New Characteristics and Trends in International Intercultural Communication Research

YU Yang, JIANG Fei

Chinese Journal of Journalism & Communication ›› 2021, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (1) : 67-84.

PDF(1569 KB)
PDF(1569 KB)
Chinese Journal of Journalism & Communication ›› 2021, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (1) : 67-84.
Specific Topic / Chinese Journalism & Communication Studies in 2020

New Characteristics and Trends in International Intercultural Communication Research

Author information +
History +

Abstract

With China’s intercultural communication research constantly going deeper, it is necessary to gain a global perspective with regard to the development of this field. Based on Delphi method, this paper identifies eight prestigious intercultural communication journals overseas, reviews 495 articles published in 2018-2020, and analyzes them from the aspects of their question awareness, research methods, findings and innovative points. Several major trends have been highlighted as follows: the inherent interplay between cultural identity and inter-group communication from the academic perspective; the attention to colonialist and collective memories during intercultural contacts; the role of language in communicating cultural values and enhancing cultural belonging; discussions of the disciplinary boundaries; testing and extending existing theories to facilitate the production of new knowledge; the intercultural perspective of media uses; research on the function of social media in intercultural integration; the importance of intercultural competence and cross-cultural training in relevant areas; research on cultural security and its effects on intercultural relations in a multicultural context; intercultural reflections based on identity politics and cultural awareness.

Key words

International intercultural communication / cultural identity / collective memory / intergroup contact

Cite this article

Download Citations
YU Yang , JIANG Fei. New Characteristics and Trends in International Intercultural Communication Research[J]. Chinese Journal of Journalism & Communication. 2021, 43(1): 67-84

References

[1]
阿恩雷·鲍尔德温等 (1998/2004). 《文化研究导论》(陶冬风等译)(修订版). 北京: 高等教育出版社.
[2]
常江, 何仁亿(2018). 迈克尔·舒德森:新闻学不是一个学科——历史、常识祛魅与非中心化. 《新闻界》,(1),12-17.
[3]
恩斯特·卡西尔(1944/1985). 《人论》(甘阳译). 上海: 上海译文出版社.
[4]
姜飞(2005). 《跨文化传播的后殖民语境》. 北京: 中国人民大学出版社.
[5]
姜飞(2018). 2017年全球传播生态年度发展报告. 载高伟,姜飞(主编),《全球传播生态发展报告》(第1-45页). 北京: 社会科学文献出版社.
[6]
威廉·洪堡特(1836/1999). 《论人类语言结构的差异及其对人类精神发展的影响》(姚小平译). 北京: 商务印书馆.
[7]
Adegbola O., Labador A., & Oviedo M. (2018). African students’ identity negotiation and relational conflict management: Being “Foreign”, being “Careful”. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 47(6), 474-490.
[8]
Arli S. K., & Bakan A. B. (2018). An investigation of the relationship between intercultural sensitivity and compassion in nurses. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 63(2), 38-42.
[9]
Banas J. A., Bessarabova E., & Massey Z. B. (2020) Meta-Analysis on mediated contact and prejudice. Human Communication Research, 46(2-3), 120-160.
This paper presents a meta-analysis of 79 cases (N = 21,857) testing the effectiveness of mediated intergroup contact on prejudice. Positive mediated contact decreased (r = −.23; 95% CI, −.29 to −.17), whereas negative mediated contact increased prejudicial attitudes (r = .31; 95% CI,.24 to.38) and intergroup anxiety and empathy were both significant mediators of these relationships. Furthermore, the data revealed no significant differences between parasocial and vicarious effects, positive and negative mediated-contact effects, or the effects of the duration of mediated-contact stimulus exposure on prejudice. However, the data did reveal experiments to have stronger effects than survey research. These and other results are discussed along with implications, limitations, and future research directions.
[10]
Bilge N. (2018). Refugee identities: ethnicity as a communicative process. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 47(3), 226-242.
[11]
Buchanan Z. E., Abu-Rayya H. M., Kashima E., Paxtona S. J., & Sam D. L. (2018). Perceived discrimination, language proficiencies, and adaptation: Comparisons between refugee and non-refugee immigrant youth in Australia. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 63(2), 27-37.
[12]
Carlson M., Robinson S., Lewis S. C., & Berkowitz D. A. (2018). Journalism studies and its core commitments: The making of a communication field. Journal of Communication, 68(1), 6-25.
[13]
Chen H., Butler E., & Liang X. (2018). Facilitating or impeding acculturation: A qualitative study on mobile social messaging in first-generation Chinese immigrants’everyday lives. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 47(6), 510-529.
[14]
Duyn E. V. (2018). Hidden democracy: political dissent in rural America. Journal of Communication, 68(5), 965-987.
[15]
Earley P. C., & Mosakowski E. (2004, October). Cultural Intelligence. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2004/10/cultural-intelligence.
[16]
Fang F., Schei V., & Selart M. (2018). Hype or hope? A new look at the research on cultural intelligence. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 66(5), 148-171.
[17]
Farrell W. C., & Phungsoonthorn T. (2020). Generation Z in Thailand. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 20(1), 25-51.
Generation Z has been said to have more in common with their global generational cohort than they do with their parents. The 24/7 access to information, through increasingly ubiquitous Internet access, has been credited as the facilitator of the spread of generational values and characteristics. While this may apply to Generation Z in many developed countries, does it apply in developing nations such as Thailand? For example, by the year 2015, only 40 percent of the Thai population had access to the Internet. Thus, this study attempts to understand to what extent proclaimed Generation Z characteristics and values ring true for a segment of Thai youth with the necessary access to and corresponding usage of connected technology. A literature review was conducted of both English and Thai language literature. Thai Generation Z university students were surveyed, and the results were analyzed using structural equation modeling. On the one hand, the results did support an affinity toward technology, on the other hand, it suggested that Thai youth valued and used the technology differently than their generational cohort in the west, especially concerning content creation. Furthermore, they differed from their global cohort in their preference for collectivism. They also differed from national cultural expectations as they showed tendencies toward low power distance. Finally, work values were largely consistent with international generational expectations in that they showed the strongest preference toward intrinsic and altruistic rewards. It will be essential for Human Resources (HR) to communicate these rewards to attract and retain this next generation of employees. This article contributes to the greater cross-cultural management scholarship by filling a gap in understanding the cultural and work values of a generational cohort in Thailand. It does this by highlighting the institutional and cultural setting this cohort came of age in and surveys cohort members to understand their values and preferences.
[18]
Figueiredo A., Oldenhove G., & Licataa L. (2018). Collective memories of colonialism and acculturation dynamics among Congolese immigrants living in Belgium. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 62(1), 80-92.
[19]
Fuchs C., & Qiu J. L. (2018). Ferments in the field: introductory reflections on the past, present and future of communication studies. Journal of Communication, 68(2), 219-232.
[20]
Gardner P. M. (2018). Diversifying ICA: Identity, difference, and the politics of transformation. Journal of Communication, 68(5), 1-11.
[21]
Goedert C., Albert I., Barros S., & Ferring D. (2019). Welcome or not? - Natives’ security feelings, attachment and attitudes toward acculturation of immigrants. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 69(1), 24-31.
[22]
Gudykunst W. B. (1987). Cross-cultural comparisons. In Charles R. Berger & Steven H. Chaffee (Eds.) Handbook of Communication Science (pp.847-889). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
[23]
Hofstede G. (1980). Motivation, leadership and organization: do American theories apply abroad?. Organizational Dynamics, 9(1), 42-63.
[24]
Hofstede G. (2011). Dimensionalizing cultures: the Hofstede model in context. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture, 2(1), 1-26.
[25]
Hou N., Fan J. Y., Tan J. A., Hua J., & Valdez G. (2018). Cross-cultural training effectiveness: Does when the training is delivered matter? International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 65(4), 17-29.
[26]
Houdek M. (2018). The imperative of race for rhetorical studies: toward divesting from disciplinary and institutionalized whiteness. Communication & Critical/Cultural Studies, 15(4), 292-299.
[27]
Jackson T. (2020). The legacy of Geert Hofstede. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 20(1), 3-6.
[28]
Jia F., & Koku E. (2019). Making American friends: The effects of musical tastes and English proficiency on Chinese international students’ social networks in the United States. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 48(1), 4-20.
[29]
Kim Y. Y. (2007). Ideology, identity, and intercultural communication: An analysis of differing academic conceptions of cultural identity. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 36(3), 237-253.
[30]
Law M., & Corrigan L. M. (2018). On white-speak and gatekeeping: or, what good are the Greeks? Communication & Critical/Cultural Studies, 15(4), 326-330.
[31]
Lee J., Jingpei J., C. L., & Heath R. L. (2019). Negotiating faces in coping with workplace bullying: A cross-cultural investigation. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 48(2), 112-131.
[32]
Leone G., D'Ambrosio M., Migliorisi S., & Sessa I. (2018). Facing the unknown crimes of older generations: Emotional and cognitive reactions of young Italian students reading an historical text on the colonial invasion of Ethiopia. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 62(1), 55-67.
[33]
Liu D. H., & Wang H. (2019). Cultural values are communicated: How hotel introductions persuade. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 48(1), 35-51.
[34]
Nothias T. (2020). Postcolonial reflexivity in the news industry: The case of foreign correspondents in Kenya and South Africa. Journal of Communication, 70(2), 245-273.
Over the past 30 years, scholars have criticized the propensity of the international media to reproduce damaging and racist stereotypes about Africa. How do foreign correspondents, who are key actors in the production of Africa's media image, position themselves in relation to this criticism? Based on 35 interviews conducted with correspondents in Kenya and South Africa between 2013 and 2017, I find that many correspondents recognize the negative contributions of the news industry to representational Othering, thereby agreeing with the general tenets of the criticism. This paper is an in-depth exploration of this phenomenon, which I call postcolonial reflexivity. I outline the features of this postcolonial reflexivity, discuss its impact on journalistic practices, and explore the reasons for its prevalence among correspondents. Overall, the research contributes to bridging the gap between the textual orientation of postcolonial studies and the inclination for analyzing production practices in journalism studies.
[35]
Pang H. (2018). Exploring the beneficial effects of social networking site use on Chinese students’ perceptions of social capital and psychological well-being in Germany. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 67(6), 1-11.
[36]
Panicacci A. (2019). Do the languages migrants use in private and emotional domains define their cultural belonging more than the passport they have? International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 69(2), 87-101.
[37]
Presbitero A., & Attar H. (2018). Intercultural communication effectiveness, cultural intelligence and knowledge sharing: Extending anxiety-uncertainty management theory. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 67(6), 35-43.
[38]
Rodrigues U. M., & Paradies Y. (2018). News consumption habits of culturally diverse Australians in the digital era: Implications for intercultural relations. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 47(1), 38-51.
[39]
Schwartz S. J., Salas-Wright C. P., Pérez-Gómezc A., Mejia-Trujillo J., Brown E. C., Montero-Zamora P., Meca A., Scaramutti C., Soares M. H., Vos S. R., Javakhishvili N., & Dickson-Gomez J. (2018). Cultural stress and psychological symptoms in recent Venezuelan immigrants to the United States and Colombia. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 67(6), 25-34.
[40]
Song H., Eberl J. M., & Eisele O. (2020). Less fragmented than we thought? Toward clarification of a subdisciplinary linkage in communication science, 2010-2019. Journal of Communication, 70(3), 310-334.
With the explosive growth in research topics, communication science is said to be more fragmented and hyper-specialized than ever before, producing an increasing number of small, niche research topics that lack intellectual coherence as a whole. While such issues have been a central concern for the field, there has been a relative lack of systematic effort to map the topical interconnections among different communication science subfields, answering the question of how they remain empirically fragmented. Using full-texts of scholarly articles published in the top 20 communication science journals from 2010 to 2019, we provide systematic evidence to such claims in terms of their actual contents and their connectivity patterns. Drawing on extant works concerning the sociology of science and structures of scientific knowledge, as well as on topic modeling and simulation-based inferences on network topological features, we find that subdisciplinary linkage in communication is more frequent than we often think.
[41]
Stephan W. G., & Stephan C. W. (1985). Intergroup anxiety. Journal of Social Issues, 41, 157-175.
[42]
Tenenboim-Weinblatt K., & Lee C. J. (2020). Speaking across communication subfields. Journal of Communication, 70(3), 303-309.
[43]
Ting-Toomey S., & Oetzel J. (2003). Face concerns in interpersonal conflict: A cross-cultural empirical test of the face negotiation theory. Communication Research, 30(6), 599-624.
This study sought to test the underlying assumption of the face-negotiation theory that face is an explanatory mechanism for culture’s influence on conflict behavior. A questionnaire was administered to 768 participants in 4 national cultures (China, Germany, Japan, and the United States) asking them to describe interpersonal conflict. The major findings of this study are as follows: (a) cultural individualism-collectivism had direct and indirect effects on conflict styles, (b) independent self-construal related positively with self-face and interdependent self-construal related positively with other-face, (c) self-face related positively with dominating conflict styles and other-face related positively with avoiding and integrating styles, and (d) face accounted for all of the total variance explained (100% of 19% total explained) in dominating, most of the total variance explained in integrating (70% of 20% total explained), and some of the total variance explained in avoiding (38% of 21% total explained) when considering face concerns, cultural individualismcollectivism, and self-construals.
[44]
Towns A. R. (2020). “What do we wanna be?” Black radical imagination and the ends of the world. Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 17(1), 75-80.
[45]
Turner R. N., Hewstone M., & Voci A. (2007). Reducing explicit and implicit outgroup prejudice via direct and extended contact: The mediating role of self-disclosure and intergroup anxiety. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93, 369-388.
In 4 studies, the authors investigated mediators of the effect of cross-group friendship. In Study 1, cross-group friendship among White elementary school children predicted more positive explicit outgroup attitude toward South Asians, mediated by self-disclosure and intergroup anxiety. In Study 2, cross-group friendship and extended contact among White and South Asian high school students positively predicted explicit outgroup attitude, mediated by self-disclosure and intergroup anxiety. Study 3 replicated these findings in a larger independent sample. In all 3 studies, exposure to the outgroup positively predicted implicit outgroup attitude. Study 4 further showed that self-disclosure improved explicit outgroup attitude via empathy, importance of contact, and intergroup trust. The authors discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings, which argue for the inclusion of self-disclosure as a key component of social interventions to reduce prejudice.(c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved
[46]
Vega K. S., & Chávez K. (2018). Latinx rhetoric and intersectionality in racial rhetorical criticism. Communication & Critical/Cultural Studies, 15(4), 319-325.
[47]
Voci A., & Hewstone M. (2003). Intergroup contact and prejudice toward immigrants in Italy: The mediational role of anxiety and the moderational role of group salience. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 6, 37-54.
[48]
Walter N., Cody M. J., & Ball-Rokeach S. J. (2018). The ebb and flow of communication research: Seven decades of publication trends and research priorities. Journal of Communication, 68(2), 424-440.

Funding

the project of “building the first-class disciplines of Beijing Foreign Studies University”(YY19SSK06) in 2019
PDF(1569 KB)

Accesses

Citation

Detail

Sections
Recommended

/