CHAPTER 10: Communication and Culture
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying the topics in this chapter, students should be able to:
1. Give examples to illustrate the premise that cultures are systems.
3. Reflect on a social community or coculture to which you belong and explore how its
communication practices differ from those of the dominant culture.
5. Point out values as well as dangers of digital media for cultural groups and social
communities.
6. Identify which of the five responses to diversity you experience when encountering
situations that challenge your own cultural values.
MINDTAP ENGAGEMENT QUESTION
The first student activity in Chapter 10 asks students a polling question where they are presented
with a set of answer choices. One point is awarded regardless of what answer they choose. The
question is designed to reveal beliefs or assumptions about a chapter-specific topic. As an
instructor, you can view your classes’ responses as a pie chart within MindTap and discuss the
results in class, if you choose. This chapter’s question is:
To what extent is your identity individual and to what extent is it based on groups you belong to?
a. I am a totally distinct individual.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. Understanding Culture
A. Culture is part of everything we think, do, feel, and believe, yet we can’t point to a
thing that is culture.
B. Culture is a way of life: a system of ideas, values, beliefs, structures, and practices
that is communicated by one generation to the next and that sustains a particular way
of life.
C. There are four premises about cultures that help us to understand culture.
1. Cultures are systems.
a. Cultures are coherent systems of understandings, traditions, values,
2. Cultures vary on five dimensions.
a. Individualism/collectivism
i. Cultures high in collectivism regard people’s identity as deeply tied to
their groups, families, and clans. Group identity is important in collectivist
cultures.
b. Uncertainty avoidance refers to the extent to which people try to avoid
ambiguity and vagueness.
c. Power distance refers to the size of the gap between people with high and low
power and the extent to which that gap is regarded as normal. Cultural
differences in power relations may lead to misunderstandings.
d. Masculinity/femininity
i. Cultures that are higher in femininity value gentleness, cooperation, taking
e. Long-term/short-term orientation refers to the extent to which members of a
culture think about the long term (history and future) versus the short term
(present).
3. Cultures are dynamic.
a. Cultures evolve and change over time according to four sources.
4. Multiple social communities (also called cocultures) may coexist in a single
culture.
a. Geographic separation isn’t what defines a culture. Rather, a culture exists
when a distinct way of life shapes what a group of people believes, values,
and does as well as how they understand themselves.
f. Gender as a social community has received much study. Boys and girls are
socialized primarily in sex-segregated groups; therefore, they learn and
II. Communication’s Relationship to Culture and Social Communities
A. Communication expresses and sustains cultures.
2. In the process of learning language, we also learn our culture’s values.
3. Calendars reflect cultural traditions and values.
B. We learn culture in the process of communicating.
1. As we interact with others, we come to understand the beliefs, values, norms, and
language of our culture.
2. From the moment of birth, we begin to learn about our cultures.
III. Digital Media, Cultures, and Social Communities
A. There are both positive and negative connections between digital media and cultures
and social communities.
2. Digital media provide a home for hate groups to advocate and engage in hatred,
aggression, or violence toward members of a particular race, ethnicity, gender,
sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, or any other selected segment of
society.
IV. Guidelines for Improving Communication between Cultures and Social Communities
A. Resist the ethnocentric bias.
1. Ethnocentrism is the use of one’s own culture and its practices as the standard for
B. Recognize that responding to diversity is a process; there are five distinct responses to
diversity.
1. Resistance occurs when we attack the cultural practices of others or proclaim that
3. Understanding occurs when people realize that differences are rooted in cultural
4. Respect occurs when people move beyond judgment to begin to understand the
cultural basis for practices that diverge from their own.
5. Participation occurs when people incorporate some of the practices and values of
other groups into their own lives. Participation calls for us to be multilingual,
which means we are able to speak and think in more than one language.
You can also search for these terms directly in MindTap to find them in the Reader. Students can
use flashcards in MindTap to study key concepts.
KEY TERMS PAGE IN TEXT
Assimilation 202
Cultural relativism 201
Culture 189
Dynamic 192
Ethnocentrism 201
Hate groups 200
High-context communication style 194
Individualism/collectivism 191
Long-term/short-term orientation 192
Low-context communication style 194
Masculinity/femininity 192
Multilingual 203
Participation 203
Power distance 191
Resistance 201
Respect 203
Social communities 193
Tolerance 202
Uncertainty avoidance 191
Understanding 202
ACTIVITIES
1. Who Are You?
This activity demonstrates how we classify people into categories based on our perceptions. It is
an effective activity to make students aware of their stereotypes. Remind students that we all put
people into categories based on our perceptions, society, and what we have been taught. We’re in
the wrong when we leave people in these categories, which affects how we act toward them.
Discuss where these stereotypes may have come from. Following are the suggestions for the
cards:
African American
Asian
2. Remaking the Social World
This activity increases students’ awareness of the arbitrariness and partiality of how we perceive
and classify people. It also heightens their awareness of factors other than race, sex, class, and
sexual preference that describe individuals.
Assign students to groups of five to seven members. Groups should be as diverse as possible in
terms of race, gender, sexual orientation (if known), religion, class, and so forth. Remind
students that perception involves selectively noticing and labeling certain (but not all) aspects of
3. Stereotyping Exercise
If you did not use this exercise for Chapter 2, it also fits well here. Use this activity to discuss
how the groups students identify with are social communities operating within the dominant
1. First, ask the class to develop a list of groups, to which they belong or do not belong, that
are stereotyped by others. Be patient here; immediately, you will get the obvious groups
2. Next, ask students to identify with the groups on the board. This step involves grouping
students into the categories on the board for the purpose of discussion. Each class
3. Ask your groups to meet to consider how they are perceived incorrectly (stereotyped) by
4. Ask the groups to report back to the class. End the activity with a discussion about
4. Image Making
This activity heightens students’ awareness of the ways in which media shape our perceptions of
people and social groups with the language they use.
guide students’ analyses of the newspapers’ or online media’s language, pose questions such as
these: Are men and women news figures described in parallel ways? How often is marital status
and appearance mentioned in stories about members of each sex? When is race noted? Is race
identified only when the person in the story is not Caucasian? Does this imply Caucasian is the
assumed standard? Are women’s and men’s athletic contests given equal coverage? Are women
and men athletes described in parallel ways? How much of each story on women and on men is
devoted to athletic accomplishments, appearance, and personal details?
5. Assessing the Effects of Technologies
This activity engages students in research to discover who does and who does not have access to
new and converging technologies of communication.
One week before discussing this activity, have students conduct research on who owns and uses
6. Cultural Sayings
This exercise is designed to complement the Sharpen Your Skill exercise on page 207 in the text
and can be used if you have international students in your class.
JOURNAL IDEAS
• Interview a person (student or not) who immigrated to the United States. Focus on the
individual’s perceptions of differences in communication in her or his country of origin and
20.
TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES
There are additional student resources in MindTap. If you have a networked computer in your
classroom and a projection system for viewing the computer screen, you can easily introduce
your students by walking them through the process for accessing the website. If you don’t have
Web Links
Website Description
URL
Turkish proverbs and folk sayings can be found at this
site.
http://www.columbia.edu/~sss31/Turkiye/proverbs.html
Popular Palestinian proverbs can be found at this site.
http://www.barghouti.com/folklore/proverbs
Here is a link for the Anti-Defamation League.
http://www.adl.org/
Here is a link for the Southern Poverty Law Center,
followed by a second link to a map of hate groups in the
United States.
https://www.splcenter.org/
https://www.splcenter.org/hate-map
Films
Higher Learning is an intense film about racial conflict on a college campus—and the tragic
results of misunderstanding between diverse social groups. The conflict is fueled by identity
issues and the need to belong and be accepted by one’s peers on the part of different students.
Television
The Wire (HBO), The Office (NBC), and Ugly Betty (ABC) are good former television shows for
thinking about the relationship between socioeconomic classes, social communities, and
communication rules.
TEST ITEMS
Multiple Choice Items
1. Which dimension of cultural variation refers to the extent to which a culture values
aggressiveness, competitiveness, looking out for yourself, and dominating others and nature?
a. individualism/collectivism
b. uncertainty avoidance
c. power distance
d. masculinity/femininity
e. long-term/short-term orientation
2. Thrift, industriousness, and respect for elders/ancestors are valued in cultures with
a. a long-term orientation.
b. a short-term orientation.
c. power distance.
d. masculinity.
e. femininity
3. Jacob tries to avoid ambiguity and vagueness. What would Jacob’s behavior be an example
of?
a. masculinity
b. power distance
c. uncertainty avoidance
d. tolerance
e. individualism
4. Dejon is very connected to his family and values harmony and group interdependence.
Dejon comes from a culture that would be considered?
a. masculine
b. individualistic
c. collectivistic
d. feminine
e. understanding
5. Invention, as one source of cultural change, is the creation of
a. tools, ideas, and practices.
b. tools, medicine, and appliances.
c. institutions, medicine, and technology.
d. tools, institutions, and medicine.
e. technology, books, and institutions.
6. Many Westerners have borrowed ingredients and styles of cooking from other cultures. This
kind of borrowing is known as
a. invention.
b. cooperation.
c. diffusion.
d. dilution.
e. homogenization.
7. All of the following are sources of cultural change EXCEPT
a. isolation.
b. invention.
c. diffusion.
d. calamity.
e. communication.
8. Groups of people who live within a dominant culture, yet are members of another group or
groups that are not dominant in a particular society, are known as which of the following?
a. diffused groups
b. socially aware
c. invented groups
d. social communities
e. marginal communities
9. The recognition that differences are rooted in cultural teachings and that no customs,
traditions, or behaviors are intrinsically better than others reflects which response to
diversity?
a. tolerance
b. understanding
c. respect
d. acceptance
e. participation
10. When we begin to recognize the cultural basis for practices that diverge from our own, we
are reflecting which response to diversity?
a. tolerance
b. understanding
c. respect
d. acceptance
e. participation
11. Aaron is being introduced to his new workplace and coworkers. His boss tells him the names
of people and departments, but she says very little about each person’s rank or the
relationship between departments. She also does not speak much about the culture of the
workplace. However, at the end of the introduction she says, “Hopefully now you have a
better understanding of who we are, what we stand for, and how things work here.” Aaron’s
boss’s communication style seems to be best described as what?
a. collectivist
b. individualist
c. low context
d. high context
e. masculine
12. All of the following are key premises about cultures EXCEPT
a. cultures are systemic.
b. cultures vary along five dimensions.
c. cultures may contain multiple social communities within them.
d. cultures are static and resistant to change.
e. none of these answers are exceptions.
13. The terms “date rape” and “sexual harassment” are examples of
a. how diffusion influences cultural change.
b. how cultural calamity influences cultural change.
c. how communication influences cultural change.
d. how invention influences cultural change.
e. how values influence cultural change.
14. Which of the following is one of the guidelines for improving communication between
cultures and social communities?
a. Engage in ethnocentrism.
b. Resist cultural relativism.
c. Ignore diversity to the extent it is possible.
d. Accept cultural differences even if you do not approve of them or understand them.
e. Respond to cultural differences by first clearly stating your own perspective and
encouraging others to follow it.
15. The use of one’s own culture and its practices as the standard for interpreting the values,
beliefs, and norms of another culture is known as
a. cultural relativism.
b. moral relativism.
c. egocentrism.
d. ethnocentrism.
e. assimilation.