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Communication and Culture: John A. Cagle
Communication and Culture: John A. Cagle
John A. Cagle
What is culture?
Sir Edward Tylors definition in 1871 (first use of this term): that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society
Normative:
Functional: Mental: Structural: Symbolic:
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
Sapir (1921): Human beings do not live in the objective world alone, nor alone in the world of social activity as ordinarily understood, but are very much at the mercy of the particular language which has become the medium of expression in that society.
As a result of differences in language, people in different cultures will think about, perceive, and behave toward the world differently. Reality itself is already embedded in language and therefore comes preformed. Language determines, enabling and constraining, what is perceived and attended to in a culture, as well as the upper limits of knowledge.
Cross-cultural Values
Americans
Japanese
Freedom Independence Self-reliance Equality Individualism Competition Efficiency Time Directness Openness
Belonging Group harmony Collectiveness Age/seniority Group consciousness Cooperation Quality Patience Indirectness Elashmawi & Harris 1993 Go-between
Low-context cultures Shorter relationships Less dependent on context Written agreements Insiders and outsiders less clearly distinguished Cultural patterns change faster
Cultural Classification--Hall
Low-Context Cultures - What Is Said Is More Important Than How or Where It Is Said
U.S. Germany
High-Context cultures - What Is Said and How or Where It is Said Are Significant
Low-context in business
Business
before friendship Credibility through expertise & performance Agreements by legal contract Negotiations efficient
High-context in business
No
business without friendship Credibility through relationships Agreements founded on trust Negotiations slow & ritualistic
High Context
Less important Is his or her bond Taken by top level
Low Context
Very important Get it in writing Pushed to lowest level
Negotiations
Examples:
Lengthy
Japan Middle East
Proceed quickly
U.S.A. Northern Europe
Bernstein was interested in social class and the ways in which the class system creates different types of language and is maintained by language. Relationships in a social group affect the type of speech used by the group. The structure of speech makes different things relevant or significant.
Language codes
Elaborated codes provide a wide range of different ways to say something. These allow speakers to make their ideas and intentions explicit. Restricted codes have a narrow range of options, and it is easier to predict what form they will take.
Bernstein says members of the middle class use both types of code systems, whereas members of the working class are less likely to use elaborated codes.
In dealing with the language of the poverty child, are we dealing with language which is deficient or with language that is different? As the war on poverty has continued in the U.S., it has become highly evident that the boundaries of poverty are often subcultural ones. Individuals in a poverty group can be identified by their common socioeconomic problems, and these in turn are typically associated with an equally common range of sociocultural features - ways of life, education, attitudes, desires, and above all, language and the ways of using it. Much of the attention given to sociocultural aspects of poverty can be seen in the kinds of cause and cures for poverty which are often linked as part of an overall poverty cycle.
Rogers began developing a practical theory to increase the rate of diffusion and acceptance of agricultural innovations in underdeveloped countries. Diffusion of Innovations was first published in 1962. Rogers theory is now widely accepted and used in many contextsbusiness, government, technology, family planning, medicine, etc.
Joseph P. Bailey, The Retail Sector and the Internet Economy, http://economy.berkeley.edu/conferences/9-2000/ECconference2000_papers/bailey.pdf
Innovations
Diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system. This definition establishes that diffusion consists of four main elements: (1) the innovation (2) the communication channels (3) time and (4) the social system.
Laggards 16%
100%
Innovation 1 Laggards
Percent of adoption
Innovation 2
Innovation 3
Late majority
Early majority Early adopters
0%
Innovators Time
The concept of a message is taken as implying the sharing (real or imputed) of a code (or codes) in terms of which a message is intelligible to participants, minimally an addressor and addressee, in an event constituted by transmission of the message, and characterized by a channel, a setting or context, a definite form or shape in the message, and a topic or comment.
The purposes, conscious and unconscious, the functions, intended and unintended, perceived and unperceived, of communicative events for their participants are here treated as questions of the states in which they engage in them, and of the norms by which they judge them.
FOCUS ON THE ADDRESSOR entails such expressive or emotive functions as identification of the source, expression of attitude toward one or another component or the situation as a whole, thinking aloud, etc. FOCUS ON THE ADDRESSEE entails such directive or conative functions as identification of the destination, and the ways in which the events and message may be governed by anticipation of the attitude of the destination. RHETORIC, PERSUASION, APPEAL, and DIRECTION enter here.
FOCUS ON CHANNELS entails such phatic functions as have to do with the maintenance of contact and control of noise, both physical and psychological. FOCUS ON CODES entails such functions as are involved in learning, analysis, devising of writing systems, checking code in conversation, etc. FOCUS ON SETTINGS entails all that is considered contextual, apart from the event itself, verbal and nonverbal, etc. FOCUS ON MESSAGE-FORM entails such functions as proof-reading, mimicry, poetic and stylistic concerns, etc.
FOCUS ON TOPIC entails such functions as having to do with reference to objects in the world, to people, to events, to ideas, etc.--all we usually associate with content. FOCUS ON THE EVENT ITSELF entails whatever is comprised under metacommunicative types of function.