Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Northwestern University/MIT 398 Intercultural International Communication (Fall 2024)

As a result of new communication technologies, the movement of people across borders, global media, transnational organizations and economies, the need for intercultural and international communication understanding and competency has become more salient than ever. This course examines the relationships between communication and national cultures. The course covers theory and research in intercultural and international communication, and aims to identify and describe the many different ways we communicate and interact across cultures and nations. Through a combination of research projects, discussion and case studies some of the issues that will be discussed are: theories of symbolic interaction, nonverbal communication, world-system theory, global flows of information, interaction between beliefs and identities, the importance of power and context in intercultural and international communication. By the end of this course students should be able to read and analyze current research in intercultural and international communication from multiple research paradigms; learn skills to communicate effectively across culturally diverse environments by identifying challenges that arise from difference, increase intercultural competence by creatively addressing those challenges, broaden perspectives of culture and people in general and build capacity to adapt by exploring cultural and international similarities and differences. With Wikipedia: I would like students to locate intercultural and international communication topics underrepresented (such as Middle East and North Africa), and add/edit information. The class is comprised of international students with excellent English language skills.