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Traveling Without Moving

This study examines the phenomenon of virtual travel through the Internet and its impact on cultural exchange and boundary crossing. It discusses the concept of online geography, where foreign media and cultural products are more accessible than ever. Drawing from various scholars, the paper analyzes how cyberspace serves as a platform for "imagined communities" and how it challenges traditional notions of national boundaries. It also explores the relationship between virtual and real-world acculturation, particularly among young travelers who utilize the Internet for international communication and cultural engagement.

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Traveling Without Moving

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Presentation Transcript

  1. Traveling Without Moving Foreign news and boundary-crossing in Cyberspace Jeremy Edwards University of Texas at Austin

  2. The Online World • It’s now easier than ever to find foreign media/cultural products on the Internet • The online world has its own “geography” of cultures and nations--just like the “real” world • What happens when people “travel” virtually over the Internet? How can we think about this phenomenon?

  3. Diaspora in Cyberspace • Anderson (1991): Nations as “imagined communities” thru print media • Thompson (2002): Visual vs. print • Mitra (1997): Web sites exclude some people and welcome others • Boczkowski (1999): expats overtly express cultural ideas taken for granted at home

  4. Boundary Crossing • Halavais (2000): National boundaries re-created on the Internet • Need a concept that covers both virtual and real-world “boundaries” • (Though really, all boundaries are virtual) • Information or cultural product is traveling, even if a person isn’t

  5. Acculturation, real and virtual • Acculturation/socialization related to long-term, regular, non-threatening interpersonal communication • Melkote & Liu (2000): Chinese grad students “going home” over the Internet • Increased behavioral acculturation • Decreased value acculturation

  6. Online Survey, November 2003 • 790 American college students: are they boundary-crossers? • 92% have traveled abroad • 49% use the Internet to communicate internationally • 20% read foreign news websites • Three different groups, or just one?

  7. Boundary-crossers are travelers • Foreign news readers are people who have already been abroad • Traveling to more countries--> more likely to read foreign news • Same relationship, but weaker, for travel --> international communication

  8. Travelers OOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOO OOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO O O O OO OOO OOO Foreign News Readers O O * Communicators O O O O

  9. Liberalization? • Travelers, communicators, foreign-news readers are all more liberal than non-boundary-crossers… • …but only if they are 25-and-under • Alwin & Krosnick (1991): 25-and-under’s most likely to change political identity

  10. A map for boundary crossing • Travel abroad • Acculturation takes place • Return home • Media used to reinforce/revisit/expand travel experience • In “impressionable years,” liberalization takes place too

  11. Issues/Problems/Questions • 92% Travelers: representative sample? • Liberal/Conservative maybe an oversimplification of acculturation--but something is going on • Are online travelers “traveling” to new places, or “going home” to places they’ve already been? • Other types of boundary crossing?

  12. Questions and, perhaps, answers

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