Ch3

Juan Guevara
Culture, Communications, Context, and Power.

The relationship between communication and context:
It’s interesting how we abide by rules and norms which are latently laid in front of us. According to Martin (Martin 2018, pg. 111) this is coined as the relationship between communication and context. Think about it- how drastically does your approach change from one situation to the next. The manner in which you present something to your coworker as opposed to the CEO. The manner in which you speak to an Officer or a Doctor.

These adjustments are very interesting. It’s also interesting when someone misses the cues or details and communicates in a different manner; to those who can see the relationship must be very self-conscious. Actually, if you think about it, this might be related to the tourist oddity phenomenon where locals gawk at tourists for doing things differently or being “weird.”

The relationship between communication and power:
Ok, so digging deeper into the relationship aspect of communication and context is the relationship between communication and power. Martin (Martin 2018, pg. 111) describes this concept in two sections. Martin describes the first as “the primary dimension” and the second as the “secondary dimensions.”

The first power traits belong to natural facts- age, sex, ethnicity, race. The second involves education background, marital status, socioeconomic status. This concept can easily be understood when you think about subjects in obvious power positions such as politicians, presidents, police officers, lawyers. When someone makes a suggestions yet the person receiving the suggestions interprets it as an order; this is the relationship taking between the two elements taking its grip.

The study of communications is so important because by knowing this one can understand the kind of wheels turning and take measures accordingly. 

Martin, J. (2018). Intercultural Communication in Contexts (7th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.



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