High- and Low-context cultures in electronic communications and websites(Research based on websites in the tourism sector)

Jane Jovanov, M.A.

The Theory A few decades ago, the famous linguist Edward Hall proposed the theory of

"High and Low-context cultures"

Edward T. Hall Born in 1914, passed away in 2009 American anthropologist and cross-cultural researcher During the 1950s he worked for the United States State Department,

at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) He teached inter-cultural communications skills to foreign service

personnel Developed the concept of "High context culture" and "low context

culture“ He is considered a founding father of intercultural communication as

an academic area of study Beyond Culture (1976)

Introduction

Each communication process has unique characteristics in each society Those characteristics give every person a special "trace" in society, a specific

behavior and a specific kind of style in different situations Each person reflects his values during the communication process, as well as

his approach to building relationships with other people The character of each person determines the style of communication, i.e.

individual characteristics are determinant of whether the speech of a certain man will be reserved, open, nervous, short or long

The significance of the (style of) communication is quite simple - it is a necessary tool to perform successful communicative acts, to create relationship with the communicators, to choose different ways to solve problems

Introduction The effectiveness of cross-cultural communication in the modern

world depends on the level of utilization of all its components, the most significant of which is the communication style

Styles of communication differ in different cultures. The most commonly distinguished four types of verbal communication styles are:

- Direct and indirect style;- Correct, "tight";- Personal and situational;- High context vs. low context.

High- and low-context cultures

Edward Hall believes that knowing the characteristics of high- and low-context cultures is a key aspect for a successful conduct of communicative acts

The name of the theory itself tells that the most important factor in his theory is the context

The context is an extension of the background, the system and circumstances in which there is an ongoing communicative act

High-context cultures High-context cultures represent relational, collectivist, intuitive cultures,

meaning that people are part of these cultures have their primary focus on the relationship between people

Creating confidence is one of the most important steps to achieve any successful communication, or to have a success in the case of the business world

High-context cultures, according to Hall, require group compliance Rationality plays a far smaller role. Context plays a dominant role, as opposed to words Facial expressions, behavior, the way you stand, sit, talk etc. are “saying” far

more in these cultures than many communicative acts with the representatives of these cultures.

Language is "decorated" with expressions that are considered redundant in everyday speech, and apologies are often encountered.

Low-context cultures Low-context cultures give priority to individuality, readiness for

action, continuity and logics This means that representatives of these cultures prefer facts, logic

and directness Resolving problems in low-context cultures is done through exposure

of facts and evaluation. Decisions in these cultures are based on facts, not on arbitrary piling of "facts"

In low-context cultures all communicative interactions end with a completed work and the participants in the conversation are direct and precise, their discourse is not rich with linguistic redundancies

Business circles prefer this kind of communication because documents contain no excessive meaning and linguistic labyrinths that "blur" the meaning of the content.

High-context cultures

Low-context cultures

African states, Arab world, Brazil, China, The

Philippines, Finland, Greece, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latin

America, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Thailand, Turkey,

Macedonia...

USA, Australia, Canada, Germany, Ireland, New

Zealand, Sweden, Norway

According to the Hall’s theory, in the event of a conflict between high-context and low-context cultures, representatives of high-context cultures do not confront, they use a vague language that is not direct, and it is assumed that participants in the conversation should understand the importance from context itself.

On the other hand, representatives of low-context cultures are direct; they use logics and rationality in the discussion, or use objective truth as a way to get to the truth in a linear way. In contrast, high-context cultures neglect rationality and rely on non-linear processes in order to get to the truth.

Geert Hofstede’s theory

Geert Hofstede in 1980 offered an alternative to the Hall’s theory of high- and low-context cultures

He proposed the theory of "collectivist and individualist cultures," which is largely compatible with Hall’s theory

The essence of this theory is this: high-context cultures are collectivist cultures, while low-context cultures are individualistic

The attitude towards people in high-context cultures is often determined by societies’ opinion of the subject’s family, while personal achievements play a smaller role

Low-context cultures are individualistic, appreciate the achievements of the individual, society expects them to be independent, to take care of themselves and not depend on the help of others

Web pages, business and culture

According to the abovementioned theory from Hall and Hofstede, we can say that high-context cultures to a greater extent use tools aimed to attract more visitors to websites

Because high-context cultures deal mostly with context, we can say that the use of images, sounds, animations will be represented to a greater extent than in a low-context cultures

Opposite from high-context cultures, low-context cultures are expected to produce websites that contain more text and less animations, pictures and effects, sites that puts greater emphasis on practical delivering of any information.

High-context cultures are expected to use aesthetics in the creation of websites, while low-context cultures endorse practicality.

Web pages, business and culture

Because high-context cultures direct their emphasis on collectivistic values - family and morality, we can expect the contents of web pages, which are created in these countries, to have more images of families, children, groups etc.

On the other hand, low-context culture are individualistic by nature, so we expect these cultures to create websites that are simplified, sites that display situations that are characteristic of the individual (the display of daily situations that are not burdened by family groups or areas).

Web pages, business and culture In order to present the differences between the high-context and low-

context cultures and their impact on the creation of websites, we will compare the websites of several countries, including USA, Germany, Czech Republic, Macedonia and Russia

The first two countries are classified as low-context, Czech is considered a medium-context culture, while Macedonia and Russia are high-context cultures

The reason for choosing these five countries is simple - the first two countries are classified as LC cultures, countries that do not need a certain background and context in communication. The last two (Macedonia and Russia) are taken as examples of countries whose cultures are classified as HC.

In the middle is the Czech Republic, which is considered a medium-context culture

Web pages from USA

Web pages from USA

Web pages from USA Websites "Atlas Cruises & Tours" and "Liberty Travel" from the US are

beautiful examples that reflect the low-context culture of this country Their design is simple, they contain no animations, have a display of

photographs of the destinations they offer with almost no or some people on them, which underlines the individualist nature of the LC culture

Most of the information on these two websites from USA is directly contained on their main pages, and any additional links on them lead to more detailed information about the offers provided on the main website

Another feature of these pages is "enjoyment" and "dream" - as the main message of the websites. Comparing LC and HC cultures, LC cultures are prone to show individual enjoyment and present the joys in life. "Enjoy your dream vacation in Europe" and "Do not just dream it, live it" is a classic example for that

Web pages from Germany

Web pages from Germany

Web pages from Germany

Web pages from Germany present a similar approach as the web pages in the United States

Besides the simplicity of the messages and the offers, there is no excessive graphic load, all information is contained in the boxes with pictures and explanations for each destination, and clicking on any of them leads to more detailed information on each destination.

There is no noticeable presence of animations. The photos on the web pages underline the individuality and hedonism, which are traits of low-context cultures. The first example shows a girl resting in the pool, and right next to her a suitcase is shown, which alludes to the journey that offers vacation without additional stress and excess people

Web pages from the Czech Republic

Web pages fromthe Czech Republic

Web pages from the Czech Republic

Unlike the websites of the previous two countries, the US and Germany, the websites from the Czech Republic contain animations, although, not too much as to create a "burdened experience"

In addition, there is a greater presence of sliding windows that can be used to search suitable travel arrangements. As with websites in Germany and the United States, we can see only one or two people on the pictures

Czech Republic is classified as middle-context culture, and these webpages beautifully illustrate that fact

Web pages from Russia

Web pages from Russia

Web pages from Russia

Web pages of tour operators from Russia present a stark contrast from the previous examples

One can immediately notice that searching and simple orientation in the contents of the web page is much more complicated; there is a different approach in search of desired destinations and arrangements; small amount of information is contained on the main page, there are number of flash animations, and even online help in a different window.

Russian pages have a number of fields for detailed search, which hampers with the experience on the web page and increases the spent time on them

Web pages from Macedonia

Web pages from Macedonia

Web paged from Macedonia

Web pages of travel agencies from Macedonia show features that can be found in high-context cultures

Almost all web pages in Macedonia contain Flash animations and numerous multimedia and photos

Information is not always available on the main page – it is necessary to click on the contents of the main page in order to get the required information

As it can be seen on the web pages, there are numerous examples where a group of people is shown on the pictures (a feature of high-context cultures).

There is very little amounts of text on the main web pages, but that rapidly changes once the web user goes deeper in the content.

Conclusion Through the displayed selection of web pages from five countries (USA,

Germany, Czech Republic, Russia and Macedonia) in the field of tourism, one can notice the difference in the appearance, characteristic for high-context and low-context cultures

Theories of Edward Hall and Hofstede confirm the hypothesis that culture affects the way certain countries use language and create web pages

This study considered web pages that offer services only to citizens of the respective countries; the number of languages in which a certain web page is translated was not considered

This review demonstrates that web pages from US and Germany have far simpler structure, they are not burdened with multimedia effects, information is generally visible on the main page; pages from the Czech Republic showed increased presence of animations and windows with additional parameters, while pages from Russia and Macedonia offer a completely different approach, typical of high-context cultures (multimedia animations, groups of people and a small amounts of text).

Thank you for your attention