Dimensions of Culture

Meeting 10

Culture Types

• Mediated stories and images

• Culture industry as economic resource

• Business / corporate culture; may conflict with employee’s societal culture

• Organizational culture - set of meanings

• Groups w/ characteristic culture (religious)

• Families with traditions

Culture Transmission

• Culture is patterns of meanings embodied in symbols

• Primary symbol is language

• Print capitalism created imagined communities

• Transnational TV, Internet creating world language for business in English

Protection Strategies for cultural products

1. Quotas - limit imports, preserve expressions of national identity

2. Subsidies and grants - government support for film and TV development

3. Regional alliances - co-produced films

4. Program adaptation - use formats and production values on local productions

Resistance Measures

• Recording own videos (Brazil)

• Ownership of TV channels (Isreal)

• Legislation to prohibit advertising in splilt-run editions with US (Canada)

• Ban on direct broadcast satellite (China, India)

Journalist’s Role

• Empiricist concept of objectivity under attack for assuming a single truth

• Enduring values built into news judgment; values and opinions enter unconsciously

• News culture is revealed in formats: voiceovers, outtakes, sound bites, stand-ups

Cultural Conflict

• Many groups feel they are buried by global culture and corporations

• Kurds have no nation-state• Med-TV establish as voice of Kurdish

people in all countries• Discontinued for arousing anger• Cultures struggle to preserve a distinctive

identity

Hybrid Culture and Media

• Melting pot concept - give up some cultural distinction for democratic rights

• Hybridity occurs when traditions are modified• Cultural identity is fluid and dynamic• Histories change and develop as they blend• Dominant culture takes on traditions of migrants• Media fusion in all forms directed a culture-

specific audiences

Culture Onion

• Symbols - words, pictures, gestures, objects that are learned; global brands

• Heroes - possess prized characteristics; serve as role models for behavior

• Rituals - essential collective activities

• Values - broad tendencies to prefer certain state of affairs over another

Cultural Nuances

Selective perception - focus on certain features of environment excluding others

What does it mean to perceive things according to our cultural map?

Stereotyping - put people into categories

Why is necessary for advertising to stereotype?

Thinking patterns, Intellectual styles

• Linear, external logic, intuition, duality & digital thinking is Western

What are bipolar scales?• Pattern recognition, synchronicity and

analog are Eastern• Intellectual styles: Gallic, Teutonic,

Saxonic, Nipponic• Learning as critical thinking or memorizing

Body Language

• Facial expressions• Behavioral habits• Gestures: greetings, beckoning, insulting,

touching• Use of space and closeness between people• Visual point of view• Music and rhythm

Color

• Relativist - local situation has large impact

• Universalist - ignore taboos, go with trends

Rules: Choose national colors; blue for Northern hemisphere, green for southern

Color Taboos

White - funerals in China, red for bridesBlack - mourning, widow wear in Europe, aggression

for teensOrange - trendy, extreme sports, boats, highway

workersYellow - bottom of preference list (yellow journalism,

yellow Jewish star, cowardly)Silver - space-age, high tech, neutral, elegance; most

popular auto colorPurple - Royalty

Cultural Context

High-context - information part of internalized message; implicit. Symbolic advertising. Eastern

Low-context - explicit verbal message. Yes/no orientation. Western.

Mixed - France has blend of hi-lo institutions and situations

Dimensions of Time

Includes biological, personal, metaphysical, micro, sync, sacred, profane

• Long vs short term thinking• Time as healer• Orientation toward past (Europe), present (East

where all are equal), future (disposable in US)• Linear vs Circular• Monochronic (low context) vs polychronic• Cause & effect vs holistic• Time as symbol (cue up = M time)

Relationship to Nature

1. Mastery over nature - man must conquer (US)

2. Harmony with nature - man co-exists with; no distinction between human life, nature and supernatural (Japan)

3. Subjugation to nature -man dominated by (Africa)

Hofstede’s 5 Dimensions

1. Power Distance - social hierarchy vs. equality

2. Individualism (private & public) / collectivism (particularistic, common good)

3. Masculinity (achievement values) /femininity (caring values)

Hofstede

4. Uncertainty avoidance - feel threatened by ambiguity; conflict and competition are threatening.

• Strong UA countries use hands, drive fast

5. Long-Term - persistence, ordering by status, thrift, sense of shame. Vs.

Short-term orientation - personal steadiness, protecting face, tradition, reciprocation of gifts

Cultural Identity in Slovenia

• Distancing selves from ‘Balkans’ of violence and chaos, poverty, dirt

• Young cannot identify with parents communism or Yugo-nostalgia

• 1980s - art and rock bands pop icons

• 2002 - youth apolitical, consumer-oriented

• Globalized culture is pro-West everything