Ryan K blog #2

The interpretive approach to intercultural communication "aims to understand and describe human behavior within specific cultural groups" (Martin and Nakayama 2012, p. 60). The underlying assumptions behind this approach are that human communication/experience is subjective, behavior is creative/unpredictable, and culture has a symbiotic relationship with communication (Martin and Nakayama 2012, p. 60). My practice as an interpretive researcher begins with the movie Crash (2005) by Paul Haggis.

The film examines racial tensions in post-9/11 Los Angeles. Here's a trailer.


I noted three patterns of intercultural communication within the film, and thankfully all three have a corresponding YouTube clip! Crash heavily focuses on conflict between cultures, which means I'll be focusing on the way that members of different cultures communicate in conflict situations.



Warning: Clip heavily implies/shows sexual assault, in case anyone doesn't want to view that sort of thing.

In this clip I see several patterns of communication: there's certainly a racial element here with the police officer demonstrating very blatant racism: a white man who responded that way to the police would be unlikely to be pulled out of his car that way. For those somehow unaware of the historical context here, the LAPD is pretty well-known for some high-profile racism. Google Rodney King. The film is clearly drawing upon that association here to demonstrate a power differential dynamic between the persons of color and the white police officer. Cameron (the man in the car) is forced to submit even though the cops are obviously in the wrong and even sexually assaulting his wife.

The gender pattern here is relatively prevalent as well, in two ways. Christine (the woman in the car) is abused by the white male officer which reinforces the male/female power dynamic in communication. Furthermore, Cameron feels obligated to protect the person he loves (his wife), but also pressured based upon his gender to react in a certain way to the situation. By being forced to submit even when his wife is being abused, he is emasculated--which once again feeds in to the power differential between the white police officers and Cameron/Christine.



In this clip, Sandra Bullock's character is upset because her husband hired a locksmith of Latino descent after having recently been carjacked by two young black men. She admits in the scene to basically being wrong about her racism but asks her husband to act regardless. You'll probably find her reaction to be in extremely poor taste, because it is. While this isn't explicitly an example of a communication interaction between members of different cultures (most of the clip is Sandra Bullock and Brendan Fraser), it is intercultural in the sense that it shows white people constructing (false) images of persons of color and using attacking those images. In a way, this shows a limitation of the interpretive approach because her experience in observing culture yielded data that would lead her to make predictions about behavior. That her racism isn't even directed toward the same race in the clip doesn't even seem relevant to her, which could be an example of how the majority in a power differential situation marginalizing the diversity of out-groups (relegating all persons of color to one race is probably disempowering/bad). Another interesting point here is that it is unlikely Bullock's character would interact this way directly with persons of color- it is a conversation she privileges only for fellow white people.

Overall, the interpretive approach here demonstrates the influence that cultural location has on communication interaction. As long as we keep in mind that human interaction is subjective and limit our conclusions to describing specific interactions, the interpretive approach allows insight into cultural interaction. Qualitative data is extremely important in supporting most legitimate scientific claims.

The danger (and limitations) that come into play here come with the idea of stereotyping. First, I'd note overall that Crash was written and directed by a white man. White men are uniquely unfit to talk about the impact/influence of racism and sexism, which was a key point made in the film. (This makes examining movies particularly dangerous, if you take the conclusions any further than the movie itself).) Second, while the interpretive approach attempts to describe/understand communication behavior, an understanding must be understood to be subjective and to consider it universal would be dangerous. Interpret - but keep in mind history, power, and the limitations of the research.

Works Cited
Haggis, Paul (Producer & Director). 2004. Crash. USA: Lionsgate.
Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2012). Intercultural communication in contexts (6th ed). Boston, MA: McGraw Hill.