Yeni iletişim teknolojilerinin gelişmekte olan ülkelere girişinin toplumsal boyutları (örnek olay: Türkiye`ye sayısal iletişimin girişi)

Abstract

273 SUMMARY Social Aspects of Introduction of New Communication Technologies to Developing Countries (A Case Study: Introduction of Digital Communication to Turkey) The study aims to investigate, how political and other social factors, both within and among countries, involved in the introduction stage of new communication technologies affect their usage in the developing world, using the Turkish case. Besides this, another object is to test assumptions of scholars who extend the implications of `Information Society` to developing countries, in respect to the introduction and implementation stages of the technology. A group of communication and other social science researchers argue that new communication technologies will wipe social and economic inequalities within and among countries. They also say that new communication technologies will lead to more participation, and thus to democratic political structures on a global scale. Their final assumption is that, new communication technologies which enable fast, reliable and `cheaper` transmission of vast quantities of information, will create international understanding and cooperation in the world. In general, they base these assumptions on unique features of information compared to tangible goods: (1) information is ineonsummable; (2) it can be found in abundance. Information, with these unique features, have now become the driving force of the developed world. And, if the developing world and disprivileged citizens can make use of information, taking the advantage of new communication technologies, the gap between the North and the South, as well as between the rich and the poor, will be closed. These theorists have been criticised on many fronts by other scholars. They criticize the Information Society theorists saying (1) inequalities in the distribution of wealth will also negatively affect the usage of information and communication technologies in a society; (2) imbalances274 in the distribution of new information and communication technologies such as telephones and computers between countries will prevent poor countries from closing the gap. They point vast information stocks unavailable to the Third World due to its private business origins which is evident from complaints of the developing world regarding blockades on the industrial transfer of technology. Also, it has been argued that, information stocks in Data Banks which the poor countries can obtain is irrelevant to their development objectives, since these banks were shaped by the demands of the most powerful clients in the market. Some critics also question the Information Society concept and dismiss that the developed world has gone from one stage of economy to the other. Merely, information has become a critical factor under competitive market pressures prevailing in the industrialised world, they say. The critics also deny that new communication technologies will lead to a participatory society or to international understanding and cooperation which will benefit to the both sides. They show evidences, from the developing world that computers are used to track dissidents and that new telecommunication links enable dictatorships to share information about political opponents on a regional basis. Taking into consideration of the developing world's inability to harness necessary financial and human resources to collect, process and distribute data, new communication opportunities will not only work to the advantage of the rich countries, but it will also weaken developing countries' national sovereignity which can be defined as `information soverignity, ` in today's international economic and political relations. The factors that cause the introduction and that determine the implementation of the media was not discussed in the sociology of communications until 1970' s when Kats and Wedell published their book `Broadcasting in the Third World, ` apart from Schiller. Kat2 and Wedell showed that forces that were involved in the decision making process regarding introduction of television, can contribute to understand, why the media failed to realize `promises`275 attached to them. The media, in most of the cases, were introduced by purposes irrelevant to development. In some cases, the relation of the media to development was mentioned, but no attempts were made to draw clear policies to attain them. This pioneering study, also rectified a deficiency of the developmental ist tradition which accepted the existence of the media `given` in developing countries. Information Society theorists disregard conditions determining or affecting transfer of new communication technologies to developing countries, just as the old developmental ist tradition did. On the other hand, Schiller investigated the role of communication technologies in maintaining and advancing global political, cultural and economic interests of the United States that holds the top place in the global power hierarchy since the Second World War. In his books about the mass media and new communication technologies, he says these technologies have been designed, invented and implemented to serve interests of the United States. He argues that communication technologies are introduced to the developing world under technology push by the U.S. to serve its original purposes. His approach explains the existence of new technologies in poor countries, as seen from the centre. No attempts have been made to test or investigate his main thesis in the periphery. Another approach used in the sociology communication to trace transfer of communication cases is the `Product Life Cycle` model, adapted from an economist, Vernon. This model has not been chosen for the study, since it ignores political and other social factors. The technology transfer model as used in communication studies has been selected for the study. Though, the model has normative roots, it was also used by researchers for descriptive purposes. It gives a flexible framework to the researcher to adapt for explaining different sets of relations under different circumstances from a wide perspective.276 An investigation into the supplier side of the technology, that is, systems, organisations and areas of influences in the developed countries, with regard to the introduction of digital communication to Turkey, reveals that digital communication is very important for service industry exports by the developed world; for daily functioning of multinational companies; for business users; and for the military and political bureacracies of the U.S. On the other hand, the telecommunications industry is under pressure to expand markets, since the production of digital communication equipment increased research and development costs. But despite rising costs, markets are small and telecommunication equipment prices are in decline due to a stiff competition. Taking into consideration the condition in the supplier side, a model is formed. The model assumes that Turkey has accepted introducing digital communication under one-sided technology push from the supplier side. It is assumed that Netaş, the subsidiary of Northern Telecommunications will be the channel of technology push. With the model, two other assumptions are formulated. These are: (1) Implementation of digital communication will be determined by factors involved in the introduction stage; (2) the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), which will evolve under these conditions will not be implemented in an equalitarian and participatory way; and it will weaken national sovereignity of the country. The research in Turkey, the recipient side, proves that the first assumption is wrong. Netaş and Northern Telecommunication resisted to the introduction of new technology, at first. Then, it accepted to switch turning out digital equipment under pressure and threats of the Turkish PTT. Also there were some domestic factors which led to going digital. One of the most important factor was the needs of the Turkish military which initiated a project to set up an exclusive digital network. Another factor derived from the political power which was determined to open up Turkey to the foreign world according to an export oriented economic model under liberal foreign trade policies. Also, to277 clear the huge waiting list for telephony, the PTT saw digital technology as a panacea. Besides these direct domestic pressures, there was another direct foreign pres-sure: the ISDN concept. Turkish decision -makers in the PTT found `indispensable` to be ready for another generation of technology. Another foreign pressure stemmed indirectly from Nato. Nato started to use digital communications to link military units, and the absence of the technology in Turkey seems to have initiated a move within the Turkish Army. The second assumption has been proven. The factors that worked in the introduction stage have determined the distribution of digital technology. Digital exchanges have been employed where number of telephone demands were the highest. Digital links have been placed between heavy traffic routes linking trade and business centers and the administrative center, Ankara. Also, a coaxial cable network has been layed mainly to link Turkish army units in the West. Also it has been found out that the ISDN which will evolve from this emerging digital network will effectively exclude regions apart from locations on the digital network strip which links Istanbul, Ankara, Adana and îsmir mainly. Also, the distribution of digital exchanges, the building blocks of the ISDN, are not balanced. Almost all are in city centers. Nearly 60 percent of them are in five big city centers which are also business and trading centers. j^^etia Kurulu 'yoa Merisi