CCM1013

INTRODUCTION TO
HUMAN
COMMUNICATION
Culture and Human Communication
 What is Culture?

 Culture is passed on from one generation to the next through

communication, not through genes
 Culture is not something we are born with but rather it is learned.
 Other culture can be understand not only by learn about them, but actually
get inside them and act according to what is expected in them
 Culture is coherent, learned, shared view of a group of people about life’s
concerns that ranks what is important, furnishes attitudes about what things
are appropriate and dictates behaviors.
The Importance of Culture

Demographics Changes

Increased Sensitivity to Cultural Differences

Economic Interdependency

Advances in Communication Technology

Communication Competence
Demographics Changes

Migrates to another places

Eg: Studies abroad

With these changes have come different customs and the need to

understand and adapt to new ways of looking at communication

Communication in a multicultural context is inevitable

Increased Sensitivity to Cultural
Differences
We are more concerned with communicating respectfully and ultimately
with developing a society where all cultures can coexist and enrich one
another

Ability to interact effectively with members of other cultures will make

financial gain and increased employment opportunities.
Economic Interdependency

Today most countries are economically dependent on one another

Economic lives depends on our ability to communicate effectively across

different culture

Business opportunities, therefore have an increasingly international

communication competence essential skills for professional success.
Advances in Communication Technology
Communication technology has brought foreign and
sometimes very difficult culture right into our livings
rooms.

Technology has made intercultural communication

easy, practical and inevitable

Eg: You can communicate through email, Instagram,

facetime, Facebook, and etc. with someone in Europe,
or in another city or state.
Communication Competence

Communication competence is specific to a given culture, what proves

effective in on culture may be ineffective to another
Eg: Bussinessman from US and Japan
The influenced by US culture would advise participating down to the
meeting’s agenda during the first 5 minutes
The principle influenced by Japanese culture would advise participants
to avoid dealing with business until everyone has socialized sufficiently
and feels well enough acquainted to begin negotiations
The Aim of a Cultural Perspective
Understand how communications works
Cultures influences communication of all types (Moon, 1996):

It influences what you say to yourself and how you talk with friends, lovers, and
family in everyday conversation

It influences how you interact in groups and how much importance you place on
the group vs the individual

It influence the topics you talk about the and the strategies you use in
communicating information or in persuading

It influences how you use the media and the credibility you attribute to them
Cultural Differences

Individual vs Collective orientation

Power Distance
Masculine and Feminine
High ambiguity and Low ambiguity tolerance
Long term and Short term orientation
 Individual vs Collective orientation
One of the major differences between these two orientations is the extent to which
an individual’s goals or the group’s goals are given greater importance.
Of course, these goals are not mutually exclusive—you probably have both individualist and
collectivist tendencies.
For example, you may compete with other members of your basketball team for the most baskets
or most valuable player award. In a game, however, you act in a way that benefits the entire
team.
In actual practice, both individual and collective tendencies help you and your team each
achieve your goals.
Yet most people and most cultures have a dominant orientation.
In an individualist culture, members are responsible for themselves and perhaps their immediate
family.
In a collectivist culture, members are responsible for the entire group.
Power Distance
Power distance refers to how power is distributed in a
society.
In some cultures, power is concentrated in the hands of a
few, and there’s a great difference between the power held
by these people and the power of the ordinary citizen.
These are called high-power-distance cultures
In low-power-distance cultures, power is more evenly
distributed throughout the citizenry
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Masculine and Feminine
Masculine cultures emphasize success and so socialize their
members to be assertive, ambitious, and competitive.
For example, members of masculine cultures are more likely to
confront conflicts directly and to fight out any differences
competitively; they’re more likely to emphasize conflict strategies
that enable them to win and ensure that the other side loses.
Feminine cultures emphasize the quality of life and so socialize their
members to be modest and to highlight close interpersonal
relationships.
Feminine cultures, for example, are more likely to utilize
compromise and negotiation in resolving conflicts; they’re more
likely to seek
solutions in which both sides win.
High ambiguity and Low ambiguity tolerance
Members of high-ambiguity-tolerant cultures don’t feel threatened
by unknown situations: uncertainty is a normal part of life, and people accept it as
it comes.

People in these cultures readily tolerate individuals who

don’t follow the same rules as the cultural majority, and may even encourage
different approaches and perspectives.

Members of low-ambiguity-tolerant cultures do much to avoid uncertainty and

have a great deal of anxiety about not knowing what will happen next; they see
uncertainty as threatening and as something that must be counteracted.

Low-ambiguity-tolerant cultures create clear-cut rules for communication that

must not be broken
Long term and Short term orientation
Long-term orientation, an orientation that promotes the importance
of future rewards; members of these cultures are more opt to save for
the future and to prepare for the future academically.

Cultures fostering a short-term orientation look more to the past and

the present. Instead of saving for the future, members of this culture
spend their resources for the present and want quick results from
their
efforts.

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