English conversation

The advent of internet social networking sites, smartphones and all the technology that I can't even fathom, has definitely made it
easier for people to communiate or convey their ideas and thoughts, not just to their close friends, but even to people on the other side of the globe.

This is what I want to talk about. Communicating on a global scale.

Yes, communicating can mean interacting with people you know personally. But I want to focus on global interaction that is happening today.
The world, as we all know, is intertwined closely and is becoming more so each day, and of course, people can easily read, listen, see what is going on around the world with just a click on the mouse. However, people are inundated with so much information about everything that they 'know' it, but don't really
'comprehend' the reality of it. For example, there have been books, articles, videos about Joseph Kony, the leader of Ugandan guerrilla group, the Lord's Resistance Army(LRA). LRA has killed, abducted, enslaved innocent Ugandan people, even children, and its leader Kony is the number one on the International Criminal Court's list of the most wanted criminals.This 'fact', this information has been out in the world for a long time. But people hadn't paid much attention to it. I realized it later, but I actually had read a book before that described LRA and what they have done, and I'm pretty sure that I thought that they were horrible back then when I was reading the book, but I had totally forgotten about them. Then, like so many others, I was shocked when I saw this video on Youtube:

'KONY 2012'

The 30-minute video shows the reality of Uganda and what LRA, under the leadership of Kony,has done. The story of Jacob, whose brother was killed by the members of LRA, was heartbreaking and I finally got to see the innocent Ugandan people, not just in numbers and names, but as real people that have families and dreams. It may sound really cliche, but the video brought life to these people that were basically just 'facts' and anonymous to me(and to a lot of people I'm assuming). The goal of the film is to make Kony the most well known person in the world , and in the end to capture him, and help the Ugandans to find peace in their lives which they rightfully deserve.

There are a lot controversies surrounding the group 'Invisible Children' that produced the film, but I'm not trying to argue about their transparency. That's
a whole other issue.

But I do think their way of approaching the issue and spreading their message out to the world was in fact, very effective.
Not to degrade the film as mere entertainment but to attract more people to their video and ultimately to their message, they have incorporated
up-beat music and stylish editing. Also, they are using the social networking sites to their fullest extent to keep the younger generation engaged in the issue and to prevent the video from being just a one-time-thing, but an inspiration for them to participate in the process of making the world a better place.

Yes, books, and articles can be powerful. But I personally think that visual form of communication is more effective to get certain messages or ideas across, especially now where there is so much information. Images transcend language and they stick with people easier than do written forms of communication.

But some of you might not agree with that.
So my question is what do you think the most effective tool of communication is in this globalized world?

As time goes by the earth is getting smaller, even we could regard it as one village. This phenomenon is what we call ‘Globalization’. One of the biggest reasons for it is Development of transportation but this might have been the biggest of all in the beginning, not these days.

Internet is the biggest influential reason nowadays. Thanks to the Internet, we can do many things that weren’t even imaginable in the past. Through several clicks we can read what is going on in the other countries, get in touch with friends on the other side of the earth, and make free phone calls or even videotelephony to people all around the world. Also we can share files, images and thoughts on the network. Through the net, there are plenty of ways to communicate that lead the earth to become smaller. To be the most effective way to communicate however, I think it should be easiest and quickest way to get information. And I agree with the point of the origin article.

To make the point simple, visual form of communications like images or videos are easier to understand without paying much attention to than literal form like articles or essays. And also images or videos are easier to be noticed at the first sight. People show their interest more to the visualized forms than the forms of series of letters. Also there is a famous and even common study tells that people pay more attention to the articles with any pictures than just articles. Visualized forms make people to access to the texts. So I think visual form is the most effective way to communicate.

Thesedays, every special incident is reported either by internet or news, which means we can easily find out what is happening on the opposite side of where we live. In this case, playing one of the most effective roles is probably internet making us search anytime, anywhere. However, I want to put more importance on 'the book' in that it has more lasting and implicative effects which is a great advantage of books. Internet reports, world newspaper, smart phone and lots of other media have its own traits that books do not have. But, we can understand more about what foreigners think by means of books which reflect on their culture and way of thinking. I do not mean internet articles or reports are bad media. I just wanted to point out the book is such a good medium in understaning more deeply about other cultures.

Any way of communication is bound to reflect people's thoughts. That's the whole point of 'communicating'.
I get that you believe that books provide indepth knowledge, but is if 'effective'?

As I have mentioned above, I've read about Kony, but he just kind of slipped off my mind.
It was when I watched the video that I realized how serious the problem was in Uganda.
So in terms of effectiveness-spreading ideas quickly to a wide range of people- I think books, although they are definitely important, are not
the most effective medium of communication. Photographs, videos, posters, etc. catch people's attention immediately.
For books, it takes longer for people to understand the message, and if that message is hard to grasp(like matters of politics or religion) it will probably be
unwittingly targeted to a specific group of people.

You pointed out that we can gain more insight into what people think through books. But how? Can you elaborate on that a bit more?

In the case of book, as one above mentioned, it may help more deep understanding of the topic of the book.
However, there are two things we should consider of the book as a medium of global communication.
First, there are not that much people who actually read books compared to the numeber of people who do the internet.
Especially in Korea, according to a survey, Korean rarely read. Really rarely.
Second, book takes time to be translated into other languages.

Some might say these traits do not matter. In the world of book, they actually do not matter. People who appreciate the value of books do read a lot, and wait for translation of books they want to read, or they even learn foreign language to read them. But in the case of global communication, I think it's bit different.
The feature of global communication is speed. We don't want to communicate with someone, having terms of weeks, and years. We want immediate reponse or fast reaction of your ideas, message. Considering this, the medium of global communication should be fast in spreading ideas. Books can not catch up the speed of internet. Also, I'm not sure but I think sojeong wants to talk about fast, effective, wide-spreading medium of global communication. She gave an example of video clipof Cony made by the organization for the purpose of exposing the brutal actions by Cony to the world to catch him and punish him for what he has done.Their purpose needs the medium that can convey the message very fast with an instant shock and impact to people. So visual form of communication would be proper one.

It seems like it's beside the point of her , but I wanted to say that we should consider the purpose of the global communication to figure out what's the most effective medium of it. Medium can be differ, depending on the purpose of communication.