Intercultural Communication: A Global Reader--Review and Evaluation

Jandt, F.E. (Ed.). (2004). Intercultural Communication: A Global Reader. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Intercultural Communication is a handbook of readings on the interplay of language, culture, and identity on a global scale. While the focus of the book is on intercultural communication, as the title suggests, the book is as much a sociological examination of globalization and the changing relationships between nations as it is a treatise on communication. Consequently, the scope of this work is quite broad. It covers several broad topics on communication between cultures, and narrows down towards the end of the book to talk specifically about globalization and the relationships between the developed and developing parts of the world. Consequently, this work covers a myriad of issues from a variety of cultures, and contains enough on each that there is depth to every topic covered. Thus, this work succeeds in achieving both breadth and depth of scope, making it a particularly useful resource.

This work is written for an undergraduate audience. The language is fairly simple, and the readings are relatively straightforward. Thus, this work would be accessible to a large portion of the general public. Researchers in the field of communication may find this work useful, and the overall scholarship of its constituent articles is good. However, most serious researchers or professionals in communications would desire to seek other, more in-depth resources to meet their needs. The entries in this work are deeper than an encyclopedia, but not as rigorous as would be found in a typical scholarly handbook.

Even though it is ten years old, this work still remains relevant. The topics that it covers include issues of national identity, dying languages, conflict in the Middle East, fallout from nineteenth and twentieth century colonialization, and globalization as a result of leaps forward in communications technology. Each of these topics are still relevant in today’s world. Even though the information this book has to offer is a bit dated, and the perspective on any of the given topics may feel a little old, the overall themes and subjects covered in this work remain highly relevant and timely in the modern field of communications. As a result, this remains a work that could be used to reach a better understanding of modern communications.

The authority of this work is also quite sound. The lead editor holds a doctorate in the field of communications and has spent decades performing research on intercultural communications around the world. Furthermore, he has taught on communications at several prestigious institutions (Jandt 2004, pg. viii). Thus, the lead editor of this work is quite qualified to oversee the editing and compilation of this handbook because of his decades of education and hands-on research in international and intercultural communication. Moreover, the authors selected for this work are all respected in their field and writing about their own cultures (Jandt 2004, pg. ix). Thus, each is well suited to speak on their particular area of expertise, and relay that information in this handbook. All of this lends this work a good deal of authority.

 The documentation of Intercultural Communications is its weakest point. Like many undergraduate handbooks, most of the articles have had their bibliographies excised from the text and put elsewhere, probably online. Therefore the documentation of this work is inconsistent. Several articles retain their full bibliographies, some have partials, and a few have absolutely no references whatsoever. This lack further removes this work from being useful for a serious communications researcher or professional, and even weakens its utility for the undergraduate student.

Finally, this work is designed specifically to present an unbiased take on the topics being presented. Jandt writes that he chose authors for each part of this work from around the world. Furthermore, no author writes on a topic that is outside of their own culture. Thus, no authors are imposing their own viewpoints on the cultures or perspectives outside of their own. This removes much of the danger for bias inherent in writing a text on intercultural communication because it ensures that one viewpoint is not being imposed on every aspect of the issue, but rather allows multiple peoples and cultures to speak for themselves. This lends a good deal of weight to the words in this text, and makes it that much more powerful of a tool for providing and introduction to intercultural communications.