Transcript Document

Identity Theories;
Intercultural Communication,
and the Election of Barack Obama
Michael Prosser, Ph.D.
stinguished Professor,
llege of Journalism and Communication,
anghai International Studies University
ebpage: www.michaelprosser.com
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +86 21 6517 3655
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“Mr. President”
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Socrates’ self identification: “I am
neither a citizen of Athens, nor of
Greece, but of the world.”
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Aristotle: Goal of persuasion: leading
men to truth, justice, goodness,
wisdom & happiness; “The good life”
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Language is the soul of culture.
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Conscious or unconscious use of verbal and
nonverbal symbols to create identification and
consubstantiality,
Overcoming estrangement and division,
Leading humans toward “The Good Life,”
Moving humans toward their critical role in
developing culture as a means of unifying
society.
Kenneth Burke
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Marshall McLuhan’s “Global Village”
vs. Rupert Murdock’s “Global City”
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McLuhan: All the world has shrunk now to a global
village.
Media create identification with the cultural messages.
Which media is best suited for leaders’ identification?
New media require new forms of civic discourse.
Murdock: All the world is now a global city.
More than half of the world’s population live in cities.
All major news is instaneous and global.
The world is divided between “haves” and “have nots.”
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“The Universal Audience”
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Rational men and women
Who know how to judge, critique, and test arguments
through their own reasoned knowledge and lived
experience,
Developing a motivated human community,
And moving toward multiculturality of purpose,
While removing incompatibilities between groups,
And identifying with one sort of rational argument over
another less rational one.
Chaim Perelman, The New Rhetoric
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Language, discourse and power
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Thematic language and discourse:
Discursive formations,
The archeology of the mind and modes of inquiry,
leading toward truth as relative within a culture.
The relation of power in language and discourse.
Historically, what language or discourse is allowed,
banned, restricted, encouraged or discouraged?
How do people in a civil society identify or reject some
concepts or ideas, as guided by their leaders or
culture?
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Michel Foucault
Emancipation and Creation of “The
Good Life”
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Universal model of communication required
to show how rational and irrational language and
discourse
interact in creating, emancipating and identifying a
“Good Life” for citizens,
And positive intercultural and multicultural discourse,
While rejecting “distorted communication” through
corrupted language.
Jurgen Habermas
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Contemporary Identity Theories
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William B. Gudykunst notes and explains
three intercultural theories related to
identity:
identity management theory (IMT),
identity negotiation theory (INT),
and cultural identity theory (CIT).
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The identity management theory
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is based on the concept of interpersonal
communication competence,
which naturally relates to intercultural
communication competence (ICC).
Identity theories can provide expectations for
behavior and motivate individuals’ behavior.
Cultural and relational identities can be seen as
central to the identity management theory
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Identity negotiation theory
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individuals negotiate their concept of identity with their own
perceptions of their multiple identities and those perceptions of
others with whom they communicate.
Individuals’ resourcefulness in negotiating the identity or
identities which they see for themselves and those which others
see for them helps them to manage their own securityvulnerability and inclusion-differentiation.
The more secure the individuals’ positive self-identification , the
greater is their own identity coherence and global self-esteem,
The greater their membership in collective esteem, the more
resourceful they are when interacting with strangers, who may
be positive or negative in their perceptions of the individuals
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under consideration.
The cultural identity theory
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1. the more that norms and meanings differ in discourse, the
more intercultural the contact,
2. the more individuals have intercultural communication
competence, the better they are able to develop and maintain
intercultural relationships,
3. the more that cultural identities differ in the discourse, the
more intercultural the contact,
4. the more one person’s ascribed cultural identity for the
other person matches the other person’s avowed cultural
identity, the more the intercultural communication
competence,
5.linguistic references to cultural identity systematically have
important contacts with sociocontextual factors such as
participants, type of communication episodes, and topics.
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Obama’s election strategy to create
his own persona
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As a self-proclaimed “very unlikely candidate” for the American
presidency, with a white American mother and Kenyan father,
he was forced constantly,
to create enduring and new identities for himself after charges
by his opponents,
of being too inexperienced to become president, to “paling
around with terrorists,” to being “other,” and therefore not a real
American, to possibly being a Muslim, or an Arab, or a socialist,
of being a celebrity with no substance,
and implicitly, as an African-American and therefore a member
of a co-cultural or inferior outgroup as untrustworthy to lead the
United States as the first black [biracial] president.
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McCain and Palin concede election
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McCain changing his own identity
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McCain kept trying to change his own identity from a
war hero,
and living his life as a man of honor,
while promoting his “maverick” identity,
and denying his own identity as so closely linked to
President Bush.
By selecting an inexperienced Sarah Palin as his
running mate,
he muted his intended identification of Obama as too
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inexperienced.
Palin’s creation of her perceived selfand Obama’s identity unsuccessful
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Selection by McCain of Palin successful with conservative base
But unsuccessful with many independents, women, minorities,
and Democrats,
Who increasingly decided that she was too inexperienced to
serve as Vice President,
And who disliked her negative identity attacks on Obama.
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Obama’s minority status as
identification with co-cultures
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Obama remained calm, cool and unflappable,
accommodating and adapting to all of the charges
and changing circumstances that developed
And sucessfully used his co-cultural status to draw in
large levels of electoral support by AfricanAmericans,, white women, Latinos and Hispanics,
the young and often new voters,
and many independent and some Republican voters.
He was overwhelmingly endorsed in voting by most
American minorities.
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He developed also a near global self-esteem.
Colin Powell endorsement
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The endorsement of former Secretary of State in the
first Bush administration,
identifying Obama as a “transformational figure”
aided him in being conceived as a serious and
outstanding candidate who was more likely to lead
the US better than McCain could do.
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Applying identity theories to
Obama’s election
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An eloquent speaker, expert use of language and metaphors,
nearly flawless campaign management
Positive self-identification
Creation of movement toward unity and not division
Creation and recreation of his own persona
Demonstration of high level intercultural competence
Charisma (celebrity status)
Identification with co-cultures
Reidentification of McCain as a third Bush administration
Rejection of attacks of Palin from a co-cultural group
Creation of a “universal audience”
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Chinese papers announce Obama
victory, November 5, 2008
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Obama Victory Speech in Grant
Park, Chicago to 200,000 people
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TIME: 2008 Person of
the Year
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“In one of the craziest elections
in American history, he
overcame a lack of experience,
a funny name, two candidates
who are political institutions and
the racial divide to become the
44th President of the United
States.”
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President Bush dodges shoes in Iraq
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References
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Gudykunst, W.B. (2003). Intercultural communication
theories. In W.B. Gudykunst, Ed. Cross-cultural and
Intercultural Communication. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage
Kulich, S.J. & Prosser, M.H. (Eds.) (2007)
Intercultural Perspectives on Chinese
Communication. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign
Language Education Press
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Introduction
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State the purpose of the discussion
Identify yourself
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Topics of Discussion
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State the main ideas you’ll be
talking about
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Topic One
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Details about this topic
Supporting information and
examples
How it relates to your audience
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Topic Two
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Details about this topic
Supporting information and
examples
How it relates to your audience
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Topic Three
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Details about this topic
Supporting information and
examples
How it relates to your audience
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Real Life
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Give an example or real life
anecdote
Sympathize with the audience’s
situation if appropriate
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What This Means
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Add a strong statement that
summarizes how you feel or think
about this topic
Summarize key points you want
your audience to remember
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Next Steps
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Summarize any actions required of
your audience
Summarize any follow up action
items required of you
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