Culture and CommunicationIntroductionIn The Silent Language, Edward Hall's (1959) seminal examination of nonverbal communication, it is ambiguously stated that "culture is communication and communication is culture" ( 217). While this statement obviously lacks broad explanatory power, Hall nevertheless aptly articulates the crucial roles that culture plays in communication research. From its role in theories of communication to its treatment as both an independent and dependent variable in experimental studies, culture shapes the nature of what researchers think about communication and speaks to the very heart of what communication is. This literature review will first briefly mention the historical origins of culture in communication research and identify what has become the major area of ​​quantitative research on communication in culture: intercultural communication. Next, we will examine the definition of culture adopted by intercultural communication researchers. Finally, we will explore how this definition is applied through an exploration of the variables, levels of analysis, and other salient dimensions of communication. History and MotivationEven before Hall's concise equation of communication and culture, early communication scholars had identified the importance of culture in matters of communication. As Delia (1985) noted, Chicago sociologists were actively interested in understanding how the flow of immigrants entering American cities at the turn of the century would integrate within this new society. In these early studies, communication was seen as a way to shape a culture that allowed immigrants to feel more American, with a unified culture serving as a mechanism to mitigate... middle of paper... individualism -Collectivism refers the degree to which a culture emphasizes the goals of an individual over the goals of the collective. (e.g. quotes from Gudykunst p 40). A low-to-high level of uncertainty avoidance indicates the degree to which a culture tends toward consensus and how tolerant it is of deviant behavior. Power distance varies depending on “the extent to which less powerful members of institutions and organizations accept that power is distributed unequally” (Hofstede & Bond, 1984, p419). Finally, masculinity-femininity refers to the extent to which cultural systems “emphasize differentiated sex roles, performance, ambition, and independence” (Gudykunst & Ting-Tully, 1988, p. 48). Unlike work on acculturation, this work is generally cross-sectional and uses surveys to determine dimensions of acculturation at particular points in time.