CROSS CULTURAL

COMMUNICATION
Asist. Professor Merve Zeynep SARIBEK
Week -2-
Resources
• "Kültürlerarası İletişim, Temeller, Gelişmeler, Yaklaşımlar", Engin Sarı,
Folklor, Edebiyat 2004/3
• Intercultural Communication, (sabiffa), scribd.com
• Kültürlerarası İletişim, Öğr. Gör. Şebnem Apaydın,
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309155695_The_Meaning
_and_Theories_of_Intercultural_Communication
• In the previous lecture we discussed cultural concepts in general.
• In this week, we will set out from the history and take the issues of
aims and subjects of intercultural communication.
• Also We will speak about the most problematic issues in intercultural
communication and barriers on it
Subject of Intercultural Communication
• The language and nonverbal communication symbols used for
communication and influenced other areas of life.
• One can only think as much as his language permits, so he perceives
what is going on around him and tries to solve the problems he faces
by thinking within the limits of his language.
• Each community therefore has found different solutions to its
problems and has shaped its life according to these solutions.
• These different forms of life, expressed as culture, enable the
separation of communities (Apaydın)
• Individuals or communities living, studying and working in different
countries and experiencing the living conditions of those countries for
a short or long term form the interests of researchers and
practitioners working in this field.
• Especially, the field of intercultural communication in the global
environment, where rapid communication and information flow is
taking place and communication becomes possible thanks to various
technological developments in different places, is expanding to the
extent that the technologies are adopted and used.(Apaydın)
Interculturalism
• Most of the theoretical texts on intercultural communication
emphasize the function and importance of intercultural
communication in understanding the cultural and communicative
developments of our time.
• This emphasis is based on four dynamics that increase the need for
interculturalism and, therefore, intercultural communication studies:
Intercultural Communication's Focuses are;
• 1-Development of information technologies,
• 2) economic globalization,
• 3) increase in multiculturalism and / or cultural diversity,
• 4) population growth (Chen and Starosta, 1996: 4; Kartar, 2001, 8;
Hart, 1996, 7).(Sarı, 2004)
• Depends on the increasing communication needs of those who hold
economic and military power in the world and the internal dynamics
of capitalist production processes;
• It can be said that mediated and direct intercultural interaction rate
increased with the rapidly developing communication technologies
(Sarı, 2004).
The History of Cross Cultural
Communication
• History of intercultural communication discipline as an academic field
is based on the Foreign Service Institute (FSI), which was established
in the aftermath of 2th World War and in particular in 1946 to provide
training to diplomats of US Foreign Service units.
• But before that date, many institutional developments in the United
States have revealed the need for ”intercultural communication skills
and knowledge.(asır, 2004).
• Intercultural interaction started to be institutionalized with various
language and academic youth education programs in the US in 1920s
and with the organizations of
• Experiment in International Living, founded in 1932, and
• the American Institute of Foreign Trade, founded in 1946. (Sarı,
2004).
• The institutionalization of intercultural influence after the Second
World War has increased not only in the US but also in the
international arena.
• Education and exchange programs for UN-related institutions,
academics and students such as the United Nations and Information
Agency,
• Increasing the effectiveness of the institutions such as the
International Development Agency in the international arena
increased the need to understand the relationship between culture
and communication.(Sarı, 2004).
• The Foreign Service Institute (FSI), which is considered as the first step
in the establishment and development of intercultural
communication, and which contributes to the production and
management of intercultural knowledge through education programs,
especially between 1946 and 1956, wanted to meet the need to use
abstract anthropological knowledge and practice, in particular to
foreign diplomats.
• This training for American diplomats soon turned into intercultural
communication education. (Sarı, 2004).
• The focus of the traditional anthropological study on single cultures
• Instead of that Hall has sought to examine the influence of members
of different cultures, taking into account the requirements of the FSI.
• The fact that Hall examined cultures in terms of determining the
nature of the interaction between members of the culture was the
most descriptive approach in the field.(Sarı, 2004).
Hall's Conception of Culture
• Hall, directed the concept of cultural work from the general concepts
(macro analysis) to smaller units (micro analysis).
• Hall expanded the concept of culture to include communication in it.
He used the anthropological approach to understand the interaction
between members of different cultures.
• Especially in the 1940s and 1950s, people working in the field of
intercultural communication have benefited from many concepts of
the discipline of anthropology.(Sarı, 2004).
• In addition to diplomats, Hall has directed a number of international
institutions, foreign students, teachers and students with different
cultural backgrounds, immigrants and related institutions to engage in
intercultural communication discipline (Leeds-Hurwitz, 1990: 263-264
and Chen and Storasta, 1996: 8-9). (Sarı, 2004).
Global Culture/Local
Culture??
• With new communication and information
technologies,
• the effects of globalization are spreading
all over the world.
• While globalization affects local cultures,
it also leads to the formation of a single
global and capitalist world culture.
• But it's a way of cultural imperialism.
• In this process, local cultures can take the
stage to the extent allowed by global
culture.
The Aim of Intercultural Communication
• Intercultural communication means communication between different
cultures or members of different sub-cultures within a culture.
• The interaction of people coming from different cultures, sending and
receiving messages to each other and creating meaning and making
common meaning are considered within the scope of intercultural
communication.
• It is the aims of intercultural communication studies to
understand, explain and make a prediction about the
communication processes among people coming from
different cultures (Kartari, 2001: 23). (Akt. Apaydın)
• Intercultural communication studies focus on how cultural
transmissions take place in different cultures, primarily in building an
individual's identity
• intercultural communication studies also aim to reveal how the
processes of producting meaning of material and symbolic practices
work in different cultures.
SUBJECTS AND AIMS OF Inter Cultural
Communications
• The existence of different and diverse cultural affiliations within the
nation-states,
• and the effects of internal and external migration experience on
intercultural communication are among the main topics of
intercultural communication studies.
• Intercultural communication studies also examine how the dominant
culture deals with the notions of "foreign" and "other"and how to
circulate this construction practice by means of communication
channels
• The primary aim of intercultural communication studies is to
eliminate the various prejudices that exist between different national
cultures or subcultures within the same culture and between the
different ethnic identities and the dominant culture, and
• to provide intercultural competence to individuals.
• Especially with the effects of global capitalism, we see that a single
life style and a single social culture are imposed on countries.
• Non-western societies are classified as undeveloped and backward
cultures. Because of such Western classifications, eastern societies
are exposed to intercultural prejudices.
• What makes the concept of intercultural communication important is
the Western cultural classifications.
• Because of these classifications, some cultures were seen as enemies
and western civilizations were identified as the most advanced
culture.
Common Problems in the Field of CC
Communication
• Common problems which are emphasized and tried to be analyzed in intercultural
communication studies are:
• Placing people in certain patterns (stereotypes)
• Prejudices about "others"
• Negativities and misunderstandings caused by differences such as gender, age, race and religion
• The lack of tolerance of people with cultural values
• The culture which is closed to the outside, skeptical and solid against the outside world
• Egoism-megalomania and lack of respect to other cultures
• Absence of cultural empathy
Barriers to Intercultural Communication
• 1-Ethnocentrism
• 2-Stereotyping
• 3-Prejudice
• 3-Discrimination
1-Ethnocentrism
Intercultural communication may involve groups whose
members differ in terms of gender, age, ethnicity and physical
ability among other things

Ethnocentrism is a belief that one’s own

culture or group is superior to all other
groups or cultures. Ethnocentrism
becomes a barrier when it prevents
people from even trying to see another’s
point of view through another’s
“perception lens”. It is the largest problem
that occurs during intercultural
communication in which people bring an
ethnocentric perspective to the
interaction
• If some body observed and judged the rest of the world from his own
culture’s perspective he is known to be ethnocentric.
• To some extent, each of us operates from an ethnocentric perspective
but problems arise when we interpret and evaluate other cultures by
the norms and standards of our own.
• Generally, a lack of interaction with another culture fosters high levels
ethnocentrism and encourages the notion that one culture is
somehow superior to other
The Story of Rosa Parks
The first four seats in Montgomery
municipal buses belonged to passengers
with white skin. Black-skinned people,
despite the 75 percent of the total
amount of passengers in the municipal
bus, although the most seats were
separated from them.
A total of 75 percent of bus passengers
were black-skinned people. Despite this,
people with black skins had to sit on the
back seats of the buses. These seats were
reserved for them.
The seats with variable status in the middle
were the seats where the blacks could sit until
the whites were full.

When the white lines were full, or when

the driver wanted them, the blacks had to
unload the seats and go back. If there was
no room at the back, they had to stand, if
they was no place to stand
they would have to get off the bus and
wait for the next.
On December 1, 1955, after a long day's work at a
Montgomery department store, where she worked as
a seamstress, Rosa Parks boarded the Cleveland
Avenue bus for home. She took a seat in the first of
several rows designated for "colored" passengers.

As the bus Rosa was riding continued on its route, it

began to fill with white passengers. Eventually, the bus
was full and the driver noticed that several white
passengers were standing in the aisle. The driver of
Rosa’s bus stopped the bus and moved the sign
separating the two sections back one row, asking four
black passengers to give up their seats.
• Three of the other black passengers on Rosa’s bus complied with the
driver, but Rosa refused and remained seated.
• The driver demanded, "Why don't you stand up?" to which Rosa
replied, "I don't think I should have to stand up." The driver called the
police and had her arrested. Later, Rosa recalled that her refusal wasn't
because she was physically tired, but that she was tired of giving in.
• The police arrested Rosa at the scene and charged her with violation of
Chapter 6, Section 11, of the Montgomery City Code. She was taken to
police headquarters, where, later that night, she was released on bail.
• His arrest didn't attract much attention at first.
• Black rights activist organization NAACP's Montgomery branch was
released on Friday evening, after unionist Edgar Nixon and Parks'
friend paid a $ 100 bail in their pockets.
• On Friday, Nixon informed Jo Ann Robinson, professor of Women's
Political Council and Alabama State University professor.
• Robinson decided to take action and sleeplessly preparing 35,000
flyers and urging the people of Montgomery to boycott the buses.
• Due to the size and scope of, and loyalty to, boycott participation, the
effort continued for several months. The city of Montgomery had
become a victorious eyesore, with dozens of public buses sitting idle,
ultimately severely crippling finances for its transit company. With the
boycott's progress, however, came strong resistance.
• Some segregationists retaliated with violence. Black churches were
burned, and both Martin Luther King Jr.'s and E.D. Nixon's homes
were destroyed by bombings. Still, further attempts were made to
end the boycott. The insurance was canceled for the city taxi system
that was used by African Americans. Black citizens were arrested for
violating an antiquated law prohibiting boycotts.
• even a single person can make a big
difference!!
 Stereotypes
• The West continued to see its culture and civilization as
the most advanced level of civilization.
• For this reason, It labeled the different groups as
"other".
• Another barrier to intercultural communication is
stereotypes. A stereotype can be defined as a
generalization about some group of people that over
simplifies their cultures.
• Stereotypes are widely held beliefs about a group of
people.
• Stereotyping becomes troublesome in communication
when people make assumptions about an individual on
the basis of simplified notions about the group to which
he or she belongs.
• In fact our assumptions get us in trouble when we apply
to individual what we guess to be true of a group. Such
stereotypes are injurious to individuals and groups
False Stereotypes about Islam and Turkey
Why do we hold stereotypes?

• One reason is that stereotypes help us know what to expect from and how to react
to others however stereotypes once adopted is not easily discarded.
• In fact, people tend to remember information that supports a stereotype and to not
retain information that contradicts the stereotypes.
• We pickup stereotypes in different ways e.g.
• a)The media tend to portray culture groups in stereotypic ways. Some times
stereotypes persist because the media choose to not pass along information that
would contradict stereotypes.
• b) Stereotypes can also develop out of negative experiences. If we have unpleasant
contact with certain people we may generalize that unpleasantness to include all
members of that particular group, what ever group characteristic we focus on (race,
gender, sexual orientation)
3) Prejudice
• Prejudice is a negative attitude towards a cultural groups based on
little or no experience.
• It is a sort of pre-judgment.
• Where as stereotypes tell us what a group is like, prejudice tells how
we are likely to feel about that group
4) Discrimination
• Discrimination is the behavior that
results from stereotyping or prejudice.
It means to overt actions to exclude,
avoid or distance oneself from other
groups. Discrimination may be based
on racism or any of the other “isms”
related to belonging to cultural groups
e.g.sexism, ageism, nationalism or
elitism. One way of thinking about
discrimination is that power and
prejudice combine together to give rise
to an “ism”.
• It means that one belongs to more
powerful group and hold prejudices
towards another, less powerful, group,
resulting actions towards members of
that group are based on an “ism” and
so can be called discrimination
• Discrimination may range from very delicate non verbal to verbal
insults and exclusions from job or other economic opportunities, to
physical violence and systematic elimination of the group, or genocide.
• The connection between prejudice and extreme discrimination is
closer then one might think. Discrimination may be interpersonal,
collective or institutional. In recent years interpersonal racism seems
to be much more delicate and indirect but still persistent.
• Institutionalized or collective discrimination whereby individual are
systematically denied equal participation or rights in informal and
formal ways also persists. Sometimes institutional discrimination is
very blatant.
Culture and Communication
• All areas such as the architecture arising from the need for shelter,
the language arising from the need of verbal communication and the
gastoronomy developed from the need of nutrition are collected in
the concept of culture.
• These are all things that can only be developed if they are lived in a
community. The basis of being a community is interaction, in other
words, communication. Culture, then, is the product, the result, and
the cause of the communication. So communication is culture, culture
is communication ”(Hall, 1959: 169).
• Culture is a set of shared meanings and values.
• Communication technologies and mass media have a great influence
on the production, distribution and delivery of these meanings
through various symbols.
• The development of information technologies facilitated the transfer
of cultural values.
• However, on the one hand, while intercultural dialogue emerging
intercultural conflicts have also emerged.
Globalization
Globalization, which has taken place in the last fifty years in the world
and has been evaluated as the result of the multinational capital in
particular, has caused people from different countries and regions of
the world to work and live together in an increasing rate.
These people, who do not know each other before, do not have joint
life experience, have come together for similar purposes and have often
had communication problems despite speaking the same language.
• The problems caused by misunderstandings led researchers working
in the field of communication and culture to this field.
• Intercultural communication has also been created to study these
problem subjects as an interdisciplinary discipline that explores issues
such as interaction and meaning transfer among people from
different cultures, perception, explanation of foreigners and observing
cultural differences (Roth, 1996: 20akt.card, 2006: 23
Globalization and Cros Cultural
Communication
• The economic and cultural processes known as globalization ensue
from a general lowering of transaction costs (cheaper means of
transport and communication) in the post-industrial world.