This is a blog about my teaching, research and service with some occasional personal comments thrown in. These are my notes on a variety of topics. If you want to follow my blog posts on a specific topic, then see the Table of Contents in the right-hand column. While I try to work in the realm of facts, logic and moral absolutes, if there are any opinions expressed here, they are my own. -WilliamHartPhD
I use to call this lecture unit "Dealing with Difference." However, now I've switched to calling it "Effective Intercultural Communication."
See any reason why I changed it? Does "Dealing with Difference" imply anything? A negative connotation? Whatever you call it, in intercultural situations, how do we deal with or become more effective?
One place to start is to have a clear sense of exactly what is causing an intercultural misunderstanding. Is it a language thing? Is it prejudice? What exactly is causing the intercultural ineffectiveness? If we understand where exactly the problem is, then we can move on to hopefully fixing the problem.
The following model helps us spot where the potential problems that may arise in intercultural encounters.
See specifically: Telephones: Digitizing and Delivering. Watch the animation. Start the animation by clicking on the "Click here to see the network in action" box. Note the steps in the process.
An idiom is "a group of words whose meaning cannot be predicted from the meanings of the constituent words, as for example ( It was raining ) cats and dogs" or "kick the bucket or hang one's head." (Dictionary.com)
“A traditional way of saying something. Often an idiom, such as 'under the weather,' does not seem to make sense if taken literally. Someone unfamiliar with English idioms would probably not understand that to be 'under the weather' is to be sick.” (American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy)
Why would you want to be careful about using idioms in intercultural situations? Any connections between idioms and emblems?
Example of a Chinese idiom: "Dui niu tan ching" It literally means “Playing music for a cow.”
If a wife told her husband that talking to him is like "dui niu tan ching," what is she really saying? Does this translate into any American idioms?
If you are in an intercultural situation where idioms are used how can you figure out the meaning?
We can boil the decision process down to just five steps.
Rogers’ model for the adoption decision process
What are the steps in the adoption decision process?
"Knowledge - learning about the existence and function of the innovation
Persuasion - becoming convinced of the value of the innovation
Decision - committing to the adoption of the innovation
Implementation - putting it to use
Confirmation - the ultimate acceptance (or rejection) of the innovation”
Think carefully about the most recent new tech you bought, I mean adopted. Did you go through this process? Review the process above and think about it.
What was the tech? How did you learn about the new tech? How were you persuaded to get it? What about the rest of the process?
In his book, Global Communication: Theories, Stakeholders, and Trends, Thomas McPhail defines the CNN effect as "the process by which the coverage of a foreign event by CNN causes that event to be a primary concern for its audience, which in turn forces the [U.S.] federal government to act." See video clip.
One could add to this process how the U.S. government may influence foreign governments/peoples through direct action (e.g., war) or through sanctions.
Does CNN still have this influence on foreign policy? Any other news networks, U.S. or otherwise, have this influence? Any other form of media now has this influence? Think: Arab Spring (see first 2 minutes). Think: Kony2012 (see short clip). What role does social media play in shaping foreign policy? How's that process work?
The "social media effect" is defined here as the process by which the coverage of an event on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc. causes that event to be a primary concern for its audiences around the world, which in turn forces foreign governments to act, thus further influencing the event.
See clip below for more the idea of social media effect.
First, you may, depending on where you are and what you are covering, be physically harmed or killed. See Anderson Cooper clip below, for just one example. And, if you are curious, check out some recent news about about foreign journalists being hurt or killed in the past month.
The video clip below is from February 9, 2011
It is also not easy being a foreign journalist because you may misread/misunderstand what you are covering in that foreign land. It is a challenge.
“Journalist coverage of foreign places increasingly influences the governance of those places.” (e.g., CNN effect.)
“The emergence of international governance based on foreign news-driven mediated realities has inherent dangers."
“Double Misreadings”?
“Relying on the news media to understand distant places inherently produces a double misreading because…”
Journalist can misread the news event and
We (the audience) can misread what the journalist is saying.
“journalists generally are not equipped to read distant contexts, and neither are their audiences.
Journalist misread for several reasons.
“First, journalists arriving in a new context are foreigners [who don’t know the history, the religions, etc.]
“Misreadings also occur because journalists carry their cultural biases with them when reporting in a foreign context.”
e.g. American values/ways of doing things being seen as normal. Seeing foreign ways as “incomprehensible” or “despicable”.
“…the journalistic practice of deploying simplistic labels.”
Taking a complex, sometimes chaotic situation/place and putting into 20 words or less and putting it in a way that U.S. audience will relate to. “ethnic cleansing” label “white supremacy” label used in coverage of S.A.
“…journalists routinely use binary oppositions when describing foreign contexts” Related to #3
Common characters in a news story: “good guys” vs. “bad guys” Other characters? Common plot? Again, oversimplification.
“…when sent to report on foreign contexts, journalists tend to (subconsciously) select contacts with whom they feel comfortable working…”
“…foreign issues are read in terms of ‘home’ understandings and agendas.”
e.g., S.A. anti-apartheid struggle = U.S. civil rights struggle. Similar to # 3
If your computer or browser doesn't show you the above news stories, then see them at Storify. Share this post with others. See the Twitter, Facebook and other buttons below. Please follow, add, friend or subscribe to help support this blog.
See more about me at my web site WilliamHartPhD.com.
The process of cultural adaptation makes for good story, a good movie. One of the more recent films to address culture shock is the award winning comedy Outsourced.
Do you see in the film the stages of cultural adaptation mentioned in previous posts?
There was also a 2010/11 U.S. TV series based on the film (Wikipedia | IMDB)
If you are interested, see the full first season free on Hulu.com.
Mr. Baseball is another film that I sometimes use to illustrate the stages of culture shock. Just comparing the two trailers, notice any similarities between the two films? See the stages of cultural adaptation?
So, according the previous post, technologies evolve. New ones are created and some old ones go extinct.
Focusing specifically on media technologies, what new media tech has evolved recently? Is there a new species of media tech? It could be argued that "the third screen" is a new species. Martin writes about it in his book, The Third Screen: Marketing to Your Customers in a World Gone Mobile. What is the third screen and how has it evolved? And, what does it have to do with your future? What do you see evolving in the future? Do you see a fourth screen? No screen? What is the connection between your future and the future of media tech?
What could a media professional do to develop content and applications for this third screen?
If a 12 year-old, middle school student can do it, so can you. Got an idea for an app? Why not develop it? Need help, let me know.
"The process to develop an iPhone app is not as hard or as simple as one might think."
How to develop an app? Read and study the steps in this article. Many of the steps you can handle on your own, but you may need to get help on some of them. Got an idea for an app? Why not develop it? Need help, let me know.
Previous posts have offered theories for how technologies come to be and develop over time. We've discussed, for example, Winston's model and we've discussed the Rogers' Diffusion of Innovations. We now turn to our last theory -- technological evolution.
This theory is based on the biological theory of evolution. One of the best explanations of biological evolution and the mechanism that drives evolution is found in Carl Sagan's Cosmos video series which was based on the book Cosmos.
As you are watching this clip from Cosmos, be sure to identify and be able to explain the mechanism that drives evolution. Does this mechanism explain technological evolution?
Now take those basic ideas of biological evolution and see how they apply to technological evolution. What do Kelly and Blackmore add to this theoretical perspective?
First, "Kevin Kelly on how technology evolves"
(You may want to start the Kelly video at about 8:20.)
In his book, Global Communication: Theories, Stakeholders, and Trends
, Thomas McPhail defines the CNN effect as "the process by which the coverage of a foreign event by CNN causes that event to be a primary concern for its audience, which in turn forces the [U.S.] federal government to act." See video clip..jpg)
So, according the previous post, technologies evolve. New ones are created and some old ones go extinct.
Previous posts have offered theories for how technologies come to be and develop over time. We've discussed, for example, Winston's model and we've discussed the Rogers' Diffusion of Innovations. We now turn to our last theory -- technological evolution.
