Culture and Communication

Culture and Communication

Introduction

In The Silent Language, Edward Hall’s (1959) seminal examination of non-verbal communication, it is ambiguous asserted that “culture is communication and communication is culture,” (217). Though this statement is obviously lacks for broad explanatory power, Hall nevertheless aptly articulates the crucial roles that culture plays in communication research. From its role in theories of communication to its treatment as a both the independent and the dependent variable in experimental studies, culture shapes the nature of what communication researchers, and speaks to the very heart of what communication is. This literature review will first briefly mention the historical origins of culture in communication research, and identify what has become the primary area of quantitative communication research into culture: intercultural communication. Next, we will examine the definition of culture that intercultural communication researchers have adopted. Last, we will explore how this definition is applied through an exploration of the variables, levels of analysis, and other salient dimensions of communication.

History & Motivation

Even before Hall’s pithy equation of communication with culture, the earliest Communication scholars had identified the importance of culture in matters of communication. As Delia (1985) noted, Chicago sociologists were actively concerned with understanding how the flood of immigrants entering American cities at the turn of the century would integrate within this new society. In these earliest studies, communication was seen as a way to shape a culture that would allow immigrants to feel more American, with a unified culture acting as a mechanism for mitigati...

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... individualism-collectivism refers to the degree to which a culture emphasizes the goals of an individual compared to the goals of the collective. (e.g. citations from Gudykunst p 40). Low-high uncertainty avoidance indicates shows the degree to which a culture tends towards consensus, and how much it is tolerant of deviant behavior. Power distance varies according to "the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations accept that power is distributed unequally," (Hofstede & Bond, 1984, p419). Last, masculinity-femininity refer to the amount that cultural systems "emphasize differentiated sex roles, performance, ambition, and independence," (Gudykunst & Ting-Tully, 1988, p. 48). Unlike work on acculturation, this work is generally cross-sectional, using surveys to determine the dimensions of acculturation at particular points in time.