Before I discuss the ties between intercultural communications, globalization and cultural journalism, I’d like to begin with a quote by Mr. Havel, president of the Czech Republic.

“We live now – for the first time in human history – in a new era when our planet is enveloped by a single civilization.”

Indeed, assuming that human beings are culturing beings, one could argue that the world’s ambiguity lies in its inhabitants constantly striving to understand the world in new ways, redefining civilization along the way.

Specifically, one may suggest that our evolving understanding of culture consistently challenges and expands the perception of what it means to be human; how expression of our values and ideals creates a web of culture, that which differentiates us from other life forms; and how moral action may be derived by identifying a sense of ultimate humanity that fulfills our inherent moral potential.

In fact, it was Goethe who said that culture is essential to achieve a sense of morality. Taking things a few steps further, one could argue that culture is about survival of the human species, and that central values drive cultures. That is, culture is not merely a decoration on society, but a basic need – the bedrock of society.

Case in point, in a study conducted between 1989-1992, the cultural traditions of immigrant communities in Norway were examined; and, by way of an art program to promote the cultural traditions of various immigrant groups, actions were taken to prevent discriminatory attitudes. Pursuant intercultural initiatives resulted in documented improvements in interethnic relations, and a decline in incidents of harassment.

The study demonstrated that artistic and musical interaction creates social values. Two or more people create something that is greater than the sum of what they create each on their own. And sympathies are formed - strong feelings of belonging. Music making in a group brings out the social dynamics of the group. Harmonic as well as strained relationships are brought to the forefront, educating us for tolerating a sense of uncertainty.

Artistic initiatives expand cultural awareness, thereby widening the sphere of what is meant by family, community, and a sense of place.

The result of the study, then, was creating a social balance through conflict transformation or, more simply put, peace education. Not mere exposure and training, but true education that results in broadened horizons and interlinked, lateral thinking that extends to at least a degree of urban regeneration based on creative connectedness from shared social experiences.

When considering culture - as well as cross-cultural relations - in this way, one might expect that individuals, or groups of individuals, have to be understood according to several potential cultures in several different hierarchies within different categories of culture. Of the many different possible cultures, the one which could be expected to be the most important for understanding cross-cultural relations will, of course, depend on circumstances and might change rather rapidly.

There is a significant debate about what level of analysis is desirable for the concept of ‘culture’ to be a viable tool. As culture is shared, it implies that it is not necessarily directly connected to the individual on the one hand, yet at the same time it is problematic to establish how many individuals who share a ‘culture’ make up any one culture.

But culture is generally assumed to consist both of “shared meanings” as they are conceptualized in the basic philosophy of life and values among a group of people, and of the way in which these shared meanings are visualized or manifested in people’s social interactions, as well as in the results of those interactions. That is, culture is a conceptual map of a society’s shape, purposes and meanings, understood as 1) a way of life and 2) the arts and learning, or the processes of discovery and creative effort.

As such, culture is not static. It is constantly subjected to pressure for change from both external and internal factors. Determining factors of change affect whether an action for change will actually lead to a change in the culture observed. In a strongly integrated culture, almost everybody agrees on certain values - such as the values of “technological development at all cost,” the “prioritization of economic gain over resource gain,” and the “individual’s right to consume and the freedom of the individual in general.”

On the other hand, values could concern the “individual’s responsibility towards, or dependence on, the group or the whole,” whether this whole is based on a strong religion, a strong family, or on fixed organizational relations. Usually, modern industrial cultures are very integrated around liberalistic freedom values, economic values and individualistic freedom values.

By synthesizing such cultural dimensions into a dynamic whole through what might termed cultural activism, we get a picture of a “cultural reality” where attitudes of curiosity and generosity intersect; where there is a depending of communication as a social process through which we become more sophisticated observers and participants in each other’s cultures – the result being an inclusive, sustainable culture.

Globalization

Arguably, there is a dual material/spiritual aspect to developments in human civilization. This is today no more evident than in the realm of culture. Thanks, precisely, to material developments in the technology of communication (as well as transportation, whose effect has been to bring ever increasing numbers of people from all quarters of the globe into direct face-to-face contact), we are currently witnessing the emergence of a global mass culture – indeed, as Havel would say, a single worldwide civilization.

While individualism is on the rise in China and other non-Western countries, culturalists are of course right in pointing out that cultural differences overall are declining at a rapid rate.

Globalization may have as its effect a certain leveling of cultural differences and, owing to the consumerism it promotes, may make for increasing similarity in lifestyles around the world, but it is difficult to see how this consequence of globalization may not actually have decidedly beneficial effects. If it is anything, true globalization is a potent counter-force to the destructive forces unleashed by the end of the Cold War – the new tribalism, the ethno-nationalism triggered by the demise of socialism and the end of the balance of terror between hostile superpowers.

If there is anything that threatens to turn the emerging new world order into a world disorder and to turn the world itself into the arena for a global “clash of civilizations,” a cultural war of all against all, it is the culturalist obsession with “difference” on the part of both national élites and materially-deprived masses in their countries.

When people are bereft of economic freedom, that is, the opportunity, as Adam Smith would say, “to better their condition,” it is natural that they should focus their attention on what has been referred to as the “narcissism of minor differences.”

The logical consequence of ethnocentric nationalism is ethnic rivalry, warfare, and, ultimately, genocide.

So while true globalization poses challenges, it need not challenge us to choose between “Jihad” and “McWorld.” The choice we are confronted with is not between intercivilizational warfare, on the one hand, and American cultural imperialism on the other hand. Rather, globalization may actually serve to enhance the prospects for democracy in the world through a more cosmopolitan world situation.

So globalization affords the opportunity to achieve a kind of global common prosperity – an opportunity for greatly raising the living standards of untold millions of people around the world.

But globalization is not a one-dimensional process. Rather, it gives voice to exploitation, as well as cooperation and solidarity, as well as new cultural and artistic expressions. Cooperation, networking, and the exchange of information – all a part of healthy globalism - are today more important than ever before, to create a social space where communicative action takes place.

Cultural Journalism

And now a few words about cultural journalism, and how it fits into the scheme of promoting and nurturing intercultural communications in a global community.

Note: Even though the process is not new, the term - cultural journalism - was first used to describe publications inspired by FOXFIRE, a quarterly magazine produced by high school students in rural Georgia. Conceived in 1966 by teacher Eliot Wigginton, FOXFIRE became a diversified project, rooted in a magazine that publishes interviews with older people in the community.

Ultimately, cultural journalism rests on the belief that changes in world events occur first, subtly, in culture. Culture critic Johanna Keller once wrote, “Art is our crystal ball and artists are the gazers. It is up to us, as arts journalists and critics, to translate their discoveries to our readers, and to challenge institutions, artists, and ourselves to see further down the road.”

A growing number of publications identify the significance of cultural heritage in our lives, a trend that indicates a concern for vanishing traditions, skills, or world views; as well as concern about where modern humans, both as individuals and collective beings, are headed. On this premise, cultural journalists chronicle the traditional skills and values of many different groups – whether defined by ethnic origin, occupation, or environment – to relate the ways of living that make a region or cultural group unique.

In turn, cultural journalists examine, extrapolate and communicate ideas that are often as relevant to the past as they are to the present and to the future. The role of a cultural journalist, then, is as a kind of cultural historian and cultural ambassador.

For example, The Christian Science Monitor routinely augments world news with articles that examine the diverse cultures touched on by the news. And, increasingly, magazines combine the techniques of oral history and photography to portray cultures that are unique, and values that are universal.

All of these publications employ cultural journalism, ultimately as a means of tracking the human journey which, at its core, is about the extension of empathy to broader and more inclusive domains.

Why cultural journalism?

As the world grows smaller, the mutual understanding of diverse groups of people becomes more important to peace and cooperation. Cultural journalism is a vehicle to promote such understanding. Eliot Wigginton asks, “If students could be brought to a genuine understanding of their own culture and race and background, would they then be in a position to be more curious about - and understanding and sympathetic toward - other races and cultures and backgrounds?”

As a microcosm of world cultures, the United States is a unique resource for cultural journalists who can begin with their own communities to interpret the significance of the diverse origins of cultures and peoples.

Cultural journalism and the study of globalization

When we speak of globalization, we are usually referring in one way or another to borders or boundaries such as territorial, social and cultural. These borders have been crossed and re-crossed since the beginning of civilization. So if globalization is something new, it must involve more than a series of proliferating cross border exchanges.

As people have thought about the contemporary period, it is not so much that borders are crossed or even opened up. Rather it is that they are transcended. Global phenomena are those that extend across widely dispersed locations simultaneously and can move between places simultaneously. As such, globalization is a matter of compressing space and time. So territorial distance and borders have limited significance; the globe becomes a single place in its own right.

But globalization won’t work if it’s limited to America’s uni-directional paradigm. In fact, one dimension of cultural journalism is an appreciation of diversity, including sourcing, preserving, documenting and disseminating its sources, from wherever they may come, whatever perspective they may offer, be it provocative or responsive.

Cultural journalists, then, are here to chronicle culture in a critical activity purposed to defend, and hopefully expand civic thinking.

In summary, themes of “Intercultural Communication,” “Globality,” and “Cultural Journalism” coexist and interrelate in a world climate where intercultural education and understanding, and dissemination of related information is key. As a journalist, by exposing these constructed categories, I hope to shift the focus away from the confines of the political, economic, social and cultural ideas themselves to policy responses that effectuate real world cultural integration.

Thank you for your attention.

NOTE/DISCLAIMER: The contents of this paper are not presented as wholly original material; rather, as a compilation of existing research from numerous sources, edited and expanded for relevance to the conference on “Common Global Responsibility.” For sources and footnotes, contact Sabine Kortals at SabineEKortals@aol.com.