Chapter 12: Culture and Communication
You perform cultural practices and communicate in ways that those from another culture might
regard as odd, even though these practices and ways of communicating may seem to you to be
natural and right. Believing that your culture is the benchmark for all others is called ethnocentric
bias: Your own cultural way of acting is right and normal, and all other ways of acting are variations of
the only really good way to act (yours). However, appreciating and recognizing the value of other
cultures will assist you personally and professionally, especially given an ever-expanding multicultural
world.
Many people think of culture as something that is possessed or something to which a person belongs.
Actually, you do not just have to belong to a culture; you transact and perform culture. Culture is
created symbolically, not through positioning in a physical location. Of course, relationships remain
fundamental to the actual creation and maintenance of culture. You meet culture when you
encounter people performing that culture; you perform your own culture when you communicate
with other people.
Culture is not geographical. Each political group, religious congregation etc. has a code of meaning, a
bank of key terms, rituals, beliefs, and practices or styles that constitute a culture that is not bound by
nationality alone. Your passport does not define your cultural identity – your communication does.
There are two approaches to identifying and studying culture: structured and transacted. From a
structural approach, we discuss cultural differences concerning context, individualism/collectivism,
time, and conflict. Examining culture as a transaction, we further explore the connection between
culture and communication using a relational perspective. Specifically, we examine how culture is
embedded in communication and how cultural membership is enacted or denied through
communication.
How can culture be identified and studified?
The two primary ways in which culture has been examined are as a structure and as transaction.
CULTURE AS STRUCTURE
Viewing culture from a structural standpoint has a long history in the communication discipline. This
way of seeing culture focuses on largescale differences in values, beliefs, goals, and preferred ways of
acting among nations, regions, ethnicities, and religions.
CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION AND INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION
Cross-cultural communication compares the communication styles and patterns of people from very
different cultural/social structures, such as nation-states.
Intercultural communication deals with how people from these cultural/ social structures speak to
one another and what difficulties or differences they encounter, over and above the different
languages they speak.
LIMITATIONS AND BENEFITS
This view of culture has provided a better understanding of different groups and has improved
interactions among people, but it is not without its limitations. For example, when you start looking
at cultures as identifiable national or regional groups, you rapidly notice some important points: First,
1
, multiple cultures exist in one national or regional group. Second, multiple social communities coexist
in a single culture and talk amongst themselves as part of their conduct of membership.
Nevertheless, from a communication point of view, we can study how all members of a nation
partake of the customs or beliefs of the nation and its communication patterns and styles. Although
broad, such distinctions seep down to the individual way of thinking, and are built into meaning
systems used in everyday communication. Accordingly, while a social community of construction
workers (or any other groups) may communicate in unique ways, members’ styles of communication
are still impacted by the larger social structure in which they are embedded.
CULTURE AS TRANSACTED
It is through communication (or symbolically) that most of social life is transacted. You belong to sets
of people who share meanings and styles of speaking, systems of beliefs, and customs. In other
words, you live your life in the context of communicating sets of individuals who transact universes of
thought and behavior, which are supported through unique cultural styles of communication.
Cultural beliefs and values are established and reinforces through everyday communication. You are
constantly reminded of them by your contacts with other people (Society’s/ Culture’s Secret Agents).
Your conformity to culture is constantly and invisibly reinforced in the daily talk that happens
informally in the interactions with such agents and even strangers. The nature of culture and your
connection to society is conducted through the specific relationships you have with others whom you
meet frequently or with whom you interact daily.
Cultural groups are recognized as such when some consistency and distinctiveness is observed in
their behavior or communication.
CODED SYSTEMS OF MEANING
Culture is seen as a coded system of meaning. Culture is not just a structured bureaucratic machine
but a set of beliefs, a heritage, and a way of being that is transacted in communication. You can think
of culture as a meaning system, and any group with a system of shared meaning is a culture.
Although conventional “structural” views of culture can still provide a great deal of valuable
information, they tend to overlook numerous, distinct meaning systems within larger structure-based
labels such as nation-state.
If we examine how culture symbolically transacted, then we can explore how styles of communication
serve to include people in or exclude people from cultural communities and groups. We can focus on
how people “speak themselves into culture” and how memberships in a particular culture is done
through communication.
Structure-Based Cultural Characteristics
All members of a nation or citizens of a country are impacted in some way by the most general
communication styles. Children learn to view the world in culturally appropriate ways as they learn to
communicate and interact with others. During your childhood and introduction to culture
(socialization), you learned how to behave, interact, and live with other people at the same time as
you learned to communicate, because culture is wrapped up in language. These styles of behavior
readily became more and more automatic – and hence were automatically included in your later
2
You perform cultural practices and communicate in ways that those from another culture might
regard as odd, even though these practices and ways of communicating may seem to you to be
natural and right. Believing that your culture is the benchmark for all others is called ethnocentric
bias: Your own cultural way of acting is right and normal, and all other ways of acting are variations of
the only really good way to act (yours). However, appreciating and recognizing the value of other
cultures will assist you personally and professionally, especially given an ever-expanding multicultural
world.
Many people think of culture as something that is possessed or something to which a person belongs.
Actually, you do not just have to belong to a culture; you transact and perform culture. Culture is
created symbolically, not through positioning in a physical location. Of course, relationships remain
fundamental to the actual creation and maintenance of culture. You meet culture when you
encounter people performing that culture; you perform your own culture when you communicate
with other people.
Culture is not geographical. Each political group, religious congregation etc. has a code of meaning, a
bank of key terms, rituals, beliefs, and practices or styles that constitute a culture that is not bound by
nationality alone. Your passport does not define your cultural identity – your communication does.
There are two approaches to identifying and studying culture: structured and transacted. From a
structural approach, we discuss cultural differences concerning context, individualism/collectivism,
time, and conflict. Examining culture as a transaction, we further explore the connection between
culture and communication using a relational perspective. Specifically, we examine how culture is
embedded in communication and how cultural membership is enacted or denied through
communication.
How can culture be identified and studified?
The two primary ways in which culture has been examined are as a structure and as transaction.
CULTURE AS STRUCTURE
Viewing culture from a structural standpoint has a long history in the communication discipline. This
way of seeing culture focuses on largescale differences in values, beliefs, goals, and preferred ways of
acting among nations, regions, ethnicities, and religions.
CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION AND INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION
Cross-cultural communication compares the communication styles and patterns of people from very
different cultural/social structures, such as nation-states.
Intercultural communication deals with how people from these cultural/ social structures speak to
one another and what difficulties or differences they encounter, over and above the different
languages they speak.
LIMITATIONS AND BENEFITS
This view of culture has provided a better understanding of different groups and has improved
interactions among people, but it is not without its limitations. For example, when you start looking
at cultures as identifiable national or regional groups, you rapidly notice some important points: First,
1
, multiple cultures exist in one national or regional group. Second, multiple social communities coexist
in a single culture and talk amongst themselves as part of their conduct of membership.
Nevertheless, from a communication point of view, we can study how all members of a nation
partake of the customs or beliefs of the nation and its communication patterns and styles. Although
broad, such distinctions seep down to the individual way of thinking, and are built into meaning
systems used in everyday communication. Accordingly, while a social community of construction
workers (or any other groups) may communicate in unique ways, members’ styles of communication
are still impacted by the larger social structure in which they are embedded.
CULTURE AS TRANSACTED
It is through communication (or symbolically) that most of social life is transacted. You belong to sets
of people who share meanings and styles of speaking, systems of beliefs, and customs. In other
words, you live your life in the context of communicating sets of individuals who transact universes of
thought and behavior, which are supported through unique cultural styles of communication.
Cultural beliefs and values are established and reinforces through everyday communication. You are
constantly reminded of them by your contacts with other people (Society’s/ Culture’s Secret Agents).
Your conformity to culture is constantly and invisibly reinforced in the daily talk that happens
informally in the interactions with such agents and even strangers. The nature of culture and your
connection to society is conducted through the specific relationships you have with others whom you
meet frequently or with whom you interact daily.
Cultural groups are recognized as such when some consistency and distinctiveness is observed in
their behavior or communication.
CODED SYSTEMS OF MEANING
Culture is seen as a coded system of meaning. Culture is not just a structured bureaucratic machine
but a set of beliefs, a heritage, and a way of being that is transacted in communication. You can think
of culture as a meaning system, and any group with a system of shared meaning is a culture.
Although conventional “structural” views of culture can still provide a great deal of valuable
information, they tend to overlook numerous, distinct meaning systems within larger structure-based
labels such as nation-state.
If we examine how culture symbolically transacted, then we can explore how styles of communication
serve to include people in or exclude people from cultural communities and groups. We can focus on
how people “speak themselves into culture” and how memberships in a particular culture is done
through communication.
Structure-Based Cultural Characteristics
All members of a nation or citizens of a country are impacted in some way by the most general
communication styles. Children learn to view the world in culturally appropriate ways as they learn to
communicate and interact with others. During your childhood and introduction to culture
(socialization), you learned how to behave, interact, and live with other people at the same time as
you learned to communicate, because culture is wrapped up in language. These styles of behavior
readily became more and more automatic – and hence were automatically included in your later
2
