The International Communication Mystery

“International communication” can be elusive. Creative interpretations of what it is and who it involves are diverse and many. Some see it as another word for international relations, others imagine media professionals producing multinational advertising campaigns.

As someone who will be graduating with a Master’s degree in precisely “international communication”, this ambiguity has bothered me more than once. At the core of the problem was that I myself, proclaimed practitioner-in-training and student scholar of the field, am often at a loss of words when it comes to spontaneously and concisely describing “international communication.” Thankful for an aptly-named core requirement, an introductory glimpse into the scholarly literature providing a context for the field of international communication is where I begin.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, scholars of the field also seem divided in their approach and definition of international communication. In his 2005 speech at Aoyama Gakuin University, Professor Gary Weaver takes on a more personal approach, shaping the field of international communication through a lens of cross-cultural understanding and interaction. It can at once be an academic field based on social and anthropological research, as well as a brutally practical field upon which lives and dollars are saved and lost. For Daya Thussu in “The Historical Context of International Communication”, the field is marked by the transfer of information--advances in communication technology and the power politics that surround it.

From wartime propaganda and broadcasting journalism to the complexities of cultural sensitivity training and educational exchanges, it is indeed true that the field we label as “international communication” encompasses a great deal. What remains constant in this diverse and difficult-to-define field are two simple facts: it cannot be stopped and cannot be missed. It cannot be stopped in that international communication as the transfer of information across national boundaries will continue to exist, evolving with the technologies and mediums that emerge with each generation. It cannot be missed in that communicating internationally is becoming increasingly interlinked to interests from the individual to global levels, and cross-cultural competency is no longer a pleasant option, but a critical requirement.