COMU2170 Communication and culture

Week 2 lecture notes
Sem 2, 2023
1
Week 2: Communication and culture

This week’s lecture will explore how the expansion of human communication beyond
national, geographic, and time boundaries influences definitions of communication; and how
culture and communication mutually influence each other, generating diverse behavioural
expectations in different cultural contexts.

Learning Objectives
After this lecture, you should be able to:
 Recognise the multifaceted nature of culture and communication.
 Identify different components and characteristics of culture and communication.
 Evaluate the influence of culture on communication.

About the required readings
The chapter by Dodd is a classic reading on culture. It defines culture and explores elements
of culture through a model that organises elements of culture into three layers. Elements of
culture and their functions in each layer are explained with examples, as well as the
relationship among the three layers of culture in the model. Understanding characteristics and
functions of elements of culture helps you to develop cultural sensitivity and appreciate the
influence of culture on communication, which is a prerequisite for effective intercultural
communication.

The article by Lie and Bailey addresses the questions: What does your name mean? Could it
reflect the cultural, historical, or political context at the time you were born? The authors
analysed the patterns of naming across four generations in Lie’s Chinese Indonesian family.
They argue that naming practices are not just a function of personal taste; it can reflect the
larger-political and historical contexts. The article shows that seeming contradictions and
puzzles in the names and naming practices in Lie’s family can be explained by the specific
social and political challenges faced by members of the family. A very interesting reading!
Required readings
Dodd, C. (1998). Chapter 3 of Dynamics of intercultural communication
(5th ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.

Lie, S., & Bailey, B. (2017). The power of names in a Chinese Indonesian
family’s negotiations of politics, culture, and identities. Journal of
International and Intercultural Communication, 10(1), 80-95.

[Available on Blackboard]
Critical thinking
Think about your learning experience as a student (including your
learning experience in the high school). Are students encouraged to
engage in critical thinking in your culture? Are students encouraged to
challenge authority? Why or why not?
COMU2170
Week 2 lecture notes
Sem 2, 2023
2

Components and characteristics of culture
Culture permeates almost all aspects of our life (e.g., food, clothing, shelter, music, language,
artifacts, family, health systems, and kinship systems – to mention just a few). For decades
scholars across the academic spectrum have attempted to define culture. Almost 200
definitions can be located, each attempting to delineate the boundaries and inclusions of the
concept. In its general sense, culture can be broadly defined as the total way of life of a group
of people, comprising the deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, traditions,
religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, worldviews, material objects and
geographic territory. Culture can be defined at the macro (national) level or micro
(subcultural) levels, that is, within the larger cultural context, there are sub-cultural groups
that can be defined by, for example, gender, religion, age, or geographic region and so forth.

In the required reading by Dodd (1998), he organised various components of culture into
three layers:
 The inner core (history, identity, beliefs and values, and worldviews of a cultural
group).
 The intermediate layer (activities as expressed in technology, material objects, roles,
rules, rituals, customs, communication patterns and artistic expressions).
 The outer layer (formalised systems including economy, politics, family, health care
and education).

Key characteristics of culture are:
 Holistic. The whole is more than simply the sum of the interconnected parts.
 Learned. We learn our cultural rules and norms through communication.
 Dynamic. It is subject to change over time.
 Ethnocentric. There is a tendency for people to believe that one’s own culture is
superior to other cultures.

Components and characteristics of communication
Similar to culture, it is almost impossible to find a single, all-encompassing definition of
communication. Communication scholars propose that the concept might better be theorised
as a “family” of related concepts to reflect the multifaceted nature of communication. Two
dominant models representing communication processes are:
 The early linear model, which views communication as transmission of information.
This model is also known as the transmission model.
 The interactive model, which views communication as two-way and influenced by the
context in which it occurs. The interactive model is the model that intercultural
researchers tend to adopt.

Key characteristics of communication are:
 Dynamic. Communication is a dynamic process; although a specific communication
act has definite beginning and ending points, the overall communication process does
not.
 Interactive. Communication requires active participation of at least two persons.
Write down three things that are important to you in your culture, and then
place them in the respective layers of culture.

COMU2170
Week 2 lecture notes
Sem 2, 2023
3
 Symbolic. We use verbal and nonverbal symbols to create meaning.
 Contextual. We interact with others in a specific setting.
The influence of culture on communication (refer to Dodd’s chapter)
Many cultural imprints are subtle and elusive, if not beyond conscious recognition at times.
 Culture teaches us significant rules, rituals, and procedures; the process through
which we learn those rules is called socialisation.
 Culture cultivates and reinforces beliefs and values.
 Culture teaches us how to develop relationships with others.

Approaches to studying culture
 Emic approach views each culture as a unique entity that can only be studied from
inside that culture. This approach focuses on identifying culture-specific aspects of
concepts and behaviour. Aligned with the emic approach are cultural anthropologists
who use ethnography as research methods to obtain in-depth and rich knowledge of
particular cultural communities or groups from the native’s point of view.
 Etic approach believes that culture can be examined with predetermined categories
that can be applied to all cultures in the search for cultural universals. Etic researchers
(e.g., cross-cultural psychologists) attempt to identify universal aspects of human
behaviour across cultures (beliefs, values, worldviews) and seek to segregate common
components of culture and test hypotheses.

After class…
Next week (Week 3)
In Week 3, we will explore the process of human perception and its influence on intergroup
and intercultural relations.
Write down two cultural rules you have learned as you grew up.
Which rule you have learned at a conscious level, and which was
learned at an unconscious level? Has your interpretation of those two
rules changed over time? Why (not)?

Critical thinking
What do you think are indicators of successful communication? Does it
make sense to say that two parties in conflict are communicating
successfully if they decode each other’s messages correctly but continue
to disagree? Why?
Watch an old movie from your grandparents’ time. Then watch another
contemporary movie but of similar themes (e.g., romantic love, family, gender
roles). Are there are any changes in values and beliefs? Would you agree that
any movie is a product of a specific culture at a specific time in history?
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