Critical Intercultural Communication and the Digital Challenge

Friday, February 1, 2019

4:00 PM-6:00 PM

While there is no definitive history of critical intercultural communication, the development of the critical approach to intercultural communication largely arose as a response to the social scientific or functionalist approach that dominated U.S. intercultural communication studies. The critical approach emphasizes understanding intercultural communication in the context of social relations, such as race, class, gender, sexuality, and nationality.

Central to the critical approach is an understanding of the role of power in intercultural interactions and encounters. Questions of power lie at the heart of the critical intercultural communication project. The ways that power is deployed and its alignment with various identities is enormously complex and dynamic. Despite the rise of the digital environment, little attention has been paid to the ways that social media influence intercultural communication.

This presentation explores some of the ways that social inequality is reinforced in the digital environment, as well as the ways that people utilize social media to resist that inequality.

Contact Information

Sharon Wallace
skw@drexel.edu