Ethnic Identity in Cultural Pluralism and Communication

Abstract

                The objectives of this article “The Ethnic Identity in Cultural Pluralism and Communication” is to study the definitions and the background of identity as well as the phenomena occurring among the identities of various ethnic groups in the cultural pluralism society during the last 50 years. The concepts of how the identity has worked since the post-modernist era and the relationship between identity and communication in the present days are also suggested. The article is divided into three main topics. First, for the subjective sense, the background and identifying oneself, it indicates that individual subjective sense depends on psychological investment or the consciousness of identity existence in their own ethnic groups. Second, for expressing the identity in the multi-cultural society, it indicates that humans often seek the ethnic identities that are distinctive and provide some benefits to them. And third, for the media roles and maintaining the identity of ethnic groups or diaspora, the media in their terms mean not only the mainstream one but also other media such as institutions, corporations or social norms which could be called neo-tradition. Furthermore, during the last 20 years, it has been found that electronic media play an important role for the ethnic groups and diaspora.