Sign in or 
Share this
Rethinking Culture
Akanksha discusses culture and social media with Knowledge@SMU. http://knowledge.smu.edu.sg/index.cfm?fa=viewfeature&id=1102
PodCamp Singapore 2007 - Knowledge. Ideas. Conversations.
John Kerr from Edelman just presented some of the Trust Barometer 2007 data. It really makes one think. It's fascinating piece of research which throws light on all kinds of implications about how businesses, communication professionals and essentially people like you and me…should change or pay attention to the way we communicate...so as to inspire greater trust.
The numbers on my left for instance show that not many view the blogger as a credible source (I mean, in some countries we’re even lower than PR for goodness sake!) But, That’s not quite the whole story, as i sit back and think, we bloggers might be able to wrestle a sort-of victory out of the jaws of defeat since ‘A person like you‘ --> is the joint top-most trusted source. · A person like you. Who is a person like you? A person who looks like you? Thinks like you? Has the same political or religious beliefs like you? A person who is culturally similar to you…perhaps? We’ve always had a tendency to equate "culture" with "nation." For instance, I’m Indian, it shows on my face. And it’s true, a lot of my viewpoints are shaped by my national identity and I tend to trust an Indian when there is no other form of connection available. On Second Life for instance (It’s a jungle out there) when someone has a glaringly Indian avatar name...There’s a tendency to say hello even if the avatar looks like the devil himself. I’ve noticed this trend even among some of my Spanish friends (who speak impeccable english) but have created communities and friends on second Life more often than not based on a common language – a common culture. · But that’s a small piece of the pie, with social media – we are rethinking culture and who it is that we ‘trust’. Most of my friends on facebook today are people who share the same obsessive passion for web2.0 involvement as I do. They’re different from me…perhaps have different views on many things...But the but the one thing we think alike on is what brings us closer. We are relying lesser on our village/community for support, and more on those on the blogosphere and the social media web who are filled with 'people like us' in terms of our commitments other than that to our ‘nationality’. Thus, perhaps Social Media is making us redefine cultural boundaries.
Its just one of the conclusions I’ve drawn from what I see happening around me. As a business marketing student, we always learn about strategies involved whilst planning to take a product or idea global. Being sensitive and aware of the cultural differences has always been taught as a focal point in making these strategies a reality. But, today, thanks to social media there is a high level of mediation between the local and the global – so where does culture feature in this? Often it is claimed that geography, nationality, ‘race’ and gender (are) no longer matter in these new domains created by social media. So what is the nature of intercultural communication today? That was essentially the question I started off with. As a curious student – I thought it was exciting to explore this idea further…especially since I haven’t heard many talk about it. As I write today...I have a few observations…a few conclusions…But many questions.
The first main conclusions I’ve drawn about the role of culture in understanding Social Media is: Cultural orientation does play a huge role in the way social media is consumed in a certain country. This has implications for pr professionals and marketers planning to reach their global consumers through a single medium. The way in which individuals perceive their social environment is directly related to their cultural background. It is therefore expected that these values and standards, which are typical and common in a certain society, affect the daily decision processes carried out by the individual members of this society. In the following pages of the wiki there has been research done on how Social Media has evolved in some of the major economies in asia and i am drawing upon that as a part of my conclusion. Its amazing that no two countries are similar in the way they consume and participate in the Social media space. So obviously despite the market’s globalization process, there are differences between countries …because of cultural factors…which are partly responsible for the marketing environment in that market. Asia is a region with many layers: different languages, different cultures, and different technology preferences....all in a region filled with different countries, laws, etc. It does pose a tough challenge, not only for inter but also for Intra-national communication.
- In Japan for instance, the culture is one where people are usually shy, avoid attention and interacting with strangers. Fascinatingly enough this is reflected in the fact that anonymity on blogs is often preferred. Compared to any other country, Japan's blog readers are also less likely to take part in any activity after reading a blog.18% of people interviewed in Japan said they took some sort of action as a result of reading a blog, similar to South Korea (19%) but significantly less than respondents in UK (28%), France (27%) and the US (28%). Trackbacks are more popular than comments on blogs as this allows a traceable comment system where negative remarks need not be posted directly. Thus culture does shape a person’s view on every thing you do on a day to day basis...And thus, definitely the way social media is consumed.
- But, when we talk of culture, we can’t ignore language. The South Korea example here seems to be the glaring one. There is definitely a language barrier and the Korean web sphere is segregated from the rest of the world…they have developed their own web world comprising of Korean web pages and a very distinct Korean web culture. For example, Cyworld (a Korean web community similar to Facebook has more video’s than Youtube, 18 million accounts with 90% of youths in their 20’s and its success has prompted the launch of a US version) and Naver (a Korean search engine which has captured 77% of the Koran audience while Google has captured only 1.7%)..and there are so many more examples which show that some cultures don’t buy into other cultures, they create their own medium. And in a country like this, the medium is the message since people here consider the Korean perspective to be essential and most communication is done using Korean Language. They tend to be nationalistic and proud of their culture and language. Using Korean Language as mediums serves to build authenticity.
- Also, as I mentioned earlier. The challenge is not purely inter-cultural communication, but intra-national communication as well. In HK for instance, there are three primary communities in Hong Kong. The expatriates, who favor English, the local Chinese whose first language is Cantonese and the increasing numbers of mainland Chinese immigrants who use Mandarin. These differences are important to businesses as based on their target audience; their medium of advertisement has to change. Also, HK has a culture of shopping and thus there is a reluctance to shop online...as shopping is a ‘social activity’. Another thing t note is that Hong-Kongers tend to visit chat sites more and haven’t really created much localized content like Korea or even china for that matter...Perhaps again since they have the culture of ‘following the us/uk’.
- The last example which I find interesting is one of China, a collectivist society which has a unique culture of being private. Traditionally speaking, the Chinese lead very personal lives hence the blogosphere is used for personal reasons as opposed to corporate use. Also power distance in China is quite high and businesses in China often follow a top-down hierarchical structure known for following long-established practices and thus they dont really encourage activities such as employee blogging…however the traditional means of communication have been changing. Social media is gaining momentum in China as people are able to communicate their personal views to the rest of the world, which is something very new for such a close knit and suppressed culture.
My second conclusion is something that essentially came out of my calling into Mitch’s show, where I asked him the basic question that: What is the role of culture today? Especially when we have people from all over the world communicating more than ever before? He hit the nail on the head when he said: today our conception of "culture" is taking on narrower frames of reference.Rather than seeing oneself as essentially a citizen of a nation or a local community, people are more free to define themselves along narrower conceptions of identity and commitment, either ethnic, religious, or ideological affiliation. Thus my second conclusion essentially is: the more global we become, the more provincial our attitudes can become. We are no longer forced into certain homogeneity of lifestyle, belief, or social knowledge. For instance, Mitch Joel, Neville Hobson, Bryan person, Michael Netzley, Steve Ruble etc…all know and are consumers of the same conversation, even though they have different ethnic backgrounds and so today once you understand the basic cultural nuances about how media is consumed, its easier than ever before to reach a global audience by leveraging on that common interest. You are no longer pushing content onto people, in facebook for instance, people choose to add the vampire application…perhaps consumers of the Goth culture...Today content is being pulled.
- Indeed, Social Media enthusiasts, utopian visionaries, imagine the online world today as one being of constant connection and endless collaboration possibilities; an on-line, virtual “melting pot” of different cultures. This is the Ying of it all. Many argue that conversations that take place in the blogosphere are working in a centripetal manner, forcing homogenization. In other words, a new culture is forming that transcends traditional political and geographic boundaries that can best be defined by profession, technological expertise. For instance LinkedIn communities.
- But, another look and we can see that if the internet has the capacity to transform culture…then it can also strengthen it. The Yang of it. Maybe the emerging globalized information society, rather than weakening cultural and national identity, actually strengthens traditional cultural forms. We all know the web to be an english medium essentially, but it would be fascinating to know that the most used language in the blogosphere is actually Japanese. Thus, although a lot of the web (non-blogosphere) is in English, in Asia, the rise of technology and the globalization of commerce allows for innovation and creativity in the enhancement of non-mainstream perspectives and creating localized content. For instance, local korean search engines, news sites and social networking sites.
Some of the other questions which I have no answers to, but id love to hear you take on them are:
- Are the pervasive troubles of ‘off-line’ intercultural communication really transcended ‘online’?
- What role does the graphical avatar embodiment play for participants who communicate a ‘virtual ethnicity’ to others? Especially what is the role of 'culture' in a virtual world like Second Life?
- How can a diverse range of international users become equally participating members of a VC?
- Since this trend allows people to define their culture in a more narrow manner, does it make them more intolerant to what they do not understand/know?
In conclusion: Web 1.0 was about commerce. Web 2.0 is about people. We've heard that. We believe that. With people comes culture and while in a region like Asia (especially) there are great challenges, there are also many opportunities at all levels, for communication consumption in a cross-cultural, cross-national, wired world. In this wired world, intercultural communication and being sensitive while marketing (main stream or social media) will continue to be important and be used when people from more than one culture communicate, only now maybe we need to rethink what ‘culture’ means.
Join the conversation - Akanksha Goel
perlyn |
Latest page update: made by perlyn
, Dec 5 2008, 4:11 AM EST
(about this update
About This Update
Moved from: Welcome to Asia's Most Comprehensive Social Media Wiki
- perlyn
No content added or deleted. - complete history) |
|
Keyword tags:
communication
culture
social media
More Info: links to this page
|
| Started By | Thread Subject | Replies | Last Post | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anonymous | Thoughts | 0 | Aug 9 2007, 1:17 PM EDT by Anonymous | ||
|
|
Thread started: Aug 9 2007, 1:17 PM EDT
Watch
A VERY fascinating chain of thought..new perspectives.
|
||||
Showing 1 of 1 threads for this page
