Page 24 - Culture Technology Communication

Introduction: What’s Culture Got to Do with It? 9

the most conservative in the sense that German-speaking Swiss
show less openness to and interest in the new communications tech-
nologies than their Latin compatriots. Rey helpfully suggests that
this cultural attitude may have two roots. First, she notes that Ger-
man scepticism towards progress through technology is rooted in
the German Romantic tradition, as this tradition reacts against the
Enlightenment and the early stages of mechanization as brought
about by the Industrial Revolution. Two, she observes a contrast be-
tween the playfulness of the Swiss-French and the seriousness of
the Swiss-Germans. Given the playful dimensions of interactions on
the Net and the Web, she hypothesizes, they are likely to be more
attractive to the French than the Germans.

b. GENDER/WOMEN IN ISLAM

Contrary to the common presumption that CMC technologies bring
about greater openness and democratization, Concetta Stewart,
Stella F. Shields and Nandini Sen, in “Diversity in On-Line Discus-
sions: A Study of Cultural and Gender Differences in Listservs,”
begin with the recognition that women and minorities have histori-
cally enjoyed less access to these technologies. To better understand
this exclusion, they explore in their own study how two sorts of dif-
ferences in communication style appear in listservs: cultural differ-
ences first articulated by Hall between high- and low-context
cultures (and supplemented here by Ting-Toomey’s Face-Negotiation
Theory); and gender-related differences, documented by Tannen and
Herring. Their rich overview of earlier research into gender and cul-
tural variables (including those delineated by Hofstede) in cross-
cultural communication theory demonstrates that while there is a
significant body of research in intercultural communication, cross-
cultural communication in CMC environments has been relatively
ignored until now. Their study of an in-class listserv, intended to fur-
ther free and open communication among a considerable diversity of
students, strikingly confirms that gender and culture profoundly
limit how far conversation on listservs may be said to be open and
democratic.
Just as elsewhere, the Internet and the Web are of compelling
interest in the various countries and cultures centrally shaped by
Islamic values and traditions. And this is despite a possible mis-
match between the “high content/low context” communication pref-
erences which have shaped the Western development of these