CULTURE AS CONTEXT FOR COMMUNICATION
NM3413 Audience Analysis
3
- Globalization
- Definition of culture
- Elements of culture
- Western and Eastern perspectives of communication
- High context vs Low context culture
OVERVIEW
Globalization
What the World Thinks
NM3413 AUDIENCE ANALYSISCULTURE
SOURCE: Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, “What the World Thinks in 2002,” posted on the Pew Website: http://www.people-press.org.
Country Spread of U.S. Ideas a “Good Thing” (%)
Like U.S. Music, Movies, TV (%)
Like U.S. Science and Technology (%)
Canada 37 76 77
Britain 39 76 77
Russia 16 42 41
Mexico 22 60 69
South Korea 30 53 81
South Africa 43 71 79
Turkey 11 44 67
Egypt 6 33 51
Jordan 13 30 59
Pakistan 2 4 42
Nineteenth Century
In the 19th century, the term culture was
commonly used as a synonym for Western
civilization.
Sir Edward B. Tylor (1871) popularized the
idea that all societies pass through
developmental stages, beginning with
“savagery,” progressing to “barbarism,” and
culminating in Western “civilization.”
Culture definitionNM3413 AUDIENCE ANALYSIS
CULTURE
Today’s definition
• A community or population sufficiently large enough to be self-
sustaining, that is, large enough to produce new generations of
members without relying on outside people.
• The totality of that group’s thought, experiences, and patterns of
behavior and its concepts, values, and assumptions about life that
guide behavior and how those evolve with contact with other cultures.
• The process of social transmission of thoughts and behaviors from
birth in the family and schools over the course of generations.
• Members who consciously identify themselves with that group.
Culture definitionNM3413 AUDIENCE ANALYSIS
CULTURE
Hofstede (1994)
1. Symbols
2. Rituals
3. Values
4. Heroes
Elements of cultureNM3413 AUDIENCE ANALYSIS
CULTURE
Hofstede (1994)
1. Symbols
2. Rituals
3. Values
4. Heroes
Verbal and nonverbal language
Elements of cultureNM3413 AUDIENCE ANALYSIS
CULTURE
Hofstede (1994)
1. Symbols
2. Rituals
3. Values
4. Heroes
The socially essential collective activities
within a culture
Elements of cultureNM3413 AUDIENCE ANALYSIS
CULTURE
Hofstede (1994)
1. Symbols
2. Rituals
3. Values
4. Heroes
The feelings not open for discussion
within a culture about what is good or
bad, beautiful or ugly, normal or
abnormal, which are present in a
majority of the members of a culture
Elements of cultureNM3413 AUDIENCE ANALYSIS
CULTURE
Hofstede (1994)
1. Symbols
2. Rituals
3. Values
4. Heroes The real or imagery people who serve as
behavior models within a culture.
Elements of cultureNM3413 AUDIENCE ANALYSIS
CULTURE
SuperstitionsNM3413 AUDIENCE ANALYSIS
CULTURE
East VS WestNM3413 AUDIENCE ANALYSIS
CULTURE
Confucian and Westernperspectives on communication
Western perspectivesNM3413 AUDIENCE ANALYSIS
CULTURE
Source Encoding Message Channel Receiver Decoding Receiver Response
Noise
Feedback
C
O
N
T
E
X
T
C
O
N
T
E
X
T
Confucian perspectivesNM3413 AUDIENCE ANALYSIS
CULTURE
Confucius (K’ung-Fu-tzu)550-478 B.C.E.
Harmony
Confucian perspectivesNM3413 AUDIENCE ANALYSIS
CULTURE
Five relationships:
Ruler and Subjects (the relation of righteousness)
Husband and Wife (chaste conduct)
Father and Son (love)
Elder brother and Younger brother (order)
Friend and Friend (faithfulness)
Confucian perspectivesNM3413 AUDIENCE ANALYSIS
CULTURE
Confucius (K’ung-Fu-tzu)550-478 B.C.E.
“To live in harmony with the universe
and with your fellow man through proper
behavior.”
Confucianism emphasizes virtue, selflessness, duty, patriotism, hard work, and respect for hierarchy, both familial and societal.
Confucian effects on intercultural communication
NM3413 AUDIENCE ANALYSISCULTURE
June Yum (1988):
1. Particularism
2. Role of intermediaries
3. Reciprocity
4. In-group/out group distinction
5. Overlap of personal and public relationships
Confucian effects on intercultural communication
NM3413 AUDIENCE ANALYSISCULTURE
June Yum (1988):
1. Particularism There is no universal pattern of rules
governing relationships. There are no rules
governing interaction with someone whose
status is unknown.
Confucian effects on intercultural communication
NM3413 AUDIENCE ANALYSISCULTURE
June Yum (1988):
2. Role of intermediaries Rituals should be followed in
establishing relationships.
Confucian effects on intercultural communication
NM3413 AUDIENCE ANALYSISCULTURE
June Yum (1988):
3. Reciprocity Complementary obligations are the base of
relationship. Gratitude and indebtedness are
important parts of Chinese culture.
Confucian effects on intercultural communication
NM3413 AUDIENCE ANALYSISCULTURE
June Yum (1988):
4. In-group/out-group distinction
In-group members engage in freer and deeper talk and may find it
difficult to develop personal relationships with out-group members (Gao
& Ting-Toomey, 1998). There can even be different language codes for
in-group members.
Confucian effects on intercultural communication
NM3413 AUDIENCE ANALYSISCULTURE
June Yum (1988):
5. Overlap of personal and public relationships
Business and pleasure are mixed. Frequent contacts lead to common
experiences. This contrasts with Western patterns of keeping public
and private lives separate.
LOW CONTEXT
NM3413 AUDIENCE ANALYSISCULTURE
HIGH CONTEXTculture
vs
Level of Context, by culture
High versus Low ContextNM3413 AUDIENCE ANALYSIS
CULTURE
High Low
China Switzerland
Japan Germany
Korea North America
American Indian Nordic states
Most Latin American cultures
Southern and eastern Mediterranean
High-context cutures make greater
distinction between the insiders and outsiders than
low-context cultures do. People raised in high-context
systems expect more of others than do the
participants in low-context systems. When talking
something they have on their minds, a high-context
individual will expect his interlocutor to know what’s
bothering him, so that he does not have to be specific.
The result is that he will talk around and around the
point, in effect putting all the pieces in place except
the crucial one. Placing it properly – this keystone – is
the role of his interlocutor.
- E. T. Hall, Beyond Culture
(1976, p. 98)
High versus Low ContextNM3413 AUDIENCE ANALYSIS
CULTURE
We and They
Father, Mother, and Me,Sister and Auntie sayAll the people like us are We,And everyone else is They.
And They live over the seaWhile we live over the way,But – would you believe it? – They look upon WeAs only a sort of They!
continued
NM3413 AUDIENCE ANALYSISCULTURE
(continued)
We eat pork and beefWith cow-horn-handled knives.They who gobbleTheir rice off a leafAre horrified out of Their lives;While They who live up a tree,Feast on grubs and clay,(Isn’t it scandalous?) look upon WeAs a simple disgusting They!We eat kitcheny food.They drink milk and bloodUnder and open thatch.
continued
NM3413 AUDIENCE ANALYSISCULTURE
(continue)
We have doctors to fee.They have wizards to pay.And (impudent healthen!) They look upon WeAs a quite impossible They!All good people agree,And all good people say,All nice people, like us, are WeAnd everyone else is They:But if you cross over the sea,Instead of over the way,You may end by (think of it!) looking on WeAs only a sort of They!
- Rudyard Kipling -
NM3413 AUDIENCE ANALYSISCULTURE
Reference:
Jandt, Fred E. An Introduction to Intercultural Communication: Identities in a Global Community. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2010.
NM3413 AUDIENCE ANALYSISCULTURE