What about the digital diaspora

(This article was written for the second issue of Reading Report in the Digital Age. The download address of this journal is: /f/ 10308948.html) Numbers are hot words in media studies, while discreteness is a buzzword in cultural studies. The superposition of the two is naturally a heavyweight buzzword in academic research in recent years. No wonder, since 2009, several books have been named "Discrete Numbers" (S. Diaspora sounds like a terrible word. In fact, it is an upgraded version of the word "immigrant" (although in academia, different contexts, differences in connotation and extension can make a great book). To put it mildly, it is a group of people who have left home (country) and are homesick (country). Diaspora (often translated as dispersion and dispersion, but also translated as displacement romantically by translators) has a long history, and the Jewish wandering in the four seas in the mythical era described in the Bible is also one of the sources of this term. The relationship between diaspora and media and the construction of diaspora culture have always been an important topic in social science research. Although sometimes it is not so hot, sometimes it is guerrilla warfare in different disciplines in different academic terms. In recent decades, with the wave after wave of globalization, diaspora, as a social and cultural phenomenon, has attracted more and more attention from sociologists. Interestingly, whenever new media technologies appear, the topic of emerging media technologies and diaspora groups can always lead to heated discussions. As early as the beginning of sociology, the relationship between Polish immigrants and newspapers became a classic case study of Chicago School. When home video appeared, how Bollywood video participated in the construction of South Asian identity in Britain became an important research work of Birmingham School in Britain. Not to mention the discussion about satellite TV and diaspora. So, compared with the previous media technology, what does the emerging digital information technology bring to the diaspora? Jennifer M. Brinckerhoff, an associate professor of public affairs and international relations at George Washington University in the United States, is said to be the first academic research work to study the emerging phenomenon of digital diaspora. Her answer is that digital information technology is the most ideal tool for the diaspora, which can not only keep the diaspora away from their motherland physically, but also closely connect with them spiritually. Of course, many traditional communication technologies (such as television) can even realize this without technical daydreaming, while digital information technology provides the possibility of two-way communication. Expatriates not only use digital information technology to keep in touch with their hometown, but also can feed back their own information to their hometown. Jennifer brinkerhoff's research focuses on how overseas immigrant groups (immigrants) use the Internet to keep in touch with their immigrant countries. Her conclusion is optimistic, which is conducive to the contact with the home country through network technology, on the one hand, reducing the security threat of immigrants to the home country; On the other hand, it not only improves their quality of life in their countries of emigration, but also contributes to the social and economic development of their countries of emigration. The case in this study shows obvious post-9. 1 1 effect. Because of the terrorist incidents in several western countries since 9 1 1, the connection between terrorists and immigrant communities is always looming. This undoubtedly aroused the suspicion of the digital community of immigrants, especially those from Islamic countries, in the mass media and public space. In the extreme mass media, Islamic groups seem to be the source of terrorist attacks. This study attempts to restore the true image of the diaspora digital community from individual cases, including nine digital institutions based on Afghans, Egyptian Copts, Somalis, Tibetans and Nepalese in the United States. The research objects include the construction of diaspora digital community, the main behaviors in the community and how to construct identity through various behaviors. Perhaps it is because the practical utilitarian purpose of this book is strong, and the case purpose selected in this book is obvious, so we also choose qualitative analysis research methods such as in-depth interview, text analysis and discourse analysis. The author interviewed George Andraws, the founder of Coptic Church website, Dorjee Nudup, the founder of TibetBoard website, and the main founder of thamel.com. No matter from the original purpose of the founder or the actual operation later, these websites are mainly to participate in the construction of mixed identities and to "make dreams come alive". For the other two websites, afhanistanonline and somailnet, the author mainly investigated their forums. The former information of these two websites comes from the existing research. The following data also comes from the author's interview. For these two websites, the author regards the digital diaspora as a Sebo community from the perspectives of membership system, internal rules, member welfare and interpersonal communication in the forum. By analyzing the hot posts in these two forums, the two communities also have the problems of marginalization and multiple identities faced by expatriates in American society. These two websites try to build a bridge between different expatriate social capitals and spread the "free values" as the mainstream ideology of American society. So in this sense, such websites actually play a role in preventing social conflicts. In addition, websites like tibetboard and copt often actively participate in social mobilization of some political issues or human rights activities. These problems usually have little to do with the society they live in, but with their hometown and motherland. Of course, many websites not only dabble in political topics, but also directly promote the social and economic development of hometown and motherland. For example, a website called afghans4tomorrow directly recruits volunteers to participate in post-war reconstruction in Afghanistan. An organization called Coptic Orphans promotes the adoption of Coptic Orphans through its own website. Through this series of empirical studies, the author believes that digital information technology, including the Internet, helps the diaspora to maintain its original national identity and acquire a new mixed identity. At the same time, because of the new characteristics of the Internet, which is different from the previous communication technology, the diaspora groups can participate in the discussion of their own social development. Therefore, the author thinks that the digital diaspora can not only participate in the identity coordination of the diaspora, but also act as a community organization and undertake the responsibility of social mobilization. Because the book tries to provide policy reference, the author thinks that expatriates should be encouraged to regard it as an immigrant importing country, an immigrant exporting country, an international development organization and an immigrant group. As the author proudly said, this book is the first full-length research work on this phenomenon. However, the research path it can trigger is not limited to expatriates who have left their homes. For immigrants from different parts of the same country, similar digital communities have actually emerged. Whether this digital society is similar to digital diaspora deserves further discussion. The author suggests that digital community can prevent social conflicts to some extent, and whether it exists in various digital communities can also be an interesting research project. If there is any regret in this work, first of all, although the author tries to go deep into the diaspora, not just seeing them as the other in the mainstream society, but as the product of policy research rather than critical social research, the author's research has obvious purpose of serving American national security, and the writing inevitably has the tone of western centralism. The most prominent example is the use of terms such as free value. The author overemphasizes the role of individual digital diaspora websites in issues such as human rights in the old country, but from the perspective of marginalization, the racial problems suffered by such digital communities in the United States are obviously insufficient. Moreover, the author's conclusion is too optimistic, only emphasizing the positive social significance of digital diaspora, and hardly involving the negative factors of digital diaspora. Moreover, because this study aims to provide policy decision-making reference for administrative organs, many phenomena she observed from the listed cases may not be universal. In fact, some groups of expatriates she listed are often due to their hometown, motherland, high news attention or concentrated social hotspots, but in absolute terms, they are not the main groups of expatriates in western countries. Especially as a reader in China, I regret that this book doesn't talk about the largest diaspora in the world-Chinese. Of course, this is enough to leave room for China scholars to think.