When Culture Meets Content

Andrew Peck

What do these mean to you? 5-a-day

Vegetables Prayers

Yellow (adj.) Cowardly Pornographic

Moon (symbol) Witchcraft Religion

What was investigated?

A “cultural update” to the language materials

Cultural insiders were asked about their opinion of the changes

Image and textual changes were investigated

Cultural insiders profiled their own culture

Why?- The outsider perspective

Physical contact between male/female Revealing clothing Love, sex or non-marriage male/female

relationships (LSNM) Alcohol Pork Religion Name/face/place (NFP) Other (cultural) Other (non-cultural)

What was learnt?

The reactions to images

The problem with outsider perspectives

Big “C” cultural assumptions Lots of negatives The use of stereotypes in generating

audience profiles

Applications to Technical Communications

User communities must be accurately profiled Similar to accessibility focus groups

guidelines The use-case comes first Members of other cultures may need

more information, not less.

Importance in the future

The global marketplace The multi-cultural workplace The pan cultural individual The unknown final recipient

Does this matter? Stereotypes

Does this matter?

Laudable Attitudes

“This game was developed by a multicultural team of various faiths and beliefs.”

We view Equality and Diversity as critical components in the generation and maintenance of Operational Effectiveness, and not for reasons of political correctness. We values the inherent qualities in every individual, respects their differences, and enables them to make the selfless commitment that we demand in the knowledge that they will be treated fairly.

QUESTIONS?