Cultural diversity and information and communication technology impacts on global virtual teams: An exploratory study.

Modern organizations face many significant challenges because of turbulent environments and a competitive global economy. Among these challenges are the use of information and communication technology (ICT), a multicultural workforce, and organizational designs that involve global virtual teams. Ad hoc teams create both opportunities and challenges for organizations and many organizations are trying to understand how the virtual environment affects team effectiveness. Our exploratory study focused on the effects of cultural diversity and ICT on team effectiveness. Interviews with 41 team members from nine countries employed by a Fortune 500 corporation were analyzed. Results suggested that cultural diversity had a positive influence on decision‐making and a negative influence on communication. ICT mitigated the negative impact on intercultural communication and supported the positive impact on decision making. Effective technologies for intercultural communication included e‐mail, teleconferencing combined with e‐Meetings, and team rooms. Cultural diversity influenced selection of the communication media

Lost in translation? Language policy, media and community in the EU and Australia : some lessons from the SBS

Cultural diversity is a central issue of our times, although with different emphases in the European and Australian context. Media and communication studies have begun to draw on work in translation studies to understand how diversity is experienced across hybrid cultures. Translation is required both for multilingual (multicultural) societies such as Australia and for trans-national entities such as the European Union. Translation is also of increasing importance politically and even emotionally as individual nations and regions face the challenge of globalisation, migration, and the Americanisation of media content. The thesis draws on cultural and media policy analysis. Programming strategies are reviewed and 'conversational' interviews conducted with broadcasting managers and staff at SBS Australia and across multilingual public broadcasters in the EU (BBC WS, Deutsche Welle, ARTE, Radio Multikulti Berlin, Barcelona Televisió). These are used to investigate the issues, challenges, and uses of the multilingual broadcasting logic for Australia's and Europe's cultural realities. This thesis uses the concept of 'translation' as a key metaphor for bridging differences and establishing connections among multicultural citizens in the context of the European Union and Australia. It is proposed that of the two versions of translation - institutional in the EU and mediated in Australia respectively - the mediated version has achieved higher success in engaging ordinary citizens in more affective, informal and everyday forms of cross-cultural communication. Specifically, the experience of the Special Broadcasting Service (Australia's multilingual and multicultural public broadcaster) serves as a model to illuminate the cultural consequences of the failure of the EU to develop translation practices beyond the level of official, institutional and political communication. The main finding is the identification of a need for more mediated interlingual exchange; that is a translation of language policy in Europe into media experience for ordinary citizen-consumers, at both institutional and textual levels

Building a Diverse Curriculum: The Role of Diversity Across Communication Coursework

The present study utilizes student essays about diversity to examine ways in which students are exposed to diversity as communication majors throughout their coursework. Four themes emerged from this analysis. First, students became more aware and open-minded. Second, their understanding of different viewpoints and cultural differences increased. Third, they learned about diversity in an array of courses. Finally, their communication curriculum became more connected and relevant to their use and evaluation of media, journalism, and film

ANALISIS KONTEN CAMPAIGN TRAVELOKA #LIHATDUNIALAGI : “WASEDABOYS MASUK KE PEDALAMAN PAPUA! KETEMU SUKU DANI” PADA AKUN YOUTUBE NIHONGO MANTAPPU

Dissemination of information through campaign activities can be created with organized communication and of course it cannot be separated from conveying messages so that the contents of campaign messages can reach the public, of course they must be disseminated or published to the wider community. Submission and dissemination   of   information   can   take   advantage   of   social   media.   The #Lihatdunialagi campaign created by Traveloka is an information dissemination that aims to influence the wider community to raise awareness and knowledge about cultural diversity in Indonesia, including cultural diversity in Papua. This research was made to find out how cultural diversity and the effectiveness of communication messages in Traveloka's #Lihatdunialagi campaign content with the title "Wasedaboys Enter the Interior of Papua! Meet the Dani Tribe”. The author uses a qualitative content analysis method with an interpretive paradigm. The data validity technique used is source triangulation and technique/method triangulation. The results of this study show that the content of Traveloka's #Lihatdunialagi campaign with the title "Wasedaboys Enters the Interior of Papua! Meet the Dani Tribe" contains a category of forms of cultural diversity and a form of the effectiveness of communication messages but with a different number of scores on the coding method

ANALISIS KONTEN CAMPAIGN TRAVELOKA #LIHATDUNIALAGI : “WASEDABOYS MASUK KE PEDALAMAN PAPUA! KETEMU SUKU DANI” PADA AKUN YOUTUBE NIHONGO MANTAPPU

Dissemination of information through campaign activities can be created with organized communication and of course it cannot be separated from conveying messages so that the contents of campaign messages can reach the public, of course they must be disseminated or published to the wider community. Submission and dissemination   of   information   can   take   advantage   of   social   media.   The #Lihatdunialagi campaign created by Traveloka is an information dissemination that aims to influence the wider community to raise awareness and knowledge about cultural diversity in Indonesia, including cultural diversity in Papua. This research was made to find out how cultural diversity and the effectiveness of communication messages in Traveloka's #Lihatdunialagi campaign content with the title "Wasedaboys Enter the Interior of Papua! Meet the Dani Tribe”. The author uses a qualitative content analysis method with an interpretive paradigm. The data validity technique used is source triangulation and technique/method triangulation. The results of this study show that the content of Traveloka's #Lihatdunialagi campaign with the title "Wasedaboys Enters the Interior of Papua! Meet the Dani Tribe" contains a category of forms of cultural diversity and a form of the effectiveness of communication messages but with a different number of scores on the coding method

SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE INTERNET

The Internet is a critically important research site for sociologists testing theories of technology diffusion and media effects, particularly because it is a medium uniquely capable of integrating modes of communication and forms of content. Current research tends to focus on the Internet’s implications in five domains: 1) inequality (the “digital divide”); 2) community and social capital; 3) political participation; 4) organizations and other economic institutions; and 5) cultural participation and cultural diversity. A recurrent theme across domains is that the Internet tends to complement rather than displace existing media and patterns of behavior. Thus in each domain, utopian claims and dystopic warnings based on extrapolations from technical possibilities have given way to more nuanced and circumscribed understandings of how Internet use adapts to existing patterns, permits certain innovations, and reinforces particular kinds of change. Moreover, in each domain the ultimate social implications of this new technology depend on economic, legal, and policy decisions that are shaping the Internet as it becomes institutionalized. Sociologists need to study the Internet more actively and, particularly, to synthesize research findings on individual user behavior with macroscopic analyses of institutional and political-economic factors that constrain that behavior.World Wide Web, communications, media, technology

From media systems to media cultures

The comparative study of media systems and their relationships with political systems has received a substantial amount of attention in recent years, and made significant strides in understanding the diversity of mass communication around the world, along with its causes. Yet, while this systemic approach is important, it offers it offers only a partial insight into diversity of global media landscapes and, more generally, into the social implications of mass communication. To gain a fuller grasp of these implications, we need to start from the premise that socially significant communication extends well beyond the traditional domains of politics, and encompasses the mediation of basic cultural ideals and narratives, as well as the structuring of everyday practices and routines. These include the perceptions of private and public life, the understanding of the nation and its position in the world, the modes of organizing daily routines and everyday spaces, the historical events remembered and celebrated on a mass scale, and much more. To investigate these dimensions, this paper develops a conceptual and analytical framework that conceives of media cultures as patterns of ideas and practices that enable mass mediated meaning formation, and that have distinct spatial and temporal characteristics. These media cultures can vary on a number of dimensions, from the extent to which they seek to serve public or private goals, the degree to which they are open to transnational exchanges, to their modes of engaging with the past, present and future. This framework can be applied to different media and cultural forms, and in diverse political and cultural contexts. By way of illustration, the paper outlines how the framework can be used for the comparative study of (analogue) television cultures

Examining Shared Understanding and Team Performance in Global Virtual Teams

Modern organizations face many significant challenges because of turbulent environments and a competitive global economy. These competitive demands have forced many organizations to increase levels of flexibility and adaptability through the use of virtual environments, and global teams are prevalent in business organizations. Although significant research has been conducted on virtual teams, the development of shared understanding among the members of these teams has not been studied adequately. Time/space barriers, communication complexities, and team diversity hinder the development of shared understanding in these teams. Based on the Media Synchronicity Theory (MST), a new theoretical model was created that used the constructs use of communication media, mode of interaction and team diversity to ascertain the influence shared understanding in global virtual teams. Additionally, the research model examined the relationship between shared understanding and team performance. The developed, web-based survey measured the participants’ use of communication media, mode of interaction, diversity, shared understanding, and team performance in virtual environments. The survey was administered through SurveyMonkey and distributed to a pool of opt-in respondents from firms with virtual teams. A total of 118 respondents participated in the study. The findings of this study indicate that use of communication and familiarity with systems are strong determinants of shared understanding, and subsequently shared understanding is a strong predictor of team performance. The study also indicates that mode of interaction is less of a predictor of shared understanding, and that cultural diversity, modified diversity construct, did not influence shared understanding. As virtual teams continue to proliferate, executive leaders and managers must ensure that teams and environments are designed for collaboration through use of communication technologies that promote synchronicity, and that its members are familiar with systems which subsequently promotes shared understanding

Projection of diversity in Higher Education. A study of an institutional communication media in a Spanish university

The way in which diversity is conveyed through the media can reflect the attitude of the communicators themselves and contribute to shaping society’s attitudes towards diversity. The aim of the study was to identify how diversity is conveyed by the University to the Society. A content analysis of diversity-related news items in the University’s Institutional Newspaper Journal of the Pablo de Olavide University (DUPO) (626 news items out of 3,186 published between 2016 and 2019, a full rector’s term) was conducted. Heterogeneity in diversity was identified: gender, functional, cultural, sexual, religious and age, with gender and functional or disability diversity being predominant. Dissemination of diversity was linked to the fields of social sciences, humanities and sport. Communicators were government teams, with a slightly larger role for women. In conclusion, the institutional communication of diversity carried out from the most common official communication channel of the university analysed is the majority compared to the actions of professors and researchers, and a heterogeneous conception of diversity was found, linking it to issues of gender, inequalities and violence