Topic > Intercultural Communication and Nonverbal Communication

Hall (as cited in Würtz, 2006) defined that high-context cultures prefer nonverbal communication (p. 55). The website with high context culture uses implicit information, where it is important to have news-related information and some signs. Nonverbal communication primarily emphasizes visual effects such as images, animations, links, buttons, music, videos, symbols, and messages related to particular topics (p. 274). A non-verbal communication is one in which most of the information is in physical form, while very little is in text. Singh, Zhao & Hu (as cited in Ahmed, Mouratidis & Preston, 2009) demonstrated that "the use of symbols and icons is more important in nonverbal communication" (p. 55). For example, Indian websites regularly use colors, symbolism, animations, images, and sometimes even video clips and music. According to Evers (cited in Ahmed, Mouratidis & Preston, 2009) found that 86.5% of Asians highly appreciate sound effects (Evers, 2001). In short, countries with high-context culture use nonverbal communication, namely India, China, Mexico, Brazil and Japan. Würtz (2006) emphasized the speed of the message, the temporal attitude, navigation and transparency. Hall and Hall (as cited in Würtz, 1990) defined that in a high-context culture, it takes most people a lot of time to understand the message. (1990, p.5). The high context Asian website offers the user different types of navigation that will appear at the top and bottom of the page. Also, it could be in the form of a link and it could open in a new window or it could open in the same window. Additionally, high-context culture contains more images, graphics, and less text than low-context culture. Transparency is worked out in such a way that it is easy for users to see what actions are performed on the website. Furthermore, sometimes a high-context website provides a less transparent overview of the content than low-context sites (p. 291). Hofstede and Hall (as cited in Ahmed, Mouratidis & Preston, 2009) reported that in the high context culture power distance and collectivism are high. In high power distance cultures, countries will most likely give more respect to their elders. According to Singh & Pereira (as cited in Ahmad, 2006), Mexican websites emphasize the person's professional rank because it is important to highlight people's titles while designing a website in a high power distance culture (p.