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Imagined Communities” DEBATS · Annual Review, 1 · 2016 — 59 / 63 ISSN 0212-0585 (print) ISSN 2530-3074 (electronic) Anderson and the Media. The strength of “imagined communities” Enric Castelló UNIVERSITAT ROVIRA I VirgiLI [email protected] ORCID: http: //www.researcherid.com/rid/B-2834-2012 Received: 05/03/2016 Accepted: 20/05/2016 ABSTRACT This is a brief note on Benedict Anderson’s influence and more specifically, on his concept of ‘Imagined Communities’ and its impact on the media. The author reviews the concept in relation to national construction through the media, noting key reasons why Anderson’s ideas either took hold or were passed over. The text pays tribute to Anderson’s remarkable contribution to the theory of and ideas on national identity and the sway held by culture and media in fostering this identity. Keywords: The Media, Imagined Community, Benedict Anderson, nationalism, national consciousness Corresponding author: Enric Castelló. Universitat Rovira i Virgili. Departament d’Estudis de Comunicació. Av. Catalunya, 35 43002 Tarragona. Suggested citation: Castelló, E. (2016). Anderson and the Media. The strength of “imagined communities”. Debats. Journal on Culture, Power and Society, 1. 59-63 Benedict Anderson died in December 2015. His sad By contrast, Anderson’s work has now become a key demise prompted reflection on Anderson’s influence reference in any research on the media and their role on Media Studies. Broaching this question is a daring in national construction. enterprise given the many authors who have discussed and drawn upon Anderson’s work. Accordingly, this For scholars of national construction, 1983 was to brief paper is limited to divulgation and is in the prove a watershed, with the publication of Anderson’s nature of a collective homage by Media researchers book and two others. The latter two were: The invention to Anderson’s concept of ‘Imagined Community’. The of tradition, by Eric Hobsbawm (with Terence Ranger), impact of his work Imagined Communities. Reflections and Nations and Nationalism, by Ernest Gellner. The on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (Verso, 1983) three authors — Gellner, Hobsbawm and Anderson was enormous, especially in the English-speaking — were to prove a dynamic trio, in effect mounting world. In Spain, Anderson’s contribution was virtually a three-pronged inquiry into Constructionism and ignored until well after the translation of his book National Identity. Between them, they sparked a into Spanish in the early 1990s (FCE, 1993) and the genuine debate on the role played by nationalist more recent translation into Catalan (Afers, 2005). ideology in configuring nations. The fact that the 60 — DEBATS · Annual Review, 1 · 2016 ENRIC CASTELLÓ debate came at the fag-end of the war-torn Twentieth From another standpoint, Hobsbawm also broadly Century made it no less timely. With the fall of The shares this vision, articulating the concept of “the Berlin Wall (1989) and the disintegration of The invention of tradition” and tends to underplay the Soviet Union, the issue of nationalism was again importance of the idea of a nation and the power an issue of burning international importance. To of nationalism. While both Gellner and Hobsbawm reflect this, Anderson published a revised version stress the force of the ideology articulated in their of the book (1991). It is this updated version that discourses, both authors see “the world of nations” is referred to here and in almost all recent studies. as something that is on the way out. Hobsbawm then published Nations and Nationalism since 1780 (Verso, 1990). It was at this point that the Anderson sees the nation as a modern, volatile Yugoslav Civil War broke out in the heart of Europe. phenomenon, framed by cultural and social dynamics and something that is far from over. Anderson’s focus Why are these works important? I believe it is because on the concept of ‘imagination’ on the one hand, and they finally lay to rest the myth that a nation is on the substantiation of culture and creative processes more than an ideological construct and narrative. on the other, is situated in a dimension that links to The power of narrative is configuring identity and cultural studies and the media. Without going so far a national myth was also underlined in the Eighties as to call Anderson post-modern, one can say that the and early Nineties by Edward Said and Homi Bhabha concept of ‘Imagined Community’ is closely linked to (1990) — particularly the latter — in connection the idea of today’s fluid times in which the collective with literary and cultural studies. Among the authors imagination and representation play important roles. mentioned in the foregoing paragraph, Anderson Anderson’s approach is an attempt to escape from articulated a notion of nationalism that implied more orthodox visions articulate by Marxism on the a different perspective from that taken by Gellner notion of the nation and nationalist ideology. Some and Hobsbawm. For the last two, nationalism is an scholars have linked the wider vision to Anderson’s alienating ideology that diverts attention from issues open, cosmopolitan nature and background1. For bearing on progress and social conflict — such as Anderson, nationalism can be destructive but may modernity and industrialisation — as Sabina Mihelj also be based on social and cultural construction and (2011) has noted. Anderson’s ideas are thoroughly serve to bind people together. In other words, he modern and rooted in historicism, as we noted rejected the automatic demonisation of nationalism earlier (Castelló 2011). They are also highly critical then in vogue. As Özkirimli (2000) explains, Anderson of nationalist ideology. abandoned the idea that nations were simply ideological constructs and put them on the same For example, Gellner considered that ‘nationalism’ footing as other ‘communities’ such as those provided invented ‘the nation’. Gellner always stresses the by religion or even kinship. Accordingly, he defined pernicious effects of nationalist politics. Indeed, he a nation as a political community. finds it hard not to lump all kinds of nationalism together. As a result, Gellner’s quest to establish Benedict Anderson’s conceptualisation is developed right cross-cutting ideas means his analysis is ill-suited for from the beginning of his book. He defines nationalism discerning between nationalisms driven by States, and nationality as a “cultural artifact” and the idea of by independence movements, or by democrats in a nation as an “imagined political community, being their struggle to overthrow authoritarian regimes. In Gellner’s writings, the use of the word ‘intervention’ suggests that the nation is something artificial — even 1 Anderson (1936) was born in China and his parents were of Anglo-Irish stock. The family fled to The United States on the false, alienating and created by an ideology. This outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War. Anderson specialised view is openly criticised by Anderson in his book. in sudies on South-East Asia, where he lived on and off. Anderson and the Media. The strength of “imagined communities” DEBATS · Annual Review, 1 · 2016 — 61 imagined as both limited and sovereign” (1991: 6).2 The as a vehicle for knowledge, and the mass cultural authors argue that such a community is limited because distribution that characterises the modern world. its members are confined to the Nation’s territory and The ‘imagined’ nation is a modernist construct, not a thus there are individuals who do not form part of it. changeless myth springing from the depths of time. Although the Nation’s members do not know (and The artifice is not rooted in history but in technology. cannot) know all their countrymen, they nevertheless The availability of a new technology for churning out feel like a kind of finite family. The Nation is sovereign ‘culture’ established a national language (relegating because it is a community that came into being to other vernacular languages to subordinate status) replace the power of kings and royal dynasties. Indeed, and laid the foundations for the growth of a national Anderson draws a picture in which classical religious consciousness. Anderson’s thought was steeped in communities were replaced by modern nations. anti-colonialism and thus he not only saw national consciousness as an exercise in Imperial political and Anderson’s brief summary of concepts in the book’s cultural power but also as an opportunity for subject introduction was a good way of stating his intentions lands to free themselves because nations think in an from the outset. However, in my view, it came to distort organic fashion. In fact, Anderson considers that one the way his book was interpreted. On the one hand, of the first ‘nationalisms’ arose in Creole communities many of the works referring to Anderson’s book went as a reaction to Imperial States. no further than the first six or seven pages, using (and something abusing) the ideas set forth in them to justify The scope for creating an ‘imagined community’ the Media’s task in building a ‘national imagination’. is clear from studies on television (and more Many researchers ignored the rest of Anderson’s book, recently) on the Internet. Thus the availability or which contained many valuable ideas. otherwise of the technology is available (TV and the distribution network) to push a given idea of the As already noted, many of the main papers and nation (Catalonia, Scotland, The United Kingdom, studies on national construction and the Media France, etc.) has implications regarding the scope were limited to referring to the concept of “imagined for articulating a national consciousness. The community” in their theoretical sections. In doing concept was applied throughout the 20th Century so, they jumped to the conclusion that the Media are to ‘national consciousness’ maps in Europe’s Nation tools for creating ‘the imaginary’.
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