Does information technology promote cultural homogeneity (Americanization) or cultural diversity?

Question

Does information technology promote cultural homogeneity (Americanization) or cultural diversity? Does it promote mutual respect & understanding or rejection and tension among countries?

Answer 1

That depends ....

It can be argued it actually does both.  Therefore, if you take that premise as an assumption for moving forward, you're compelled to isolate "cultural homogeneity" from "cultural diversity" and identify the respective variables (factors) that determine the differences.

From there, you can, via a simple survey, try to determine if a relationship exists between IT and Cultural Homogeneity and the strength of that relationship, versus the relationship between IT and Cultural Diversity.  A simple analysis would then help you be comfortable with making some inferences based on the collection of that data.

At the same time (anecdotal), it seems likely that in America, IT actually encourages and facilitates cultural diversity as we have a culture of openness that extends our horizons simply because of the technology available -and we do not (generally speaking) have undue restrictions placed on "where we go" in the world via our electronic networks.

On the other hand, consider present day China.  It seems reasonable, based on their rather closed and secretive society (seemingly government mandated), that IT is used to promote cultural homogeneity.

Have fun ... good luck!