As the name suggests, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, is the infamous fictional documentary featuring the popular Kazakhstan reporter, Borat Sagdiyev who embarks on a journey of discovering American culture (Chehade, 2007). Unbeknownst to him, Borat’s understanding of American culture, or lack thereof, sets the stage for a culture collision worthy of analysis. By conceptualizing the actions and behaviours of Borat, this paper aims to prove that shifting from a high-context communication environment to a low-context communication environment is complex. Moreover, through exploring frameworks such as: personal space (Suderman, 2007; Hall, 1959), semiotic theory (Lotman, 2001), culture shock …show more content…
In other words, Borat displays traits of high-context communication in the host country, thereby going against what American culture generally consists of (i.e. low-context communication). In American culture, words carry much of the information required to communicate (Suderman, 2007; Hall, 1959). Essentially, dialogues are thorough, little is left up to interpretation, fact-based communication is applied more than relationship-based, and details are explicitly stated (Suderman, 2007; Bosrock, 1999; Hall, 1976). Additionally, privacy is considered highly respected in American culture thus, much less cultural knowledge can be assumed about people (Suderman, 2007; Bosrock, 1999). Other traits of low-context communication are that disagreements are dealt with openly, the word “no” is not taken personally (Suderman, 2007), touching and overly-friendly nature between strangers is considered a breach of personal space and uninvited, mannerisms are important, and many taboo topics are frowned upon when discussed in public spaces (Hall, 1959; Bosrock, …show more content…
Firstly, Borat invades people’s personal spaces. By constantly hugging strangers, kissing them on both cheeks, introducing himself to pedestrians, Borat manages to offend most New Yorkers who scream obscenities at him while pushing him away or running from him (Cohen & Charles, 2006). Indeed this degree of friendliness and invasion of personal space is considered “normal” in Kazakhstan, American culture finds this behaviour displeasing and “out of the ordinary”. Essentially, by neglecting the importance of personal space shared by most Americans, Borat creates a false sense of familiarity (Suderman, 2007); unable to comprehend why people are distancing himself from him. He continues to exhibit this greeting ritual daily amidst the busy streets of New York without realizing that, the high-context communication practice of greeting strangers in Kazakhstan (i.e. through non-verbal communication) when demonstrated in low-context American communication culture is considered uninvited (Hall, 1959). Additionally, individualistic cultures (i.e. America) prefer more space between people and less touching versus dependent cultures (i.e. Kazakhstan) which use touching to communicate and establish non-sexual relationships (Woyzbun, 2016). Borat’s inability to comprehend this cultural preference regarding personal space demonstrates the complexity of
John Oliver’s tenure as a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart helped to bring in an outsider’s perspective on American culture and society, given that he is from England. Oliver continued his socially conscious, but wickedly sharp and funny commentary behind the desk of Last Week Tonight. During his June 21st episode, he addressed the issue of online harassment and revenge pornography. Oliver showed that women are horrendously persecuted on the Internet for having even the simplest of opinions, such as liking the fact that there are female captains on Star Trek. He showed that our online safety is something that we take for granted and casually dismiss online threats as not “being real life”. When it comes to situations like these,
Zizek, S. (2006). From Reality to the Real (Vol. Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: A Reader). (J. Storeys, Ed.) Harlow: Pearson.
Imagine a place of creativity, innovation, and success; a place where people of all ages, ethnicities, and genders live and grow together. This place represents hope, understanding, and freedom; people from all over the world want to come to this magical place. This place is America. In How to Restore the American Dream, Fareed Zakaria outlines how America is not the same innovative and successful place it used to be. Zakaria in his essay hopes to inform his audience about how America has changed and persuade them to see the logic in his solutions. On the other side, You Tube sensations Becky Sloan and Joseph Pelling created Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared, an online video that graphically illustrates problems and social issues that plague America
One of the mediums by which this cultural shift has continually happened is through television. Not only does culture affect choices made by those in the television industry, but popular series and talk shows, whether intentionally or not, name what culturally acceptable regarding many social issues. Television, TV for short, is referring to the telecommunication medium by which ideas are transmitted into moving pictures. The Television industry will be defined as the group of brains behind the creating process of a television show of any genre. Genres each have their own purpose and effect on the audience; talk shows mean to engage, while sitcoms, drams, mini-series, and television comedies are meant to entertain. Regardless of its intentions, each genre of TV has an affect on the people who internalize what they are watching.
9. Dahmus, U. ed. (1983) The Defining characteristic of Culture: Cultural theory and semanticist pretextual theory.
For decades now, popular culture has been tainted by the perpetual use of racial stereotypes that come to us through music, television, and film. These reactionary stereotypes are often unaddressed and often permeate the minds of those too young to understand what a stereotype is. Therefore the effects of these conventionalized ideas continue to prevail throughout our society as they are repeatedly swept under the rug. However, although seemingly less common, there are also forms of media with goals of bringing attention to toxic stereotypes while still entertaining their audiences. African-Americans, Arabs, and Latin@’s are three of the most prevalent minority groups represented in the media and by analyzing the films Aladdin, Django Unchained, and the television show Devious Maids, one can become much more aware of the racial stereotypes that they are calling attention to.
Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2013). Intercultural Communication in Contexts (6th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
One of the greatest exports of American culture is American media. American media is one of the most widely distributed and consumed cultural forms from the United States. This means that not only do Americans consume large quantities of their own media, but many other countries in the world consume American media, too. People in other countries will not interpret or understand the media in precisely the same ways that Americans will and do, nonetheless, many aspects of American culture and American reality are communicated to numerous viewers as part of the content in the media. The media is an important tool in the discussion of race, class, and gender in America. It takes a savvy viewer to discriminate between and understand what media accurately represents reality, what media does not, or which aspects of experience are fictionalized, and which elements ...
In Rushkoff’s film, The Merchants of Cool, he rhetorically questions if “teenagers even have a culture to call distinctly their own.” In the late 1990’s when the documentary was made, the implication was that they do not. However, with the internet’s advancements and the accessibility of communication with massive amounts of people, teenagers today can form authentic cultures that are not contaminated by the corporate media.
In "Global Communications of the Twenty-first Century," a Hungarian novelist gives his depiction of what he think American culture entails:
The essay; ”Living with strangers,” written by Siri Hustvedt deals with the attitude of urban living in New York City. There are many different rules of living between the country side and the city and there exist many unspoken rules in all cultures and societies. Siri Hustvedt tells us that she grew up in the country side rural Minnesota were it was a custom to greet everyone you met or else you could be accused of the worst possible sin, snobbery. Then she moved to New York City in 1978. Here she discovered how unpractical it would be to greet every person she met. Siri quickly learnt the simple survival law of the New Yorkers: Pretend it isn’t happening. The title “Living with strangers” refers to the paradox that we are becoming more isolated while being surrounded by increasingly more people.
It is increasingly clear that media and culture today are of central importance to the maintenance and reproduction of contemporary societies. Cultures expose society to different personalities, provide models, which display various forms of societal life and cultivate various ways to introduce people into dominant forms of thought and action. These are the types of activities integrate people into society and create our public sphere. Media and technology surround our society; engrained into the fabric of our existence so much so, that it has become hard to find an aspect of life not influenced by its effects. For this reason, media controllers, wield extreme power and influence over the lives of everyday people. Although, they increasingly continue to feed the audience trash, despite their authority as the creator of our social/cultural interactions, and justify their actions by calling themselves industries. Reducing themselves to just businesses whose sole purpose is to create a profit. This admittance of what they feel to be their true purpose however does not hinder their control and power but instead adds to it. Creating a need for there to be some way to analyze and discuss whether they are using their position and power wisely. Filling this void, scholars have theorized ways for individuals to be critical of the media that they intake. One of these critical theories is the “Culture Industry” theory. Using Cultural Theory, as well as other complementary neo Marxist theories, it is possible to determine how Stacy Peralta, once urban youth culture advocate, became incorporated into the superstructure through media use, thus making him a tool for the continued commoditization of society, and a youth marketer for industries l...
"I'm from a working-class family and I've always lived in these places," says Aslam. Shoppers gossip at Chanda's parents' grocery store over the loquats and hibiscus-flower hair oil. Here it's a neighbourhood curse to say "May your son marry a white woman", and Pakistanis with halting Eng- lish might only talk to three white people in a year - and that's three too many.
As we look backon past cultures it reveals so much about the world, and the same will happen when we lookback on our culture today. We will be able to see how important certain things are to oursociety, and how it reflects who we are.In our fast-paced society, the news is constantly changing, and what is news today,could be irrelevant tomorrow. Popular culture includes the most current and ongoing aspects ofour lives. However, with the union of media into the technical world, people are brought closerand closer to the ever-present media. We are able to get the latest news at our finger tips. Thestories that were important years ago, don’t have the same level of importance today.However, I don’t think this means that we don’t appreciate culture. Not only does popularculture teach us about ourselves it also helps us learn about society. We are able to see howpopular culture reveals information about our culture, and what society believes is important. Itgives us truths about our own culture, time, era, and society and it can even offer reassuranceon life’s challenges, and help us figure out who we are. Like I mentioned before, the cultures ofthe past have helped shape our society and tells us about what it is like to live in this world, thesame as the popular culture of today also helps shapes us. Popular culture reveals our beliefs,values, and decisions. It can also have an impact on younger
Humans have been communicating since four million years. On the other hand, the birth of culture is estimated to have taken place about 35,000 years ago. Today, both culture and communication have evolved considerably and have become interdependent of one another, to the point that communication is considered to be a product of culture. Thus, our own culture has a deep impact on our thoughts and behaviors. Since each culture has its distinct aspects, intercultural communication can be the cause of conflict and disorder. There are three main issues which are at the root of the problem of intercultural miscommunication : language as a barrier, cultural diversity and ethnocentrism. I will analyze these three notions in situations in which intercultural communication is frequent such as : the workplace, the classroom and vacation trips.