Introducing Intercultural communication
Chapter 2, Culture and People
Although definitions of culture vary across different fields, scholars agree that culture
is pervasive in human life and governs people’s behaviours.
Culture: as the particular way of life of a group of people and the meaning-making
process by which people make sense of their social world. Culture comprises the
deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, traditions, religion, notions of time,
roles, spatial relations, worldviews, material objects and geographic territory.
Pervasive and as a product of communication.
Culture circles, Dodd (1998)
- The inner core:
History: the power of heritage demonstrates the continuity of a culture from
generation to generation.
Identity: gives us a location in the world and reflects the link between us
and the society.
Beliefs: beliefs are an individual’s representations of reality viewed through
that cultural window
Values: values tell the cultural group members how to judge good or bad,
right or wrong
The worldviews: a culture’s belief about nature and the working of the
universe is called a worldview. Understanding the worldview of a culture
can help predict its members’ thoughts and behavioural patterns.
- The intermediate layer: activities as manifestations of culture.
Cultural activities: rituals, traditions, customs, rules, roles, communication
patterns, artistic expressions.
- The outer layer: the institutions of a culture.
Religion: any system of thought that provides answers to the big questions
of life, death and life beyond death.
Economic system: the economic system of a society reflects its culture.
Family structure: this structure can affect the number of children in a family
in any generation.
Political, health and educational systems are also elements of culture, and
they vary across cultures.
Characteristics of culture
- Culture is holistic: culture functions as an integrated and complex whole.
- Culture is learned: every person ‘carries within him or herself patterns of
thinking, feeling, and potential acting which were learned throughout his or her
lifetime’.
- Culture is dynamic: culture is subject to change over time.
- Culture is ethnocentric: the belief that one’s own culture is superior to other
cultures.
1
, - Dynamic
- Interactive (but not without dynamism)
- Symbolic (but not without dynamism)
- Contextual (but not without dynamism)
Culture within Culture
Subcultures: cultures within culture.
- Ethnic: ethnic groups are identifiable groups of people 69 who have a common
heritage and cultural tradition passed on through generations. Often referred
to as minority groups, even though they may be the numerical majority.
- Social class: can be derived from a person’s income, education, occupation,
residential area and family background.
- Organizational: subcultures also include organizational cultures. Each
organization has its ways of doing things and its ways of communicating,
which together constitute its organizational culture. Through communication,
these beliefs and values develop into organizationally based understanding
and shared interpretations of organizational reality.
- Regional: regional differences often imply differences in social attitudes,
lifestyle, food preferences and communication. People from rural areas are
different from people in urban areas.
Any deviance from a social or cultural norm in the group can lead to a stigmatized
identity. Identity representation is shaped by social interaction.
Chapter 3, Communication and culture
Communication – our ability to share who we are and what we know with others – is
the basis of all human contact.
The Multifaceted Nature of Communication
Advances in communication technologies require us to rethink conventional
definitions of communication. However, the same communication media that bring us
closer together may also separate us from each other by accentuating differences.
Communication is defined in this chapter as the process by which people use shared
verbal or nonverbal codes, systems and mediums to exchange information in a
particular cultural context.
Levels of communication
1. Intrapersonal communication: the process of understanding and sharing
meaning within the self.
Your own thoughts, your communication to you.
2. Interpersonal communication: the process of understand and sharing meaning
between at least two people when relatively mutual opportunities for speaking
and listening exist.
Talking to each other.
2
, 3. Group communication: purposeful communication in limited-sized groups in
which decision making or problem solving occurs.
Thinktank, meetings with classmates
4. Organizational communication: communication in large cooperative networks
including virtually all aspects of both interpersonal and group communication.
The difference with (3) is that this is institutionalized.
NS about strikes, Radboud.
5. Mass communication: the process of understanding and sharing meaning with
a broad audience through mediated channels.
Newspapers, television, radio, social media.
Basic components of communication
1. Sources: the beginning at the communication process. The origin of the
information.
2. Message: the information that needs to be communicated.
3. Channel: the way the message moves
4. Receiver: the thing that receives the communication
5. Encoding: process that gives the information a code that makes it
understandable (syntax).
6. Decoding: process that strips the information into a clear meaning and makes
it understandable.
7. Noise: things that disrupt the communication
8. Feedback: the reaction
Models of communication
Linear model of communication: shows communication as a machinelike process. It’s
not very accurate anymore. It is a transmission model, which conceptualizes
messages as ‘containers’ of meaning, and communication as a process of sending
and receiving information.
(p. 94)
Interactive model: new term communicator. Shows communications as something
that is interactive and not linear. The transactional model posits communication as
the process of continuous change and transformation, where people, their
environments and the medium used are changing at multiple levels. Thus, it assumes
that communicators are independent as well as interdependent.
3
Chapter 2, Culture and People
Although definitions of culture vary across different fields, scholars agree that culture
is pervasive in human life and governs people’s behaviours.
Culture: as the particular way of life of a group of people and the meaning-making
process by which people make sense of their social world. Culture comprises the
deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, traditions, religion, notions of time,
roles, spatial relations, worldviews, material objects and geographic territory.
Pervasive and as a product of communication.
Culture circles, Dodd (1998)
- The inner core:
History: the power of heritage demonstrates the continuity of a culture from
generation to generation.
Identity: gives us a location in the world and reflects the link between us
and the society.
Beliefs: beliefs are an individual’s representations of reality viewed through
that cultural window
Values: values tell the cultural group members how to judge good or bad,
right or wrong
The worldviews: a culture’s belief about nature and the working of the
universe is called a worldview. Understanding the worldview of a culture
can help predict its members’ thoughts and behavioural patterns.
- The intermediate layer: activities as manifestations of culture.
Cultural activities: rituals, traditions, customs, rules, roles, communication
patterns, artistic expressions.
- The outer layer: the institutions of a culture.
Religion: any system of thought that provides answers to the big questions
of life, death and life beyond death.
Economic system: the economic system of a society reflects its culture.
Family structure: this structure can affect the number of children in a family
in any generation.
Political, health and educational systems are also elements of culture, and
they vary across cultures.
Characteristics of culture
- Culture is holistic: culture functions as an integrated and complex whole.
- Culture is learned: every person ‘carries within him or herself patterns of
thinking, feeling, and potential acting which were learned throughout his or her
lifetime’.
- Culture is dynamic: culture is subject to change over time.
- Culture is ethnocentric: the belief that one’s own culture is superior to other
cultures.
1
, - Dynamic
- Interactive (but not without dynamism)
- Symbolic (but not without dynamism)
- Contextual (but not without dynamism)
Culture within Culture
Subcultures: cultures within culture.
- Ethnic: ethnic groups are identifiable groups of people 69 who have a common
heritage and cultural tradition passed on through generations. Often referred
to as minority groups, even though they may be the numerical majority.
- Social class: can be derived from a person’s income, education, occupation,
residential area and family background.
- Organizational: subcultures also include organizational cultures. Each
organization has its ways of doing things and its ways of communicating,
which together constitute its organizational culture. Through communication,
these beliefs and values develop into organizationally based understanding
and shared interpretations of organizational reality.
- Regional: regional differences often imply differences in social attitudes,
lifestyle, food preferences and communication. People from rural areas are
different from people in urban areas.
Any deviance from a social or cultural norm in the group can lead to a stigmatized
identity. Identity representation is shaped by social interaction.
Chapter 3, Communication and culture
Communication – our ability to share who we are and what we know with others – is
the basis of all human contact.
The Multifaceted Nature of Communication
Advances in communication technologies require us to rethink conventional
definitions of communication. However, the same communication media that bring us
closer together may also separate us from each other by accentuating differences.
Communication is defined in this chapter as the process by which people use shared
verbal or nonverbal codes, systems and mediums to exchange information in a
particular cultural context.
Levels of communication
1. Intrapersonal communication: the process of understanding and sharing
meaning within the self.
Your own thoughts, your communication to you.
2. Interpersonal communication: the process of understand and sharing meaning
between at least two people when relatively mutual opportunities for speaking
and listening exist.
Talking to each other.
2
, 3. Group communication: purposeful communication in limited-sized groups in
which decision making or problem solving occurs.
Thinktank, meetings with classmates
4. Organizational communication: communication in large cooperative networks
including virtually all aspects of both interpersonal and group communication.
The difference with (3) is that this is institutionalized.
NS about strikes, Radboud.
5. Mass communication: the process of understanding and sharing meaning with
a broad audience through mediated channels.
Newspapers, television, radio, social media.
Basic components of communication
1. Sources: the beginning at the communication process. The origin of the
information.
2. Message: the information that needs to be communicated.
3. Channel: the way the message moves
4. Receiver: the thing that receives the communication
5. Encoding: process that gives the information a code that makes it
understandable (syntax).
6. Decoding: process that strips the information into a clear meaning and makes
it understandable.
7. Noise: things that disrupt the communication
8. Feedback: the reaction
Models of communication
Linear model of communication: shows communication as a machinelike process. It’s
not very accurate anymore. It is a transmission model, which conceptualizes
messages as ‘containers’ of meaning, and communication as a process of sending
and receiving information.
(p. 94)
Interactive model: new term communicator. Shows communications as something
that is interactive and not linear. The transactional model posits communication as
the process of continuous change and transformation, where people, their
environments and the medium used are changing at multiple levels. Thus, it assumes
that communicators are independent as well as interdependent.
3
