Mind the (cultural) gap: International news channels and the challenge of attracting Latin American audiences

This article explores the role of cultural proximity in the perception of international news channels in Latin America by focusing on the cases of CGTN (China), RT (Russia) and HispanTV (Iran). Instrumental to the public diplomacy strategies of their home countries, the success of international broadcasters depends on if/whether audiences accept them. Based on a series of focus groups conducted in Mexico and Argentina, this article argues that cultural proximity strongly influences viewers’ aesthetic experience. The findings show that international broadcasters from culturally distant countries bridge the cultural gap by evoking the style of western broadcasters while dissociating themselves from perceived negative images of their own countries of origin. At a deeper level, cultural proximity entails inclusionary and exclusionary processes even within subcultural spheres. Finally, the findings also show how issues of representation can undermine channel identification by audiences

Rapport, empathy and professional identity: some challenges for international medical graduates speaking English as a second or foreign language

This chapter focuses on the communicative challenges faced by international medical graduates (IMGs; doctors from non-English speaking backgrounds who have trained in different medical cultures) as they enact their professional roles in English within Australia. We concentrate on how differences in their interaction with patients may relate to their awareness and control of pragmatic features in English and to different expectations of patient-centred care in medical encounters across cultures. We draw on four data sets: interviews with international medical scholars; audio-recordings of authentic, surgical consultations and video-recordings of simulated doctor-patient interactions conducted for training purposes and mock exams. Using techniques from applied linguistics and discourse analysis we analyse linguistic and other communicative means used to establish rapport and empathy within an Australian context of patient-centred care. We show that sociopragmatic differences across cultures in doctor-patient roles, relationships and expectations as well as pragmalinguistic differences across languages and cultures can impact on how IMGs can successfully portray their professional identity and also how approachable and caring they appear to their patients before considering the implications for professional practice