What is intercultural communication?
“Intercultural communication is a symbolic exchange process between persons of different cultures in their attempt to create shared meanings in a given context” (Ting-Toomey & Chung, 2022, p.30). Simply put, intercultural communication happens when people from different cultures interact, share ideas, and try to understand each other. This process of making meaning together involves using words, gestures, and other forms of expression. It’s like having a conversation where both sides bring their own beliefs, values, and experiences, and they work together to find common ground. This exchange is shaped by the larger society around them, including things like history, power dynamics, and social norms.
The United States isn’t the only country experiencing cultural change. The speedy advances of today’s technology - like faster travel, social media, and instant messaging - has encouraged people from all over the world to connect. Business and trade across countries also add to this mixing of cultures. At the same time, wars, poverty, and political issues are forcing many people to move to new countries as refugees or for economic survival. While this can make communities more diverse, it can also lead to tension - sometimes because people worry about job competition, changes to local traditions, or simply out of fear of what they don’t understand.
The Need for Intercultural Communication Today
Globalization - the growing connection between countries - has powerful effects on people’s lives, both positive and negative. People in wealthier countries may benefit from global travel, job opportunities, and safer communities, while in other parts of the world many still face hunger, lack of clean water, poor housing, unemployment, and violence. These problems, often made worse by corruption and limited access to education and healthcare, cause many people to migrate, thus creating social and political instability. Even within wealthier countries, sharp divides in income, social class, and geography have fueled the rising of nationalism and populism. At the same time, advances in technology and communication mean that exposure to different cultures is no longer limited to travel or immigration - it happens daily through social media, global businesses, and online interactions. This reality makes intercultural understanding and sensitivity not only personally enriching, but socially and professionally essential in today’s world. The following points highlight some of the most important reasons why developing intercultural sensitivity is both relevant and necessary in our modern world:
Figure 1.1.1: UK International Development Secretary, Justine Greening, talking with Syrian children in the Zaatari refugee camp, Jordan
- Technology and Media - Digital tools and social media platforms bring cultures together like never before:
- Online access exposes people to diverse perspectives, lifestyles, and global news.
- Social media influences identity and values, connecting individuals across the globe.
- Media literacy helps decode cultural bias and understand global events in context.
- Travel and Global Exchange - Modern mobility fuels cultural learning and awareness:
- Work, education, and leisure travel offer firsthand experiences with other cultures.
- Living or studying abroad influences how we view our own culture and builds empathy.
- Personal Growth and Identity - Engaging with diverse cultures leads to deeper self-awareness and builds emotional intelligence:
- Intercultural competence enriches relationships, communication, and empathy.
- Learning about other cultures helps us better understand our own beliefs and values.
- Professional and Leadership Influence - Cultural fluency is a key asset in today’s interconnected world:
- Global workplaces require adaptability and collaboration across cultures.
- Influential leaders, like Pope Leo, Greta Thunberg, and Malala, model inclusivity and responsible global citizenship.
- Most global leaders acknowledge that intercultural competence is one of the top 5 leadership skills necessary for success.
- Social Harmony and Responsibility - Intercultural awareness promotes peace, reduces prejudice, and combats misinformation.
- Cultural education counters stereotypes and ethnocentricism.
- Everyday interactions help build bridges across divides, contributing to a more just and inclusive society.
Key Statistics Related to Intercultural Communication
In efforts to explain the world’s population to young children, David J. Smith asks children to imagine the world as a small village so they can understand the vast population figures in a more comprehensible way. In 2025, the world’s population is estimated to be around 8.23 billion people. Instead of talking about numbers of this magnitude, he represents the world as 100 people, where one imaginary person represents 82,300,000 people from the real world. Using Smith’s model, we can more easily examine what nationalities make up the world’s population, what languages they speak, how old they are, and how these statistics involve wealth and education.
Here are some interesting facts from Smith’s global village (8). Of the 100 people living in the village:
- 56 are from Asia
- 17 are from Africa
- 10 are from Europe
- 8 are from Latin America and the Caribbean
- 5 are from the United States and Canada
- 1 is from Oceania
Additionally, our global village is made up of a variety of religions teaching different belief systems, each offering unique outlooks on life, purpose, morality, and community. These diverse faiths shape our values, traditions, and daily practices highlighting the richness of cultural expression and the importance of mutual respect and understanding among people of different spiritual backgrounds. Based on the Pew Research Center’s report on global religious demographics from June 2025 and covering trends up to 2020, here’s what our village of 100 would include:
- 29 Christians (including Protestants, Catholics, Orthodox, and other denominations)
- 26 Muslims (split between Sunni and Shia)
- 24 non-religious (including atheists and agnostics)
- 15 Hindus
- 7 Buddhists
- 1 Jewish
- 2 Others (such as Sikhism, Jainism, Baha’i, Shinto, Taoism, etc.)
So, how do these 100 people talk with one another? While there are nearly 7,000 languages spoken in this village, more than 50% of the villagers speak one of these eight (10):
- 26 speak a Chinese dialect (16 speak Mandarin)
- 10 speak English
- 8 speak Hindi
- 7 speak Spanish
- 4 speak Arabic
- 3 speak Bengali
- 3 speak Portuguese
- 2 speak Russian
- 37 speak one of thousands of other languages
Although there are 36 school-aged villagers (5-24 years), only 31 of them go to school, and there is only one teacher. Of the people old enough to read, 14 cannot read at all. Sadly, most of those who cannot read are females as males still get preferential treatment. Additionally, according to the WHO (World Health Organization), only 1 out of the 100 villagers breaths clean air while the other 99 breath polluted air. If the village’s total income were equally divided, each person would earn about $28,380 annually. Instead, the richest 10 people in the village earn more than $122,100 a year, the poorest 10 villagers survive on less than $2.50 a day, while the remaining 80 earn somewhere in between. With the average cost for food and shelter being at about $5,000 a year, many of the poorest people in our village are hard-pressed to meet their basic needs.
Moreover, it probably does not surprise you that the people with less money are also likely not to have electricity and education. Besides simple cultural differences such as what language one speaks or the foods they prefer; cultural identity impacts individuals’ accessibility to certain resources such as shelter, electricity, running water, health care, education, and political and legal systems. If we return to the United States from our look at the global village we see that according to Moore (62-63, 149-50):
- About 22 percent of young black men ages 16-24 are neither in school nor working. Compare this to 10 percent of young white men. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2024)
- Black women are 3-4 times more likely than white women to die in childbirth. (CDC, 2023)
- Black levels of unemployment have been roughly twice those of white Americans, consistent with trends seen since the mid-20th century (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2024)
- Women hold only 28% seats in the U.S.Congress as of 2025. While this is progress, women are still significantly underrepresented (Center for American Women and Politics, 2025).
- Similarly, among the Fortune 500 companies, only 9 percent have female CEOs, and women hold approximately 30% of executive and senior-level positions (Catalyst, 2024).
- Women’s earnings average 82 cents for every $1 earned by men—resulting in a lifetime loss of over $600,000 (National
- Women’s Law Center, 2024). To make the same annual salary as her male counterpart, a woman would have to work 2.5 more months each year (National Women’s Law Center, 2024).
Think about culture and communication as a reciprocal process: culture affects communication and communication affects culture. Both work together to shape how we identify as belonging to one culture or another, how we feel about belonging to a particular cultural group, how we communicate with other cultural groups, and how that group is regarded in the larger social system. In other words, what is the value and level of power afforded to various cultural groups? As you will see, this is often a reflection of the language used to refer to a particular group of people, or the relative value placed on their communication practices.
Ethics and intercultural communication
When we reference the widespread use of social media, we need to keep in mind the very real nature of the digital divide between those (predominately in developed countries) with easy access to Facebook and other online services and those (predominately in developing countries) who have no Internet connectivity, and possibly even no access to electricity. In fact, for many of our co-denizens of the 21st-century, daily routines do not involve reading tweets, posting Facebook updates, or checking Instagram, but rather seeking to fill basic human needs — food, water, shelter. Extreme poverty remains a critical issue. According to the World Bank Groups’ Poverty, Prosperity, and Planet Report 2024, there are still nearly 700 million people (about 8.5% of the world’s population) who survive on less than $2.15 a day while 3.5 billion people (about 44% of the global population) lived below $6.85 a day. The forces of globalization, discussed at the beginning of this chapter, have indeed brought the world closer together in terms of communication and commerce, but large numbers of our global population remain marginalized. That includes not only individuals from countries in Africa, Latin America or Southeast Asia, but also factory workers and others holding blue-collar jobs who have lost their livelihoods to outsourcing or to companies moving factories to lower wage economies. These disparities have fueled social movements targeting inequality - from the “Occupy” protests of 2011-2012, protesting against the elite 1% of the population, or the election of Donald Trump in the United States in 2016 and 2024, who was elected in large part due to votes from those who feel left out of the 21st century US economy.
Spotlight on Social Media: The Digital Divide
Even though we live in a highly connected world, according to a 2025 UN report, more than 2.5 billion people - about one-third of the world’s population - still do not have access to the internet. That’s a huge number of people who are missing out on information, resources, and opportunities many of us take for granted every day. While internet use is commonplace in wealthier countries (with more than 9 out of 10 people online), in some parts of Africa and other low-income regions, fewer than 3 in 10 people are connected. This report warns that without urgent action, AI’s benefits may remain concentrated among a privileged few, exacerbating existing inequalities.
The digital divide isn’t just about having a computer or smartphone anymore. It’s also about who can afford fast internet, who has the skills to use it, and who gets left behind as new technologies - like AI - become part of our daily life. Even in the U.S., rural communities continue to struggle with broadband access. While efforts have been made to expand infrastructure, millions of Americans remain disconnected, making it hard to apply for jobs, pay bills, take online classes, or even schedule a doctor’s appointment. Unfortunately, according to the UNESCO (2024) report on AI literacy, women, disabled individuals, and people in rural areas are often disproportionately affected by digital exclusion, further reinforcing economic and social disparities.
The good news is, there are global efforts underway to close this gap. Organizations like the World Economic Forum’s Edison Alliance have helped over a billion people gain access to digital tools and services. Countries like Finland have even made internet access a legal right for all citizens, recognizing how essential it is in the modern world.
Still, the digital divide is more than a tech problem - it’s a social justice issue. When people don’t have digital access, it’s not only harder to get online, it becomes harder to fully participate in society. Bridging this gap means creating a more inclusive, informed, and connected global community.
Discussion Questions:
- How does the digital divide reinforce cultural identity differences and social exclusion, particularly for nondominant groups?
- Should governments declare broadband internet access a legal right, like they have in Finland? Why or why not?
- What roles do digital literacy and AI access play in deepening or closing the digital divide?
Figure 1.1.2: Occupy general strike in 2011, Oakland, California
To be truly interculturally competent means more than showing responsibility and empathy in our personal encounters - it also requires extending that same mindset to the broader world. Being an engaged global citizen means caring about people and events beyond our own backyards and recognizing the privileged positions many of us hold. Part of this process is stepping outside our daily routines of communication and information-gathering and breaking free from our social media bubbles to hear different voices and perspectives. Doing this helps us better understand the complexities of global communities and deepens our awareness of the ongoing struggles for social justice, where confronting discrimination and addressing inequalities are essential. As both consumers and producers of culture, we play an active role in shaping the world around us. That’s why it’s important not to think of culture as fixed or unchanging: cultures evolve over time, shaped by countless human choices and forces.
Of course, change isn’t always easy. It’s human nature to gravitate toward people who are like us - who look like us, think like us, share our values, and maybe even root for the same sports teams. This tendency is known as homophily, and while it’s completely normal, it can also create barriers. If we’re not careful, this instinct to “stick with our own” can cause us to see others - especially those who look different, talk different, or come from unfamiliar cultures - as outsiders or even threats. This process is called “othering.” History provides tragic reminders where unchecked othering can lead: the Holocaust in Germany, the genocide in Rwanda, and more recent ethnic violence in Myanmar and Sudan.
Figure 1.1.3: Refugees from Syria on their way to Europe
But othering isn’t just something that happens “out there” in the world. It’s happening right here and right now in the United States. Think about the rhetoric surrounding the southern U.S. border or the controversy over how we teach U.S. history in schools. Whether it’s debates about immigration policy, book bans, or protests over diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, these moments reflect a deeper struggle: some people feel threatened by change - by unfamiliar cultures, shifting demographics, or simply by voices that haven’t always been so vocal in the past. Since 2015, waves of refugees and migrants from war-torn countries have led to fierce political debates - not just in Europe, but also here at home in the United States. This has fueled the rise of nationalistic rhetoric, much like what we saw during the rise of “America First” politics. What starts as patriotism can easily slide into xenophobia, especially when leaders use fear to rally support. We’ve seen examples of this in anti-Asian hate crimes during the COVID-19 pandemic, or in the rise of anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant rhetoric during the recent U.S. election seasons.
Political leaders play a huge role in shaping how we treat each other. When they promote empathy and inclusion, people follow. When they use fear and blame, the results can be division and hostility. That’s why intercultural understanding isn’t just an optional skill anymore - it’s a necessity. The more we learn about each other, the less room there is for fear, and the more prepared we are to live and lead in an increasingly diverse and connected world.
Contributors and Attributions
Adapted from: Exploring Intercultural Communication, by Tom Grothe. Provided by LibreTexts. License: CC-BY
