforce the values of the viewer and thereby his intolerance or provincial-mindedness, 41/ It is possible, however, that when the effects of radio and TV on specific audiences and the factors involved in attitude change are better known, programming for the media could be geared to enhance international understanding.

 

In recent years various early-morning educational programs offered on TV by some of the major broadcasting stations have provided firm proof that some people are eager to be exposed to various areas of learning. This suggests that satellite-based communications, with their extensive capacity, could have great educational utility. However, expected developments in film, video­tape repository libraries, and air-borne TV might provide more efficient means of serving formal education sessions before satellite systems become a reality. Nevertheless, active repeater satellites would make possible “live” regional presentation of lectures and special events, which now must be taped and distributed singly to schools and local transmitters; such problems as schedules for viewing time and accommodation to time differences must be solved, and comparative costs studied. A further very probable utility of the new system could be its transmission (perhaps during low-traffic periods) of TV tape material from central repository libraries to schools. The expense of TV material might thus be kept low since the tapes could be erased and retranscribed -- and schools would have access to a much greater body of materials than they otherwise might be able to afford.

 

Research activities have been going forward for some time on the impacts of telecommunications and will undoubtedly continue. Since a major premise justifying the development of satellite communications is the enhancement of such impacts (and especially for educational purposes), research in this area should be supported and encouraged. Specific research useful for assessing the likely utility of satellites for education should determine

 

The extent to which TV tapes and live TV presentations are likely to be major teaching devices in the next ten to twenty years, and what sorts of subject matter can best be taught this way,

•     The cost and benefits of transmission from central tape libraries to local schools, compared to those of a complete library for each school. Under what circumstances do the benefits of live programs exceed those of taped, and what are the comparative costs involved?

 

Implications for political manipulation

Since communication is necessary for developing and maintaining the identification of the individual with the group and of the group with other groups, repeater satellite systems could, in principle, assist in establishing or disrupting the political allegiances of person-to-group and group-to-group. Such a capacity might be especially useful in (1) areas that lack funds and personnel for building and operating a ground-based transmitter, and (2) areas where the society is highly decentralized and identification with a central political core is not traditional. it would also be of use to those who wished to disrupt existing allegiances through the communication of propaganda or inciting materials or by jamming the signals of the existing political core.

 

Successful use of the system for political purposes would depend on the selection of semantics, format, and subject matter. It would also be necessary to learn whether or not identification with a political core can be maintained in underdeveloped areas chiefly by radio, facsimile, or TV. Under some circumstances radio messages have helped alter patterns of authority, but how persistent and directive these communications can be is presumably a function of the level of literacy, salience of subject matter, and credibility of source, among other things. 42/

 

The many evident opportunities there will be for using, and perhaps in the near future, the coverage of communication satellites for competing political propaganda and incitement has led many observers to conclude that the foreseen difficulties can only be avoided by internationalizing the system at its advent. On the positive side, it is that only international sponsorship can encourage identification with the world community, or would be considered by opposing blocs to have the requisite disinterest to handle the situation when encouragement of local, national, or regional identification would be helpful or necessary to maintain stability.

 

Research is thus in order to determine:

•          The social and economic cost and benefits of permitting exploita tion of satellite communications for partisan national political purposes relative to those of restricting use to nonpartisan international political purposes.

•          Methods and means for implementing procedures for the alternatives above and for continually updating the procedures as satellite communications technology evolves.

 

Conferences

“The conference” has become a notable part of the twentieth-century as an exceedingly useful device for exchanging ideas and information and for solving problems. The opportunities for increased communication stimulated by satellite systems will probably increase the imperatives for sharing and synthesizing the consequent voluminous information. If sufficient TV channels became available to make closed circuit arrangements economically feasible, the satellite system could be especially useful for facilitating conferences. 43/

 

Such conferences would, for instance, eliminate travel time and reduce the risks to life and limb of valued personnel. They would also permit easy access to and greater marshaling of resources located at each conferees home base. However, if the numbers of people conferring this way were great enough, the procedure would probably have adverse implications for the transportation industry and such supporting services as hotels. 44/

 

Whether or not such procedures would become routine would depend on technological capabilities and social and psychological factors. To be effective the TV signal would probably have to provide both visual and aural high fidelity and private “side” circuits between various participants. The way the conference, as a conference, appears to each participant from his separate viewing position, is likely to be very important, and it is difficult to estimate in advance how such factors as side conferences via social activities, nonverbal “expressive” gestures, and attitudes toward conferences and “in-the-flesh” relationships would also affect the utility of this method. The procedure might be more suitable for certain purposes than for others -- more so, for instance, for briefing and problem-solving than for diplomatic maneuver.

 

The possibility of using closed circuit TV for this purpose seems to have many implications for the exchange of information and ideas and possibly for the control of organizations, but its realization is probably at least a decade away, given the technology necessary to permit many conferences via satellite or to free-up ground facilities through added satellite capacity.

 

Research would eventually include:

•     Specific studies of the various pertinent social and psycho logical factors, in the light of knowledge about conference technique and process. This should include laboratory research using various closed circuit TV arrangements, working situations, and personalities, including people from societies other than our own. 45/

Studies intended to determine the factors which would enter into the decisions of typical participators as to whether they would prefer to attend the conference directly or participate via television. Obviously, the factors could change over time, and as values about face-to-face meetings change or are reinforced. The chief value of such studies would be the further insight they would provide for designing laboratory experiments of the sort recommended above.