Local ans Global Communication

Culture (Ting-Toomey & Takai, 2006)

A learned system of meanings that fosters identity and community.

Culture (Oetzel, 2009)

A set of shared beliefs, norms, values, and symbols that guide behavior.

Culture is not inherited; it is learned, shapes how people think, act, and communicate, and gives identity and belonging.

Nature of Culture

Overlapping Cultural Groups

Concept by Oetzel (2009) stating that individuals are simultaneously members of multiple cultural groups (such as national, ethnic, religious, gender, media, social class, and generation cultures) which overlap to varying degrees.

National Group

A cultural group category based on one's nation or country of citizenship (e.g., Filipino).

Ethnic Group

A cultural group category based on shared cultural heritage, ancestry, or regional identity (e.g., Bikolana).

Gender Group

A cultural group category based on gender identity (e.g., Woman).

Age/Generation Group

A cultural group category based on age cohort or generational group (e.g., 18 years old, Generation Z, Millennials, Generation X, Baby Boomers).

Religious Group

A cultural group category based on religious beliefs and affiliation (e.g., Catholic).

Multiculturalism

The coexistence of diverse cultural groups within a society, involving recognition and respect for different cultures without necessarily engaging deeply with them.

The Philippines having 120+ languages, or eating at a Chinese restaurant in a Filipino city without fully interacting with that community.

Example of Multiculturalism

Communication is the transfer of meaning, while culture shapes how meaning is created and understood.

Communication and Culture

Direct eye contact shows respect in the US, but can be disrespectful in some Asian contexts.

Cross-Cultural Non-Verbal Example

The Cultural Iceberg Concept

A concept created by Edward T. Hall (1976) stating that 10% of culture is visible above the surface, while 90% is hidden deep below the surface.

Surface Culture

The visible 10% of culture above the surface, including food, flags, festivals, fashion, holidays, music, performances, dances, games, arts & crafts, literature, and language.

Deep Culture

The invisible 90% of culture hidden below the surface, encompassing communication styles/rules, notions, concepts, attitudes, and approaches to life.

Facial expressions, gestures, eye contact, personal space, touching, body language, conversational patterns in different social situations, handling and displaying of emotion, and tone of voice.

Deep Culture: Communication Styles and Rules

Notions of courtesy and manners, friendship, leadership, cleanliness, modesty, and beauty.

Deep Culture: Notions Of

Concepts of self, time, past and future, fairness and justice, and roles related to age, sex, class, family, etc.

Deep Culture: Concepts Of

Attitudes toward elders, adolescents, dependents, rule expectations, work, authority, cooperation vs. competition, relationships with animals, age, sin, and death.

Deep Culture: Attitudes Toward

Approaches to religion, courtship, marriage, raising children, decision-making, and problem solving.

Deep Culture: Approaches To

Local Communication

The exchange of messages within a community using familiar language and context, confined within a specific geographical or cultural boundary.

Personal, direct, tied to identity, history, and culture.

Characteristics of Local Communication

Global Communication

The exchange of ideas across geographic, political, and cultural borders, studying how people connect internationally through media and institutions.

Formal, distant, designed to reach more people.

Characteristics of Global Communication

Challenges in multicultural settings, specifically misinterpretation, translation issues, and media bias.

Barriers to Local and Global Communication

Misinterpretation Barrier

A communication barrier where people from different cultural contexts misunderstand each other's actions, motives, or hospitality rules.

Translation Issues Barrier

A communication barrier caused by inaccurate or literal translation between languages, leading to confusing or nonsensical messages.

Media Bias Barrier

A communication barrier where media outlets present one-sided or biased accounts of global events without a neutral, agreed-upon context.

Intercultural Communication

The exchange of messages between people of different cultural backgrounds, seeking to understand how people from diverse groups perceive and interpret messages (Gudykunst, 2003).

Barriers to effective communication across cultures, which include language, medium of communication (face-to-face or online), personality, and cultural interpretation.

Intercultural Communication Challenges

Multicultural (Comparison Matrix)

Focuses on coexisting with multiple ethnic groups and cultural traditions in one society with little interaction.

Cross-Cultural (Comparison Matrix)

The comparison of different cultures or interactions between individuals from significantly different backgrounds, studying and comparing differences in cultural norms and values.

Intercultural (Comparison Matrix)

Relates to active interaction, dynamic interplay, and deep understanding that occurs between members of two or more different cultures to build positive relationships.

An American learning to greet a Japanese colleague with a bow instead of a handshake.

Example of Intercultural Interaction

Assimilation

An effort to eliminate cultural differences toward home and host cultures by adopting the dominant culture while discarding one's own (Oetzel, 2007).

Some Filipinos learning Spanish, converting to Catholicism, and adopting Spanish customs.

Example of Assimilation

Accommodation

An attempt to retain some cultural uniqueness and transform existing dominant structures to reduce hierarchy, adapting to the dominant culture while keeping one's own culture.

Some Filipinos learning Spanish for work or education while keeping native languages and customs.

Example of Accommodation

Separation

A choice to reject the dominant culture's influence and maintain strong ties to one's own cultural group, often forming independent co-cultural organizations reflective of their own values and norms.

Many Filipinos continuing native languages and rituals to resist American influence.

Example of Separation

Ethnocentrism

The belief that one's culture is superior to others, using one's own culture as the standard to judge other cultures.

Cultural Relativism

The view that sees all cultures as equal in value, respecting differences without ranking them.

Pax Silica Project

A planned 1,600-hectare AI hub and chip manufacturing project in New Clark City, Tarlac, involving 24 signatory countries, connected to the Philippines' position as the world's 2nd-largest nickel ore exporter.

Pax Silica Economic Impacts

Creates new jobs in AI processing, chip manufacturing, and mining, while bringing foreign investment and technology transfer.