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  • Essay / Intercultural Communication and Nonverbal Communication

    Hall (cited in Würtz, 2006) defined that high context cultures have a preference for nonverbal communication (p. 55). The high-context culture website uses implicit information, in which it is important to have associated topical information and certain signs. Nonverbal communication mainly focuses on visual effects which are images, animations, links, buttons, music, videos, symbols, and messages related to particular topics (p. 274). Nonverbal communication is one in which most of the information is in physical form, while very little is in text. Singh, Zhao, and Hu (as cited in Ahmed, Mouratidis, and Preston, 2009) demonstrated that “the use of symbols and icons is more important in nonverbal communication” (p. 55). For example, Indian websites regularly use colors, symbols, animations, images and sometimes video clips and music as well. According to Evers (cited in Ahmed, Mouratidis & Preston, 2009), 86.5% of Asians really liked sound effects (Evers, 2001). In short, countries with high context culture use nonverbal communication, namely India, China, Mexico, Brazil, and Japan. Würtz (2006) emphasized message speed, temporal attitude, navigation, and transparency. Hall and Hall (as cited in Würtz, 1990) defined that in a high-context culture, most people take a long time to understand the message. (1990, p.5). The high context Asian website offers the user different types of navigation which will also appear at the top and bottom of the page. Additionally, this could take the form of a link and which would be opened in a new window or could be opened in the same window. Additionally, the high-context culture contains more images, graphics, and less text than the low-context culture. Transparency is handled in a way that makes it easy for users to see what actions are being performed on the website. Additionally, sometimes a high-context website provides a less transparent overview of content than low-context sites (p. 291). Hofstede and Hall (as cited in Ahmed, Mouratidis & Preston, 2009) reported that in a high context, cultural power distance and collectivism are high. In cultures and countries with a high power distance, they will most likely give more respect to their elders. According to Singh and Pereira (as cited in Ahmad, 2006), Mexican websites emphasize the professional degree of the person because it is important to highlight people's titles when designing a website in a high power distance culture (p..