Introduction to Communication Science week 5: 5.6 Cultural Groups

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Transcript of all Week 5 videos: https://d396qusza40orc.cloudfront.net/commscience/transcripts%2FTranscript_Week_5%20Coursera.pdf

This lecture in .webm: http://d396qusza40orc.cloudfront.net/commscience/recoded_videos%2F5.6.c055998540caeefff29f5a3b646235ce.webm

2. In the Coursera site, but apparently unaffected by the login block, for this lecture:

Subtitle text: https://class.coursera.org/commscience-001/lecture/subtitles?q=85_en&format=txt

Video mp4: https://class.coursera.org/commscience-001/lecture/download.mp4?lecture_id=85
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Week 5 description:
Communication as a social and cultural force
In the fifth week we cover theoretical approaches that understand communication processes as social and cultural forces, as building blocks of reality, and a binding element of power in society.

One defining trait of culture is that it identifies us
in relation to other people.

We've talked about his before:

a shared culture corresponds with a higher
feeling of belonging.

A cultural distance can create a feeling that you
don’t belong.

Imagine John, an adventurous traveler from
Amsterdam.

John takes a trip to the Amazon to live for a
while amongst a tribe there.

This tribe will have a different language, different
music, customs, behavior,

a different way of celebrating birthdays, perhaps
even some different morals than John is used to.

Even though John has a great time, he feels,
because of these differences,

that he is not part of their culture.

When after a few months he lands in
Amsterdam

and embraces his friends and family,

he immediately feels at home again and
experiences a sense of belonging.

People in the airport are already culturally closer
to him than the very friendly,

but culturally different, tribe he has visited.

So culture helps us identify where we belong,
with what group we fit in.

But it's not really that simple is it?

Because we are not members of only one
culture.

This is another important thing: there are
cultures on all kinds of levels.

Within Western Culture for instance we can
make many subdivisions

like Western European Culture, Dutch Culture et
cetera.

You can even distinguish culture on a very
specific group level,

for instance within one group of friends,

co-workers, fans of a popular television series,
you can have groups around hobbies,

special interests, moral values, your fashion
sense, ethnicity, nationality,

religion, sexual orientation, you name it.

Being in a group means sharing something with
the other members.

Being a member of a group therefore has
everything to do with your own

personal identity and the group identity.

That's why being part of a group carries
emotional weight.

It is this shared element, the shared culture that
creates a feeling of belonging.

Let's take another traveler, Maud.

Maud also just returned, not from the Amazon
but from a long holiday in Spain.

In Spain, Maud has become a huge fan of
Flamenco-dancing.

She had many other Flamenco enthusiasts
there to share her passion with,

but back in the Netherlands, her friends and
family there don't really know the dance.

Luckily there is the internet,

and Maud soon finds webpages where she can
discuss this dance

and share music with people from all over the
world.

Maud is now in fact a member of a global
cultural group of Flamenco fans,

next to being part of the Dutch culture, the
Amsterdam culture,

and many other groups she feels connected
with.

Of course, things don't always stay the same.

Maud might lose her interest in Flamenco after a
while, leaving the group or making membership

a less important aspect of her identity. Or the
dance itself might undergo changes,

splitting up the group in conservatives on one
hand

and progressive Flamenco lovers on the other.

All of this is completely natural.

It is in fact another important element of the
principle of cultural relativism:

Cultures change all the time.

And many things can cause sudden culture
shifts like new technology, population shifts,

resource shortages, new art forms, wars,
political decisions and many more factors.

But it’s important to realize that change is also
inherent to culture,

so suddenly or gradually change will occur.

You can imagine that all this change and
cultural diversity

causes much uncertainty in our lives.

That's why, even if we are not always aware of it,

we are constantly communicating to minimize
the discomfort of uncertainty,

to adjust, to keep in touch with cultural reality,
with society and the groups we identify with

or want to belong to.

We'll explore this further in our next section.