Why Involve Culture in Communications Studies?- Yessenia Onac
When I started classes for my degree of International and
Intercultural Communication (IIC) I honestly did not know what to expect. All I
knew was that I wanted a career that involved other cultures and getting to
explore them and learn from them. As I sat through a public relations (PR)
class, culture was brought up in one of the articles and in class we discussed
the significance of including culture in PR strategies. This was in one of the
articles, “Whether one is conscious of it or not, culture has a deep impact on
the way every human behaves, and that includes the way we communicate with
fellow human beings in both interpersonal and organizational settings” (Sriramesh,
2004, p. 15). This sentence stood out for me in the fact that I have lived my
life as such. As a third culture person, I had to constantly be aware of
American culture along with my own Mexican culture. It was crucial for me to
understand how to communicate with others outside of my culture, like knowing
that Americans didn’t take formality as seriously when speaking to elders (however
a few did require respectful communication like older teachers, principals,
police, etc.); I had to learn to distinguish being overly friendly as is
customary in Mexican culture and learning not to invade American’s “personal
space.” Not everyone is born into the same situation of growing up learning to
deal with different cultures, even though culture is everywhere whether we
realize it or not as the article states. PR is just one of many formats of
communication that is heavily influenced by culture; PR campaigns have to vary
from region to region because a slogan may not be interpreted the same way in
both places, it may not even have the same language! It is because of this,
knowing culture is so important at an individual or international level, that
IIC is a great degree for those passionate about culture and want to strengthen
their communication skills and culture awareness in various ways.
Resources
Sriramesh,
Krishnamurthy. (May 2004). Culture and
Public Relations: Formulating the Relationship and its Relevance to the Practice.
Culture and Public Relations: Links and Implications. 9 – 19.
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