course intro&1 1

COMS 110

WHO IS JASON WRENCH?

1) Where is Jason’s home town?2) What kind of car does he drive?3) How old is he?4) What political party does he belong?

5) What is his favorite movie?6) What were his previous jobs?7) What is his favorite soft drink?8) What is his preferred religious affiliation?

Basic Information:Professor: Dr. Jason S. Wrench

357 Shannon Hall(740) 699-2509(800) 648-3331 ext. 2509http://www.roadspeakers.com/jwrench/courses/110

COURSE GOALS

1) Provide a working framework for understanding and interacting with other cultures in a new and unique way.2) Explain how culture influences our norms, values, and beliefs that affect our relationships with other people

3) Describe the obstacles to competent intercultural communication and the numerous ways that these obstacles can be overcome.4) Provide a greater understanding of research in the field of communication studies through the examination of cultures.

5. Encourage you to gain experience and knowledge about other cultures while, at the same time, learning more about yourself as an “other” through the entire process. This means that interaction with other cultures will be highly encouraged throughout the entire semester.

GeneralApproach toInterculturalCommunicati

on

Two UnitsOf Study

1. Intercultural Communication Theory2. Applying Intercultural Communication to the World Around Us

Course Structure

1) Course Readings

2) Course Workbook

3) Streaming Video/DVD Lecture Organization

4) Personal Data Form

Course Assignment

s

1) 2 Unit Examinations2) Activity Points3) 2 Intercultural Interaction Papers4) Major/Final Project

Syllabus

Required TextbookMartin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2005). Experiencing intercultural communication: An introduction (2nd ed.). Boston, McGraw Hill.

Utilizing the Blackboard Site

UNIT ONE-ONE – Page 5What is Communication?

“Communication occurs when humans manipulate symbols to stimulate meaning in other humans.” -- Infante, Rancer & Womack (1997)

“Interaction that builds connections between people that help them to understand each other and to recognize common interests.” -- Zarefsky (1999)

“The process by which one person stimulates meaning in the mind of another through verbal and nonverbal messages.” -- McCroskey (1998)

Natureof

Communication

1)Symbolic Process- We use symbols/rubrics

2) Social Process- We communicate with

others – not ourselves (No intrapersonal communication)3) Co-Orientation

- Must have a common basis for communication (e.g.

language systems)

4) Individual Interpretation- Each of interprets

words differently5) Shared Meaning

- We communicate through the meanings we share

- Meanings are in People, NOT words

If Relation Between Consists Table Values The Known Continuously Draws To Variation Table A OfCorresponding Set Charted Often Points Curve Show Scattered Vary One

If the known relation between the variables consists of a table of corresponding values, the graph consists only of the corresponding set of charted and scattered points. If the variables are known to vary continuously, one often draws a curve to show the variation.

Last Serny, Flingledobe and Prinbin were in the Nerd-link tapering gloopy caples and cleaming burly gleps. Suddenly, a ditty strezzle boofed into Flingledobe’s treak. Prinbin glaped and glaped. “Oh Flingledobe.” He chiffed. “That ditty strezzle is tunning in your glep.”

4) Individual Interpretation- Each of us interprets

words differently5) Shared Meaning

- We communicate through the meanings we share

- Meanings are in People, NOT words

- Denotative vs. Connotative

6) Occurs in a Contexta. Intrapersonalb. Interpersonalc. Small Groupd. Publice. Mediated

Communication

Controversies

Sender Sends a Message

YES

NO

CommunicationOccurs

YES NO

Receiver Receives a Message

Communication Intent(Burgoon and Ruffneer,

1978)

CommunicationAttributed

CommunicationAttempted

PerceptionOccurs

Source Message Channel Receiver

(Decoding)

Feedback(Encoding)

NOISE

What is Culture?

“Culture is the that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs, and other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.” Sir E.B. Tylor (1871)

Kessing (1974) Definition of Culture (page 9 in workbook)

“Learned systems of meaning, communicated by means of natural language and other symbol systems . . . and capable of creating cultural entities and particular senses of reality. Through these systems of meaning, groups of people adapt to their environment and structure interpersonal activities . . . . Cultural meaning systems can be treated as a very large diverse pool of knowledge, or partially shared cluster of norms, or as intersubjectively shared, symbolically created realities” – D’Andrade (1984)

A group of people who through a process of learning are able to share perceptions of the world which influences beliefs, values, and norms, which eventually affect behavior. (Wrench, 2000)

Types of Cultures

Anthropological Definitions

Culture is a pattern of thoughts & believes – or behaviors

Psychological Definitions

Hofstede “interactive aggregate of communication characteristics that influence a human group’s response to its environment.”

Collective programming of the mind

Ethnographic Definitions

Pattern of activity with “symbolic significance” to the people enacting.

The Nature of Culture

Identity Meaning Function Who Am I? Cultural beliefs, values, & norms provide anchoring points for life.

Group Inclusion Function

Our need to belong.

(Maslow’s Hierarchy)

Intergroup Boundary Regulation Function

Shapes our in-group and out-group attitudes with people who are culturally dissimilar.

Ecological Adaptation Function Facilitates our adaptation process among self, the cultural community, and the larger environment (ecological milieu/habitat – Native American vs. New Yorker)

Cultural Communication Function

Culture

Culture

Communication

Communication

Characteristics of Cultural

Studies

General vs. Specific

approaches to analysis

Cultural practices and

power

Contexts within culture

a. Economic

b. Socialc. Political

Both the object of study and location of

study

Bridges divisional research

Moral evaluation of culture

Radical line of political action

Intercultural Communication“Symbolic exchange process whereby individuals from two (or more) different cultural communities negotiate shared meanings in an interactive situation.” – Ting Toomey (1999)

Kluckhohn and Strotbeck (1961)

Human Nature

Good Mixed Evil

Nature and Humans

HumansDominate

Harmony NatureDominat

es

Long-term vs. Short-term orientation

Short Term (Western)- Possess truth- Quick results in endeavors

- Social pressure to conform

Long-term vs. Short-term orientation

Long Term (Eastern)- Respects the demands of virtue - Thrift

- Perseverance

Activity Orientation

Doing Growing Being

Time Orientation

Past Present Future

Hofstede (1984)

Power Distance

Distance you are from the Top of the hierarchy to the Bottom

Individualism vs. Collectivism

1) Individual

2) Group (our personal group is what is important) 3) Collective (our people are important – think Borg)

Uncertainty Avoidance Degree to which people feel apprehensive about unknown situations & the extent they will go to avoid them.

Weak: reduce rules, accept dissent, & take risks (Britain, US, Hong Kong) Strong: extensive rules & seek consensus (Japan, Greece, Portugal)

Masculinity/Femininity (NOT SEX) Masculine (Assertiveness): Achievement, ambition, acquisition of material goods

Feminine (Responsiveness): Quality of life, servitude, nurturing, support for less fortunate

Five Core Assumptions

of Intercultural Communicatio

n

1) Intercultural communication involves varying degrees of cultural group membership differences.

2) Intercultural communication involves the simultaneous encoding and decoding of verbal and nonverbal messages in the exchange process.

3) Many intercultural encounters involve well-meaning clashes.

4) Intercultural communication always takes place in a context.

5) Intercultural communication always takes place in embedded systems.

History of Intercultural

Communication Research

Origin of Cultural Studies

Centre for Contemporar

y Cultural Studies (1964)

Richard Hoggart

After WWII Hoggart noticed that the American Pop culture was influencing the working class in Britain.

Hoggart felt that this Americanized pop culture in Britain had warped the “authentic” working class life.

Hoggart founded the Centre for Contemporary Studies at Birmingham University to study this phenomenon.

Raymond Williams

Cultures use “values and morals” to create structures that inhibit the common people.

There is no such things as the “masses.” Language helps us create a group called the “masses” as a way to create in and out-groups.

The exorcise of declaring what is good and what is bad is not an innocent exercise because often it is very biased and hypocritical of minorities.

E. P. ThompsonClass is a historical phenomenon that cannot be understood as a structure or a category. People in the “lower” classes are in those lower classes because of situations that have occurred in history.

Class can be seen as “a social and cultural formation arising from processes which can only be studied as they work themselves out over a considerable historical period.”

Culture must be understood through the experiences of both the winners and the losers.

Stuart Hall Hall believed that cultural researchers needed to bridge the gap between theory and political action.

Hall also strays from Marxist thoughts of the previous three and argues that “society is driven by conflicts based on sex, race, religion, and region, as well as class. Culture shapes people’s sense of identity just as much as economics.”

History of Intercultural

Communication Research

(US)

Foreign Service Institute (FSI)

http://www.state.gov/m/fsi/

Nonverbal Communicati

on

Application of theory

Cross Cultural Training

Diversity Training

Emphasis on International

Settings

Interdisciplinary Focus

Linguists Helped us understand language.

How learning language helps with intercultural communication competence.

Anthropologists

The role culture plays in our lives.The importance of nonverbal communication.The role of researcher’s bias in cultural research.

Psychologists They started researching stereotyping and prejudice.How variables like nationality, ethnicity, personality, and gender influence our intercultural communication.

Now Centered in

Communication Studies

Intercultural Communicatio

n Research

Three Approaches to

Studying Culture and

Communication

Social Scientific Approach

AssumptionsExistence of a describable external reality.Human behavior is predictable.Goal is to Predict, Explain, and Control Human Behavior.Uses Quantitative Methods.

Interpretive Approach

AssumptionsReality is constructed by humans.Human experience is subjective.Human behavior is creative and not easily predicted.

Assumptions cont.The goal is to Understand and describe human behavior (not predict).They use both qualitative and Rhetorical Tools.Find a group or artifact and analyze.

Critical Approach

AssumptionsSubjective reality.Contexts in which communication occurs is of the utmost importance. Historical contexts can be very important.

Assumptions cont.Examine power relations in communication and how they influence cultural communication relationships.The goal is to Understand and change the lives of everyday communicators.

Why study Intercultural

Communication?

The Demographic Imperative

Influence of Immigration

By 2030 half of the US will be minorities.

Each wave of immigrants has shaped our society.

Immigration History First colonists – already 10 million Native Americans were here.

Europeans wiped out 500,000 Native Americans through disease

African American Immigrants

Over 10 million Africans were forcibly brought to the US over a 350 year period.

Relationships with New Immigrants

Always creates tension and conflict.Melting Pot Ideology (and problems).Nativistic Movement (late 19th and early 20th Century)

Immigration and Economic Classes

Immigrants have always filled our lowest class denominators.

Often immigrants fill jobs our own people wouldn’t.

Demographic Diversity Religious DiversityEthnic/Racial DiversityAge DiversitySocioeconomic DiversitySexual DiversityEtc…

Economic ImperativeUnderstanding other cultures, and being able to communicate with them, is good business.

Peace Imperative

With understanding comes compromise, with compromise comes peace.

Self-Awareness Imperative

Study about culture helps us understand ourselves in a clearer light.

Ethical Imperative

We have to think about what are the ethical issues of living in an intercultural world.

Three Initial Problems

with Studying Other

Cultures

Assume Similarity

Assuming people from other cultures are just like people from my culture.

Assume Superiority

Assuming that people from my culture are better than people from another culture.

Ethnocentrismethnos, meaning nation

kentron, meaning center

Originally coined by Sumner (1906)

“is our defensive attitudinal tendency to view the values and norms of our culture as superior to other cultures, and we perceive our cultural ways of living as the most reasonable and proper ways to conduct our lives” (Ting-Toomey, 1999, p. 157).

Fill Out the Generalized

Ethnocentrism (GENE) Scale on pages 21-22 in your workbook.

Pause Lecture Here

Interpreting the GENE ScoreScores range from 15-75.People who receive a score over 35 are considered highly ethnocentric.People who receive a score under 30 are considered to have low levels of ethnocentrism.

Positive Aspects of Ethnocentrism

In-group development

Nationalistic pride

Patriotism

Negative Aspects of EthnocentrismVerbal & Physical AggressionAuthoritarianism Dogmatism Narcissism Nationalism

Religious FundamentalismHomonegativitySexismRacismAgeism

Just to name a handful.

Basic Cultural Ethics

Self-Reflexivity

Learn About Others

Be Open To

New Ideas