1. Intercultural Communication
Chapter 11:
What Diversity Exists in the Study of Intercultural Communication?

2. Objectives for Chapter 11
Be able to identify and explain three major perspectives on culture.
Understand the difference between the implications each of the three major perspectives has for studying and thinking about intercultural communication.
Understand the nature of popular culture and its influence.
Be able to explain how the mass media (including popular culture) is connected to culture from the three major perspectives.

3. Three major perspectives
Interpretive
Critical
Traditional

4. Major Perspectives Goal is to: Interpretive Perspective:
Culture helps us make sense of things around us
Goal is to:
1. explain action
2. explain how people share meaning and coordinate actions

5. Major Perspectives Critical Perspective:
culture as a power struggle in political, economic, and historical systems
Goal is to expose the inequalities of life

6. Major Perspectives Traditional Perspective: Goal is:
culture as practical and predictable
Goal is:
1. use quantitative measures
2. predict typical behaviors of people

7. Popular Culture Popular Culture:
(Def.) products of human work and thought, accepted and approved of by a large community or population.

8. Characteristics of Popular Culture
Easily accessed
Commercial
What we believe and what we should believe
Reflects current beliefs and challenges us to adopt new beliefs
Who we are and who we should be
Role models?

9. Discussion Question from Text
Can you find examples of how popular culture has influenced your friends, your family, or yourself?

10. Artifacts of Popular Culture
Real icons
Imagined icons
Real celebrities
Imaginary celebrities

11. Discussion Question from Text
What is the ethnic makeup of the stars in the shows you enjoy? What range of the roles are played by different ethnicities on a given night on mainstream television?

12. Traditional Perspectives on Popular Culture and the Media
Impact of the Media on Culture: What impact do certain types of media have on cultural values, identification, acculturation, and the way we view other groups?

13. Reverse the Traditional Perspective on Popular Culture and the Media
Impact of Culture on the Media: What is the impact of culture on the way popular culture or media in general is produced?

14. Traditional Perspectives on Popular Culture and the Media
Culture as an Intervening Variable: How can our knowledge of another’s culture improve our chances of using mass media to get the outcomes we desire?

15. Discussion Question from Text
What impact do you think popular culture is having in your own community and around the world? What can or should be done about this?
What about the influence of social media in your community and around the world?