Imagined Communities and the Construction of National Identity

Nationalism and nation are the important concept in construct the term of national identity. Benedict Anderson claims that nation as such is always imagined communities that give their members/citizens a sense of identity and belonging. Anderson believes that community actively builds the concept of nation, that a nation is a socially constructed community, imagined by the people who perceive themselves as part of that group. The sense of society on national identity is imagined through communities same experience. In Anderson perspective, the shared experience can be achieves through the role of mass media. Postmodern and globalization era, was facilitates the new form of media, that increasingly the possibility of society in experiencing the same idea. The argument of media as catalyst in form the society commonness, said, in other word, that mass media has important role in form the notion of national identity. Mass media presence helped people perceive themselves as homogeneous body. Mass media shared the idea among a nations and its people. Anderson have identified that mass media is a key instrument in the social construction of imagined communities. Media representations are integral to the social construction of national identities. However, mass media also eliminates the geographical boundaries among community. The form of national identity will influence either by internal forces and external forces. Moreover, within the condition, new narratives can change people’s perceptions of what constitutes their national identity.