Communication and the Multicultural Society

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Communication and the Multicultural Society

• Joshua M. Phelps
• PSY2500

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Outline

• 2 Lectures
• English Language
• Lecture 1
• Intro to Communication
• Demonstration of Communication Situation
• Discussion of Communication Situation
• Blakars Communication Theory
• Lecture 2
• Multiculture Communication
• Class Exercise Public Communication

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What is Communication?

• Everyday Understandings
• Common and universal activity for all human
  beings
• Basic precondition for all social activity
• Individual is embedded in different communication
  situations and participates in communicative acts
• Complex interaction
• Restricted to Psychology and Language

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Defining Communication

• All inclusive Behaviour and Flow
• Internet Definitions www.dictionary.com
• The act or process of communicating
• the imparting or interchange of thoughts,
  opinions, or information by speech, writing, or
  signs (Flow)
• The exchange of thoughts, messages, or
  information, as by speech, signals, writing, or
  behavior (Behaviour and Flow)
• the expression to another of information or
  thoughts through speech, writing, or gestures
• Hogg Vaughan (2005) Social Psychology transfer
  of meaningful information from one person to
  another

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Blakars (1984) Definition

• Communication An intentional act to make
  something known to someone else
• Kommunikasjon En intendert handling med sikte på
  å gjøre noe felles med - eller kjent for -
  bestemte andre
• Emphasizes behavioural (action) and directional
  component of communication
• Grounded mainly in face-to-face interaction
• Based on pragmatic aspects of communication

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Communication Situation

• Demonstrate Communication in Face-to-Face
  Interaction
• Need 4 Volunteers
• Leave the Room for a few minutes while I set up

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The Communication Conflict Situation (CCS)

• A City Map
• Participant A must direct Participant B to a
  particular destination
• 2 RoutesSimple and Complex

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Audience Tasks

• How do Ps establish a shared realitycodes,
  contracts, etc.
• How do they make attributions for successful or
  unsuccessful communication?
• How Ps try to improve communication?
• Write down examples of language used and
  interaction.

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Debriefing

• Explanation
• Thoughts on participation?
• Thanks!!!
• Applause

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The Communication Conflict Situation (CCS)

• The City Map(s)
• Participant A must direct Participant B to a
  particular destination
• 2 RoutesSimple and Complex
• Experimental Manipulation of Complex Route

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Audience Tasks Round 2

• How do Ps establish a shared realitycodes,
  contracts, etc.
• How do they make attributions for unsuccessful
  communication?
• How Ps try to improve communication and
  re-establish intersubjectivity?
• Write down examples of language used and
  interaction.

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The Communication Conflict Situation (CCS)

• Experiment developed by Blakar in the 1970s
• Constructed and controlled situation to examine
  when an essential aspect of communication is not
  fulfilled
• Simple but demanding
• To see what happens when a basic precondition for
  successful communication is not met
• Everyday misunderstandings

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3 Goals of CCS

• Examine missing precondition of same here and
  now
• Examine attributions Ps made to difficulties
• Examine Ps attempts to improve communication
  effectiveness and re-establish intersubjectivity

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Analysis of CCS

• Simple Route
• Participants Perspective
• Experimenter/Audience Perspective
• Complex Route
• Participants Perspective
• Experimenter/Audience Perspective

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Class Discussion

• Questions and Thoughts
• Audience?
• Participants?

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Blakar Communication Theory

• Addressing questions about good or normal
  communication
• Defining communication
• Intentionality
• Identifying and understanding preconditions for
  successful communication
• Applying theory to social contexts family,
  therapy, etc.
• Using abnormal to understand normal
• Addressing conceptual, theoretical, and empirical
  confusion in communication research in social
  sciences
• Social-psychological perspective

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Blakar Communication Theory

• Fundamental Question What are the prerequisites
  for (successful) communication? Under what
  conditions will somebody succeed (to a reasonable
  degree) in making something known to someone
  else?
• 3 Main aspects
• Preconditions for successful communication
• Variables affecting
• Process of Communication
• Interplay of individual, social, and situational
  preconditions

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The Preconditions

• Most Basic ? Establishment of a shared social
  reality
• Individual Preconditions
• Relational Preconditions
• Technical Preconditions
• Situational Preconditions
• Interaction between different preconditions

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Individual Preconditions

• Will ? Motivational Component
• Can ? Ability Component
• Capacity to decenter and take perspective of the
  other
• Individuals self-esteem or self-confidence

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Attunement to the Attunement of the Other

• Decentration and Perspective-Taking
• Decentration
• Sender
• Receiver
• Egocentrism
• Important during problems of communication
  process to re-establish intersubjectivity

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Relational Preconditions

• Relations between actors in communicative act
• Confidence in the other, trust/distrust,
  seriousness
• Understanding that the other has different
  perspective/position
• Interaction with individual preconditions

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Technical and Situational Preconditions

• Technical
• Access to a common code
• Situational
• Same contractual dimensions of here now

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Variables affecting

• Variables that affect and determine process of
  communication
• Background Variables
• Age, Sex, Class, Education, Ethnicity
• Personality Variables
• Level of anxiety, self-esteem
• Also affects the Can

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Process of Communication

• Contracts adopted
• What kind?
• Adequacy
• Adherence, violation, modification
• Who proposes contracts?
• Control Power
• Free vs. Bound Information
• Control distribution and exertion
• Attribution patterns of difficulties
• Emotional climate

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Complexity within the Preconditions and Framework

• Situational Variation
• Interplay between preconditions
• Background Variables

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General Theoretical Statements on Communication

• Language is most common and important medium for
  communication
• Most essential characteristic is that something
  is being made known to another (Rommetveit,
  Blakar)
• Requires empathy and perspective taking in some
  kind of shared social reality
• Only by the communicants taking the perspective
  of the other(s) into account, so that they
  (sender and reciever(s) may establish
  commonality, is communication rendered possible
  (Blakar, 1984)
• Complex act that requires fulfillment of several
  preconditions

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Some Issues

• Communication vs. Interaction
• Unintentional/unconscious aspects of
  communication?
• Non-verbal vs. verbal communication
• Too much of a situational, face-to-face
  definition? Too narrow?
• Other aspects of intentionally making something
  known
• E.g. media

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Expansion of Communication

• Rommetveit/Blakar model connected to face-to-face
  interaction
• How can we study communication that isnt
  face-to-face from a social-psychological point of
  view?
• Media communication?
• Next week Communication in a multicultural
  context

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Class Discussion

• Questions and Thoughts
• What is successful or good communication?
• Everyday examples
• What about other theories for communication?
• Communication vs. Interaction?

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Last Word...

• Please keep quiet about the Communication
  Conflict Situation

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Communication, Language, and the Multicultural
Society

• Joshua M. Phelps
• November 13, 2006

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Outline

• Class Exercise
• Reminder about Language, Communication, and
  Ideology
• The Norwegian Multicultural Context
• Communication, Social Relations, and Ideology in
  a Multicultural Society

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Exercise

• 12 minutes
• Word Association

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Language (Blakar, 1979 2006)

• An important bridge between the society and the
  individual
• Culturally-mediated tool inherited from
  generation to generation
• Instrument that we use to understand and grasp
  reality
• Dyanmic and Flexible
• Open and Generative System
• Language is NOT neutral, objective, or fixed
• Senders choice of expression affects the
  receivers understanding (Blakar, 1979)

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Language (Blakar, 1979 2006)

• Language is POWER
• All use of language implies structuring and
  influencing of anothers experience
• Everyday Power
• Language as a system reflects socio-political
  power structure in a given society
• Language is most common and important medium for
  communication

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Language, Communication, Ideology

• Investigating communication requires looking at
  the positions used in establishment of social
  realitymainly through language (Rommetveit,
  1992)
• Influenced by context culture, historical
  moment, positioning of actors in situation, codes
  for correctness, etc.
• Certain words expressions are reflections of
  ideologies
• Linked with Blakars understanding of Language as
  mirroring and expressing existing power relations
• We use Ideology as a critical concept for
  understanding how socially-shared,
  taken-for-granted knowledge in society (by
  individuals) upholds or legitimizes power
  relations
• Changes in language use over time should reflect
  societal and ideological developments
• Media are important (most important?) platforms
  in which individuals negotiate meaning
  (i.e.attitudes, beliefs, etc.)
• Becoming increasingly as important as
  face-to-face interaction
• Media language and change in media language can
  reflect ideology(ies)

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What is Multiculture?

• Descriptive Word reflecting reality of living
  in a society with cultural diversity
• Analytical/Ideological/Prescriptive specific way
  of dealing with this cultural diversity or
  pluralism
• Liberal Ideology stressing equality, identity
  recognition, integration, celebration of cultural
  traditions/diversity
• Majority/Minority Relations Multiculturalism

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The Norwegian Multicultural Context

• Steady increase in immigration from 1951
  present (www.ssb.no)
• Largest Groups Pakistanis, Swedes, Iraqis,
  Danes, Vietnamese
• Increased migration of visible minorities since
  the 1970s
• Pakistanis, Iraqis, Vietnamese, Somalis, Turks
• Always been multicultural?

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Communication in the Multicultural Society

• What words and expressions do we use to describe
  and understand the multicultural context?
• How might these words and expressions affect
  reflect majority/minorities social and power
  relations, group boundaries, identities, etc.
• Ideology(ies)
• How might one have successful communication in
  a multicultural context?
• Possibilities for perspective-taking?
• Fulfilling of preconditions?

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Examining Multicultural Communication Ideology

• Language in public discourse
• New words and changes in frequencies of words
  dealing with multicultural issues
• Atekst searches
• Aftenposten 1984-2005
• Longitudinal Perspective
• Messages and Word Association

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Word Association Discussion

• Semantic Network of..
• Flerkulturelt Samfunn
• Flerkulturelle

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Fest i Oslo Mela Festivalen

• Discussion in pairs
• General discussion of article
• Look at use of the words multikultur or
  flerkultur
• From this article, how would you describe a
  multicultural festival or multicultural society?

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Fest i Oslo Mela Festivalen

• I dag åpner Mela, en multikulturell festival
• Descriptive
• What is a multicultural festival?
• en av verdens største multikulturelle
  festivaler
• Descriptive
• Arguing against FrP

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Fest i Oslo Mela Festivalen

• Den som tar turen til Rådhusplassen i helga, vil
  derimot få se hvilket glede den flerkulturelle
  virkeligheten kan representere.
• From reading this article, what joys are on show
  at the multicultural Mela Festival?
• Showcase of Art Culture

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Fest i Oslo Mela Festivalen

• Opprinnelig var Mela et norsk-pakistansk
  arrangement, men i år tar festivalen mål av seg
  til å la så godt som alle norske minoriteter få
  komme til uttrykk My italics

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Fest i Oslo Mela Festivalen

• Dervisj-dans Tyrkia
• Flerkulturelt band med kvinner fra Zimbabwe,
  Somalia, Tanzania, Algerie, Russland, Nigeria, og
  Norge
• Vietnamesisk folkemusikk

• Flamenco og sufi-musikk fra Sørasia
• Internasjonal mat fra 35 boder
• Norsk-vietnamesiske klesdesigneren
• 300 internasjonale kunstere innen musikk, sang,
  dans, teater, kunsthåndverk

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Fest i Oslo Mela Festivalen

• Associations of multicultural after reading
  this article?
• Cultural markers music, dance, art, food
• Where is the majority?

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Multicultural Message Structure

• I et stadig mer flerkulturelt samfunn er det
  viktig å vite hvor man kommer fra, og kjenne sin
  historie.
• Class Interpretations?

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Multicultural Message Structure

• I et stadig mer flerkulturelt samfunn er det
  viktig å vite hvor man kommer fra, og kjenne sin
  historie.
• Opening Mela Festival
• I et stadig mer flerkulturelt samfunn er det
  viktig å vite hvor man kommer fra, og kjenne sin
  historie. Adressavisen
• Carl I Hagens Campaign Speech
• I et stadig mer flerkulturelt samfunn er det
  viktig å vite hvor man kommer fra, og kjenne sin
  historie.
• Adressavisen

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Social Relations in the Multicultural Society
(Chryssochoou, 2004)

• Moving into New Environments
• Non-dominant cultural groups Minorities
• Receiving Immigrants Perceiving the Other
• Dominant cultural group The Majority
• Living Together
• Towards Cultural Diversity Representations,
  Identity, and Social Influence

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Minorities in the Multicultural Context

• Choice of words to describe the other
• What words do we have to use in describing the
  people moving into the Norwegian society?
• Are there new words reflecting this reality?
• How might these words influence common sense
  power relations (i.e. ideologies)?

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Innvandr
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Ikke vestlig innvandr
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Utenlandsk Opprinnelse
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1st and 2nd Generation Immigrant
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Norsk-pakistansk
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The Norwegian Majority

• Words to describe Norwegian
• Norsk
• Nordmann
• Etnisk Norsk

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Norsk og Nordmann
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Ethnic Norwegian
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Ny Tid Discussion

• Front page
• How does Ny Tids choice of words and signs
  influence our understanding
• What is intetionally being made known..i.e.
  communicated?
• What are some other choices/words they could have
  made to alter the message and our understanding?

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Ny Tid Discussion

• Etnisk Norsk
• What is an etnisk nordmann?
• Denotation?
• Connotations?
• Class Semantic Network Associations
• Why is it so important to be a nordmann?

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Ethnic Norwegian Associations
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Discussion of Word Association

• EN a recent emerging representation that is
  incorporated into ideologies of cultural
  diversity
• Emergence of Ethnic Norwegian Norway in
  Transition
• Multiplicity of meaning
• However, etnisk norsk probably denotes white
  Norwegians
• Descriptive or Hegemonic?
• Probably both depending on context
• Connotation still open, but could be leading
  toward white hegemony and hierarchy of
  Norwegianness

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Ny Tid Discussion

• Great Example of Communication in the
  Multicultural Society
• Social Issues?

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Conclusion

• Complexity in the Multicultural Society
• Choice of words and message structure in
  communication reflect ideologies in the
  multicultural society
• Importance of context sender/receiver, perceived
  social relations, structuring of a message
• Multicultural Communication affects and reflects
• Highlights issues involving minorities and the
  majority recognition of identites,
  inclusion/exclusion, racism, prejudices, threat
• Reflects power relations