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rchristo10
Joined: 14 Jul 2009
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 Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2012 8:21 pm Post subject: |
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| komerican wrote: |
I'm sure you can read the article rchristo10. You haven't made a convincing argument that acculturation is irrelevant to the modern world. You couldn't sound more patronizing in your "complimenting" SBS, lol. What interests me is how you're so unaware how patronizing you are! lol.
Clearly, there are different stages of assimilation which afford different levels of recognition by the dominant members of a society. Being educated through the public education system is the primary way to "become" a Korean. Eslers of course have never wanted to be acculturalized. But of course assimilation at work can happen but not cultural assimilation which is more important.
The quote below from the article pretty much outlines my point.
| Quote: |
The key to achieving perfect functional fit and communication, according to Gudykunst and Kim (2003) is for the immigrant to "unlearn" and "deculturize" (pp. 360, 379-382) themselves and avoid "ethnic communication activities" (p. 368). According to Gudykunst and Kim (2003), unfortunately some people have personalities that are inherently less amenable to such deculturization and training and they tend to be "unrealistic," "functionally unfit," and "aggressive" (pp. 368�372). Presumably, since Gudykunst and Kim (2003) define these negative traits as "personality predispositions" (p. 368) or "adaptive predisposition" (p. 370) ...Gudykunst and Kim (2003) go more for forced compliance via public education as they argue that the new kind of better person and world they promote can be created by "programming" peoples' minds (p. 358) through intense socialization so that the cultural patterns they (Gudykunst and Kim) evaluate as good are "etched into our nervous systems and become part of our personalities and behavior" (p |
This is the process of acculturation as it exists in the West but not in Korea obviously for historical reasons. And of course all your patronizing comments cannot circumvent this process. There is no new model of acculturation that you allude to. The interview of the foreign women is pretty meaningless and frankly I have never even seen that in all the years I lived in the West.
You�re comments also carry little weight since your are imposing an arbitrary standard on Koreans that you seem to be making up as you go along, lol. As a Westerner, instead of taking this haughty, hectoring tone with Koreans you should be extremely humble since the record on this so called multiculturalism in the West is terrible. Korea should not be the test bed for your voodoo, crackpot ideas on multiculturalism.  |
Hi, Komerica. Thank you for your well thought out reply (it's a nice break from you-know-who). Finally, I think we can have some discourse.
First, I do know how patronizing I sound. I also admit that the field of media is one that intrinsically has expectations that are based on cultural elements that are not necessarily Korean. So, in my view, the general expectations of what qualifies or doesn't qualify as responsible journalism justifies my patronizing belief that Korean media has to be more American, European, or Western or what have you. It wasn't a slip. International standards are imposed...though not fairly or equally--I admit.
Second, the excerpt you're quoting comes from the book Intercultural Communications 2003 (but relying heavily on details from Gudykunst's 1988 work), which details a theory that presupposes the need-based interaction between communities in which culture plays a major role (esp. as an obstacle) regarding communication. It also details the necessity of the adaptations required to facilitate that communication--again, between cultures that are shaped primarily by readily distinguishable and differing cultural absolutes.
Regardless, I agree that you have a valid point: some people--like "[Some] Eslers have never wanted to be acculturated." In fact, I'd agree that many are even averse to "unlearning" and "decultur[izing]" themselves in Korea. But, I think that media's bias towards the general foreign public in response to a few (or even the majority) does not retroactively justify such behavior. To put it simply, I don't see how the "acculturation" of groups or individuals matters in media fulfilling its responsibility of presenting unbiased news to its audiences.
Third, I'm not sure why you think I'm promoting that Korea be humble (in comparison to any other country or that of itself). In fact, my praise of SBS and any other broadcast is primarily because of the lack thereof. I'm commending them on their raising their standards in terms of their professionalism regarding this topic.
In terms of hackneyed notions of integration, to be honest, I'm still on the fence when it comes to multiculturalism and globalization. For one, they have as many cons as they do pros. For two, people seem to use the terms as blanket expressions that often end up adding little value to discussion. I used the term in the title, but well, you know what they say about judging things by title alone.
In terms of what you seem to be suggesting, the question still remains: Does "acculturation" (which you've quoted as a process of unlearning & deculturalizing) even matter when it comes to delivering or (as the international standard promotes) trying to deliver the news without bias?
Most democracies give Power of the Press with the Humian assumption that that newspapers will practice journalistic due diligence. In the case of Korea, that's not necessarily happening--especially but not exclusively--when it comes to reporting on non-Koreans in the country. That's all. |
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