Culture
often mirrors a country or a society. It encompasses the attitudes, norms, behaviors which characterize that particular country or society. If we peer through a
culture of a state, we will get a clear, taintless idea of that state. Every country
has its own, unique culture. But in the age of globalization, the idea of
cultural uniqueness is gradually disappearing. The cultures of the developing countries
are on the wane because they are constantly losing the combat against the
developed countries. This leads to the rise of the concept of cultural assault.
Actually
the word ‘assault’ means aggression or raid. When the culture of a country is
affected by the poaching of cultures belonging to another, it is called
cultural assault. In the present world, there is hardly any country which has
its own cultural identity. Almost every culture is an admixture of variety of
cultures. The expansion of open sky culture through satellite and internet is playing
a pivotal role in this regard. By virtue of satellite, the people of developing
countries like ours are getting the opportunities to know what is happening
around the world. We are introduced with the culture, art, music etc of other
countries via satellite or internet. Various types of constructive and
educative programs are telecast on numerous channels. Some channels like BBC,
CNN, National Geography and discovery are inevitable for youngsters and without
any alternative. There is no denying the fact that modern science and
technology have made the world easy to come closer to one another. Satellite
has made the world a global village and has formed a new culture called open
air culture throughout the world. So we can say that satellite is a window through
which we can see the unseen, know the unknown. But the role of open sky culture
through dish antenna is equivocal. Most often, some programs are telecast on
the channels which do not conform to the norms or behaviors of our country. Some
channels present erotic and appealing programs which mostly affects the
children and young people. It changes the taste of young generation. They feel
extreme fascination for the foreign cultures than the local culture. Thus, it
harms a lot to our culture by bringing about an assault. Developing countries
have less opportunity to uphold its own culture to the international community.
Foreign channels with their grandiose programs easily attract the young people.
Motivated by their way of living, our young people also try to lead such life. Leaving
their modest and humble life behind, they indulge in pompous, ultra-modern
life. Today they communicate with each other in such a language which is a juxtaposition
of different languages. There is a possibility that our language, literature,
songs, tradition etc will die out in the near future. So it is not unjustified
to say that the rich and developed countries are controlling the underdeveloped
countries by capturing the brains of poor people through the satellite
channels.
To
keep pace with other countries, we have to remain in the circle of capitalism
and globalization. At the same time, we have to maintain our way of life amid
intense challenge of open sky culture. Preventing the access of foreign channels
in our country is not the possible way to stop cultural assault. Rather we will
have to strengthen the base of our culture to compete with the other countries.
We have to make our culture more practicable so as to fight against cultural
aggression. With this view in mind, standard and quality programs appropriate
to the time should be telecast to combat the aggression of foreign culture. So
we should put our best effort to make the root of our culture strong to prevent
it from being disappeared.