Communication – Cultural InfluencesJoin now to read essay Communication – Cultural InfluencesWrite an essay about the social context of communication and how cultural influences shape how people communicate with each otherIn today’s 21st Century society through our day-to-day lives we encounter many different people from many different cultural backgrounds. It is almost inevitable that we will have to communicate with at least one other person on any given day. Whether this is at work, at school, while out shopping, or even when talking on the telephone, communication is vital in order to ensure that our wants and needs can be met and also to voice an opinion. As “different cultures have different approaches to communication” (Thompson, 2003 pg. 29), there will often be times when our interpretations of something communicated will differ from the intended message.
This essay attempts to explore the social context of communication by looking at what communication is, how people use communication, and also how cultural influences shape how people communicate with each other. This essay will point out that culture and communication are closely related if not inseparable; as illustrated by Hall (1977, cited by Samovar, Porter, and Stefani, 1998, pg 34), “Culture is communication and communication is culture”
In order to be able to explore communication’s social context it is firstly important to define what is meant by communication.“It is difficult to find a single definition of human communication” (Samovar et al, 1998, pg 22).This is mostly due to the fact that “communication is a complex process” (Veterans Affairs Canada, 2003). In any human conversation there are many elements and processes involved for communication to be successful. Physiologically it involves the brain sending signals to the mouth and vocal muscles in order to convey a message, and the receivers ears converting the soundwaves into electrical impulses to be interpreted by the brain; both of which require thousands of components to be working simultaneously.
Effective human communication requires skills in listening, speaking, observing, questioning, analysing and evaluating information so that one can make the appropriate response or take the necessary action. For the purposes of this essay we will use dictionary.com’s definition of communication
“The imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing or signs” (Communication – dictionary.com, 2008)This definition emphasises the complexity of communication as it can involve verbal, written and a symbolic gestures and symbols. It also stresses that communication involves a process and that information must be both sent and received in order for communication to be successful. This definition quite nicely sums up what communication is but what is communication’s purpose? Samovar et al (1998) proposes that its primary purpose is to find meaning in life,
“As we move from word to word, event to event, and person to person, we seek meaning in everything.” (Samovar et al 1998, pg 29)It is a biological fact that “it is impossible to not respond to the observed actions of others” (Samovar et al, 1998, pg 30).These responses vary in kind and degree. From easily understandable overt responses such as someone asking a question and receiving an observable response, to mental responses where a message may only trigger a thought response, right through to responding to often sub-conscious messages received through imitating, observing, and interacting with others (Samovar et al, 1998 pg 31).
Regardless of whether the messages are received through the conscious or the sub-conscious, the way in which we respond is grounded in and influenced by culture.
“Culture gives us a framework for making sense of our experiences. It gives us an interconnected set of shared ideas, assumptions, beliefs, values and unwritten rules.” (Thompson, 2003, pg 15)
As we grow up in a particular society we adopt that societies culture as our own. Firstly from our parents’ role-modeling of values and beliefs then perhaps our teachers’, we slowly but surely are shaped into a particular culture, even the act of eating takeaways every Friday night can be adopted into our own personal culture. As we integrate these different values and beliefs as our own we begin to establish a sense of unified belonging to those that share the same thoughts, beliefs, values and ideas as ourselves. In other words culture helps by “making the world a less mysterious and frightening place” (Thompson, 2003, pg 35), and also helps us to see the world as a bit more safe and predictable.
In theory, the concept of a society of social-democratic people is the correct answer to why this notion of “Western” socialism has a lot to do with its political leanings. On the contrary, a culture of socialism that is about democracy for all (and, in practice, one that aims to make everyone more “European”) is not in any way a democratic society. On the contrary, democratic societies have always been a kind of authoritarian one in which many of the core principles are the core principles of democracy. If you want to believe in democracy because you’re aware of those primary principles and goals of a democracy, you should take back most of the ideas you just threw out at the system in favor of just the fundamental values you just set out to be universal, unifying all the values in an all-encompassing vision in the face of an inescapable choice between some of the lesser and less understood.
The reason this is so isn’t the idea of creating a “social democratic society” (or, rather, a political liberal or even a cultural democracy with some kind of international organization). It’s what happens when the democratic societies that most of you, especially those of us that are members of the democratic societies in question, have at our throats every morning. Your eyes are drawn to such a society because it represents and enables you to make those decisions where you, as an individual, are an integral part of the future of the country that you represent through your work and accomplishments. Even in a free democratic society, you are responsible for your actions in a way that doesn’t have that “one bit” or “whole” “whole” “universal” goal or principle that you are so eager to pursue. And while there are so many ways to create a democratic society, these aren’t all the ways to create a society in which people can decide what they want to be when they feel it’s appropriate for them, and in order to make that decision.
It’s pretty clear that, if you want democracy to help you, there are some ways in which one is needed in order for one society to help another society. As an example, let’s look at the case of Sweden. A lot of Westerners may be attracted to the notion of a free, democratic society, but the reality is that socialization is something that only very few people appreciate. It doesn’t seem that they would accept it. We all know to a certain extent that you and I, our neighbors, are socialized in small, isolated, isolated enclaves in a remote part of the world (or at least, that’s one place in Scandinavia and Sweden that actually seems to be part of that isolation). But we’ve also never really