Identity Theories, Identity Theories Intercultural Communication, and the Election of Barack Obama

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Identity Theories,
Identity Theories
Intercultural Communication,
and the Election of Barack
Obama

• M
  Michael Prosser, Ph.D.
  
• Distinguished Professor,
• College of Journalism and
  Communication,
  
• Shanghai International
  Studies University
  
• Webpage
  www.michaelprosser.com
  
• Email
  michaelhprosser_at_yahoo.com
  
• 
  Phone [phone]

2
Mr. President
3
Socrates self identification I am neither a
citizen of Athens, nor of Greece, but of the
world.
4
Aristotle Goal of persuasion leading men to
truth, justice, goodness, wisdom happiness
The good life
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Language is the soul of culture.

• Conscious or unconscious use of verbal and
  nonverbal symbols to create identification and
  consubstantiality,
  
• Overcoming estrangement and division,
• Leading humans toward The Good Life,
• Moving humans toward their critical role in
  developing culture as a means of unifying
  society.
  
• Kenneth Burke

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Marshall McLuhans Global Village vs. Rupert
Murdocks Global City

• McLuhan All the world has shrunk now to a
  global village.
  
• Media create identification with the cultural
  messages.
  
• Which media is best suited for leaders
  identification?
  
• New media require new forms of civic discourse.
• Murdock All the world is now a global city.
• More than half of the worlds population live in
  cities.
  
• All major news is instaneous and global.
• The world is divided between haves and have
  nots.

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The Universal Audience

• Rational men and women
• Who know how to judge, critique, and test
  arguments through their own reasoned knowledge
  and lived experience,
  
• Developing a motivated human community,
• And moving toward multiculturality of purpose,
• While removing incompatibilities between groups,
  
  
• And identifying with one sort of rational
  argument over another less rational one.
  
• Chaim Perelman, The New
  Rhetoric
  

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Language, discourse and power

• Thematic language and discourse
• Discursive formations,
• The archeology of the mind and modes of inquiry,
  leading toward truth as relative within a
  culture.
  
• The relation of power in language and discourse.
• Historically, what language or discourse is
  allowed, banned, restricted, encouraged or
  discouraged?
  
• How do people in a civil society identify or
  reject some concepts or ideas, as guided by their
  leaders or culture?
  
• Michel Foucault

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Emancipation and Creation of The Good Life

• Universal model of communication required
• to show how rational and irrational language and
  discourse
  
• interact in creating, emancipating and
  identifying a Good Life for citizens,
  
• And positive intercultural and multicultural
  discourse,
  
• While rejecting distorted communication through
  corrupted language.
  
• Jurgen Habermas

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Contemporary Identity Theories

• William B. Gudykunst notes and explains three
  intercultural theories related to identity
  
• identity management theory (IMT),
• identity negotiation theory (INT),
• and cultural identity theory (CIT).

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The identity management theory

• is based on the concept of interpersonal
  communication competence,
  
• which naturally relates to intercultural
  communication competence (ICC).
  
• Identity theories can provide expectations for
  behavior and motivate individuals behavior.
  
• Cultural and relational identities can be seen as
  central to the identity management theory

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Identity negotiation theory

• individuals negotiate their concept of identity
  with their own perceptions of their multiple
  identities and those perceptions of others with
  whom they communicate.
• Individuals resourcefulness in negotiating the
  identity or identities which they see for
  themselves and those which others see for them
  helps them to manage their own security-vulnerabil
  ity and inclusion-differentiation.
• The more secure the individuals positive
  self-identification , the greater is their own
  identity coherence and global self-esteem,
  
• The greater their membership in collective
  esteem, the more resourceful they are when
  interacting with strangers, who may be positive
  or negative in their perceptions of the
  individuals under consideration.

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The cultural identity theory

• 1. the more that norms and meanings differ in
  discourse, the more intercultural the contact,
  
• 2. the more individuals have intercultural
  communication competence, the better they are
  able to develop and maintain intercultural
  relationships,
• 3. the more that cultural identities differ in
  the discourse, the more intercultural the
  contact,
  
• 4. the more one persons ascribed cultural
  identity for the other person matches the other
  persons avowed cultural identity, the more the
  intercultural communication competence,
• 5.linguistic references to cultural identity
  systematically have important contacts with
  sociocontextual factors such as participants,
  type of communication episodes, and topics.

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Obamas election strategy to create his own
persona

• As a self-proclaimed very unlikely candidate
  for the American presidency, with a white
  American mother and Kenyan father, he was forced
  constantly,
• to create enduring and new identities for himself
  after charges by his opponents,
  
• of being too inexperienced to become president,
  to paling around with terrorists, to being
  other, and therefore not a real American, to
  possibly being a Muslim, or an Arab, or a
  socialist,
• of being a celebrity with no substance,
• and implicitly, as an African-American and
  therefore a member of a co-cultural or inferior
  outgroup as untrustworthy to lead the United
  States as the first black biracial president.

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McCain and Palin concede election
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McCain changing his own identity

• McCain kept trying to change his own identity
  from a war hero,
  
• and living his life as a man of honor,
• while promoting his maverick identity,
• and denying his own identity as so closely linked
  to President Bush.
  
• By selecting an inexperienced Sarah Palin as his
  running mate,
  
• he muted his intended identification of Obama as
  too inexperienced.

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Palins creation of her perceived self- and
Obamas identity unsuccessful

• Selection by McCain of Palin successful with
  conservative base
  
• But unsuccessful with many independents, women,
  minorities, and Democrats,
  
• Who increasingly decided that she was too
  inexperienced to serve as Vice President,
  
• And who disliked her negative identity attacks on
  Obama.

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Obamas minority status as identification with
co-cultures

• Obama remained calm, cool and unflappable,
  accommodating and adapting to all of the charges
  and changing circumstances that developed
  
• And sucessfully used his co-cultural status to
  draw in large levels of electoral support by
  African-Americans,, white women, Latinos and
  Hispanics,
• the young and often new voters,
• and many independent and some Republican voters.
• He was overwhelmingly endorsed in voting by most
  American minorities.
  
• He developed also a near global self-esteem.

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Colin Powell endorsement

• The endorsement of former Secretary of State in
  the first Bush administration,
  
• identifying Obama as a transformational figure
• aided him in being conceived as a serious and
  outstanding candidate who was more likely to lead
  the US better than McCain could do.
  

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Applying identity theories to Obamas election

• An eloquent speaker, expert use of language and
  metaphors,
  
• nearly flawless campaign management
• Positive self-identification
• Creation of movement toward unity and not
  division
  
• Creation and recreation of his own persona
• Demonstration of high level intercultural
  competence
  
• Charisma (celebrity status)
• Identification with co-cultures
• Reidentification of McCain as a third Bush
  administration
  
• Rejection of attacks of Palin from a co-cultural
  group
  
• Creation of a universal audience

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Chinese papers announce Obama victory, November
5, 2008
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Obama Victory Speech in Grant Park, Chicago to
200,000 people
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TIME 2008 Person of the Year

• In one of the craziest elections in American
  history, he overcame a lack of experience, a
  funny name, two candidates who are political
  institutions and the racial divide to become the
  44th President of the United States.

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President Bush dodges shoes in Iraq
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References

• Gudykunst, W.B. (2003). Intercultural
  communication theories. In W.B. Gudykunst, Ed.
  Cross-cultural and Intercultural Communication.
  Thousand Oaks, CA Sage
• Kulich, S.J. Prosser, M.H. (Eds.) (2007)
  Intercultural Perspectives on Chinese
  Communication. Shanghai Shanghai Foreign
  Language Education Press

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Introduction

• State the purpose of the discussion
• Identify yourself

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Topics of Discussion

• State the main ideas youll be talking about

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Topic One

• Details about this topic
• Supporting information and examples
• How it relates to your audience

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Topic Two

• Details about this topic
• Supporting information and examples
• How it relates to your audience

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Topic Three

• Details about this topic
• Supporting information and examples
• How it relates to your audience

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Real Life

• Give an example or real life anecdote
• Sympathize with the audiences situation if
  appropriate

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What This Means

• Add a strong statement that summarizes how you
  feel or think about this topic
  
• Summarize key points you want your audience to
  remember

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Next Steps

• Summarize any actions required of your audience
• Summarize any follow up action items required of
  you