reinventing roots

Reinventing Roots

New media and national identity

Paper presented at the Second Expert Meeting on Media and Open Societies, organized by The Amsterdam School of Communications Research ASCoR of the University of Amsterdam and the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University, Amsterdam, 21-23 October 1999

Dr. Piet Bakker
Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR)
University of Amsterdam

Contents

Abstract
Introduction: Internet users
Internet use
Virtual communities
National 'homeless' communities
Casestudies
Results
Conclusion
Sources/literature

Download
this article in Word-format.

Abstract

The Internet can be a very important vehicle for the transmission of ideas concerning a national identity, particular for people who have lost or left their homeland. Presenting it as very complete and historic enduring, going back for several thousand years emphasizes this identity. Completeness of the identity means presenting it with as many aspects as possible: art, culture, music, cuisine, flags, anthems, tourism, politics etc. These findings are derived from a small pilot study on 30 websites of Kurd, Armenian and Macedonian origin.

Introduction: Internet users

In de second half of the nineties the amount of Internet users has grown beyond imagination. Never before we saw such a rapid introduction of a new medium. Although research on Internet use and Internet users is often badly documented, confusing and contradictory, it is clear that the users of the Internet are mostly found in the Western world and in some parts of Asia. In the US 60 to 90 million people (20 to 30% of the population) can use the Internet. In the Netherlands the estimated amount is 2.7 million (14% of the population above 16). In Scandinavian and other North European countries these figures are even higher, in Denmark 22% of the population uses the Internet; in Finland 28%, in Sweden and Iceland almost half of the population is accessing the Internet. In Southern and Eastern Europe these figures are lower (France: 5%; Czech Republic 3%, Greece: 1%) and in most African, Asian, and South American countries figures stay well below 1% (Headcount, 1999; Digital Living Room Consumer Index, 1999; National Telecommunications and Information Administration, 1999).

The unequal distribution of Internet users is however somewhat superficial. When we look more closely at some of the users, it is clear there are many users from so-called 'underdeveloped Internet countries' on line. Immigrants, students and professionals, who left their countries of birth, devote much of their time (and webspace) to their region of origin. In this small research we will concentrate on this group of users: strangers in a strange land but keeping a close tie with their roots. roots kurds armenia mecedonia culture history internet

Internet use

We're not just interested in what kind of people is using the Internet, much more important is the question: how do they use it? The amount of pages people could access has reached an astonishing figure. It was estimated at 800 million in the middle of 1999 (Lawrence & Giles, 1999). The possibilities of the Internet are growing likewise; we are far beyond just sending and receiving e-mail and watching www-pages with text and pictures. We can listen to live radio, concerts, CD-tracks, watch television or movies, download software, participate in a chat session, a video conference or an on line game and buy things on line. This last possibility is one of the most recent Internet 'hypes'; it is responsible both for the high prices that are paid for Internet companies and for the bulk of publicity about the Internet.

This publicity tends to distract our attention from important questions like who are these users, how do they use the Internet and how does this affect their lives. In this article we will focus on these questions. More specifically, we will study the relation between the content of Internet pages and their users.

Virtual communities

When we look more closely at the way people use the Internet, we see that a fair amount of usage is not exactly 'new'. Like before, people book holidays, collect pictures of their favorite movie star or take a quick look at today's headlines. The means of finding information is new, but the information sought is not. But not all usage can be written off as "a new means for old habits". Sometimes people participate in activities that cannot be compared to any other media use, most of all because of the interactivity of the Internet. The classic example is on line gaming; people participate in a virtual community and play a chosen role, they communicate with others, form clans, become friends with other users, send each other messages etc. This sort of usage is tied to the medium; these communities are impossible without the Internet.

These virtual communities are responsible for only a small part of Internet usage. Much more common are existing 'communities' with a virtual 'branch'. Soccer fans are not a virtual community but participate also in virtual communities, they have their own mailing lists, websites and chat channels. This also applies to Rolling Stones fans, Macintosh users, white supremacists, believers in the flatness of the earth, Muslim fanatics and breeders of Dalmatian dogs. These 'communities' existed before the Internet and can exist without it. They had other ways of communicating; their own newsletters and magazines and personal communication: local or regional gatherings, phone conversations and letters. The Internet gave these communities extra possibilities: communication is faster, can be more frequent and is possible for more people.

We use the term 'communities' without a definition but as the above examples indicate, there are many different sorts of communities. The main difference seems to lie in the scope of the communities: there are 'one issue' communities (music lovers, dog breeders, Mac users, believers in the flatness of the earth) while white supremacists and Muslim fanatics share some sort of common ideology. We are mainly interested in this last sort of communities, people who share common ideas or believes which are not limited to one topic and participate in one way or another in sharing, promoting and defending these ideas or believes.

National 'homeless' communities

We will concentrate here on one special category of communities with a very strong common feeling: national communities without a nation. People like the Kurds or Armenians who have been scattered all over the earth, still have succeeded in maintaining a national identity without a nation state. This used to take place within local or regional communities but the Internet offers different possibilities for these communities. For the first time they can organize worldwide, reach new members and communicate with these 'members' more often.

Our research question is how these communities use the Internet; how do they organize their information, how do they maintain their tradition with this very new medium.

Casestudies

The research is done by selecting three different 'virtual nations':

Kurds. A true virtual nation. Kurds are living in the traditional Kurdish regions in Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Russia and of course all over the world.

Macedonians. Only a nation state since a few years and having a conflict with their neighbor Creece over territories.

Armenians. Spread all over world after the genocide in 1915. Since 1991 they’re an Armenian nation but according some Armenians, a great part of western Armenia is still occupied by Turkey.

For every nation 10 websites were chosen. This was done with the search engine DirectHit (http://www.directhit.com) witch ranks sites by popularity. Only sites were chosen that are visited by many websurfers. In some cases there were more than 1.6 million visits. A first finding is that there is no problem finding these sites. There are hundreds of sites devoted to 'virtual nations'. They do exist.

Research questions concentrated on the 'how'. How do people see their identity, what do they show to visitors, how do they define their national identity. On the back an other question lingers: how important is the Internet in constructing this national identity. We cannot really answer this question because users should be interviewed to shed some light on this question. But the fact that there are so many websites devoted to virtual nations is an indication that it can be very important. And in some cases an analysis of guestbooks, forums or webboards gives us additional information: the virtual nation lives.

Results

Analyzing 30 websites is not an easy task but after seeing only a few the pattern becomes clear. Almost every site devoted to a virtual nation has the same elements:

Completeness. In most cases the webmasters (who for the most part do not live in their regions of birth but in the USA, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, Canada) want to cover every aspect of life on their websites: history, culture (art, music, architecture, poetry, literature), economics, women’s issues, geography, geology, anthropology. But things like traditional recipes, folktales and tourism are not forgotten.

Symbols. Flags, coats of arms and anthems are very prominent displayed. The same goes for historic relics and places of interest.

Maps. Making clear what belongs to their country and what doesn’t is an important aspect. Kurdish maps show how their region is in five different countries, Armenians show that Turkey occupies the western part of their country while Macedonians show that half of their country lies in Greece.

History. Important facts are repeated over and over again. In particular massacres by Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Bulgaria, Greece. History is ancient. Macedonian history goes back even before Alexander the Great, Kurds go back to Mesopotamia while Noah’s ark (and the roots of the whole western and Christian civilization) have been located in Armenia.

News, politics and actuality. Links to al kinds of media, reprints of articles in elite news media (New York Times), reprint of documents of international organizations (UN, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International). Conflicts with other parties is covered: with the Kurdish community, between Armenians and Turks, between Macedonians and Greek.

Conclusion

These websites form more than a virtual nation. Their aim is to construct a true nation. And it is done presenting it as complete and historic as possible. It is very possible that the Internet plays an important role in the creation of this kind of identity. It is almost impossible to create it with other (traditional) means.

Sources/literature

Digital Living Room Consumer Index (1999).

Headcount (1999).

Lawrence, Steve & Giles, C. Lee. (1999, July 8). Accessibility of information on the web.

National Telecommunications and Information Administration (1999). Falling Through the Net: Defining the Digital Divide.

Kurdistan

Homepage of Kamaran Kakel (Canada) with map, brief history (who are the Kurds) and the story (with pictures) of the attack on the village of Halabja in March 1988 by the Iraqi government.

Homepage of Azad (Sweden) with history, map, flag, culture, language, literature, music, mailing list etc.

Rojbas: Magazine in Kurdish and Turkish (Sweden).

KDP: Kurdistan Democratic Party-Iraq (Sweden). Founded in 1946 by Mustafa Barzani (14.03.1903 - 01.03.1979) who features still very prominent on almost any KDP-site. The site has links to Australian, French, Danish, Spanish, Canadian and German branches of the party. It further contains documents about KDP, links to Kurdistan television, press releases and information about culture, media, history, tourism, industry etc.

The Washington Kurdish Institute (WKI): History, links, geography, culture (USA).

The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). Founded in 1975 in Iraq (split from Barzani´s KDP party). Links to UK, Australian, Canadian, American, Kurdistan, Russian and French branches.

The Kurdish Information Network. Culture, music, language, history (Dutch).

Kurdish Worldwide Resource. Origines, demographics, language, geography, geology, maps, literature, art etc. (US)

Kurdistan Web (Germany). Hosted on the German humanrights server. Art, people, geography, antropology, maps, literature, architecture, history, language, news, music, flag, links to personal pages etc. (100,000 visits since 1995)

akaKurdistan. (Com) Images and stories on history and culture of the Kurds: "a place for collective memory and cultural exchange".

Macedonia

Virtual Macedonia. Culture, religion, people, cuisine, sport etc. (US)

FYROM. Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Economy, defense, geography, government, people. (com/macedonia)

Macedonia for the Macedonians. Pleading for an undivided Macedonia: surrender of the Greek part to Macedonia: history, human rights, language, Greek propaganda, culture, music, books, current events, latest news. Discussion forum. (55,000 visits since July 1997) (Macedonia/Bulgarian/US)

Republic of Macedonia. Art, history, politics, flag, anthem, constitution, movie, facts and figures, tourism.

Macedonia FAQ. Information, cuisine, politics, economy, religion, sport, art, history.

What about Macedonia. Personal page with pictures and some information.

neutral

Slavic research centre. (Japan) Links and information: history, culture, people, news conflict with Greece, geography.

Greek

Pan-Macedonian Network. In English and Greek "4000 years of Greek civilization". Emphasis on history. And information on culture, sports, news, organizations and tourism. From a Greek perspective. (com/greek)

Macedonia by Nikolaos Martis. Former foreign minister. History and politics. Author of: the Falsification of the history of Macedonia. Greek version.

Armenia

Armena online com. (US) books, music, news, weather, famous Armenians, culture and art. "Armenians have been scattered all over the world as refugees. Living in unfamiliar lands, we as Armenians, have made our mark in many different places and fields". (1.6 milion visitors)

Cilicia.com. Famous Armenians, genocide, cookbook, church. (375 pages) (US)
Armenia. History, Economy, defensie, geography, government, people. (com/macedonia)

Soros.armenia. General information on current situation.

Armenia. Extensive links-collection (edu/US)

Western Armenia Institute. "dedicated to the history and future of western Armenia which is, for now, occupied by the Republic of Turkey."

Embassy of the Republic of Armenia. Facts, history, foreign relations, news.

France/Armenia Website. (France/US) Pictures and some information.

Armenian Highland. Culture and History (com). 4000 views in 1999.

Armenia, Karabagh, and the Armenian Genocide. Just that: "The Armenian Genocide was carried out by the "Young Turk" government of the Ottoman Empire in 1915-1916 (with subsidiaries to 1922-23). One and a half million Armenians were killed, out of a total of two and a half million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire."

general interest

The Human rights report (US State Department)

Minority rights (UK)

Emulateme.com New formed and/or very small countries and countries & regions with conflicts concerning national or geographic claims.

Eldis Country Profiles. Information on 'new' countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America

Worldsapart. Excellent website by Britannica.

mail: bakker@pscw.uva.nl

	Reinventing Roots
	New media and national identity
	Paper presented at the Second Expert Meeting on Media and Open Societies, organized by The Amsterdam School of Communications Research ASCoR of the University of Amsterdam and the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University, Amsterdam, 21-23 October 1999

	Dr. Piet Bakker Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR) University of Amsterdam
	Contents Abstract Introduction: Internet users Internet use Virtual communities National 'homeless' communities Casestudies Results Conclusion Sources/literature	Download this article in Word-format.
Abstract
	The Internet can be a very important vehicle for the transmission of ideas concerning a national identity, particular for people who have lost or left their homeland. Presenting it as very complete and historic enduring, going back for several thousand years emphasizes this identity. Completeness of the identity means presenting it with as many aspects as possible: art, culture, music, cuisine, flags, anthems, tourism, politics etc. These findings are derived from a small pilot study on 30 websites of Kurd, Armenian and Macedonian origin.
Introduction: Internet users
	In de second half of the nineties the amount of Internet users has grown beyond imagination. Never before we saw such a rapid introduction of a new medium. Although research on Internet use and Internet users is often badly documented, confusing and contradictory, it is clear that the users of the Internet are mostly found in the Western world and in some parts of Asia. In the US 60 to 90 million people (20 to 30% of the population) can use the Internet. In the Netherlands the estimated amount is 2.7 million (14% of the population above 16). In Scandinavian and other North European countries these figures are even higher, in Denmark 22% of the population uses the Internet; in Finland 28%, in Sweden and Iceland almost half of the population is accessing the Internet. In Southern and Eastern Europe these figures are lower (France: 5%; Czech Republic 3%, Greece: 1%) and in most African, Asian, and South American countries figures stay well below 1% (Headcount, 1999; Digital Living Room Consumer Index, 1999; National Telecommunications and Information Administration, 1999). The unequal distribution of Internet users is however somewhat superficial. When we look more closely at some of the users, it is clear there are many users from so-called 'underdeveloped Internet countries' on line. Immigrants, students and professionals, who left their countries of birth, devote much of their time (and webspace) to their region of origin. In this small research we will concentrate on this group of users: strangers in a strange land but keeping a close tie with their roots.	roots kurds armenia mecedonia culture history internet
Internet use
	We're not just interested in what kind of people is using the Internet, much more important is the question: how do they use it? The amount of pages people could access has reached an astonishing figure. It was estimated at 800 million in the middle of 1999 (Lawrence & Giles, 1999). The possibilities of the Internet are growing likewise; we are far beyond just sending and receiving e-mail and watching www-pages with text and pictures. We can listen to live radio, concerts, CD-tracks, watch television or movies, download software, participate in a chat session, a video conference or an on line game and buy things on line. This last possibility is one of the most recent Internet 'hypes'; it is responsible both for the high prices that are paid for Internet companies and for the bulk of publicity about the Internet. This publicity tends to distract our attention from important questions like who are these users, how do they use the Internet and how does this affect their lives. In this article we will focus on these questions. More specifically, we will study the relation between the content of Internet pages and their users.
Virtual communities
	When we look more closely at the way people use the Internet, we see that a fair amount of usage is not exactly 'new'. Like before, people book holidays, collect pictures of their favorite movie star or take a quick look at today's headlines. The means of finding information is new, but the information sought is not. But not all usage can be written off as "a new means for old habits". Sometimes people participate in activities that cannot be compared to any other media use, most of all because of the interactivity of the Internet. The classic example is on line gaming; people participate in a virtual community and play a chosen role, they communicate with others, form clans, become friends with other users, send each other messages etc. This sort of usage is tied to the medium; these communities are impossible without the Internet. These virtual communities are responsible for only a small part of Internet usage. Much more common are existing 'communities' with a virtual 'branch'. Soccer fans are not a virtual community but participate also in virtual communities, they have their own mailing lists, websites and chat channels. This also applies to Rolling Stones fans, Macintosh users, white supremacists, believers in the flatness of the earth, Muslim fanatics and breeders of Dalmatian dogs. These 'communities' existed before the Internet and can exist without it. They had other ways of communicating; their own newsletters and magazines and personal communication: local or regional gatherings, phone conversations and letters. The Internet gave these communities extra possibilities: communication is faster, can be more frequent and is possible for more people. We use the term 'communities' without a definition but as the above examples indicate, there are many different sorts of communities. The main difference seems to lie in the scope of the communities: there are 'one issue' communities (music lovers, dog breeders, Mac users, believers in the flatness of the earth) while white supremacists and Muslim fanatics share some sort of common ideology. We are mainly interested in this last sort of communities, people who share common ideas or believes which are not limited to one topic and participate in one way or another in sharing, promoting and defending these ideas or believes.
National 'homeless' communities
	We will concentrate here on one special category of communities with a very strong common feeling: national communities without a nation. People like the Kurds or Armenians who have been scattered all over the earth, still have succeeded in maintaining a national identity without a nation state. This used to take place within local or regional communities but the Internet offers different possibilities for these communities. For the first time they can organize worldwide, reach new members and communicate with these 'members' more often. Our research question is how these communities use the Internet; how do they organize their information, how do they maintain their tradition with this very new medium.
Casestudies
	The research is done by selecting three different 'virtual nations': Kurds. A true virtual nation. Kurds are living in the traditional Kurdish regions in Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Russia and of course all over the world. Macedonians. Only a nation state since a few years and having a conflict with their neighbor Creece over territories. Armenians. Spread all over world after the genocide in 1915. Since 1991 they’re an Armenian nation but according some Armenians, a great part of western Armenia is still occupied by Turkey. For every nation 10 websites were chosen. This was done with the search engine DirectHit (http://www.directhit.com) witch ranks sites by popularity. Only sites were chosen that are visited by many websurfers. In some cases there were more than 1.6 million visits. A first finding is that there is no problem finding these sites. There are hundreds of sites devoted to 'virtual nations'. They do exist. Research questions concentrated on the 'how'. How do people see their identity, what do they show to visitors, how do they define their national identity. On the back an other question lingers: how important is the Internet in constructing this national identity. We cannot really answer this question because users should be interviewed to shed some light on this question. But the fact that there are so many websites devoted to virtual nations is an indication that it can be very important. And in some cases an analysis of guestbooks, forums or webboards gives us additional information: the virtual nation lives.
Results
	Analyzing 30 websites is not an easy task but after seeing only a few the pattern becomes clear. Almost every site devoted to a virtual nation has the same elements: Completeness. In most cases the webmasters (who for the most part do not live in their regions of birth but in the USA, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, Canada) want to cover every aspect of life on their websites: history, culture (art, music, architecture, poetry, literature), economics, women’s issues, geography, geology, anthropology. But things like traditional recipes, folktales and tourism are not forgotten. Symbols. Flags, coats of arms and anthems are very prominent displayed. The same goes for historic relics and places of interest. Maps. Making clear what belongs to their country and what doesn’t is an important aspect. Kurdish maps show how their region is in five different countries, Armenians show that Turkey occupies the western part of their country while Macedonians show that half of their country lies in Greece. History. Important facts are repeated over and over again. In particular massacres by Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Bulgaria, Greece. History is ancient. Macedonian history goes back even before Alexander the Great, Kurds go back to Mesopotamia while Noah’s ark (and the roots of the whole western and Christian civilization) have been located in Armenia. News, politics and actuality. Links to al kinds of media, reprints of articles in elite news media (New York Times), reprint of documents of international organizations (UN, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International). Conflicts with other parties is covered: with the Kurdish community, between Armenians and Turks, between Macedonians and Greek.
Conclusion
	These websites form more than a virtual nation. Their aim is to construct a true nation. And it is done presenting it as complete and historic as possible. It is very possible that the Internet plays an important role in the creation of this kind of identity. It is almost impossible to create it with other (traditional) means.
Sources/literature
	Digital Living Room Consumer Index (1999). Headcount (1999). Lawrence, Steve & Giles, C. Lee. (1999, July 8). Accessibility of information on the web. National Telecommunications and Information Administration (1999). Falling Through the Net: Defining the Digital Divide.

	Kurdistan Homepage of Kamaran Kakel (Canada) with map, brief history (who are the Kurds) and the story (with pictures) of the attack on the village of Halabja in March 1988 by the Iraqi government. Homepage of Azad (Sweden) with history, map, flag, culture, language, literature, music, mailing list etc. Rojbas: Magazine in Kurdish and Turkish (Sweden). KDP: Kurdistan Democratic Party-Iraq (Sweden). Founded in 1946 by Mustafa Barzani (14.03.1903 - 01.03.1979) who features still very prominent on almost any KDP-site. The site has links to Australian, French, Danish, Spanish, Canadian and German branches of the party. It further contains documents about KDP, links to Kurdistan television, press releases and information about culture, media, history, tourism, industry etc. The Washington Kurdish Institute (WKI): History, links, geography, culture (USA). The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). Founded in 1975 in Iraq (split from Barzani´s KDP party). Links to UK, Australian, Canadian, American, Kurdistan, Russian and French branches. The Kurdish Information Network. Culture, music, language, history (Dutch). Kurdish Worldwide Resource. Origines, demographics, language, geography, geology, maps, literature, art etc. (US) Kurdistan Web (Germany). Hosted on the German humanrights server. Art, people, geography, antropology, maps, literature, architecture, history, language, news, music, flag, links to personal pages etc. (100,000 visits since 1995) akaKurdistan. (Com) Images and stories on history and culture of the Kurds: "a place for collective memory and cultural exchange". Macedonia Virtual Macedonia. Culture, religion, people, cuisine, sport etc. (US) FYROM. Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Economy, defense, geography, government, people. (com/macedonia) Macedonia for the Macedonians. Pleading for an undivided Macedonia: surrender of the Greek part to Macedonia: history, human rights, language, Greek propaganda, culture, music, books, current events, latest news. Discussion forum. (55,000 visits since July 1997) (Macedonia/Bulgarian/US) Republic of Macedonia. Art, history, politics, flag, anthem, constitution, movie, facts and figures, tourism. Macedonia FAQ. Information, cuisine, politics, economy, religion, sport, art, history. What about Macedonia. Personal page with pictures and some information. neutral Slavic research centre. (Japan) Links and information: history, culture, people, news conflict with Greece, geography. Greek Pan-Macedonian Network. In English and Greek "4000 years of Greek civilization". Emphasis on history. And information on culture, sports, news, organizations and tourism. From a Greek perspective. (com/greek) Macedonia by Nikolaos Martis. Former foreign minister. History and politics. Author of: the Falsification of the history of Macedonia. Greek version. Armenia Armena online com. (US) books, music, news, weather, famous Armenians, culture and art. "Armenians have been scattered all over the world as refugees. Living in unfamiliar lands, we as Armenians, have made our mark in many different places and fields". (1.6 milion visitors) Cilicia.com. Famous Armenians, genocide, cookbook, church. (375 pages) (US) Armenia. History, Economy, defensie, geography, government, people. (com/macedonia) Soros.armenia. General information on current situation. Armenia. Extensive links-collection (edu/US) Western Armenia Institute. "dedicated to the history and future of western Armenia which is, for now, occupied by the Republic of Turkey." Embassy of the Republic of Armenia. Facts, history, foreign relations, news. France/Armenia Website. (France/US) Pictures and some information. Armenian Highland. Culture and History (com). 4000 views in 1999. Armenia, Karabagh, and the Armenian Genocide. Just that: "The Armenian Genocide was carried out by the "Young Turk" government of the Ottoman Empire in 1915-1916 (with subsidiaries to 1922-23). One and a half million Armenians were killed, out of a total of two and a half million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire."