Introduction to Mass Communication – MCM 101 VU

LESSON 10
COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE

The debate which always rant and rave whenever there is a talk about communication is the mystery
of cultures which vary from place to place and through times and which cause perhaps the strongest
hurdles in understanding of what has been said (by people of one culture) and what has been
understood (by people of an other culture).

Before we start to examine as what factors are responsible to generate this debate, it seems only
logical that we understand what culture is.

Though no definition of culture exists on which all will agree, the one which is close to everyone’s
belief is the way people live, or say the living style of people of a particular area is denoted as their
culture. This includes their living habits, eating and cooking style, dressing up, language they speak in,
social values and traditions they observe along with the religion they follow. Well, for a student of
communication – who believes that a slight change on part of the sender or receiver may effect a
huge change in the meaning of a message – the definition of culture and its little explanation offers
only an embarrassing situation for there is plenty in the name of change that can vary (or destroy) the
meaning and hence the process of communication may face hurdles.

Enculturation
The process of passing on culture from one generation to the next is referred to as
enculturation. Most people are encultured – they receive their cultural values from their parents
including language, religion, dressing up eating and living habits etc. The impact of enculturation is
very strong. You generally carry this culture with you wherever you travel or even settle for some
time. For instance a Pakistani settling in UK will continue to practice its eating, living habit along
with other cultural values. In the field of communication he or she would remain on the look out to
find an other Pakistani with whom he/she could talk in Urdu or they sit together and dine the way
they have been doing back home. The two would enjoy the enculturation to the utmost by
communicating to each other matters pertaining to their life style.

Acculturation
The most difficult part in the process of communication and cultural conflicts is the process
of acculturation. In this process one tends to learn the rules and norms of a culture different from
one’s native culture. Easy said than done. It may take years even to those who command some
expertise on communication techniques for it is very difficult to break the shell of your own culture
only to adopt to an other. But people do tend to do so if they have to live longer in another land. For
instance if a Pakistan is settling in America, he/she will have to acculturate themselves by learning the
living style of that part of the world – at least in areas where it could be adopted. It does not mean to
scrap your religion but it certainly means living by the rules and practices of that part of the world if
you want to stay there for generations. If one resists acculturation, one is bound to face
embarrassment in every day communication for every message from him / her will be understood
differently (wrongly) by fellow people there and vice versa.

The communication problems arising out of cultural conflicts will simply make life miserable. And
not to be seen as a cross country phenomenon, the cultural differences may exist among different
shades of culture within one society. For instance all the Muslims around the world make one
community but vary drastically in their life style. There being dressing up, traditions at the time of
child-birth, weddings and other major events in life are very contrasting. Within a country these
traditions may vary. A Sindhi life style is different from Baluchi’s and Punjabi traditions on scores of
matters are different from what are observed by Pashtoons. The existence of sub-cultures also leads

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Introduction to Mass Communication – MCM 101 VU

to communication snags and problems may arise only due to these factors when people from sub-
cultures undertake a joint business.

Cultural Shock
This phenomenon in communication is very common around the world. It occurs when
people from one culture have to live in another culture where normal life values are radically diverse.
One may not like to send his daughter to join dancing, or swimming classes at school in Pakistan, it is
a must in certain countries. You may have separate colleges, universities or even medical colleges for
boys and girls in Pakistan and some other Islamic countries. There is no such concept in the west. A
family going to the west will have to face the cultural shock – which is complete breakdown of
communication, as long as they live there without conceding to the concept of acculturation.

Principles of Intercultural Communication

Prepare yourself
The best to overcome communication gaps in multicultural society is to prepare yourself in
advance about the new culture you may face. These days videos, newspapers and magazines are
widely available which tell about the social norms of a society. By learning a good deal on these
values, the process of communication is eased out to a great extent.

Overcoming fears of unseen

Scholars believe that even learned people have a sense of fear when they tend to
communicate to the people of a different culture. At ordinary people level this fear exists even more.
That is one reason you would not find foreign tourists mixing up with local people frequently. Not
that they feel superior, but the fear that any miscommunication by way of words and gestures should
not infuriate a local and put the visitor in an embarrassing situation. The solution here is again in
making a fair assessment of what you want to communicate juxtapose to the social values of the
people to whom you want to communicate. Once getting a positive feedback on your message would
dispel the earlier fear and equip you with confidence for more communication.

Know different meanings due to change in culture

One most important aspect of improving communication in a new culture is the
consideration of meanings of different phrases, gestures and body language in the new culture. Some
body gestures which stand for certain meaning to you due to enculturation may be entirely different
in the other culture. A study of some basic differences in meanings of words and actions between the
two cultures is obviously going to ease the communication gap hence making the process of
communication gainful for all involve in the interaction.

Knowing some hard and fast values

As mentioned earlier, certain societies are strongly under influence of their centuries old
traditions. For instance Muslims do not like eat with left hand or even shake left hand. Others may
not find any problem in using the left hand.

In Indonesian culture direct eye contact is a case of disrespect especially when talking to older
people. For Americans avoiding eye contact means disinterest. Think if a young Indonesian is talking
to an American and the two do not know cultural values of each other, where the communication
end up!

There are some times few small things but which have strong implications in the sense of
communication. In America if some one says ‘come over and pay us a visit ‘, it amounts to only a
friendly gesture and not a formal invitation. In some other cultures the same set of words make the

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Introduction to Mass Communication – MCM 101 VU

listener (receiver) take the words seriously and a formal invitation. Think of a situation when an
American family says this to a family from a different culture.

World moving towards acculturation

But with the advancements in electronic media, internet chatting and enhanced movement
of people due to increased traveling facilities, the level of understanding of each other’s culture is
going up and so is the communication. It appears that the communication hurdles raging for the last
many centuries would be reduced as people see more of each other’s living style on the high number
of TV channels now available in most parts of the world.

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