1 Global, Hybrid or Multiple? The New Cultural Geography of Identities1

This paper explores the multiplicity of levels of media use and identity as a key element of the changing cultural geography of globalization. The movement from traditional local life to modern interaction with mass media has produced identities that are already multilayered with cultural geographic elements that are local, regional, transnational based on cultural-linguistic regions, and national (Anderson, 1983). Both traditional and new media users around the world continue to strongly reflect these layers or aspects of identity while many also acquire new layers of identity that are transnational, or global. In this paper, we examine the relationship between processes of hybridization of identity and culture over time and the buildup, maintenance, and defense of multilayered identities. These layers of identity are articulated with a variety of media, such as television and the Internet, but not in a simple sense of being primarily influenced by media. Some layers of identity, such as those of religious traditionalism, may actively resist some of the ideas many media channels and messages carry. Key words: media use; identity; cultural geography of globalizatio