Taking an Interpretive Approach to Intercultural Communication

One of the ways that intercultural communication can be studied is through an interpretive perspective, which focuses on understanding the lived experiences of members of various cultures and groups (Martin & Nakayama, 2012). This approach is based on three major tenants:

1. Human experience is subjective.
2. Human behavior is creative rather then determined or easily predicted.
3. Culture is created and maintained through communication.

This type of research relies on qualitative methods, which utilize field studies, observations, participant observations, interviews, and document/textual analysis. 

Martin and Nakayama (2012) offer applications for intercultural research using qualitative methods. They use post-Katrina New Orleans as their culture of interest and suggest several ways to study this cultural group. First, researchers could collect interview data from Katrina survivors. They might focus their interview protocol to look at the role of crisis communication and response from government and aid organizations. They might interview people about their experiences being evacuated to different regions of the U.S. 

Another study might focus on oral histories of residents of New Orleans about their lives in the city before and after Katrina. 

However, interpretive studies are more than just interviews. Document analysis can be a fruitful avenue for collecting data. One study of New Orleans focused on the rhetorical style of Mayor Nagin before and after Katrina. 

I highlight this approach and its corresponding methods not only to touch on chapter 2 in your text, but also to connect this approach to your cultural reporter project. Now that you have completed your own cultural identity video, think about another culture or group that one of your identities contrasts with. For instance, projects have focused on contrasting:

•  Religious identities such as Buddhism, Islam, Catholicism, and various Christian faiths,
• Different nationalities and regions such as Chinese, Thai, Jamaican, Russian, Vietnamese, 
• Varying genders and sexual orientations such as men, women, LGBTQ identities, 
• Different ethnicity and ethnic groups such as American Indians, Creole culture and Mexican Americans

You should position your identity and your cultural group of interest as a dialectical tension that operates in a both/and relationship. You will need to select a group that is local to your area due to the qualitative nature of the project. You will need to conduct interviews and observations to gather data for your blog posts. 

So for this blog, I would like you to practice being a qualitative interpretive cultural researcher. Hopefully this will prepare you for your own data collection process. So for this blog post I would like for you to view a film that focuses on intercultural communication. Here are some popular examples:

• Bend it Like Beckham
• Crash
• Brokeback Mountain
• Borat
• Coming to America (old school Eddie Murphy!)
• Hotel Rwanda
• House of Sand and Fog
• The Joy Luck Club
• Jungle Fever
• The Karate Kid
• The Last King of Scotland
• Lost in Translation  (Netflix Instant)
• Mao's Last Dancer (Netflix Instant)
• Outsourced  (Netflix Instant)
• Snow Falling on Cedars
• Syriana
• The Terminal
• A Time to Kill
• Mississippi Burning
• My Big Fat Greek Wedding

Watch the film and analyze the cultural meanings in the film from the interpretive perspective. What cultural patterns (think race, ethnicity, nationality, gender/sex, sexual orientation, class, religion, etc) do you see? Try to come up with 3 cultural patterns. What does this approach to intercultural communication reveal? What does this approach to intercultural communication fail to address? You will need to include specific dialogue and plot from the movie to demonstrate each one of your patterns. Remember to cite the film in your blog to reference where the information came from.