Chapter 4. Face-to-face intercultural communication and mediated intercultural communication as related to health communication

Abstract

The chapter argues that any communication happens in a specific context composed of three aspects: individual experience-based sociocultural aspect (CA), actual situational aspect (SA), and aspect of language as a tool of communication (LA). CA refers to the attitudinal frame of reference a person develops throughout his/her life and brings into the interaction through intersubjectivity. SA includes the psychological, social and physical variables affecting common ground building. LA means the language repertoire of the individual with its conceptual knowledge. These aspects are always present but affect interaction in different degrees depending on whether it happens face-to-face or through a medium and it is situated closer to the intracultural or intercultural end of the continuum. The chapter discusses the substantiations of these aspects.