ABSTRACT
New media have profoundly altered our views of culture and communication as well as significantly changed social practices through which we engage and interact with one another. Widespread individual use of the Internet is bundled into various social media outlets. Social media is viewed as a collection of Internet-based applications based upon Web 2.0. M. M. Kraidy notes that national and regional agreements and structures mediate the media operations between the local and the global. These observations reflect the nuanced, multilayered interconnections across the global, national, regional, and local uses of the digital media. Cultural differences present a subtle barrier to widespread access to and use of digital media. The lens of A. Giddens’ structuration theory, the rapid speed and scope of communicative changes created by digital media and globalization has been documented. The International Telecommunication Union report found significant gaps in the global digital divide despite increases in connectivity across nations.
