INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION PATTERNS AND LANGUAGE USE IN COMPUTER MEDIATED-COMMUNICATION

Abstract

This paper aims at analyzing the degree to which intercultural communication patterns are embedded in computer-mediated communication. Drawing on Hall’s and Hofstede’s intercultural communication dimensions, this study evaluates empirically high-versus-low context cultural orientations as reflected in the electronic medium, namely the blog, in three different cultures. Cultural variation is also analyzed in linguistic features and communication style in a synchronous mode of communication, by investigating data from several popular blogs from Japan, Germany and Italy.

Keywords

• intercultural communication
• (computer-mediated communication) CMC
• blogs
• cultural patterns