Iván Silva

In the context of intercultural interaction and communication stereotypes, ethnocentrism and prejudices are the contributing factors of intercultural conflicts and misunderstandings. Misunderstanding occurs when we project cognitive similarities, our assumptions that others hold the same meaning about objects, symbols or icons. The assumption that you and that other person or group holds the same meanings to be true does not promote understanding. Cultural norms are often believed to be universal by many and when they encounter others that are deviating from expected behavior the person can be insulted and altercations…read more

The portrayal of certain groups (i.e. older people, Asians and women) in the media influence other’s perceptions by the use of stereotypes, which lead to cultural misunderstandings. Earlier on we touched on the female and male portrayals in the media and how the conflicting picture created by those portrayals creates dissonance due to the unrealistic examples that individuals have to try and reach. The more we continue to propagate the stereotypes and depict certain groups in particular frames the more we propagate that image and create a reference frame for…read more

Intercultural communication is divided into three perspectives: interpretive, critical and cultural. To better understand what it all means a we need to understand what culture is, culture is various aspects that come together to form shared cultural identity; e.g. race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, and class. As we attempt to understand intercultural communication the three aforementioned perspectives are vital as interpreters of our observations. Interpretive Perspective The interpretive perspective wants to explain behavior. The guiding assumption in the interpretive approach is that people socially interpret what is meaningful in…read more

In Latin American countries the use of novella or tele-novellas (soap operas) can be appreciated as a pro-social use of media due to the topics and social issues raised in the storylines. The end of many of these programs is to provide social, political, economic and human rights information to a wise scale audience. The novellas are typically targeting women and young adults who make up the audience segment that is perceived to be at higher risk and propensity for unjust or unfair treatment in those countries. The audience is…read more

Avoiding is the deferring or discounting of the conflict in the expectation that over time the conflict situation will dissipate or resolve itself through the progression of communication or development of information. By avoiding we are able to allow communication to proceed and other unknown factors to be exposed that allow us to better understand or come to a consensus. The use of competition allows for those involved to create close group affiliations, come to understanding over the shared experience and also to work together towards that end result. Competition…read more

Men and women are portrayed in very specific and re-occurring ways in the media. First we can look at how men are presented to understand the consequences and challenges raised by such portrayals. Media Portrayal of Males In the media a male is represented as stoic, strong, emotionless, leader, physically youthful and muscular and as an authoritative figure that exhumes high levels of influence. Males are also depicted as over women and in the role of protectors of women who are unable to protect themselves. The image presented sounds pretty…read more

The news was once a part of the media that provide information, hard news and education to the public. It is how people find out what is going on around them socially, politically and economically. If there are threats or dangers to a community the media would inform them however, all of this has started to change as news outlets turn to entertainment and filling the demand for advertisement and ratings as opposed to covering hard news. The news are turning into something called info-tainment in which a small amount…read more

Stereotypes are created by our need to lump information together to assist in our understanding and sense making of the world and the people around us. Beebe, S. A., Beebe, S. J., & Ivy, D. K. (2010) posit that the manner in which we perceive those around us has a direct impact on the way that we communicate with them and vise-versa. The communication between us changes based on those perceptions, the language we use, the topics, the manner of speaking and the way that we adapt to the new…read more