Intercultural communication is key in cross-border collaborations. Time and attention has been dedicated to introduce basic knowledge on intercultural and team communication early on in the process and to stimulate students’ curiousity for these competences. Experience from CJC and the international Master in Investigative Journalism at the lead partner Gothenburg University shows that this works well with the double purpose of making teams work more smoothly and – in the beginning of the programme – to help students get to know each other.
Lecture on intercultural communication and team communication
For inspiration – lectures from the CJC experience (in pptx and in pdf format)
Group work: intercultural communication exercise
The purpose of this workshop is twofold: To give students the opportunity to apply the terminology and practice presented in the lecture and to get to know each other.
CJC partner MIJ has used the Intercultural Communication package in the first week of the MA years as introduction opportunity for the new class and with good student feedback.
For inspiration – exercises for the workshop from the CJC experience (in pptx and in pdf format)
Reading material for lecturers:
With annotations based upon the CJC experience.
Alfter, Brigitte (2019). Cross-border Collaborative Journalism. A Step-By-Step Guide. Routledge, chapter 5.
* Summarising intercultural communication from business sociology, culture studies, philosophy.
Askehave, Inger; Gram, Malene; Norlyk, Birgitte (2009). Culture in a business context. In Meanings and Messages. Intercultural business communication. Academica, Århus.
* Introduction to the basic features, terminology and lines of thinking on intercultural communication in the field of business sociology.
Gadamer, Hans-Georg (2013). Truth and Method. Bloomsbury Academic.
* The German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer in his classic work argues, that it is not possible to detach ourselves from our cultural background such as culture, gender, language, education, history and so forth, we have different world views or “horizons”. Meeting each other we can widen our horizons or reach a “fusion” of these horizons (Horizontverschmelzung) to get a wider and shared understanding.
Hofstede, Geert (1991). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind. New York: McGraw Hill.
* Seminal work in the field of intercultural communication in business sociology. The clear categories of the functionalist approach make it an easy way into the field, however the interpretative school of thinking is critical of exactly this simplicity. As journalists, we are not diving deeply into the theories and can allow ourselves to be inspired by functionalist and interpretative approaches alike and adapt them to the needs of our teams.
Hofstede, G., Hofstede G. J., Minkov, M. (2010). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind. New York: McGraw Hill.
* Being a pioneer, Hofstede worked from his own world in his early years. In later years he collaborated with scholars in other parts of the world, adding a variety of angles.
Luyendijk, Joris (2016). Swimming with sharks. Faber & Faber.
* This is a book investigating the financial crisis of 2008 by Dutch journalist and anthropologist Joris Luyendijk, based upon his work for the Guardian Banking Blog, where he interviewed people in the London finance sector using anthropological methodologies.
Rosenberg, M. (2003). Nonviolent communication: a language of life. Puddle Dancer Press.
* Rosenberg developed one of several communication theories in psychology. What makes his approach interesting is the step-by-step approach of how to communicate, how to understand each other. This makes Nonviolent Communication easy to access for journalists as interview technique as well as for team work.