Understanding Intercultural
Communication Second Edition
Chapter 11
What are the Communication Issues Facing a
Global Identity?
Stella Ting-Toomey & Leeva C. Chung
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
PowerPoint Slides Designed by Alex Flecky and Noorie Baig
TODAY’S MENU
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
Wired and On: The Roar of the
Internet
The Transformation of Local and
Global Identities
Who and What Are E.netizens?
The Dialectical Pulls of an E.netizen
The Tipping Point: Communication
Pattern Changes
Personal Identities in Flux: The Global
Face
I. Wired and On: The Roar of the
Internet
A.The Internet as Our Central Station
B. Wired Communication
•
Take a moment and think about how
technology influences your
communication with your friends,
loved ones, and acquaintances.
• How much of your interaction time is face to face?
How much of your interaction time is via a gadget?
• Could you go a week without technology?
• How has your use of the Internet shaped you, your
communication styles, and your identity?
II. The Transformation of Local and
Global Identities
Local identity: made up of ethnic values,
practices, traditions of the local identity
communal group.
Global identity: adopt and embrace
international practices and values over
local. Keep up with latest trends,
technological advances, etc.
II. The Transformation of Local and
Global Identities
A. The Lens of Television: Identity Imitation
•
•
Television is an identity supplier, provides escape from
traditional-based cultural values, and forges sense of
communal belonging.
Children across the globe watch international programs
based on the United States and values of pop culture
and consumerism.
B. Global Television Impact
•
Shapes the way we see our world, influences how we
form our stereotypes of people in different
cultures/ethnic groups.
II. The Transformation of Local and
Global Identities
C. Be Hip, Be Hot, and Pop Culture Impact
• Pop culture supporters see the world as constantly
changing, interdependent.
• Opponents view pop culture as negative because it
can damage culture boundaries and Westernizes
intact, indigenous cultural groups.
D. Outsourced Beats: You Are What You Can
Dance To
• Through music, common identity
expression and connection with others.
• Creates our rhythmic identity and sparks
a communal sense of space and time.
II. The Transformation of Local and
Global Identities
D. Outsourced Beats:
Do you see any new music trends in the United
States that demonstrate the globalization of the
music industry?
Recall J. Lo’s On The Floor that topped 18 national
single charts in 2011. Doesn’t the tune sound
familiar? Can you guess where the tune first
originated? Click here to see these tunes that
date back to the 1980s!
II. The Transformation of Local and
Global Identities
E. You Are What You Wear: Pop Culture
as Fashion
Take a look at Blog Pic 11.2 Japan Ganguro
Photo (p. 238)
•
•
•
What are your impressions of this “ganguro girl”
look?
An attempt to rebel against the traditional
European American standards of “normal” or
“beauty?”
Can you generate any other
interpretations?
III. Who and What Are e.netizens?
e.netizen: new generation of individuals, wired
to the Internet via intersecting space, having a
“hybrid” identity—both local and global.
A. Defining the Background of e.netizens
• E.netizens—the “first-wave” users, having the
latest technology.
• “Globally ethnic” involves multiple ethnicities.
III. Who and What Are e.netizens?
B. Characteristics of an e.netizen
Identity
E-characteristics:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Exclusive
Evolved
Explorers
Emoticon ;-) (^_^) m(_ _)m
Entertained
Energized
Engaged
III. Who and What Are e.netizens?
C. Inverted Pyramid of e.netizen Identity
IV. The Dialectical Pulls of an e.netizen
A. Spatial Zone Dialectics
1. Internet provides privacy and anonymity and
shared communal space.
2. Individuals experience solitude and tribal pole.
3. Individuals access the Internet in private
space within solitude pole.
4. Web community allows individuals to interact
without face-to-face contact.
5. Too much in the tribal pole and one may find
themselves addicted.
IV. The Dialectical Pulls of an e.netizen
B. Temporal Zone Dialectics
1. Internet is allowing individuals to move between
monochronic and polychronic time.
2. Monotrack focus: working on one project at a time.
3. Multitrack focus: tending to multiple e.net tasks or
activities.
4. Monotrack e.netizens: concentrate on one project at
a time via one medium.
5. Multitrack e.netizens: can surf, text, and blog at the
same time.
6. Being-in-doing e.net philosophy—individuals fuse
“being” with “doing mode” value dimensions: being
with friends on Facebook while doing tasks.
V. The Tipping Point: Communication
Pattern Changes
A. Gadget Communication Patterns:
Fast and Furious
• Gadgets have transformed the way
we communicate with each other.
• Mobile phone was game changer, main
distracter from face-to-face conversation;
average users spend 209 minutes/day on
phone.
• Mobile phones change conversation in public
areas: we stay on our phones.
V. The Tipping Point: Communication
Pattern Changes
B. Sharing Intimate Partners with a Gadget
• Our relationships may be affected.
• Japanese males find it difficult to have face-toface communication.
C. Language Styles:Text,Tweet,Talk
• We use truncated language and emoticons to
replace long sentences.
• For example, on a chat site: SITCOM (Single
Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage)
V. The Tipping Point: Communication
Pattern Changes
D. Communicating to Be Social
Change Agents
• Social networking allows for active
engagement and involvement.
• Disaster relief, anti-regime protests, and peace
activism supported via social networking.
• Social networking expands our intercultural
relationships.
Have you used social media to be a change
agent? Try something creative!
V. The Tipping Point: Communication
Pattern Changes
E. Present but Virtual
• One of fastest growing trends in business is
virtual teams and meetings.
• There still may be intercultural
misunderstandings, mistrust, language barriers.
VI. Personal Identities in Flux: The
Global Face
A. Developing a sense of identity takes time,
but in an age where time is compressed
and in flux, our self-view can transform
in an instant.
B. Opponents argue Internet appeals to our
worst instincts, makes us more like-minded.
Do you agree with this opinion?
C. E.netizens have ability to morph and fuse
identity, and Internet shapes image and
standard of beauty. Do you agree with this
statement?
Parting Thoughts…
Make technology
work for you,
not the other
way around.
~ Leeva Chung