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Increasingly, interlinked economies and advanced communication technologies are bringing people from diverse cultures together. Over the last two decades, for example, the importance of transnational corporations as 'a powerful force [...]

My purpose in this article is to introduce studying cultural variability in communication in general and this special issue in particular I begin by examining the nature of culture. Next, I review the emic and etic approaches to studying communication and culture with a focus on the major dimensions of cultural variability used to explain communication across cultures. Following this, I examine individual-level processes that mediate the influence of culture on communication. I conclude by overviewing the articles included in this issue and discussing how they are consistent with current trends in the study of cultural variability in communication., Communication and culture reciprocally influence each other. The culture in which individuals are socialized influences the way they communicate, and the way that individuals communicate can change the culture they [...]

Cross-cultural perceptions of teacher immediacy of American and Japanese college teachers were compared. American (n = 191) and Japanese (n = 227) college students completed versions of the Teacher Immediacy Scale and indices of cognitive, affective, and behavioral learning. Consistent with the general hypothesis guiding the study, perceptions of teacher immediacy were higher for the American sample than Japanese sample. Significant positive correlations between immediacy and measures of cognitive, affective, and behavioral learning were observed for both groups, but the correlations were significantly greater for the Americans. Regression analysis revealed that nonverbal immediacy was more predictive of learning outcomes than verbal immediacy for the Japanese sample, whereas verbal immediacy was more predictive of learning outcomes than nonverbal immediacy for the American sample., During the past 15 years, the topic of teacher immediacy has received a great deal of attention in the communication literature. The concept of immediacy stems from the work of [...]

This article focuses on the cultural aspect of political advertising. The form and content of political advertising messages appearing in major daily newspapers during the final phase of a presidential election campaign were analyzed to compare the differences and similarities of political communication between the United States and Korea. Political television commercials from the 1992 presidential election campaigns of both countries are also analyzed. It is obvious that the context of communication, the degree of uncertainty avoidance, and nonverbal expressions comprised important cultural parameters that ultimately serve as determinants of the different cultural orientations of the two countries. Findings from the content analysis indicate that political advertising messages transmitted by the American and Korean candidates were highly reflective of their cultural orientations. Political advertising therefore appeared as a conspicuous indicator of cultural values because it showed clear differences in American and Korean cultural patterns., The underlying relationship between the content of political advertising and the cultural values of a society has been recognized by researchers. Political advertising has an overt function - to persuade [...]

Humans can express feeling and emotions both verbally and nonverbally. While speech communication is a definite cultural trait, it has been suggested that nonverbal communication preceded verbalization and has a [...]