Impacts of Social Media on Cross-Cultural Communication.docx

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1、Impacts of Social Media on Cross-CulturalCommunication:ACase Study of WeChat社交媒体对跨文化交际的影响：以微信为例社交媒体对跨文化交际的影响：以微信为例By Yang WeiAthesis submitted tothe school of Foreign Languages China West Normal UniversityIn partial fulfillment of the requirementfor the degree of Bachelor ofArtsUnder the supervision

2、 of(Prof./Dr./Associate Prof)Zhenglun ChenMay 2018Thesis Statement:In this social media age,cross-cultural communication landscape gets bigger,with the fast growing of global network.Taking China as an example,especially in recent years,those social media platforms such as WeChat have developed rapi

3、dly,which impacts thecross-cultural communication between China and other countries.Its significance is self-evident.iAbstractCross-cultural communication is a new interdisciplinary subject.It includes many aspects,suchas sociolinguistics,humanities,and pragmatics.Such a wide range of cultural cover

4、age makescross-cultural communication an increasingly important research topic.This article uses WeChat asan example to discuss the impact of social media on cross-cultural communication.Keywords:Cross-cultural communication;Social media;Wechat;Impactii中文摘要中文摘要跨文化交际是一门新兴的交叉学科，它包括许多方面，如社会语言学，人文学科和语用学

5、。如此广泛的文化覆盖率使跨文化交流成为日益重要的研究课题。本文以微信为例，探讨社交媒体对跨文化交际的影响。关键词：关键词：跨文化交际;社交媒体;微信;影响力ContentsAbstract.i中文摘要.ii1Introduction.12The Importance Of Social Media To Cross-cultural Communication.32.1 Narrowing Down Cultural Differences.32.2Arousing The Sense Of Value Identity.43Impact Of WechatAs AGlobal Communi

6、cation Tool.63.1 Wechats Social Effects.63.2 Frequency Of Use.73.3 Increasing Coverage OfAge Groups.83.4 Coverage Of Countries.84Conclusion.10References.11Acknowledgements.1211IntroductionCross-cultural communication refers to the communication between native speakers andnon-native speakers,or the c

7、ommunication between people who have differences in language andcultural background(George 241).Due to the different environment of different ethnic groups suchas ecology,material,society,and religion,different language habits,social cultures,customs,andother context factors have been created(Susan

8、132),different cultural backgrounds cause differentways or habits of people to speak.Therefore,in communication,people always like to use their ownway of speaking to interpret the other partys discourse,which may lead to inaccurate understandingand inference of the other partys utterance,thus creati

9、ng conflicts and obstacles(Kim 82).As a new cross-cutting discipline,cross-cultural communication involves research in the fieldsof sociolinguistics,humanities,and pragmatics.Due to the wide coverage of culture,cross-culturalcommunication will inevitably become a multidisciplinary research topic.Wit

10、h the ever-increasingfrequency of international contacts,more and more people,including politicians,diplomats,entrepreneurs,consultants of large companies,language teachers,etc,are interested in issues of“language and culture”in different countries,as well as cross-cultural communication.Awarenessan

11、d research will greatly promote international exchanges and world peace(Alexei 258).With the rapid development of modern science and technology,peoples lives have undergonetremendous changes.The development of transportation and communications has made that thecommunication of people from different

12、cultural backgrounds around the world come true.Thee-community formed by the Internet which connects people from different places of residencemakes cross-cultural communication information transcend the constraints of geographical factorsand overcomes the obstacles of time and space,creating global

13、cross-cultural communicationinformation synchronization and feedback effects(Kannan 416).The practicality of networkcommunication has totally changed the world of human life,which is the most profound changewitnessed by people in terms of working methods,lifestyles,exchanges,and buying and sellingme

14、thods since the industrial revolution.The generation and development of the Internet has enabledhumans interaction to transcend the boundaries of time and space,enriched human language systemsand promoted the development of globalization in cross-cultural communication.At present,there2are not many

15、researches on the combination of Internet communication and cross-culturalcommunication at home and abroad.Previous studies on cross-cultural communication mainlyfocused on the real-life environment,and related research rarely involves the network as a virtualenvironment.The understanding of the cor

16、relation between the two is not clear enough.Thus thisstudy starts from the perspective of cross-cultural communication to explore and analyze impact ofsocial media on cross-cultural communication by studying the case of wechat.32The Importance Of Social Media To Cross-cultural Communication2.1 Narr

17、owing Down Cultural DifferencesThe 21st century is the century of life science,international interpersonal communication andbusiness contacts become more and more frequent.In particular,with the improvement of socialinformation and the opening of the Internet,more and more people are involved in cro

18、ss-culturalcommunication without leaving home.Studying these differences in cross-cultural communicationhas important practical implications for our economic,diplomatic,cultural,and educational aspects.In an age when modern cultures are intertwined,people are facing different cultures(Geert 52).Comm

19、unication,cooperation,and interdependence have formed a new way of life.Culturalcommunication has become an unavoidable reality.Since the implementation of reforms and openingup in China,there has been a marked increase in foreign exchanges.Currently,with the advent ofeconomic globalization and info

20、rmation networking,this kind of interaction is overwhelming andunstoppable,and Chinas accession to the WTO and the successful bid for the Olympics is“inspiring”.However,due to the role of the Chinese-style hidden cultural thinking model,it oftenhappens that when meeting with the British and American

21、 merchants,negotiating business anddeveloping mutual relations,the foreigners expects us to be the subject of the proceedings,but ourstaff often prefers to avoid the subject and start from the time or from the far side of the space.Chinese merchants usually explain the situation one by one,or hint a

22、t the problem or intention,andsometimes the subject is not clearly identified.As a result,the attention of the foreign merchantshave been transferred to other areas,thus topic has been changed and the opportunity to negotiatewould be lost.The reason for misunderstandings and even conflicts is cultur

23、al differences.Culturaldifferences can create communication barriers.In cross-cultural communication,there are manyobstacles,such as language problems,psychological barriers,historical prejudices and prejudices.All these obstacles may cause misunderstandings and lead to failure of communication.Succ

24、essfulcommunication can not be separated from the observance of politeness principles.The social mediacould be a useful tool to solve the cultural differences.The social media provides more opportunitiesto understand western history,politics,and culture,and establish a sense of cultural differencesb

25、etween China and the Westcountries.Communicating with foreigners by social media,we could4learn about foreign cultures personally.In the process of communication,we could pay moreattention to the difference of culture.If a company wants to sell its products to the internationalmarket,it not only nee

26、ds quality product,but also needs an in-depth understanding of the culture ofdifferent countries so that the product meets the needs of the countrys people in packaging designand practicality.Because we could communicate with each other freely,the social media is an easyway to understand the cultura

27、l difference.2.2Arousing The Sense Of Value IdentityPeople acquire the ability to communicate in the process of socialization,and thiscommunicative ability is inevitably linked to the value concept.Each culture has its own uniquevalue system.This system tells people what is good and what is evil;wha

28、t is beautiful and what isugly;what should be praised and what should be suppressed.However,being considered as good inone culture may be seen as poor in another;certain behavior is considered as normal in one culture,but may be seen as deviant in another culture.In other words,the judgment standard

29、 for each cultureis different.In multinational companies,management and employees from different cultural backgroundshave different corporate values.Employees always feel proud of their countrys culture and feelindifferent to the culture from other countries.The core idea of social media is equality

30、.Thus,it is auseful tool to cultivate employees common corporate values in multinational enterprises because allthe employees communicate with each other in an equal manner by social media(Mary 75).Socialmedai could eliminate racial superiority,and let the employees respect and understand each other

31、sculture.On the basis of this,they could find two or more cultural combinations and give full play tothe cultural advantages of both sides.At this time,the management and staff could accept thebaptism of foreign culture after the foreign culture or self-awareness are integrated into the collectivean

32、d.The willingness of the two parties to cooperate is further deepened.The common values of theenterprise gradually become the complex of the core team culture.At this time,the focus ofmanagement is to establish a unified system of values,to further strengthen the communicationwithin the enterprise,a

33、nd to provide the necessary environment and means for the sustainabledevelopment of enterprises and the long-term smooth internal exchange.The establishment of a5unified value system will ultimately guarantee the continuity of business management,effectivelymobilize the enthusiasm of the staff,great

34、ly improve the work efficiency,and create a harmoniousworking atmosphere.63Impact Of Wechat As A Global Communication ToolWeChat was launched by Tencent Inc in January 21,2011,it is an APP that could send voicemessages,video,picture and text through the Internet.Also,WeChat could make many people ch

35、aton the mobile phone chat software.WeChat has many advantages,such as no tariff,realizing crossplatform communication and displaying real-time input status,etc.WeChat is more economical,flexible,intelligent than traditional SMS communication.WeChat just needs to consume mobilephone traffic,achievei

36、ng instant messaging function of voice,text,picture and other informationacross operators and system platforms by an almost free way.As soon as it was launched,WeChatquickly occupied the market,gained the pride of downloading and usage,and gained good reputationamong people.WeChat is the standard co

37、mmunication tool in the era of mobile Internet.WeChat isanother miracle of the worlds Internet after Facebook and Twitter.Its rapid development is beyondthe speed of development of any digital communication products in the world.After WeChat seizedthe huge cake of mobile terminal social media,it gai

38、ned a huge amount of users and began toplatform.3.1 Wechats Social EffectsWeChat is a fast instant messaging tool with zero-cost,cross-platform communication,andreal-time display of user input status.With the increasing application of WeChat,and the networkedand portable smart phone terminals achiev

39、e faster and more convenient information dissemination,WeChat is more and more popular.Multi-level user forwarding,virus-like information,thedissemination mechanism and the more than 300 million strong sticky user groups build a strongsocial information network.1.Exportation of public opinionNowaday

40、s,more and more people are accustomed to the way of receiving information by fastfood.The fragmented reading mode is closely integrated with the portability of smart phones,making WeChat an important and even the only channel for many people to accept external7information.WeChat public platform,espe

41、cially those public platforms with more subscribers,has avery significant role in guiding social concerns and public opinion.The message sent by the user isforwarded by the user to the free acquaintances to form a circle of friends,which increases thecredibility of the message content and the probab

42、ility of communication.It will form a large scale ofinformation dissemination effect.2.Network marketing platform for enterprises and mediaThe spreading mechanism of WeChats viral information has made many media and enterprisessee tremendous business opportunities.In the current registration of more

43、 than 2 million users,enterprises and media users account for more than 70%.These public platform users can appear inWeChats list for users to search and pay attention to.Because WeChat can only add friends topassively,attracting users to add attention has already achieved the first step of network

44、marketing.3.The source of field interaction under self-organizationWeChat and the user is a point to point accurate transmission,the user is in a parallel state,thepublics interactive response to a certain user,other subscribers can not see,while ensuring privatecommunication,it also draws closer to

45、 the psychological distance between the public platform andthe user.These huge numbers of WeChat users are like integrated information transceivers,whichcan be independent and connected,forming a huge information network.These information networksseem loose and have strong cohesiveness,and their vie

46、ws on the same social events can form arelatively complete public opinion and have a strong self-organization.At the same time,in theprocess of spreading and spreading in a wide range of networks,information exchange betweendifferent fields will be formed through exchanging information and making co

47、mments.3.2 Frequency Of UseAccording to the WeChat user data report in 2015,25%of WeChat users open WeChat morethan 30 times a day,55.2%WeChat users open WeChat more than 10 times a day.From theperspective of the frequency of communication and interaction,the relationship between people canbe divide

48、d into strong and weak links.Strong ties are most likely to arise between individuals andcore family members,close friends,working partners,business partners,and major customers whoare directly connected and interacting with each other frequently;weaker contacts are more extensive8and infrequently c

49、ontacted.Friends,relatives and friends,neighbors,and even the“stronglyconnected”“strongly connected”social contacts,which contacted and interact less frequently,andsometimes have strong links,will be weakened by weak communication and interactiveopportunities.It is due to personal time,experience an

50、d communication opportunities.As a member of social media,WeChat has the greatest feature of making peoples socialrelationships shift from weak relations to strong relationships compared to traditional PC-basedsocial media.Wechat formed a“friend circle”through the introduction of friends,and like am