Issue Vol. 4, No. 2 / April 2008

Exploration the Position and Value of the Animation-cartoon Industry in China TV News Communication
Author(s): Ya Kun Huang
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The imbalance of cultural tolerance caused by the single route of \"entertainment and games\" in Chinese contemporary \"animation-cartoon\" makes the pursuit of returning to the solidly popular custom in the traditional cartoon a necessity. China TV news communication opened up an opportunity for the contemporary animation-cartoon culture and industry. It may be time for us to subvert the present situation of the extensive and simple production mode of the Chinese TV news program.
A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Gender Representation in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games: A Study of Taiwan and the United States
Author(s): Chia-I Hou
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This research uses content analysis to examine gender in a sample of 10 trailers of mostly downloaded volumes of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) websites from Taiwan and the United States. It is proposed that online role-playing games, similar to other media forms, are extensions of cultures. This analysis revealed a sex bias that male avatars outnumber female avatars, whether in U.S. or Taiwan MMORPGs. In addition, body revelation seemed to be a female \"privilege\" without cultural difference. Notably, female avatars in U.S. MMORPGs incline to have the shape, cleavage breasts and abdomen barer than female avatars in Taiwan MMORPGs do. Furthermore, female avatars in U.S. MMORPGs are more aggressive than in Taiwan’s. With regard to male androgyny, male avatars in Taiwan MMORPGs look far more androgynous than U.S. male avatars do. 65% of male avatars are apparently androgynous (i.e., more than 60% degree androgyny according to our definition) in Taiwan MMORPGs, whereas almost none of the male avatars are androgynous in U.S. MMORPGs.
Gamers' Lifecycle and Narrative Structure: The Comparison of Online Gamers' Experiences in the Legend of Mir II and World of Warcraft
Author(s): Qiaolei Jiang
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After \".com\", the online game industry is becoming one of the most promising industries in the era of Internet. China is now one of the biggest online game markets, with a huge number of Chinese gamers. What factors attract gamers and keep them committed to a game over time? This question draws more and more attention from both designers and researchers. Taking the characteristics of games and the situation of the Chinese games market into account, this paper implements comparison analysis on two representative and well-developed Massively Multiplayer Online Role Player Games (MMORPGs), which are Korean online game 'The Legend of Mir II' (MirII), and American online game 'World of Warcraft' (WOW). By conducting content and textual analysis to 'feeling stories' of MirII and WOW on \"www.17173.com\" for one week, this paper reveals that gamers pay attention to different characteristics of a game in different stages of a gamers' lifecycle; and that even for the same kind of MMORPG, gamers have different feelings and behaviors because of different background stories. The differences expressed by the 'feeling stories' written by gamers are distinguished by whether they are presented as consuming a product which has features of fantasy world or taking a role play that the gamers create in their virtual social relationship.
Emotional Disclosure and Construction of the Poetic \"Other\" in a Chinese Online Dating Site
Author(s): Pan Ji & Paul S. Lieber
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This study analyzed user profiles on a leading Chinese dating site (JIAYUAN.com) from the context of Altman and Taylor's (1973) Social Penetration Theory. For this sample, emotions - the core of Altman and Taylor's personality structure - were disclosed more than factual information in profiles. Moreover, the Chinese cultural mechanism of 'poetic language' was employed to facilitate the development of high cost-reward, online relationships. Finally, mode of verbal response - a feature correlated to relational orientation of profiles - explained adoption rates of poetic language. In lieu of these findings, this research argues that Altman and Taylor's costreward ratio remains a dominant frame underlying online disclosure behavior. Still - and for this sample - cultural specific resources were better explained by local cultural value and/or its underlying constructs.
Varied Journalistic Reporting of a Specific Issue in China
Author(s): Jim Schnell
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This article compares reporting by China Daily and China News Digest in their coverage of the 1996 People's Liberation Army exercises in the Taiwan Straits. The exercises were staged to dampen the first-ever Taiwanese presidential elections on March 23. China Daily is the government owned, government controlled English language newspaper distributed throughout China. China News Digest is a U.S. based English language electronic newspaper distributed to subscribers on the internet. Analysis revealed information published in China News Digest to be more timely (reported sooner after the event) and more thorough.
International Expansion & Market Entry of Mainland Chinese Businesses in Germany within the Context of Culture
Author(s): Gregor Miroslawski
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Current literature relating to culture and the internationalization of businesses is mostly concerned with the internationalization of companies from the Western hemisphere. This has especially proven to be true in the case of the emergence of Mainland China on the global market. Most, if not all, literature examines the market entrance of Western companies in Mainland China while little attention has been paid to the accelerating internationalization of Mainland Chinese businesses. This paper examines the fundamental variables of Chinese culture and their influence on the international expansion of Mainland Chinese businesses as demonstrated by the example of Mainland Chinese businesses entering the German market. The qualitative study conducted by the author shows that Chinese core cultural variables significantly influence the way Mainland Chinese businesses expand internationally and that Mainland Chinese businesses have come to realize the importance of culture for their entrance in foreign markets.
The Idea of Verbal Communication in Early Buddhism
Author(s): Wimal Dissanayake
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The approach to verbal communication endorsed by early Buddhism is vitally connected to central tenets of Buddhism such as insubstantiality, impermanence, and causality. When placed alongside some of the dominant views on linguistic communication current at the time, it is evident that Buddhism sought to place emphasis on a different set of issues. It adheres to the middle path avoiding essentialism on the one hand and total arbitrariness on the other. The early Buddhist approach to verbal communication focuses on pragmatism and moral imperatives, and grows out of the distinct Buddhist epistemology. The notion that verbal communication is based on convention and social practice, while being guided by a moral consciousness, is central to early Buddhist thought.
How Americans Use Silence and Silences to Communicate
Author(s): Thomas J. Bruneau
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This article attempts to outline for the first time how most Americans or U.S. citizens regularly use silence, silences, and silencings to communicate. It is important for people attempting to communicate with Americans to know something about their uses of silences. Silences are understood here to be just as important as what people say because, to let silences in, concerns meanings of many kinds. The study of silence, silences, and silencings concern many new avenues to understanding human communication.
Theorizing about Intercultural Communication: Dynamic Semiotic and Memetic Approaches to Intercultural Communication (A Commentary)
Author(s): Jiazu Gu
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The author fully supports Gudykunsts view concerning theorizing about intercultural communication and ventures that the present approaches to intercultural communication seem inadequate. The author ,therefore, puts forward ways and means to intercultural communication, of which semiotic and memetic approaches prove to be more theoretically acceptable.
Book Review: Harmonious Intercultural Communication Based on Localization ---- Communication Intentions of J. Z. Edmondson's Selected International Papers in Intercultural Communication (Zhejiang University Press, Hangzhou, 2007), 279 pp.
Author(s): Liu Yang
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A Conversation with Chris Hedges Former New York Times Correspondent and author of War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning
Author(s): Frederic Eckhard
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I came across War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning at the UN bookstore. I was familiar with Chris Hedges' byline in The New York Times. On the book jacket, I noted that he had once been a divinity student at Harvard University before becoming a journalist, covering some of the worst wars of the last 15 years. I wondered if I might have come across him in Bosnia, when I was UN spokesman there.

Reading his book, I could see the moral, even the theological basis for his judgments on why people go to war and how wars change societies. His assessments were informed by a war correspondent's trained eye yet tinted with the anguish of someone who has seen too much violence.

For me, he framed the problem I was struggling with. I was asking why human beings are so violent toward each other. It seemed to me that Chris's book was suggesting an answer to that question and could provide a starting point for my course on the Post-Cold War UN. I had to talk to him.

He was lecturing at Princeton University and living nearby. I reached him by telephone on 3 February 2006.

The Future of Newspapers: An Interview with Geoffrey Sands
Author(s): Guosong Shao
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The emergence of the Internet has posed serious challenges to the traditional business models of print newspapers. How can the newspapers survive in the Internet age? What strategies could print newspapers use to fight back? In Spring 2006, the author thus conducted an interview with Geoffrey Sands, Head of North American media practice at McKinsey, inviting him to address such kinds of questions on the future of newspapers.
Intercultural Communication Studies by ACCS Scholars on the Chinese: An Updated Bibliography
Author(s): Compiled by Guo-Ming Chen
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This bibliography list provides references on the study of Chinese communication from members of the Association for Chinese Communication Studies (ACCS).
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