media

What is a nation?

The prototypes for the modern nation emerged in Western Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Ethnic communities came together – frequently they were forced together into nations through

· the construction of state bureaucracies

· the formation of market economies

· the establishment of secular institutions.

European colonization and its aftermath led to the expansion of the idea of the nation to the colonized world. During colonialism the colonial countries carved up geographic spaces in Asia, Africa and Latin America into colony nations frequently they disregarded the histories and cultural connections that had existed long before colonialism. After colonialism, the same colonial powers often insisted that they only way formerly colonized countries could get independence was if they continued to use the borders established during colonialism.

One definition of a nation states that it is “a concept that pulls together a named human population that shares an historical territory, common myths and historical memories, a mass public culture, a common economy and common legal rights and duties for all its members.” This definition focuses on a unified body of people within a unified geographical space. However, this definition, though often referenced, contains some contradictions. For example, let’s take England. There was a time when people thought of the English as a culturally homogenous place and all English people had the said to look the same and have the same culture.

This photo of Olympic gold medal winner Linford Christie was seen as controversial in 1992 because some people at the time questioned whether a Black man could be English. Similarly, Mesut Ozil (pictured below) who used to play football (soccer to you ) for the German national team, “I am German when we win, but I am an immigrant when we lose.” However, even if one could magically rid the England of all its immigrants – and that would be impossible – England was created out of the forced erasure or forced unity of diverse populations Specifically the Saxons, Celts, and Normans. Other things that often happen to create the idea of a united nation include:

· The glossing over of differences of class, gender, and ethnicity.

· In specific national cases, how the sense of national identity and wealth is built on colonization of those ‘outside’

Although political and economic forces were fundamentally important to shaping the modern nation, it is within culture and communication that most people experience the nation on a day-to-day basis. Nations create national identities which give people a sense of collective identification and reassure them that they shared something in common with a set of people. Political Scientist, Benedict Anderson defined the nation as an imagined community: a collective mythos that is “imagined because members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion” (Anderson, 1983:6)

Cultural Studies scholar Stuart Hall says that nations are created through the stories we are told. Narratives told and retold in national histories, literatures, the media, popular culture stand in for shared experiences and give us a sense of belonging.

Here are some examples of places where we are told national narratives:

· Public ceremonies which give us a sense of origins, continuity, tradition, and timelessness

· The inventions of tradition. For example, the British Monarchy seems timeless, but the Windsor family who are currently on the throne are quite recent to the monarchy and…they’re not strictly English by heritage. Their heritage is very German.

· The creation of foundational myths that take all the complexity of the past and repackage it into a simple story. Take, for example, the Mayflower or the Thanksgiving story you might have been told at school.

· Televised sport gives us a sense of sharing cultural with our imagined communities. And when we watch international sporting events like the Olympics we are asked to ‘believe’ in the concept of ‘the nation’ and cheer for our national team because they are our national team.

· News stories often construct ideas about ‘us’ and ‘them,’ ‘threats to national security,’ and reaffirm confidence in national institutions.

So, although we live and behave as if the development of nations and national identities is natural, they are actively constructed. The cultural practices that we assume are ageless traditions are selected, consciously and unconsciously.